Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937
This is the original Disney movie. It was a grand experiment where Walt Disney bet the bank that audiences would attend a feature length cartoon and he pulled out all the stops. Every frame of this movie is its own work of art. Perhaps not realizing the difficulty of dealing with so many characters, we have a house full of dwarfs, along with dozens of forest animals. The woodland scenes and the evil queen are also great. The success of the movie made Disney the powerhouse that it is today. Certainly this is a very important movie. But, watching it today, 80 years later, well, progress has been made. The characters are a little flat and everything is more cute than it is funny. The movie is driven less by plot than it is scenes of the dwarfs or Snow White interacting or just doing things that have nothing to do with the plot (washing their hands, dancing, cleaning the house, etc.). Originally Walt thought the emphasis should be on the dwarfs since they were the source of all the humor. Snow White is a good character, but not particularly strong as she is a victim of her stepmother and then waits for her prince (who we barely get to know) to save the day. The music is good, with some pretty famous songs like “Heigh Ho,” “Whistle While You Work,” and “Some Day My Prince Will Come.” So I think the movie is kind of uneven by today’s standards, but still a great artistic achievement.
Written: 11 Oct 2016
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital