User reviews

This movie could have been so much better. The sets were beautiful and the special effects were very good. Many of the cast were also good. However, it's very hard to over look the flaws in the script. There were so many parts that weren't explained so you weren't sure why the part was in the movie. Some of the lines were also poorly written. The movie wasn't horrible, but overall it really could have been so much better. I gave it 5 out of 10 stars.

Hallmark Entertainment's seemingly remorseless quest to film every fairy tale ever made meant that they'd eventually get to the Grimm brothers' tale of Snow White and the seven dwarves - except that as told by adapters Caroline Thompson and Julie Hickson only six of them are dwarves, as part of their development of the classic tale. Unfortunately, you know what they say about the road to hell and good intentions.

"Snow White" also works in a few elements of "The Snow Queen" - the shards of Queen Elspeth's mirror flying into people's eyes and causing them to not see her evil for what it is - but also adds some interesting twists to the yarn; her psychosis is for once given some basis (the Queen's insecurity over the hideousness that is her true self is the ultimate cause for her going over the edge when her mirror informs that it is her stepdaughter, not she herself, who is the fairest of them all), and the septet - the days of the week in... um... corporeal form - are also a bit more defined than the norm. Lovely British Columbia scenery and a fine score by Michael Convertino also help; the problem with "Snow White" is, however, Snow White herself.

Other characters here get fleshed out, but Snow White remains a bit too passive for comfort - it's less the fault of Kristin Kreuk's performance than the basic script and character, but there's only so much you can do with a symbol instead of a person. Miranda Richardson has much more scope as the wicked stepmother, and is clearly enjoying herself (although you do wonder why nobody notices the woman is obviously a few sandwiches short of a picnic), but a few less wisecracks would have helped - "It looks like I finally left you breathless!" she cackles post-poisoned apple delivery.

A lot more wonder would also have helped; "Snow White" is sadly short of magic, and doesn't really take as much advantage of its story as it could (except for the sadly truncated attack of the garden gnomes... not as daft as it sounds, trust me). This is particularly sad considering Caroline Thompson did such a good job on "Black Beauty" and as the scripter of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Edward Scissorhands." It is, however, always good to watch Vincent Schiavelli and Michael J. Anderson (the dwarf from "Twin Peaks") - but fairytale completists, Richardson fans and guys in love with the brunette from "Smallville" will get more from this ultimately dull tale than I did.

First I want to say with a certain amount of authority (50 years of movie-watching) that the total of about 37% "1" and "10" votes for this movie are equally bogus. It is neither. The median rating of near "6" or "7" is about right.

I like Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang of Smallville TV series), she is so cute, she is a perfect pick for Snow White. I expected to see essentially the same story as told in the classic Disney animated feature, but it is quite different. On the DVD extra the writer/director explains that this version is more in line with the original Snow White tales that were handed down from olden times.

It is quite well done in places, and the use of "days of the week" to name the 7 dwarves, the use of rainbow colors to identify them, and the inclusion of one 6 ft, 4 inch "dwarf" help make it interesting. Maranda Richardson, known best for her work as Ms Tweedy in CHICKEN RUN, is really good as the stepmom who wants Snow White dead.

In summary, while not a great film, interesting enough to spend time watching.

I just finished watching this movie on video and had to comment on it. This version is so vastly different than the classic Disney version that I found myself wondering if it was indeed the same story. There are some clever and original twists in this version such as the wicked witch using her hand-held mirror as a deadly weapon. Miranda Richardson is just wonderful as the wicked stepmother and was a terrific choice, as she is very beautiful, but yet menacing enough to be scary. Kristin Kreuk (of WB's "Smallville) was a perfect choice for the title character and looks exactly as one would expect Snow White to look. Tom Irwin is also perfectly cast as her father although his talents as an actor are not really taken full advantage of in this limited role. There are no dwarves named Dopey or Sleepy, etc. in this version of the Brother's Grimm tale, but the characters that are used to portray the equivalent parts are very well acted by Warwick Davis, Michael J. Anderson, and the other actors. Overall I think this is a very different but interesting interpretation of the classic tale although somewhat more dark and moody than I expected.

