BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) -- To be very clear, “Snow White” is not the apocalyptic disaster that had been forecast in the past few weeks. There are some very good parts, chiefly the unbridled performance by Rachel Zegler as the Disney Princess. There are also some painfully bad moments such as any time Gal Gadot opens her mouth to sing as the Evil Queen. Just like the five new songs written by Oscar winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul for the film, “Snow White” gets the job done. There is no reason to sit back and hope that someday better prints of the film will come. At the same time, there is no reason to whistle a happy tune while leaving the theater. Bland is the theme. Rewinding just a bit, “Snow White” arrived on a tsunami of negative talk. If the adage that any publicity is good publicity is true, “Snow White” should be a box office smash. Long before the live action version of the classic Disney film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” hit movie screens it was at the center of a tempest ranging from a diversity backlash to political turmoil. Disney’s ‘Moana 2’ is now available on DVD, Blu-ray Setting aside all that furor, the bottom line is whether or not you should see the film and that should only be determined by what director Marc Webb put on the screen. “Snow White” starts strong. The first act – to the point where Snow White meets those seven short guys living in the forest – plays close enough to the 1937 animated film that it causes few ripples. The film sets up the  heavily embraced practice by Disney of killing parents. Snow White's Good King (Hadley Fraser) father and Good Queen (Lorena Andrea) mother are so bland in their limited performance and one big musical number of “Good Things Grow” that there is little reason to mourn their departures. Consider them lucky they don’t have to hang around to hear Gadot sing. After stumbling through a pedestrian opening number that comes across as a knockoff of the live version of “Beauty and the Beast,” Snow White gets her first big musical moment. This is where the original showstopper of “Someday My Prince Will Come” should have been performed. But the modernization of the story results in another blah tune with “Waiting on a Wish.” It makes no sense to drop the most memorable tune from the original movie. The search for love still exists and having someone sing about the hope of finding it seems fresh in any time period. This is where the story leaps forward to have Snow White doing her best Cinderella impersonation as a scullery maid. Her dad’s new wife, known only as Evil Queen, arrives in the form of Gal Gadot. There is no question if looks are the baseline, then the Evil Queen is the fairest in the land. Another move in making the film feel more modern is that when the Evil Queen asks “Who is the fairest in the land” the mirror leans toward the definition of fair being how people deal with others. If the mirror judged musical abilities, Gadot would definitely not be the fairest in the land. It still makes the Evil Queen mad and orders Snow White killed. The Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) can’t commit the crime and sends Snow White into the forest. This is where she finally stumbles on the home of the seven local miners. ‘Adolescence’ deals with mystery in very unique way This is where the film hits a negative brick wall. The home that Snow White invades looks like a Thomas Kincaide painting. Every blade of grass, furry creature and speck of dust is part of a visual layering that is distracting. The most distracting part is when Doc, Sneezy, Grumpy and the rest arrive home to find Snow White. Computer imaging to make the seven zips past adorable to terrifying. Only Dopey’s face suggests anything other than these are serial killers just waiting for the next lone female to arrive. It is weird Dopey looks like Alfred E. Neuman from Mad Magazine. Not using real actors for the seven comes across as Webb knowing he made a mistake when Snow White meets a merry band of seven thieves and rogues who come to her aid. Their leader, Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), becomes the stand-in for the prince who saves Snow White in the original. He and Snow White are equal partners in the fight to win back the kingdom. After a bit of poison and a kiss, the film reaches a thud of an ending. The path to get there is loaded with symbolism using apples, lots of conversations in terms of finding your heart and a couple of tunes from the original movie. It is a path of good intentions and failed presentation. Through it all, Ziegler lifts the film up and carries it across the finish line. The way she juts out her chin when she sings gives her musical numbers a strength that is found nowhere else. She also sells all the scenes with computer generated characters. Ziegler just needed some help from those creating the computer-generated images, the person responsible for Gadot’s singing attempts and the casting director who opted to make the romantic lead more of a milk toast than a hero. Never miss a story: Make KGET.com your homepage Don’t be surprised if you leave the theater singing “Hi ho, Hi NO!” Movie review Snow White Grade: C- Cast: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap, Andrew Burnap, Ansu Kabia Director: Marc Webb Rated: PG for thematic elements, peril, brief rude humor, violence Running time: 109 minutes. ...read more read less