A new video breaks down the Seven Dwarfs in Snow White, explaining why they don’t totally work. Directed by Marc Webb, the live-action remake of the 1937 Disney classic stars Rachel Zegler as the тιтular princess, with Gal Gadot costarring as the Evil Queen.
Snow White was mired in controversy for months leading up to its release for a variety of reasons, but one particular sticking point was the design of the Seven Dwarfs. These companions to Zegler’s lead character are entirely CGI creations, and their appearances were widely criticized.
In the most recent episode of their “VFX Artists React” YouTube series, the VFX artists at Corridor Crew analyze Snow White‘s Seven Dwarfs, with hosts Niko Pueringer, Sam Gorski, and Jordan Allen offering a balanced perspective on the digital creations. “They remind me of like ’80s and ’90s like latex characters,” Pueringer says, which prompts a nuanced take from Allen:
“I can see that. Yeah, totally. They’re technically very good, but they’re aesthetically unpleasant. Like like I can see the quality of the work that’s gone into them. And it’s high-end work where you have all the pores and the hairs and stuff and there’s something just genuinely upsetting or unsettling about seeing a real version of a cartoon.”
During one complex sequence, Gorski says that “These little fellas look fantastic.” The artists praise specific aspects of the work, such as the lifelike eyes, the impressive animation, and the interaction between practical elements and CG elements, but they also agree that the realistic aspects clash with the more fantastical art direction, resulting in an uncanny valley effect.
“It would be a little less off-putting if we weren’t constantly cutting back to a real person,” Allen argues. He then says:
“From a technological standpoint, we are so close to fully bridging that uncanny valley gap.”
What This Means For Snow White
The argument that the folks at Corridor Crew are essentially making is that there is a lot of technical skill on display when it comes to Snow White‘s Seven Dwarfs, but the design decisions behind their appearance is what holds them back.
Snow White reviews were generally negative from critics, but not just because of the CGI Dwarfs. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has only a 38%, with critics arguing that the film fails to meaningful innovate on the source material. This is a common complaint aimed at a number of live-action Disney remakes.
The Popcornmeter score for the film is higher at 69%, indicating a higher level of satisfaction from audiences, but this didn’t help the remake at the box office. Made on an estimated budget of around $250 million, Snow White grossed only $205 million worldwide.
Using the traditional Hollywood rule of thumb, Snow White may have been looking at a break-even point of around $625 million.
The latest analysis from Corridor Crew, then, is unlikely to change the narrative around the controversial film. It does, however, help to separate the technically-impressive VFX work from larger creative decisions that were made.
Our Take On Corridor Crew’s Snow White Analysis
It’s interesting to imagine whether the Disney film would have been more successful had it featured a different design for the Seven Dwarfs. It seems unlikely that Snow White‘s box office outcome would be drastically changed, but fixing the CGI Dwarfs would have at least solved a major point of criticism and made the film more pleasant to look at.
Corridor Crew’s analysis highlights issues regarding uncanny valley for CGI characters that are sure to continue to crop up. VFX continues to improve, but going for realism when it comes to characters that aren’t realistic can create visual discord. More live-action Disney remakes are sure to arrive in the future, and Snow White evidently serves as a curious VFX warning.
