DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020.
It’s hard to believe that there was once a time when Disney didn’t own everything. In the early 1930’s Disney was finding success with Mickey Mouse and other short cartoons but Walt had bigger plans. He wanted to make an animated feature film. When he first announced Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1934 many referred to it as "Disney's Folly" and numerous people tried to talk him out of it. But as we all know nothing stops Walt from getting what he wants. So production began, and Snow White became the first feature length Cel Animated film. Prior to Snow White there had been other feature length animated films but those were silhouette animations. The oldest surviving animated film is The Adventures of Prince Achmed, a 1926 German film (check out the trailer here https://youtu.be/G_9L7r8NIBc) One of the things Walt Disney did best is push technology to the limits. For their animated films Disney Studio created the Multiplane Camera with Snow White being the first feature to use that method of shooting. Here is a cool video of Walt Disney himself explaining how the system works https://youtu.be/YdHTlUGN1zw .
The movie is based on Grimms’ Fairy Tale Snow White. The story is pretty straightforward. An evil queen is jealous of the beauty of Snow White and wants her killed. But The Huntsman, who the queen commanded to kill Snow White, lets her go free. Snow White runs into the forest where the forest animals help her find shelter at the seven dwarfs' house. She helps tidies up the place and makes them food so they agree to let her stay. Eventually the queen figures out that Snow White is still alive and uses an enchanted apple to kill Snow White. The only thing that can save Snow White is true love's kiss. Which of course happens and everyone lives happily ever after.
The movie set the template for future Disney Princess movies so it feels formulaic watching it now. It has everything we have come to expect in a Princess movie, evil stepmother or queen, Prince Charming, and true love’s kiss saving the day. But there is a reason that this became a formula, and that is because it works. Watching it now it still holds up pretty well. The animation looks great, the characters are memorable (the older I get the more I relate to grumpy), and the score keeps things moving. I felt the songs are one of the weakest parts of the film, although for some reason I do love Heigh-Ho. The movie also drags at parts. Especially after the Dwarfs and Snow White meet. It’s cute but kind of boring. The movie does pick back up when the queen shows up again. The crazy thing is everything moves pretty quick once the queen convinces Snow White to eat the apple. The movie ends like 10 minutes later. It does feel kind of rushed. We can’t talk about Snow White without talking about the ending. The prince kissing a presumably dead girl and waking her up is cheesy (and a bit creepy). But again it’s what we have come to expect from Disney films.
OVERALL: Snow White is a solid film. It drags at parts and has an ending that feels rushed but still holds up. Even thought it was groundbreaking and set the precedent for movies to come afterward it will be 13 years till the next Disney Princess movie (Cinderella) comes out.
Random facts:
The voice of Snow White singer Adriana Caelotti was never able to capitalize on the film. It is reported that Walt Disney said “I'm sorry, but that voice can't be used anywhere. I don't want to spoil the illusion of Snow White” and blocked her from getting other jobs in the movie industry.
The movie was the highest grossing movie of all time when it came out. Held the record for 2 year till Gone with the Wind came out in 1939.
Walt Disney won a special Oscar for "significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field". It had a big statue and seven little statues.
The plural form of Dwarf has an odd history. Dwarfs was the preferred plural form but then J.R.R Tolkien came around with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series and used Dwarves as the plural. And now everyone is confused what the proper spelling is.
