While it doesn’t hold a candle to the 1937 Disney version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Mirror Mirror is at least an enjoyable variation on the story.

This is live action with Julia Roberts as the mean queen and Lynn Collins (bearing an amazing resemblance to a young Audrey Hepburn) as Snow White.

It’s a tongue firmly in cheek version with the seven dwarfs as midget thieves who rob passersby in the woods on bouncy stilts so they can be giant dwarfs. Armie Hammer plays the prince and is suitably handsome and charming, if not occasionally dopey. While Roberts is top-billed, she’s really a supporting character and doesn’t shine in a negative role. But Collins is very appealing and may have a serious career ahead of her. Nathan Lane as the good-hearted but weak flunky to Roberts nasty queen has his moments.

Youngsters should enjoy it, but anyone well into the teen years will probably be a little bored. While you have to give credit to the film-makers for trying something new, much of it doesn’t work. The special effects are not very special and much of the humour falls flat or comes off as just silly.

One supposes that the main question to be asked here is why remake something that was done so well before and is still available in all its beauty. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a timeless classic and that will never change.

Rating: three deer out of five

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Alf Cryderman is a Red Deer freelance writer and old movie buff.