Written by: Ted Sears, Richard Creedon, Otto Englander, Dick Rickard, Earl Hurd, Merrill De Maris, Dorothy Ann Blank, Webb Smith
Starring: Adriana Caselotti, Lucille La Verne, Harry Stockwell, Roy Atwell, Pinto Colvig
Rating: [3.5/5]
Amidst nearly a century of domination in a particular medium, Disney has enjoyed total control amongst their target population. An era built on the foundation of princesses that all began with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. While not bearing the best story, what it managed to create in animation all the way back in the 1930s continues to impress and demonstrate the magic of hand-drawn animation.
After her magic mirror tells her she’s no longer the fairest of them all, the Queen (Lucille La Verne) seeks to get rid of Snow White (Adriana Caselotti) with the use of her huntsman. After he cannot carry out his duties, Snow White flees into the forest and finds a cabin in need of much cleaning she believes belongs to children but actually inhabits seven dwarfs.
As classic as they come in Disney animation, this feature set everything off for the juggernaut this company has become in this medium, and with good reason. What gets visually displayed delivers some wondrous views where one can only imagine what audiences who first saw this in the 1930s experienced. So many scenes throughout this feature demonstrate advances in animation to bring everything to life in such wondrous ways with Snow White’s fleeing into the forest being one of them. A scene depicting the forest coming to life right before her in what can both be described as something really happening or her fear manifesting in the belief of this horror occurring. To this day, this still has some stunning appeal and shows the wondrous details utilized by this animation team to bring everything to life.
When looking at the story, it carries the narrative thinness of Disney with a majority of its early animated features. Similarly to Cinderella released thirteen years later, much of the focus lies in the princess’s journey as we receive a fairly anonymous prince who only shows up at the end. He represents someone to come and rescue the princess but largely remains irrelevant for the majority of the story. This gives us more time with the princess and what makes her thoroughly unique. Snow White, in particular, has this connection with animals as well as a genuine sweetness that everyone around her appreciates, even if she trespasses into the cabin owned by these dwarves. She quickly ingratiates herself to anyone who spends more than mere seconds with her because of this innocence, which makes her ripe for someone who wants to negatively impact her like the Queen.
On the other side, we have the dwarves, who each come with a distinct personality and evidently are named from it. The animation on them looks quite exquisite not only because of its time but the distinctness in each of them even if they bear basic similarities like beards, bald heads, and a cap of some sort. These personalities attached to their persona make each of them standout in their own way never causing confusion on which one interacts with Snow White, which certainly deserves some condemnation from the animators. These characters complement Snow White’s pureness and add some boisterousness to the story. Also, it must be said, I’m surprised that the cabin did not have more of a rancid smell with vermin and insect infestations considering they never clean anything nor do they bathe more than once a year. Perhaps Snow White never possessed the sense of smell and makes up for it with the gift of communicating with animals.
Narratively, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs plays out in a straightforward way as anyone would know the tale of this classic story. It involves plenty of cleaning either with Snow White and the animals or the dwarves obligatorily washing themselves at the request of the princess. We get plenty of singing from each character with songs that perhaps have not maintained staying power outside those who truly cherish this story but still very much fit into the story. It all culminates into something quite familiar but comforting because of its foundational existence as the first feature film in the history of Disney animation. Some of its faults can receive forgiveness because of what it delivers on a visual level, especially for the time, deserves plenty of recognition and praise.
Films with Josh 
