SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937):
Written by: Dorothy Ann Blank, Richard Reedon, Merrill De Maris, Otto Englander, Dick Rickard, Earl Hurd, Ted Sears & Webb Smith
This is pretty much the single-most influential animated film of all time, being the first full-length animated feature EVER. Hell, this was the first time anyone had tried to animate full-scale realistic PEOPLE before (there was a lot of Rotoscoping- drawings over live action footage- The Prince was so hard for them to draw that they reduced his role to all of a minute! As animating real-looking people was so new, they couldn't get him to work properly- too much flourish like other toons and he looked effeminate). It was such a new idea that they were legitimately concerned as to whether or not people could accept REAL drama and danger in a genre that had only been used for comedy before that- they didn't know if people would laugh at the whole "Huntsman tries to stab Snow White" bit. And the concept of a whole room of toons crying over the dead body of another toon? There'd literally never been anything like this done before- every cartoon preceding this was a whacky comedy. How were people going to react to this?
But the movie still holds up. It's interesting hearing how they intended Grumpy as the audience stand-in for the cynics who disliked the sweetness of the story and wanted to snark at it- Grumpy snarks "MUSH" at Snow White's song about love before the AUDIENCE can, and therefor it helps the cynics buy into the story. The Evil Queen (generally only known by that name- an official name is "Queen Grimhilde") is a horrifying villain- technically beautiful but OH SO COLD and heartless thats he couldn't possibly be considered a hottie. It's impressive how much menace she projects, even BEFORE she completes a terrifying transformation into an evil witch- the embodiment of what all children fear about old people.
What I found most bizarre was that Snow White was only with the Dwarfs for like TWO DAYS maximum. This is a recurring trend & problem in Disney films, in that they super-compress the timeline for whatever reason (though in many cases, that's the myth as well), thus having people fall immediately in love (the Prince goes for Snow White the second he sees her; six of the Dwarfs all love her within first meeting), and it's always weird to me. I mean, what would it have hurt to show a montage or act like it's been going on for a while? It's part of why I can never really get into the love stories of most Disney films, and it also comes up in Broadway musicals, where you can't really pull of montages or time changes that easily, and so you're led to believe people go from initial meetings to true love in like ten minutes.
Grumpy is, of course, the best character, and the most memorable of the group. As the only negative character on the side of good, he has so many great moments. I love how he spends the whole time lecturing and snarking and Snow White, but then when she's kissing them all goodbye, he makes sure to look his best AND get her attention before making a big show of how grouchy he is and how little he wants her kiss. Then he's all flabbergasted by it while pretending like it was nothing. When the Dwarfs learn that Snow is in danger from the Queen, who leads the charge? GRUMPY. And of course, when Snow "dies", his grief is the most moving, because of what he'd acted like before. He's so ashamed and bereft that he has to hide himself, away from all the others.
Reception:
The movie, so risky that it could have bankrupted the studio easily (it was called "Disney's Folly" as a joke until it came out) turned out to be a smash hit. HOW big? Well, adjusted for inflation, the movie is EFFORTLESSLY
the highest-grossing animated picture of all time. It's number ELEVEN on the all-time list, which reflects eras where movies were the ultimate source of entertainment and had only radio as competition (this is why you will NEVER see something unseat
Gone With The Wind from the top spot, where it made almost three times as much as
Avatar did.
Cultural Impact:
The movie's status as the originator of the genre leaves it pretty much untouchable, even to the snobbiest of critics. Pretty much EVERYONE respects this movie. Snow White herself codified the "Disney Princess" trope- she's kindly, sweet, talks to animals, and gets the Prince in the end. The Evil Queen is one of Disney's most iconic villains, and her "Evil Witch" form remains a great source of terror to young people. The whole "Prince Charming" thing is fairly legendary, too, though he's a bit of a bland character.
The cultural cache of this thing led to the big
Once Upon A Time TV show being centered around Snow & Charming, their daughter, and the Evil Queen (who would become everyone's favorite character, Regina Mills). Snow is the "Elder Stateswoman" of the Disney Princesses, though isn't featured on the Merch as much as many of the others- her bland, sickeningly-sweet personality usually leaves her stereotyped as the "simple one" (most later adaptations give her a "hook" like making her a bad-ass or something; Disney itself stereotypes her as being rather silly and goofy, singing at a monent's notice). She does have some stuff in the Disney Parks, though- most Fantasylands feature the terrifying
Snow White's Scary Adventures, in which you play Snow being chased down by the Witch- it's considered one of the great bits of Nightmare Fuel for young kids in the parks. The Queen's face appears occasionally at the very top of the attraction's show building in Disney World, and Snow herself is a constant fixture in Meet & Greets. Despite Snow being one of the youngest Disney Princesses (some put her as young as FOURTEEN), I find that they usually stick the best-looking round-faced girls in the role (longer-faced girls are usually Ariel or Aurora). Maybe it's just the "black hair/pale skin" look that just makes it WORK- I dunno.
One of my favorite "Little Things" in the Parks is the
Snow White Fountain, a small set of statues featuring Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (plus some woodland critters) staked out in a hidden alcove near the big castles. You can hear her
I'm Wishing song (in Japanese in Tokyo Disneyland!) in a nearby well. It's a great touch, and often a very quiet space in the busiest places in the world. It's the kind of thing they usually don't make anymore, prefering big, bombastic show-y things. Fun fact: Snow and the Dwarfs are all actually the same size- it's just that Snow is on the upper tier, so there's an optical illusion making her LOOK taller.
Disney World also features the new
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, featuring their new, elite form of Audio-Animatronics, complete with projection-based faces that don't look right in photographs, but resemble the cartoons more strongly in person. The first new ride in WDW in SOME time, it drew some snark for being rather slow (not a proper "E-Ticket" attraction) and not comparable to Universal Studios' biggest stuff, but it's still rather popular, and the most action-packed thing in Fantasyland.