Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Written by Sears, et al.
Directed by David Hand

It’s no surprise (or, at least, it shouldn’t be) that I’m a big Disney nerd. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a fan of the company, its parks, its movies (but strangely, not its Disney Channel films, except for Smart House (so good!!)). Like my concurrent marathon of Best Pictures, this marathon was born out of a desire to simply see all the Animated Classics, because there’s many that I haven’t seen in at least 25 years, and many others that I haven’t seen at all.

Snow White falls under that second category...a few years ago, I watched the film on YouTube, where it was broken up into nine videos, so I don’t really count that as seeing it. After sitting down and watching it, I still have the same respect for it that I did going into it, but there are still some problems.

It feels difficult to point out flaws in the film, simply because something like this hadn’t ever been tried before. Snow White was not an easy film to make, or get made (many in the industry called it “Disney’s Folly”), so many flaws can be, I feel, genuinely overlooked. But, I’ve committed to this, so let’s discuss what works and what doesn’t.

No one-dimensionality here!

What works is, the characters. Walt Disney, rightly so, spent a lot of time developing Snow White, the Queen, and the Dwarfs, and it shows. It’s easy to dismiss the Dwarfs in particular, as they just live up to their names/personalities, but there’s even depth in there. Grumpy is a great example of this, as the audience can see the layers under his grumpy exterior: grumpy as he is, there’s a soft-spot inside him for Snow, which makes her initial fate that much more unbearable for him; indeed Grumpy is the one who places the bouquet of flowers in her hands as she lies in state inside her glass coffin. The Queen, on the other hand, gets the least amount of dimensionality, with her only motivation being that she is vain. Why is she vain? We never really know, but perhaps that makes her even more intimidating: the more mysterious the motive, the scarier a person can be.

Technologically, the film is very well made. The multi-plane camera, usually erroneously thought to have debuted for this film, is put to a lot of use here, to stunning effect. Considering that this is the first full-length animated feature, it feels like a stroke of genius to transition from the storybook to the first image of the Queen’s castle, with the image pushing through the trees to beckon the audience in, almost as if Walt and Director David Hand are saying, “Come into this world, let us show you what we can do”. Other great images are Snow’s reflection in the well, and the transformation of the Queen into the Witch (the initial camera move of spinning around her was breathtakingly brilliant).

What didn’t work? Lip sync. This is the hardest point for me to forgive, because despite all the advancements this film made, this is the thing that should have been most polished, as the studio had been doing this for the shorts for years. Yet, watching carefully, none of the character’s mouths match what’s coming out of them (“I’m Wishing” is a glaring example of this...Snow’s mouth barely seems to move throughout the song. It’s either not great animation, or this is a far away land inhabited solely by ventriloquists). It happens to every character, and gets to be distracting in some points.

“EX-CUSE ME I AM SINGING HERE, CREEPER”

Also, the Prince is just creepy. I said it. He just shows up behind Snow at her well (STRANGER DANGER) and just bursts into song with her. Yes, it’s a trope, I get it, but still...sneaking up on a girl having a private moment isn’t the best way to win her heart. And this isn’t even getting to the consent argument of True Love’s First Kiss (When One Half of the True Love Might be Dead). That’s a can of worms I’m staying away from.

Finally, a minor note: the exclamation “Jiminy Crickets!” was uttered twice, and knowing that Pinocchio was the next film to be released, it was weirdly distracting. Does it count as a Disney Easter Egg?

Overall, I appreciate the film more for its historical achievements than for its artistic ones (which aren’t slight, to be sure). Walt Disney took a huge gamble, and it definitely paid off. “Disney’s Folly”, indeed!

FINAL GRADE: B-