Obviously made on the cheap with a TV movie budget, this version of Snow White has a lot of big ideas, but it sometimes feels like it's trying to do too much at once and distance itself as far away from the original story as possible. In this version, the Evil Queen isn't simply a wicked, vain woman but some sort of ancient witch who's turned beautiful by her magical brother to fulfill a favor to Snow White's father. She ends up bewitching the father into falling in love with her by sticking a shard of mirror in his eye like in The Snow Queen.

Eventually, the story gets back to the basics of the Evil Queen trying to kill Snow White. There is the ghoulish touch of having the Queen transform herself into a vision of Snow White's dead birth mother to deliver the poisoned apple and some other touches like Snow White appearing from the mirror to torment the Queen are nice, but the story still seems like it's trying to do too much with too little time. Still worthy of a watch, though.

I absolutely adored Kristin Kreuk in her story arc on CHUCK, and though I never watch actual television, sneaked regular peeks away from DVD on the channel that was airing SMALLVILLE. That led to BEAUTY & THE BEAST, which I enthused about at the beginning, but... okay, that's another story. But as the magic fizzled out of BEAUTY & THE BEAST, I longed for Kristin back in her heyday, so I did some research, Wikipedia, IMDb, and found SNOW WHITE, a Canadian TV movie, so, some trepidation there, and I couldn't find a trailer. But I took the gamble on Kristin, she had to have been a pretty kid, glam-wise the movie was sure not to disappoint.

Turns out I was quite right. Kristin, with her luminous eyes, porcelain-white skin, raven-black hair offsetting those gold star jewelry, makes a wonderful Snow White, certainly she is an excellent choice. On Wikipedia, described as 'doe-eyed' yeah, exactly! Notice that she also got criticized, dismissed as 'bland' to which I feel obliged to point out that the script follows the current trend of highlighting the Evil Stepmother, whether she be Charlize Theron, Julia Roberts, Sigourney Weaver, or in this case, Miranda Richardson. So don't blame little Kristin, who, anyway, was a kid back then. Yes, her part should have been more active, but then again, as for the one of the multitude of SNOW WHITEs that I also saw, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, which deteriorated into a militant Joan of Arc display that completely overthrew the original fairy-tale, surely I don't want anything like that, thank you very much, but no thank you.

You have to be a kid for this, so be warned, people. But toddlers might be too frightened to go to bed alone after seeing the Satanic messenger I have since learned is called The Green-Eyed One. Yet older children won't bother with this. Moms watching it with their kids might like it, though, it is truly charming, holes and all. Me myself I collect stuff like this, early appearances of stars, so okay! but I do groan every time there's a gooey-sugary dwarf face on the screen, Vincent Schiavelli excluded.

A whole lot of work went into this. Magical bedazzling color, a lot of charming animals, all in all, for a TV-movie with a limited budget, these guys elevated themselves onto a next plane, so I have to let them have it: You came close, yet you went and screwed it up in many ways. The whole thing is quite uneven, we have kind of a new take on the original, yet we go through a bit of a bumpy ride along the way, you kinda feel like a fool for watching at times, then it rights itself again, then the cart tips over again...

Miranda generally gets rave reviews, but I think she's kinda corny, just a big gutsy performance, but totally unpolished, just, like, here I am, I give a whole lot to the part, I'm really at it, film me, there it is, you got it. But the real (and major) surprise is Vera Farmiga, an unexpected appearance, I'm not going to say too much, 'cause I don't wanna carry Spoiler Alert labels, but this very pretty young lady, wow, that was some hectic performance, and she goes around looking like Sarah Jessica Parker but is almost scary!

A drinking game for toddlers: (mugs of cocoa) Drink one every time there's a fade-out. Gee, the director must have been impressed with his new camera's fade-out functions. Action, fade- out, something happens, fade-out, another thing, fade-out, revelation, fade-out. Poor little toddlers will be so fulla sweetness in next to no time they'd fall into bed without a nighty night.

I repeat, for a Canadian TV movie, lots more than you'd expect. I can see why it was released on DVD, it's got a lot of potential, even though it ultimately fell short of its own potential.

Yet I'm going to feel like a louse if I give it only a 6. Ah, let's just call my 7 actually a 7 Minus, OK?

