''Sydney White'' is a 2007 American

teen Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human Developmental biology, physical and psychological Human development (biology), development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age o ...

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

film directed by

Joe Nussbaum Joseph Nussbaum (born January 10, 1973) is an American film director and screenwriter. Nussbaum got his break into the film industry by passing around Hollywood offices his short film ''George Lucas in Love''. The success of the film eventually ...

and written by Chad Gomez Creasey based on the fairy tale of "

Snow White "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...

" by the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm (1786–1859), were Germans, German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of Oral tradit ...

. The film, starring

Amanda Bynes Amanda Laura Bynes (born April 3, 1986) is an American actress. Bynes began her career as a child actor, appearing on the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series '' All That'' (1996–2000) and its spin-off series '' The Amanda Show'' (1999–2002). ...

in the title role,

Sara Paxton Sara Paxton (born April 25, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She began acting at an early age, appearing in minor roles in both films and television shows before rising to fame in early October 2002. She played Sarah Tobin from '' Greet ...

and Matt Long, was released theatrically on September 21, 2007, by

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

to mixed to unfavorable critical reviews and performed poorly at the box office.

Plot

Tomboy A tomboy is a girl or young woman who generally expresses masculine traits. Such traits may include wearing androgynous or unfeminine clothing and engaging in activities and behaviors traditionally associated with boys or men. Origins The w ...

Sydney White sets off to attend college at SAU and pledge to her mother's

sorority In North America, fraternities and sororities ( and ) are social clubs at colleges and universities. They are sometimes collectively referred to as Greek life or Greek-letter organizations, as well as collegiate fraternities or collegiate sorori ...

. She becomes friends with Demetria Rosemead "Dinky" Hotchkiss, also an incoming member of the Kappa Sorority. While on their way to their dorm, she meets Tyler Prince, the president of a popular

fraternity A fraternity (; whence, "wikt:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular ...

and the on-off boyfriend of the

student council president The student government president (sometimes called a student body president, student council president, or simply a school president) is generally the highest-ranking officer of a student union. While a student government group and a class preside ...

and Kappa Sorority head, Rachel Witchburn. Rachel checks out her university's website that ranks the "hottest" in the school several times a day, and is always number one on the list. Tyler meets Sydney and is immediately smitten, while Rachel watches from her window. Sydney's unique and tomboyish personality gradually propels her popularity on the university website, making Rachel jealous. As one of the Kappa Sorority's traditional initiation rituals, the freshmen need to find a date late at midnight. Sydney finds Lenny, one of a group of social outcasts called the "seven dorks", who live in a run-down frat house known as the Vortex. Rachel instructs Sydney to ditch her date, leaving Lenny to pay. Sydney fails to be inducted into Kappa after Rachel falsely claims she has lied about her background and cheated on a Kappa quiz. Sydney leaves that night in the rain and goes to sit in front of the Vortex, where she is welcomed by the seven dorks. Sydney and the seven dorks try to bring Rachel down from her student council position by running one of the dorks, Terrence, for student body president. He is soon disqualified and Sydney replaces him as a presidential candidate. Sydney's stance against elitism on campus earns her respect from different cliques and she gets the number one rank on the school's "hottest" website. In retaliation, Rachel brands Sydney and the dorks as traitors, forcing them to evacuate their Vortex hideout and relocate to a nearby motel. The following day, Sydney informs the dorks that she is running against Rachel for student body president. The day before the debate and election, Rachel hires a hacker to destroy Sydney's files using a virus called 'The Poison Apple'. Sydney is then forced to stay up all night in the library doing her work. When Sydney finishes, she falls asleep and is almost disqualified for not showing up, but Tyler wakes her with a kiss just in time. Sydney wins the debate and the election, becoming the new president, while Rachel is stripped of her Kappa sisterhood privileges by her sisters because of the years of cruelty she bestowed on both her Kappa sisters and the students at the university as well as lying and cheating during the election. The film ends with Sydney's father and other construction workers fixing the Vortex. And, according to Sydney's narration, they all lived "dorkily ever after".

Cast

as Sydney White (Snow White) ** Cree Ivey as Young Sydney White *

as Rachel Witchburn (Evil Queen) * Matt Long as Tyler Prince (Prince Charming) * John Schneider as Paul White * Crystal Hunt as Demetria Rosemead "Dinky" Hotchkiss (Rose Red) * Jack Carpenter as Lenny (Sneezy) * Jeremy Howard as Terrence (Doc) * Adam Hendershott as Jeremy (Bashful) *

Danny Strong Danny Strong (born ) is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. As an actor, Strong is best known for his roles as Jonathan Levinson in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', Doyle McMaster in ''Gilmore Girls'' and Danny Siegel in '' Mad ...

as Gurkin (Grumpy) *

Samm Levine Samuel Franklin Levine (born March 12, 1982) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Neal Schweiber on NBC's ''Freaks and Geeks'' and PFC Hirschberg in the 2009 film ''Inglourious Basterds''. Levine was also the sidekick and fi ...

as "Spanky" (Happy) * Arnie Pantoja as George (Dopey) * Donté Bonner as Embele (Sleepy) *

Brian Patrick Clarke Brian Patrick Clarke (born August 1, 1952) is an American actor. He has appeared in many television series and features. Early life Clarke was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Clarke, a punter, was a three-time varsity football letterwin ...

as Professor Carleton * Libby Mintz as Christy * Lisandra Vazquez as Amy * Lauren Leech as Katy * Kierstin Koppel as Goth Girl

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

took place in and around Orlando from February 14, 2007, to April 4, 2007. Filming locations included the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in unincorporated area, unincorporated Orange County, Florida, United States. It is part of the State University System of Florida. ...

Rollins College Rollins College is a Liberal arts college, private liberal arts college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several master's programs. Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institut ...

, and University High School (Orlando).

Reception

Box office

''Sydney White'' opened on September 21, 2007, in the United States in 2,104 venues. In its opening weekend, the film earned $5,196,380 in the box office, ranking sixth place and third of the week's new releases. At the end of its run, the film grossed $11,892,415 domestically and $1,727,660 overseas for a worldwide total of $13,620,075. Based on an estimated $16.5 million budget, the film was a

box office bomb A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds a 36% rating based on 84 reviews with an average rating of 4.94/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Amanda Bynes is charming, but ''Sydney White'' is a poorly adapted take on ''Snow White'', relying on tired ethnic stereotypes laughs." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film had an average score of 45 out of 100, based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "Mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A to F.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sydney White 2007 films 2007 romantic comedy films 2000s American films 2000s English-language films 2000s teen comedy films American romantic comedy films American teen comedy films Films about fraternities and sororities Films based on Snow White Films directed by Joe Nussbaum Films scored by Deborah Lurie Films shot in Florida Morgan Creek Productions films Universal Pictures films English-language romantic comedy films