Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - non-nostaglic appraisal

[CaptainCanada]

Growing up in North America, I of course grew up with Disney animation. The first film I saw in theatres was a re-release of The Great Mouse Detective, and I saw all of their big animated releases from Beauty and Beast through Hercules in their initial theatrical runs. Plus a bunch of earlier ones released on home video. However, for whatever reason, apart from Dumbo, mom and dad never got my brother and I any of Disney's 30s/40s output (and the only 50s one that I recall seeing was Peter Pan). So, with the current DVD release of the 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I decided this was the time to finally take a look at it, given how significant it was.

Overall, I thought it was a perfectly charming piece. It looks great (you can see how much work they put into the animation, given how make-or-break this was for Walt Disney). You can also see a lot of the ways that this being a first attempt led to some indulgence; compared to later films, it doesn't have much of a plot. After the initial flight from the queen's castle, the dramatic plot more or less vanishes for about an hour, only to reappear in the last twenty minutes or so. The vast gaping middle is filled with hijinks with Snow, the various woodland critters, and the dwarfs. All perfectly amiable, with more than a few clever gags, but this is clearly the sort of thing got away with because nobody in their audience had ever seen anything like this before. A similar script under consideration today would probably have to be totally rewritten to include more dramatic tension.

It took a bit of time to get used to Snow White's VA (really high-pitched), but after a while I enjoyed it.

Also, queen-as-hag? Still pretty effectively scary (though about as subtle as an atomic bomb in her attempts to get Snow to eat that apple).

Thoughts?

[Stressfactor]

The dramatic tension would have been easy to add. In one of the older versions of the original story the queen tried to kill her several times.

One time she came to the dwarves cottage disguised as a woman selling hair combs and placed in Snow White's hair a comb that had been dipped in poison and when she put Snow's hair up in the combs she fell to the floor "as if dead". The dwarves came home, pulled the combs out and revived her.

Another time the queen disguised herself as a woman selling "laces" -- i.e. corset laces -- and convinced Snow to let her 'lace her up properly'. Instead the queen tied the laces so tight Snow couldn't breathe and she again fell to the floor "as if dead" and the queen cackled off thinking her mission accomplished. The dwarves came home, realized what had happened, cut the laces and revived her.

Snow white really was a brainless little idiot in the original stories -- the dwarves warned her time and again not to talk to strangers and not to let anyone in and she let the queen in three freakin' times!

Of course, that version of the story also has a rather nasty ending for the wicked queen... Snow White marries the prince and invites the queen to the wedding. The evil woman decides to go to maybe get one more chance to do some mischief but Snow White and her Prince order the palace guards to grab her and her feet are placed in red hot iron shoes in which she "dances" until she falls down dead.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

I have seen this movie hundreds of times because of my nieces, so I can´t really form an objective opinion over the background noise/cries of "-God, please no more!" coming from my neurons.

[Sarah Beach]

Poor Zeu! So you don't want to hear "I'm wishing...." again?

[mgs]

Originally Posted by CaptainCanada

it doesn't have much of a plot. After the initial flight from the queen's castle, the dramatic plot more or less vanishes for about an hour, only to reappear in the last twenty minutes or so. The vast gaping middle is filled with hijinks with Snow, the various woodland critters, and the dwarfs. All perfectly amiable, with more than a few clever gags, but this is clearly the sort of thing got away with because nobody in their audience had ever seen anything like this before. A similar script under consideration today would probably have to be totally rewritten to include more dramatic tension.

Thoughts?

i'm not so sure. there are still quite a few movies where similar and worse writing and plot fail has occurred. So I don't think it's as much an anomoly as you think, as typical hollywood laziness/oversight as to how to keep a movie flowing together in a coherent, entertaining way.

i'm looking at you M. Night Shamalan(sp)!

Originally Posted by Stressfactor

The dramatic tension would have been easy to add. In one of the older versions of the original story the queen tried to kill her several times.

One time she came to the dwarves cottage disguised as a woman selling hair combs and placed in Snow White's hair a comb that had been dipped in poison and when she put Snow's hair up in the combs she fell to the floor "as if dead". The dwarves came home, pulled the combs out and revived her.

