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Movie: Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

A number of my animation friends find Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to be antiquated.  As Disney's very first full length movie, it is showing its age a bit.  However this is the movie that got Disney off the ground and paved the way for the movies that were to come.  More importantly, Snow White was a huge hit and profitable, unlike Bambi or Pinocchio or Fantasia, which took losses.

Is Snow White outdated?  Or for that matter does that make it bad?  Snow White, herself, it would seem, is a huge Mary Sue character.  She's less of a personality.  More of an icon.  Even Cinderella is a huge leap in terms of characterization.  However Snow White is incurably romantic and recalls a bygone age.  In contrast to the 50s movies' smooth accessibility in their songs, the songs in Snow White echo the classic feel of the opera.  The Prince and Snow White's singing ring out with clarity, and when her song gives way to his, it's only pure magic.

Compared with Pinocchio, Snow White seems curiously under-written.  In fact there are really only a few key moments.  To get around this seeming handicap, Snow White tends to "pad" its key moments with the inclusion of extended sequences.  However by the time the movie is over and you stop to think about it, you realize that you just didn't care because the scenes are just so much fun.  One fine example of this is the Washing Song, or Bluddie Uddie Um Dum.  All the Dwarfs had to do was wash up and go eat, but they turn it into their own extended gag sequence.  This sequence then, in turn, gives way to the Silly Song.  But the time you stop to realize that while this was going on the story had basically become frozen in time, you also realize that the Dwarfs had given you some good knee slapping fun.

The representations of the animals in this movie is another curiosity.  Movies like Bambi, Lady and the Tramp, and The Fox and the Hound all strike a delicate balance between a realistic portrayal of the animals and enough anthropomorphism to give them life.  All the animals in Snow White represent the spirit of the Silly Symphonies.  They're cutesy and rather silly looking.  The deer looks less like Bambi and more like a cow.

Even still, the key to Snow White's success lies in its simplicity and romantic heart.  The movie is chock full of songs that seem to be woven from magic, and the heart and soul of the whole movie makes us realize why the early animators of Disney were such master artists, especially when compared with the super commercial modern animated movies.

Despite its under-written approach, I actually find Snow White to be a more fun movie than Pinocchio, although Pinocchio's power and lengthier narrative put both on equal footing.  I do have some gripes with Snow White, and compared with Dumbo, Fantasia, and Bambi, this movie suffers.  The Queen, while a deliciously dark villain, seems to be weak and powerless once her bag of tricks is all gone.  The ending seems to resort to a tacked on chase scene that feels rushed in, and the ending is curiously anti-climatic.

Even still, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a fun movie to watch that has some golden moments and some golden songs.  It deserves to remain to be seen as an honored and timeless classic.

Grade: 90

Description
Movie: Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

A number of my animation friends find Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to be antiquated.  As Disney's very first full length movie, it is showing its age a bit.  However this is the movie that got Disney off the ground and paved the way for the movies that were to come.  More importantly, Snow White was a huge hit and profitable, unlike Bambi or Pinocchio or Fantasia, which took losses.

Is Snow White outdated?  Or for that matter does that make it bad?  Snow White, herself, it would seem, is a huge Mary Sue character.  She's less of a personality.  More of an icon.  Even Cinderella is a huge leap in terms of characterization.  However Snow White is incurably romantic and recalls a bygone age.  In contrast to the 50s movies' smooth accessibility in their songs, the songs in Snow White echo the classic feel of the opera.  The Prince and Snow White's singing ring out with clarity, and when her song gives way to his, it's only pure magic.

Compared with Pinocchio, Snow White seems curiously under-written.  In fact there are really only a few key moments.  To get around this seeming handicap, Snow White tends to "pad" its key moments with the inclusion of extended sequences.  However by the time the movie is over and you stop to think about it, you realize that you just didn't care because the scenes are just so much fun.  One fine example of this is the Washing Song, or Bluddie Uddie Um Dum.  All the Dwarfs had to do was wash up and go eat, but they turn it into their own extended gag sequence.  This sequence then, in turn, gives way to the Silly Song.  But the time you stop to realize that while this was going on the story had basically become frozen in time, you also realize that the Dwarfs had given you some good knee slapping fun.

The representations of the animals in this movie is another curiosity.  Movies like Bambi, Lady and the Tramp, and The Fox and the Hound all strike a delicate balance between a realistic portrayal of the animals and enough anthropomorphism to give them life.  All the animals in Snow White represent the spirit of the Silly Symphonies.  They're cutesy and rather silly looking.  The deer looks less like Bambi and more like a cow.

Even still, the key to Snow White's success lies in its simplicity and romantic heart.  The movie is chock full of songs that seem to be woven from magic, and the heart and soul of the whole movie makes us realize why the early animators of Disney were such master artists, especially when compared with the super commercial modern animated movies.

Despite its under-written approach, I actually find Snow White to be a more fun movie than Pinocchio, although Pinocchio's power and lengthier narrative put both on equal footing.  I do have some gripes with Snow White, and compared with Dumbo, Fantasia, and Bambi, this movie suffers.  The Queen, while a deliciously dark villain, seems to be weak and powerless once her bag of tricks is all gone.  The ending seems to resort to a tacked on chase scene that feels rushed in, and the ending is curiously anti-climatic.

Even still, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a fun movie to watch that has some golden moments and some golden songs.  It deserves to remain to be seen as an honored and timeless classic.

Grade: 90