Director Tarsem Singh (“Immortals,” “The Cell”) has long talked about his approach to the Snow White fairy tale and the direction that he wanted to go with it, keeping some of the classic iconic images from the original tales while refreshing some of the other details to make it fresh and new. We already have seen a few trailers, but now we have our very first look at some of those scenes in greater length as Relativity Media has released six clips from “Mirror Mirror.”
In the film, a wicked enchantress (Julia Roberts) schemes to take over a kingdom, but when the late king’s daughter, Snow White (Lily Collins), turns out to be a little more spirited than anticipated, Snow White is banished to a forest where a hungry man-eating beast waits to devour her. With Snow White out of her way, the queen is eagerly pursuing a handsome, rich prince, named Alcott (Armie Hammer), to make her new husband. But when Alcott meets Snow White, he is immediately attracted to her — to the dismay of the queen, who must formulate a new plan to get the prince to fall madly in love with her. Once in the woods, Snow White encounters seven peculiar bandits with whom she teams up to try to defeat theqQueen and rescue Prince Alcott from her powerful grasp.
In the first clip, we get to see some of the behind-the-scenes treatments that the queen goes through for her daily beauty regimen. They are weird, disgusting and so wickedly crawly you can feel the villainous tendencies that would go along with the person who uses them. I like the reaction of the servants giving her the treatments and how they truly enjoy this repellant ritual.
Next up, we see Prince Alcott shortly after arriving at the palace and having quite the awkward dinner with the queen. I like the way that Armie Hammer is playing the charming prince but also showing his naiveté in correlation to the Queen’s true feelings for him and her disdain for the young Snow White.
Now, after their first chance encounter, both Snow White and Prince Alcott run into each other at the Queen’s ball where they find out each other’s identities. Snow White begs him for help with the queen and her oppression of the people and destruction of the country and its resources. You can see how closely the queen watches the pair as they dance and she even unleashes her lovesick man-servant Brighton (Nathan Lane) to watch and follow them.
This next clip is one that has been shown in part in all of the trailers, so it must be important to the viewer to know that she hold powers over potions and sorcery. I do like the humor in this clip and the sound effects of Alcott actually sounding and reacting like a puppy. It’s funny and really plays to the comedic sensibilities of the movie’s younger target audience.
Up next is a first encounter between Snow White and Prince Alcott in the forest after her banishment from the kingdom by the evil queen. This is presumably after Alcott was already given a love potion by the Queen and that is his reason for defending her. Snow White’s new training from the seven dwarfs seems to come in handy and she handles herself quite nicely against the attack from the prince.
The sixth and final clip shows Brighton traveling through the forest where the miniature bandits preside, and he is robbed of the tax money he was collecting. The best part of this clip is when he announces to the queen and Prince Alcott what had happened, the instant recollection in Alcott’s face and how he describes the petite thieves that he has obviously had an altercation with in the past.
If you are a fan of Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer, magical stories or innocent comedies, then you should head to the theater and see “Mirror Mirror” which casts its reflection on the big screen March 30. It is rated PG for fantasy action and mild rude humor.
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I like fairy tale movies but this looks awful.