"Snow White" is a classic story, one which is so perfect in its original form that there is really no need (or room) for improvement. "Snow White, The Fairest Of Them All" is a great example. The story has been needlessly rewritten as if the screenwriter didn't trust the power of the original. Kristin Kreuk as Snow White, looks the part, but doesn't act it. She is sullen and unappealing throughout. And what a waste of the great Miranda Richardson! As the wicked queen, she is as beautiful and compelling as ever, but this adaptation undercuts her fine performance with a terrible back story in which she is originally a hag who is turned into a beauty by her well-meaning spirit of a brother.The Seven "Dwarfs" are played so broadly that they are totally ineffectual. The rest of the film is chaotic and needlessly convoluted. I could go on, but, suffice it to say, that this is not your mother's, grandmother's, or anyone's "Snow White". It's true that the Disney film fell short of being a faithful version of the story, but it compensated with a great deal of charm, only one of the essential elements so obviously lacking here...

It's not your traditional version of the Grimm's famous story, but this effort by Hallmark Entertainment (distributed by Disney) certainly has it's merits!

Caroline Thompson's script tells the traditional story of the princess with "skin as white as snow" and the jealous stepmother who wishes her stepdaughter dead. But Thompson decides to elaborate the story with several touches of her own. For instance, Snow White's father, John (played by Tom Irwin), releases a "jinn" or "genie" type creature (Clancy Brown) from a frozen prison in the ice. To show his thanks, the creature grants John three wishes: 1) milk for his infant daughter, 2) a kingdom, and 3) a queen. But the candidate chosen to sit at King John's side, is none other than the creature's hideous sister, Elsbeth (Miranda Richardson). As an "act of kindness" to his sister, he transforms her blemished skin to worldly beauty. But King John's heart still lies with his dead wife, Josephine (Vera Farmiga). So, Elspeth's first spell of manipulation is cast.

Another added plot twist borrows from another Grimm's story, "Snow White and Rose Red". Queen Elsbeth lets her raging hormones get the best of her when Prince Alfred (Tyron Leitso) spurns her lusty advances. For revenge, Elsbeth turns the prince into a bear, who then seeks out Snow White to help break the spell.

In a psychological twist, Esbeth disguises herself as Josephine, Snow White's mother, when she delivers the poisoned apple. Quite clever.

Hallmark Entertainment regular Miranda Richardson is perfectly cast as the woman who's sole existence rides on being "fairest in the land". In her usual brilliant way, Richardson's performance is deranged yet humorous all at once.

Kristin Kreuk (WB's "Smallville") as "Snow White" gives a deeper performance than one would expect. Rather than turning the princess into a sugary sweet victim, Kreuk brings out the human qualities of a teenager who longs to be seen as more than the beauty she is. Because of Elsbeth's spell on him, her father ignores her. Her stepmother hates her. The visiting prince swoons over her. The poor girl simply wants to be loved and known for the person behind the beautiful face. Kreuk was the perfect choice.

The seven dwarfs are creatively reworked as the creatures that control the weather. They travel around the countryside as a rainbow, with each of them playing a different color. Named for the days of the week, each dwarf's personality comes from the old nursery rhyme' "Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace.....". Warwick Davis, of Ewok fame, plays "Saturday". Davis is no stranger the Snow White story, having performed in and directed many pantomime productions in his homeland of England. In another creative twist, Vincent Schiavelli plays "Wednesday"....the only "dwarf" over 4.5 feet tall! Michael J. Anderson (Twin Peaks) plays "Sunday" the kind-hearted sympathetic leader of the "magnificent seven".

As in anything she is in, Vera Farmiga is wonderful. She is under used sadly, as Josephine is buried for most of the film. Thankfully she is brought back for the famous apple sequence.

If you are expecting a live action version of the Disney 1937 classic, you will be greatly disappointed. The film rides on it's own merit and will hopefully become another family classic. Thanks Hallmark!

I am choosing my words very carefully so as to be fair but honest. I was very disappointed with this latest remake. I think a film like this could and should be as good for overall mood, feeling, and dramatic camera moves as 'Legend' with Tom Cruise. The very first thing the producers should have done was not go with Miranda Richardson! I suppose that with a better director her performances could have actually been menacing rather than whispering, which reminded me exactly of her performance in another TV movie 'Merlin' as Queen Mab! I would have rather gone with a complete unknown, like Kristen Kreuk, who did very well here. Some scenes reminded me of lower budget computer CDRom games like '7th Guest', etc. I might be wrong here, but I really think the director does not have enough passion and innate talented visual concept of what a movie like this should be about, which in my opinion is: dark, scary, real, fantastical. Where were the cool transitions from prince to bear, and bear back to prince, etc, and what about giving us some sense of time after stating 'sixteen years later', and the dwarves are acting like it's the same day shoot! Bottom line is it looked like a first time effort of a film student.

