Snow White

The world has changed immensely since 1937, so the production team creating the new live action Snow White walk an unenviable tightrope in honouring a classic tale while making the storyline relevant and palatable to modern audiences. It comes on the heels of the “live action” Lion King (called Mufasa - due out in December), at a time when Disney seems intent on mining its catalogue in light of recent misfires in the realm of original animated movies (e.g. Elio and Wish).

The teaser trailer for Snow White came out Friday, and musically it is completely anchored in the opening line of the melody of Snow White’s song “Whistle While You Work,” opting for this instead of one of the original film’s more well known songs such as “Heigh Ho” or “Some Day My Prince Will Come.” Granted, as a song in which Snow White celebrates the joys of domestic labour, “Whistle While You Work” isn’t exactly the definition of feminism. Perhaps that’s why the new teaser trailer for Snow White never makes it past the opening lyric (the second line of the song is “and cheerfully together we can tidy up the place”).

The trailer opens with a reverberant and sweeping melody played on violin with overtones of humming (this is a slower rendition of the title lyric from “Whistle While You Work”), as we slowly zoom out on Snow White’s first arrival at the dwarves’ cottage. At 0:08 Snow White (Rachel Zegler) enters the empty cottage as an even slower version of the “Whistle While You Work” melody is heard in electronically altered staccato whistling tones.

As a string section swells in, at 0:13 we cut to a close up of dwarf feet (marching to the beat of the music). At 0:16 we clearly hear the whistled melody of “Whistle While You Work” at its normal lively tempo, and here the dwarves are marching in time (note their hop on the beat at 0:19). However, up to this point we haven’t yet seen the faces of the protagonist and her associates.

At 0:20 there’s no more beating around the bush as the fully revealed Snow White launches into singing “Whistle While You Work” while dancing with the dwarves. Orchestral strings, percussion and wordless choir continue to develop this melodic motif through the following montage which introduces the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot). At first sight of the Evil Queen (0:33), an ominous low synthesizer note hints at trouble ahead. At 0:34 trailer triplets segue into the Evil Queen’s classic question to her mirror on the wall.

Note how much of the action on screen is being synched to the music here–at 0:38 there is activity carefully synched to the beat for multiple consecutive beats in a row (a sword being drawn, a horse’s gallop, a lantern being lifted, a train’s gears being shifted). Then at 0:44, as Snow White lifts her eyebrow, it perfectly cues another round of trailer triplets!

We cut to almost silence at 0:56 (to be expected after the halfway point in a trailer these days). Snow White reaches out her hand to a deer in the darkness as a halo of strings fades in to reprise the lush solo violin/humming “Whistle While You Work” melody phrase again. The orchestra builds to a triumphant final C major chord over a golden title card.

The trailer ends with a close up of Snow White’s hand reaching to take that pesky poisoned apple (in place of the customary turn phrase), here accompanied by an electronic low whirring sound of the type we’ve been hearing lately in action trailers.

Snow White is scheduled to be in theatres on March 21, 2025.

— Jack Hui Litster