Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Year: 1937

Supervising Director: David Hand

Starring: Adriana Caselotti, Lucille LaVerne, Harry Stockwell, Pinto Colvig, et al. Interestingly, the movie doesn't credit any of its actors.

All right, first up is Walt Disney's first full-length animated feature: 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I had seen this one before, but probably not since I was about five or seven--I remember thinking Dopey was funny--and frankly, I was afraid it would be lame. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is not the case. There are a couple of weak points, and the movie does show its age a little, but overall Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is highly enjoyable.

The first thing we notice about the title character is how--well--cartoony she is. She and the other humans are supposed to be portrayed in a more "realistic" style than the comical dwarfs, and so they are, but you can definitely see elements of their roots in wavy 1930s cartoon shorts. Look at Snow White's big shoes in her first scene, for example, and her big doll eyes throughout. Her movements are also an indicator--she's always making expansive gestures with her hands and arms, which seems reminiscent of early cartoons, and (although '37 is pretty late for this) may have a little to do with early film acting techniques. Moreover . . . listen to her voice:

She definitely sounds like something out of a Silly Symphony. In fact, her high squeaky voice is enough to put some people off the movie--apparently the reason this movie wasn't a childhood favorite for me is because my mother finds Snow White completely annoying. But I found that I got used to it quickly. Also, according to the character design, Snow White was only supposed to be fourteen years old*. She becomes more sympathetic if you remember that she's quite young, and she's trying to be ridiculously cute. Somehow, that makes her cute again.

Besides, the other seven title characters are indisputably great. A couple of Snow White's solo scenes are perhaps a little cheesy--especially "With A Smile And A Song" and the little rhyming speech that precedes it--but nearly every scene with the dwarfs in it elicits a smile. The film isn't really long enough to develop each dwarf in detail; only Doc, Grumpy, and the Harpo-Marx-esque Dopey really stand out. The seven together, though, provide some entertaining dialogue and a lot of gentle physical comedy.

The most entertaining part of the film is the middle section, when Snow White is living with the dwarfs. She assumes their tiny house belongs to seven children, and naively decides to play at being their mother--an attitude that doesn't change when she realizes the truth. She settles into the domestic role with ease, and it plays out a little like a romantic comedy as the seven old bachelors adjust to the new feminine influence in their lives.

These scenes especially focus on the relationship between Snow White and Grumpy, who is the most interesting character in the movie. As the name would suggest, he is the only dwarf who isn't enthusiastic about Snow White's staying with them. So as her charm starts to work, he becomes the only dynamic character, and it's completely charming to watch him go from doubting the female's "wicked wiles," to leading the charge to rescue her from the evil Queen.

(By the way, the Queen is a pretty frightening villain. In the scene pictured above, she walks past the skeleton of someone who has apparently died of thirst in her dungeon, and taunts it. Wow.)

The only part of Snow White that I found really disappointing was the ending. After Snow White apparently dies, the movie abruptly returns to the framing device of a book to narrate the passage of several months. Then the Prince shows up, kisses Snow White, awakens her, carries her to his horse, and takes her away, all in less than three minutes, and with almost no dialogue.

The problem here is really with the source material--fairy tales don't tend to drag out their happily-ever-after endings. But Disney did a great job fleshing out other elements of the story: giving each dwarf a distinct schtick instead of making them homogenous, for instance, and allowing Snow White and the Prince to fall mutually in love while she was still conscious. I wish their reunion had also been made a little more interesting. As it is, it's happy, sure, and certainly tightly crafted, but not entirely satisfying.

Overall, though, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is still really entertaining, seventy-two years after it was released. (Whoa!) I definitely plan to watch it again in the foreseeable future.

*Finch, Christopher. Art of Walt Disney.