A couple weeks ago my siblings and I found it available on Netflix and decided to have a movie night. We all laughed at the abundance of humor and funny characters, remarked over the amazing costumes and mostly enjoyed this film.
Script: Does not follow the traditional story of Snow White very closely. Snow White is an innocent manipulated, like everyone else in the kingdom, by the evil Queen. It's when she stands up to the Queen that she is taken to the woods to be killed. The seven dwarfs are stilt-wearing bandits who steal from the rich because they are outcasts from their society. The prince enters the story early and befriends Snow White but the Queen has designs on his wealth and then it's Snow White's turn to save him. Snow White trains in sword fighting and bandit skills with the dwarfs and eventually fights gigantic puppets and a dragon-like beast sent by the Queen and controlled by her dark magic. The poisoned apple doesn't come into play until the end of the film and Snow White is smart enough to refuse it - so no princes kissing dead girls in glass coffins either!
Costumes: The costume designs are all amazing and extravagant! Big kudos to this costume department! The Queen's dresses are so elaborate and over-the-top but yet gorgeous at the same time. Her skirts are wider than a double door doorway! I watched an interview with Julia Roberts where she said it too at least 15 minutes to get into her costumes, she couldn't go through doorways and one time she pulled a leg muscle trying to turn around in one of her huge dresses! Snow White's costumes are very sweet and elegant and contrast to the Queen's a bit by being a bit more realistic most of the time (minus her swan costume for the masquerade).
Music: Fun, sweet, sweeping and even a waltz song! Written by Alan Menken who has composed for such Disney films as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Home On The Range and Tangled! Wow! no wonder the music is good! The film ends in a song and dance number that is sung by Lily Collins who played Snow White - not really my favorite style of music but it works well for the ending. I've been listen to the soundtrack in this YouTube playlist.
A Bit About The Actors:
- Lily Collins as Snow White - I'd only seen Lily in one other film and knew her acting abilities were top notch. She definitely has the Snow White looks with her very dark features and peachy skin. As Snow she was sweet and very fairy tale princess but got upset at the Queen's treachery and stands up for herself. It's easy to like her except for her bold eyebrows.
- Armie Hammer as Princes Alcott - Funny and charming. I'd never seen him in anything before but he made a very good prince. He will play the Lone Ranger in the upcoming Lone Ranger film (which sounds interesting).
- Julia Roberts as The Queen - I've seen Julia Roberts in a few films over the years and like her okay. She adds a lot of humor to an otherwise over-the-top evil character. She gets a bit obnoxious to me at times but she does have some quite witty lines.
- Nathan Lane as Brighton - The Queen's butler who tries to keep her happy and adds a bit of comic relief. His voice sounded so familiar to me and my siblings, so we looked up his work, found out that he was the voice of Timon in The Lion King, and then it all make sense! "Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase..." He was also in Nicholas Nickleby (2002) as Vincent Crummles but I can't quite place him.
- Sean Bean as The King - Even though he didn't turn up until the end it was great to see a familiar British actor pop up. His role in this was a good guy and it's always great to see him play those, especially when I so want to like him even as Boromir in LOTR or Ian Howe in National Treasure.
- The Seven Dwarfs: Jordan Prentice as Napoleon, Mark Povinelli as Half Pint, Joe Gnoffo as Grub, Danny Woodburn as Will Grimm, Sebastian Saraceno as Wolf, Ronald Lee Clark as Chuck "Chuckles" and Martin Klebba as Butcher - I know I've seen a couple of them in things before such as Martin Klebba has been in a couple of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. They all did a fantastic job of portraying their individual characters and working together a a whole to portray a group of rough and tough guys with big hearts. My favorite is probably Half Pint, he's a bit of a ladies man and is always so sweet to Snow White.
My Thoughts: It was good but not as good as I'd expected. I enjoyed it but didn't love it. It's really just another princess/fairy tale film and there's not too much that makes it stand out from other films like it. In many ways it reminds me of Enchanted, Ella Enchanted and a bunch of animated princess films where the prince sets out to rescue the princess and she ends up rescuing him and then living happily ever after. That being said there was a lot of humor that would make me probably want to watch it again some day, just not a "wow factor". The characters and story were only mildly interesting but were fun at the same time.
