VFX Artists Slam Live-Action Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs as ‘Technically Impressive but Aesthetically Unpleasant’

by

Disney’s live-action reimagining of Snow White has received considerable criticism. Now, leading VFX professionals are sharing their insights into why the portrayal of The Seven Dwarfs didn’t quite succeed. Many felt the digital effects fell short of expectations.

On the Corridor Crew podcast, Niko Pueringer, Sam Gorski, and Jordan Allen discussed the strangely realistic appearance of the Seven Dwarfs in the new Snow White trailer. They compared the characters to “latex characters” seen in films from the ’80s and ’90s. Although the group acknowledged the technical skill behind the visuals, they felt pushing the realism too far resulted in the Dwarfs falling into the uncanny valley.

As a movie fan, I totally get what Woody Allen was saying – things can be technically brilliant but still feel…off. He explained that you can *see* the incredible skill and detail – like, every pore and hair is rendered perfectly – but seeing a realistic version of a cartoon character is just genuinely unsettling. It’s especially jarring when the film keeps cutting back to the real actor. He thinks, and I agree, that we’re getting incredibly close to overcoming that uncanny valley effect, but we’re not *quite* there yet.

Directed by Marc Webb and written by Erin Cressida Wilson, the film features Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. It also stars Andrew Burnap as Jonathan, a new character created specifically for this movie. Jonathan is both a romantic interest for Snow White and a challenge to the Evil Queen’s power.

The film features Ansu Kabia as the Huntsman, and Patrick Page providing both the voice and motion capture performance for the Magic Mirror. The Seven Dwarfs are brought to life through voice and motion-capture performances by Jeremy Swift, Andrew Barth Feldman, Tituss Burgess, Martin Klebba, George Salazar, Andy Grotelueschen, and Jason Kravits.

Snow White Failed To Make an Impact in Theaters

As a movie fan, I wasn’t shocked when this film struggled. Honestly, it was facing a ton of bad press for months leading up to release, with all the drama around production and the cast. But I have to admit, I *was* surprised when Snow White didn’t even make back its roughly $270 million budget. It’s always a bummer to see a movie do poorly both financially and with critics, but in this case, it felt pretty predictable. Still, falling short of the budget? That was a real shocker.

Snow White only made $205.7 million at the box office and received mostly negative reviews from critics. As of today, it has a critic score of just 38% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on over 270 reviews from verified critics. However, audiences seem to like it more, giving it an approval rating of 69% based on more than 2,500 user reviews.

Snow White is currently available for streaming on Disney+.

Read More

2025-09-30 16:50