It’s hard out here for Snow White. Yes, the character has it rough, losing her parents, targeted by her jealous stepmother who happens to be a witch and an evil queen, poisoned by apples, seven jewel-mining dwarfs as her only friends. And it’s hard out here for “Snow White” the movie, too, the latest in the live-action remakes that Disney keeps insisting upon making.

It has been widely reported that the film has been “plagued by controversy,” which is mostly just that people have had quibbles with how the film has been updated or not updated, and that fans have taken umbrage with certain statements from the film’s stars, Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot.

The musical adaptation directed by Marc Webb and scripted by Erin Cressida Wilson is deeply earnest, with all the narrative heft and innocently goofy humor of a Disney Channel original movie. It is faithfully indebted to the style, story and songs of the original 1937 animated film, while also trying to update the text to be more relatable for an audience 88 years later.

The 1937 Disney take on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale is the story of a persecuted princess who finds shelter cooking and cleaning for a group of dwarves before she’s drugged into a coma and can only be awakened by a kiss — not exactly the kind of empowering fable that kids obsessed with “Moana” can hook into.

So Wilson and Webb turn their Snow White (Zegler) into something of a class warrior. She spends time with the dwarves before being radicalized by a group of forest- dwelling “bandits” who are actually Robin Hood types, economic refugees from the kingdom who’d like to redistribute the wealth that the Evil Queen (Gadot) has been hoarding.

With new songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (“La La Land,” “Dear Evan Hansen”) and with Zegler in the lead (no one belts more winsomely than she), the film has real musical theater energy.

Webb leans into the kitsch, although the hint of a wink comes through among all the adorable animated bunnies and birds. Less successfully executed are the fully animated seven dwarves. They aren’t distinguished, aside from Doc (Jeremy Swift) and Dopey (Andrew Barth Feldman), to whom Snow White takes a liking. Their versions of “Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work” are charming, though.

The story is oversimplified, the sets are bland, and Gadot’s hilariously wooden performance never quite hits the realm of camp classic. Many moments — particularly with the bandits and Snow White’s floppy- haired love interest Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) — have the distinct aura of a 1990s adventure procedural, like a “Young Hercules,” or one of the many “Robin Hood” or “Three Musketeers” movies from that era.

There have been other attempts to give the sleepy princess some agency. The Brothers Grimm fairy tale is in the public domain, even if the Disney film is its own intellectual property (there are many visual nods to the iconic style of the animated feature). Rupert Sanders attempted to make her into an action hero in the 2012 “Snow White and the Huntsman,” but Webb and Wilson lean into Snow White’s soft power, her fairness making her the fairest of them all.

The message of kindness and collectivism is so genuinely expressed that it does feel significant, and the film’s heart is in the right place. Zegler carries it as best she can, imbuing Snow White with a sweet and gentle spirit that belies her strength of character. The film skews young, and for tweens and younger, the songs, cute animals, silly humor and easily digestible message of empathy can resonate. Adults need not apply.

MPA rating: PG (for violence, some peril, thematic elements and brief rude humor)

Running time: 1:49

How to watch: In theaters