Review of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938) by Jaron G — 18 Mar 2012

Donald Bradman broke about four records for Cricket. It was the year Franklin D. Roosevelt commenced a second term as P.O.T.U.S. A statue of Popeye was erected in Texas and Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck were seen by the public for the first time. George VI was crowned King of England. There was the Hindenburg disaster in New Jersey. China declared war on Japan after being invaded and Germany had bombed Spain. It was the year of the first blood bank, the first license plate, the first contraceptive clinic and the first commercial flight across the Pacific. It was also the year Orsen Wells portrayed the lead roll of a hit new radio show 'The Shadow'. The 'Hobbit' was published for the first time. The year was 1937 and the public was graced with the very first issue of 'Detective Comics', featuring the first appearance of 'Batman'. It was the year of many, many firsts, and one such first was a cell-animated full length feature film from Disney. Although other animated feature films did precede it, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' was the one that changed the industry forever.

By today's standards the film can seem quite bland, but putting it into context of the time it was released shows just how important this movie is in the evolution of cinema. 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' made four times the money of any other film in 1938. It was the highest grossing film of all time before 'Gone with the Wind' came some years later. It also was the first film to have a motion picture soundtrack released in conjunction with it's cinematic release, featuring the Academy Award winning gSomeday My Prince Will Comeh, a tune that still resonates in our sub conscious and is immediately recognised as the Disney theme on any of the bazillion VHS and DVD releases that followed many years after the premiere of 'Snow White'.

The attention to detail is a landmark of evolution in terms of it's animation in general. It's hard to believe (and I suspect some at least were) that scenes involving the prince, our title character and the queen weren't entirely rotoscoped. Some of the fluid movements and simple gestures are mind blowingly realistic. Significant praise here is due in particular to the evil queen/step mother. Her movement especially after her transformation into the old hag is quite brilliant, and I often found myself comparing mentally to the much more recent, entirely rotoscoped Fire & Ice. Another moment I caught myself doing this was at the end of the film, when the prince carries Snow White away from her glass tomb to his horse.

Of course, aside from the painstaking attention to realism prominent with these three main characters, mention should also be made to the scenery. Throughout most of the picture it seems quite bland and washed out. A deliberate gesture I would assume to make the animation stand out, this is especially noticeable at the home of the seven dwarves. There are however two main scenes where the backdrop springs to life in a way that I would imagine would be unheard of back in the late thirties. When Snow White runs though the woods and is haunted by what must have been the inspiration for certain scenes in The Evil Dead movies, and when the queen concocts her potion and transforms into the old hag, the world is transformed as well, displaying nightmarish imagery and really pushing the boundaries of the possibilities of the art form.

Alongside all this realism and artistry is a standard established and associated with animation before the advent of animated feature films. A certain seven characters seem to exist in this story entirely for comic relief and for the artists to play around with ideas more synonymous with the word gcartoonh. The bungling oafish humour runs rampant with every scene these guys are in, possibly making up more of the running time of the film than the actual plot, with a good 8 seconds at the very least dedicated to each of the multitude of gags.

By today's standards the film is slow moving and tame, but it is easy enough to imagine the impact it would have on an audience seeing it for the first time, and having absolutely nothing of it's calibre to compare it to. One only needs to fire it up in the DVD player and watch a four year old react to it in order to be able to relive some of the magic. And there's plenty of it.