One very interesting thing I'd like to mention is the remarkable way in which actress Lily Collins resembles classic actress Audrey Hepburn! I'd already seen the resemblance but then in the last scene the costume, hair and makeup departments really seemed to play up her resemblance with the hair and makeup especially. It would be interesting to see her in a remake of a film such as Sabrina or maybe Roman Holiday. As a side note, Lily Collins is daughter of famous singer/song writer Phil Collins (he wrote and sang the music for Disney's Tarzan).
Would I Recommend It? Probably to most viewing audiences. It's a cute film and it's only rated PG. There is no language that I can recall. Some slight sexual undertones come from the Queen's comments about the Prince's bare chest, her desire to marry him for financial reasons and because he's cute, when the Queen gives the Prince a Puppy Love potion he jumps on her and licks her face, and of course a kiss or two between Snow White and the Prince. There are some elements of dark magic: the Queen has a dark lair that she access by means of magic and talks to her "mirror, mirror on the wall", she uses dark magic to make giant puppets attack the dwarfs and Snow White in the woods (some humor is thrown in to lighten the mood) and there's a very scary dragon-like beast toward the end that the Queen sends to kill everyone. The scary themes would probably be too much for very young children but otherwise it might be an okay family film. If you like fairy tales then you'll probably really enjoy Mirror, Mirror.
If you're interested you can watch the Mirror, Mirror trailer on YouTube.
Have you seen Mirror, Mirror? What did you think?
Do you like the classic Snow White story?
Do you think Lily Collins resembles Audrey Hepburn?
9 comments:
We did the same thing this weekend as a family! Yes, a family. Hubby loves "Enchanted" for some silly reason, so he was game for this movie.
The film was certainly entertaining.
I was disappointed with Snow White's costume that she received from the dwarfs. Bucanneer Babe, really?
Imelda Staunton was wonderful as ever!
Sometimes it is nice to just have some entertainment without deep suspense.
This weekend I also watched Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn. Although, Lily Collins has a similar look, she just does not have the same presence.
It will take me some time to get used to Julia Roberts as a villain.
Thanks for a fun post!
Ah! Great minds think alike! We just watched this for a movie night, too! My sisters and I viewed it first to make sure it was suitable to show to our younger siblings, and then we watched it all together as a family.
I think, overall, my review would have to be the same as yours: I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. It was incredibly funny, but there was some things in it that I didn't care for, the prince's missing shirt and the queen's get young scene, for some examples. Although they didn't really follow the original plotline of Snow White, I think I liked the progression of this plot better than the classic fairy tale.
I think the dwarves were the best. My brother and I really enjoyed Grubb. "Love is passing the potatoes." :D
And yes!!! Lily Collins DOES look a lot like Audrey Hepburn!
I love this movie! <3
I love this movie and all dresses too, Lilly Collins is a great actor for fairy tales stories in movies, her coz her beauty is natural. but you are so right, I am not interested for the last song, it must be sounds like something fancy and fairy but that song is like India song, and also the castle is very Indian style :D it's weird things for me, but I finally realized why because Tarsem Singh is the director of this movie :)
Watched this over the summer...yeah, overall fun and funny, but not amazing. :) Glad you reviewed it!
It looks very interesting. And I think I might try to watch it. Maybe ... :)
Sean Bean? You've got me right there, and now I have to see this.
I had to laugh at your remark about Sean Bean: I always want to like him too, even in movies when he plays the 'baddie'. Though I usually quite like the misguided Boromir, I really can't excuse his character in National Treasure. And when you've seen him in Scarlett (adaptation of a sequel to Gone with the Wind)... oh boy, you'll have to admit he really can be very bad.
Sean Bean is the only actor who has gotten me to nearly root against both Harrison Ford and Pierce Brosnan. He's quite delicious. Have you seen his "Sharpe" TV movies? He's wonderful in those, AND a good guy! Albeit a roguish one.
But yes, him in "Scarlett" = scary. He really can be quite malevolent. I always have wanted to see him play Iago in "Othello."
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