This is probably very un-American of me to say, but I never liked Disney's "Snow White", mainly because Snow White herself is such a twittering bimbo! There, I said it. On with the review:

I was very surprised at how good this version of "Snow White" was. The genie was cool, if a little creepy, and the acting is great. The highlight has to be the dwarves. Their names are days of the week and they travel by rainbow. One of them is even a girl! Faces to look for in the dwarf cast: veteran fantasy film star Warwick Davis ("Willow", "The 10th Kingdom"), as Saturday, Michael J. Anderson ("Twin Peaks") as the sweet leader dwarf Sunday, and Vincent Schiavelli (Uncle Enyos on season 2 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") as the negative Wednesday. The latter is an odd choice: he's not a dwarf at all! Oh, well.

Sadly, the biggest drawback is none other than Snow White herself. Kristin Kreuk ("Smallville") is unforgivably bland as Snow White. She's a stunning beauty, but little else. To break it down, Snow White's gone from having no brain to having no personality.

Still, "Snow White: The Fairest of Them All", is a treat for Hallmark movie fans. Catch it when it comes on video.

That is not to say that Snow White is a complete mess, I did love the costume, photography, lighting and set design, the music has a mystical quality and there are two good performances from Vera Farmiga and Warwick Davis and a great one from Miranda Richardson. On the other hand, Kristen Kreuk is very dull and passive albeit beautiful as Snow White, likewise with Tom Irwin. The dwarfs apart from the one played by Davis are lifeless and devoid of personality, the script is stilted, the pace is sluggish and the story has the basic outline of the original story still intact but the telling of it is dull and uninteresting with some scenes going on for too long. In conclusion, not terrible but hardly a fairytale come true either. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Put succinctly this film starts out OK, then quickly descends into the most appalling acting and directing I've seen in a long time. The cut to the baby is so badly done it would not credit a first year video student. The story is odd, the special effects next to dire, the acting abysmal, photography average, lighting poor and sets/location poor.

There is only one saving grace to this movie and that is the welcome presence of the fantastic Vera Farmiga. Her skills transcend this movie so much that she ought to have embarrassed everyone in it. I grudgingly accept that Miranda Richardson wasn't dire, but neither was she good. Kristin Kreuk looks like some kind of manufactured doll, and in fact acts like one too.

If you love Vera Farmiga's skills watch this if nothing else than for her: she totally shines. As for the rest, it's an hour and a half of your life utterly and totally wasted.

I just got a copy of the DVD from a second hand store and watched it without ever having heard of it. It is brilliant! Of course it is not a 90 minute remake of the classic fairy tale. It is certainly not a children's movie either.

The makers of this movie just let their imagination run wild and every single move is surprising and any idea that was really too much was happily included in the movie. You'll be smiling from the beginning to the end.

And you'll get three fairy tales for the price of one - the main storyline of the Snow Queen (Andersen) and a theme from Snow White and Rose Red (Grimm) are included as well.

Unfortunately not even Miranda Richardson couldn't save this film. She was great, and Kirstin Kreuk pretty as always. Michael J. Anderson was good too, but that's about it. Some of the acting looked like it came right out of a school play. Some of the costumes were great too, but other costumes were ridiculous. Whoever cam up with the idea of dressing the dwarfs in rainbow colours? And why did Wednesday's costume make him look like he pooped his pants? End conclusion: I want my 93 minutes back.

First things first: Miranda Richardson is wonderful in this movie. Absolutely brilliant. And next: This movie could have been lots better. Kristen Kreuk or whatever her name is, tries hard but is far too unresponsive and passive as the fairest of them all. This movie strays from the true tale of Snow White far too much. I mean, anyone can forgive a few minor changes, but this was really, really different. I'm not saying it should be a Disney's Snow White clone (although, Disney's version is absolutely wonderful and always melts my heart!), but it should have stayed a little more true to the story. Enough with the criticism. Even though there were major differences, there were nice touches on old things, such as the way Elspeth is told she is not the fairest one of all (Snow White's figure leans out of the mirror(s) and says 'I am. I am. I am the fairest of them all.'). Oh, and I'm glad that the evil queen is beautiful. Overall, 5 out of 10.