Another time the queen disguised herself as a woman selling "laces" -- i.e. corset laces -- and convinced Snow to let her 'lace her up properly'. Instead the queen tied the laces so tight Snow couldn't breathe and she again fell to the floor "as if dead" and the queen cackled off thinking her mission accomplished. The dwarves came home, realized what had happened, cut the laces and revived her.

Snow white really was a brainless little idiot in the original stories -- the dwarves warned her time and again not to talk to strangers and not to let anyone in and she let the queen in three freakin' times!

Of course, that version of the story also has a rather nasty ending for the wicked queen... Snow White marries the prince and invites the queen to the wedding. The evil woman decides to go to maybe get one more chance to do some mischief but Snow White and her Prince order the palace guards to grab her and her feet are placed in red hot iron shoes in which she "dances" until she falls down dead.

where the heck are you getting all this from?!?!?!??

[CaptainCanada]

Originally Posted by mgs

where the heck are you getting all this from?!?!?!??

That's the original story of Snow White.

[Sarah Beach]

Originally Posted by CaptainCanada

That's the original story of Snow White.

It's a folk tale. "Original" is just one version in this case. But yes, the older versions of the story, the princess is a bit of a ditz, and the events are rather gruesome.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

Originally Posted by Sarah Beach

Poor Zeu! So you don't want to hear "I'm wishing...." again?

[BnL]

I love those old Disney fairy tales. And they can actually be surprisingly violent! I love how at the end, the evil queen falls off a cliff. But! Just to make sure we KNOW she's dead, an avalanche of boulders then falls on top of her! Classic.

By the way, I love the song Snow White sings in the beginning ("Wanna know a secret? Promise not to tell? We are standing by a wishing well..."), and I find it's stuck in my head from time to time. Including right now.

[thehod]

Originally Posted by mgs

where the heck are you getting all this from?!?!?!??

Most fairy tales are derived from old folk tales, and most of them had rather grusome endings, Little Red Riding Hood being ripped apart by the wolf being the most oft repeated example.

It wasn't until the Brothers Grimm, and the association between these tales and children that they got cleaned up somewhat.

[dupont2005]

i love all the old disney cartoons. every time i see a commercial for them i want to go out and buy them all.

[FalconX2000]

Originally Posted by CaptainCanada

Growing up in North America, I of course grew up with Disney animation. The first film I saw in theatres was a re-release of The Great Mouse Detective, and I saw all of their big animated releases from Beauty and Beast through Hercules in their initial theatrical runs. Plus a bunch of earlier ones released on home video. However, for whatever reason, apart from Dumbo, mom and dad never got my brother and I any of Disney's 30s/40s output (and the only 50s one that I recall seeing was Peter Pan). So, with the current DVD release of the 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I decided this was the time to finally take a look at it, given how significant it was.

I maintain that Disney's 3 greatest cartoon accomplishments are:

1) Rescuers Down Under.
2) The Lion King
3) The Great Mouse Detective.

I actually think the artwork, culture, story telling and main characters of The Great Mouse Detective were superior, but Lion King just edges it out due to its awesome musical numbers and Mufasa.

[K-DoG7p7]

if you want to read some F-ed up shit then read all of the farytails that the Brothers Grimm collected before they rewrote them!

like originaly Sleeping Beauty was not woken by a kiss.. instead she was raped and had twins and one of the kids woke her up

[carabas]

Originally Posted by Sarah Beach

It's a folk tale. "Original" is just one version in this case. But yes, the older versions of the story, the princess is a bit of a ditz, and the events are rather gruesome.

I don't know. Poisoned combs or laces? Not something even a very clever person would be wary off. And after the first time with the comb, did she even know that the comb was the reason she died/fainted?

[dragonbat]

Originally Posted by carabas

I don't know. Poisoned combs or laces? Not something even a very clever person would be wary off. And after the first time with the comb, did she even know that the comb was the reason she died/fainted?

Well, when the dwarves came home and found her lying on the floor, they pulled the comb out first thing, and she came to..