It doesn't take a Magic Mirror to understand this film's legacy on the history of film making. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a masterful film in terms of animation, quality, and cinematic legacy. Few people know this, but Walt Disney's very first full length animated feature film convinced MGM to green light The Wizard of Oz to compete with the success of this film.
Walt risked everything to get this film made, and it is still one of the singular most important films in cinematic history. But can the film hold up to a contemporary audience, one that is used to the sweeping epic animated films like Up, Wall-e, The Lion King, and How to Train Your Dragon? Let's travel down into the dwarf gold mine and find out...
The Story: Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a lovely little princess named Snow White. Her vain and wicked stepmother, the Queen, feared that one day Snow White's beauty would surpass her own. So she dressed the little girl in rags and forced her to work as a servant in her own castle.
Each day, the vain and cruel witch consulted her magic mirror, to see who was the fairest of them all. As long as the mirror answered that the Queen's beauty surpassed all, Snow White was safe from her cruel jealousy. But one day, the mirror answered that Snow White is more beautiful and fair than the Queen. Furious, the Queen called for her Royal huntsman to kill the Queen and bring her back the girl's heart in a box. But the huntsman could not harm the princess and urged her to run away from the Queen's wrath.
During her flight, the Princess discovers a cottage in the middle of the forest. Snow White and her animal friends clean the house to convince the people who owned the house that she could be useful and could stay. The house's owners, seven completely different dwarfs, return that night and discover that the Princess is hiding from the wrath of the Queen. They agree to shelter her, and all are overjoyed to learn that she would cook and clean for them all the time. That night, the dwarfs entertain the princess, while the princess tells the dwarfs about her true love, a handsome prince.
Upon learning that Snow White was still alive, the Queen took it upon herself to murder the girl. She transforms herself into an old hag and created a poisoned apple, that would put her into a deep sleep for eternity.
The next morning, the Queen approaches Snow White while the dwarfs are away and tricks the Princess into eating the apple. The Queen is harassed by animals and ultimately chased by the dwarfs, until she falls off a cliff, never to be seen again.
Not being able to find it in their hearts to bury her, the Dwarfs built Snow White a coffin until one day, a prince rides by and kisses the lifeless princess. She awakens and the dwarfs and woodland critters are overjoyed and Snow White and her prince go off into the sunset together.
What's Bad?: The film's biggest problems unfortunately come from the blandness and uninteresting characters of Snow White and the Prince. The Prince is especially bland, only being in the film for about five minutes. He was originally supposed to do more, if you didn't know. He was supposed to be captured by the Queen's guards and chained in the castle dungeons to prevent him from getting to save Snow White, but the Disney Animators had difficulty designing the human characters, so he is scaled back to his "Bare Necessities" (Sorry, that's a bad pun)
While she is bland as well, I'm going to give Snow White a pass, because this was their first attempt at a female lead, and at least she wasn't Princess Aurora!
What's Good?: Basically...everything else. The Queen is one of the greatest villains of all time, and I really enjoyed how contrasting she was as both the Queen and the Hag. The dwarfs are what everybody remembers about the film. They all had their own personalities, which was really nice to see.
The music is probably the most famous music in the history of film. It's songs and score are very catchy and engaging.
The Animation is top notch. I loved the effects animation in this film, especially for this being their first film ever. The best effects scene is when the Queen transforms into the hag.
Overall: The film not only stands out as the first animated film in Hollywood, but it should also stand out as one of the best. It's characters and songs are memorable, the animation is superior, and the overall tone of the film is perfect. It is dark when it needs to be dark, and bright and colorful when it needs to be as well. The film is emotional simplicity at it's finest work, not needing to wrap itself in the logic that the harsh a-hole critics demand from all films. The film is one that I would definitely recommend. It's a classic!
Report Card
Hero: D-
Heroine: B
Villain: A
Side Characters: A
Songs: A+
Score: A
Tone: B+
Animation: A
Special Effects: A
Story: A-
Final Grade: A
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