Those reliable guys at Hallmark Entertainment are behind this cheapjack adaptation of the classic fairytale, filled with cheesy special effects and familiar faces. It's often an example of so-bad-it's-good entertainment, with plenty of overacting and bizarre situations to take your mind off the shortcomings of the script and set-up.

Certainly compared to the recent likes of SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, SNOW WHITE: THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL is a cheap version of the tale. Rubbery masks are used for some of the characters, and the CGI effects that do occur are, well, rather cheesy. The acting is hardly of a high standard either: as Snow White, Kristin Kreuk (the world's first part-Chinese Snow White?) is pretty but wooden, while Miranda Richardson can't resist but to ham it up terribly as the evil Queen.

Still, there are better actors in support, and these include Clancy Brown who looks fantastic underneath some truly 'Grimm' make-up. Warwick Davis unsurprisingly appears as one of the dwarfs, and there's a nice comedic turn from the underutilised Vincent Schiavelli. Watch out for Vera Farmiga in an early turn.

My main disappointment in this film was the casting of Tom Irwin as the father. He was mediocre overall and truly awful in many spots. His amateur renderings of "conveying worry by pacing back and forth" and "waking up after a long imprisonment to smell the roses" made me cringe. I wish they had switched him with Jose Zúñiga in the role of Hector and let Zúñiga get a little more exposure. He's a talented actor that we don't see a lot of, and Irwin certainly didn't deserve having one of the largest parts in the movie.

Even my 10 year old niece thought he was a little too precious in the father role.

I won't claim that I've seen particularly many adventure/fantasy flicks, or many fairy tale films, or even more than three versions of this story(the other two being Snow White in the Dark Forest and the Disney cartoon version). But I will say that this is pretty thin. The plot is changed around a bit, from the original(well, at least I think so... never read it. I'm not a big fan of fairy tales), possibly to surprise the audience, at least a little. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work. It really just serves to distract the viewer slightly from the poor quality of the film. The pacing is completely off, most of the time you're bored out of your mind. The acting ranges, but most of it is sub-par. For some reason, half of the main cast consists of ethnics and other groups of people who really shouldn't be in a western(the part of the world, not the movie genre with cowboys and gunfights) fairy tale. I guess they wanted something unique, but it just seems terribly out of place(no offense to anyone ethnic; I'd be just as opposed to a film set in Spain featuring an all-white cast). The hunter and the king are... Mexican, it appears, in spite of them being supposed to be typical white folk. Kreuk really has far too dark skin to be Snow White, despite clearly having done all in her power(or was that the make-up department? Anyway...) to get pale. One of the 'dwarfs' was clearly a normally-sized man(though it's not as bad as 'in the Dark Forest' where only one or two of them were actually midgets). Speaking of the dwarfs, they act astoundingly… jolly. They seemed far too merry, considering they're supposed to be miners in the original fairy tale. I mean, I can accept that they're happy or positive, but the writer or director practically turned them into Tele-tubbies. Most of the new story elements seem stupid and unneeded, though I liked the addition of the queen's past. The ending suffers from dangerous amounts of Deus Ex Machina, probably because the writer had written him or herself into a hole, and decided to just have it end in an unsatisfying and abrupt manner. The whole 'fairest of them all' bit with the mirrors was painfully overdone and really, really overplayed. The special effects are nothing special. All in all, I suggest you either read the book or dust off your copy of the Disney version instead of wasting any time on this film. I recommend this only to kids who've seen the Disney version more times than they care to keep track of, and want to see a lesser version to remind themselves of how good Disney's version actually is, all things considered. No one else should bother. 1/10

having just seen it, i was amazed at the creative way of telling the story of Snow White. the sets were colorful, the effects were "cool" (especially the mirror effects), even it was only for TV, it said so much of the story, and a remarkable presentation by Miranda Richardson, as always

it's nice to see a talented newcomer like Kristin Kreuk. all and all, i'd say a 9 out of 10 for such a somewhat original take on a fairy tale classic.