jankp's Full Review: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
"Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's off to work we go!" Is that a German spelling of 'high,' I wonder?
With my new DVD player working after adjustments, I have been treated to a viewing of the 1937 Disney masterpiece with all of its bonus features on two discs. I’m not sure if I ever watched it as a child, but if I did, it couldn’t have been as dazzling and wondrous as this time in digital clarity. Not only the dwarfs’ Diamond Mine, where they dug up gems all day, twinkled like a starry night, but the entire movie in its European storybook fashion. Disney comments in an extra of the DVD that he wrote the story, based on the Grimms Fairy Tale included on the second disc, not for children, but for the child within us all.
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs was the first animated, full-length cinematic, musical attempt, which almost didn’t get finished because Disney ran out of money. Luckily the bank saw its greatness after watching the film and loaned the needed capital. I think each child in America got in for under a quarter, but eight million of them and their parents around the world made Disney enough money to build his empire in Hollywood. It was amusing to hear clips of Snow chattering in German, Spanish, Swedish, French and I don’t know what else.
For the first time in history, a brilliantly-colored, animated film made people weep and rejoice just as with those using real people. Movie merchandise, such as figurines of the characters and a hit record, were sold at Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs’ L.A. gala premiere. Disney had revolutionized the movie industry and how.
The Story
A sweet, beautiful princess named Snow White falls in love with a fetching, young prince who scares her away from her scullery maid work and before he calls again, she must run away from her envious stepmother the Queen, who tries to have her killed. The Queen wants to be fairest in the land, but her Magic Mirror has named Snow as fairest instead. So Snow finds an “adorable” cottage in the woods in which to live.
The dreadfully-unkept cottage soon occupies her and her forest friends with cleaning it up. It’s all like a game that then wears her out and she’s asleep when the seven occupants come home from the mine. (Pay attention to the order of the dwarfs as they march because I lost miserably at a quiz on it later.)
Everybody welcomes the lovely princess except for Grumpy, the woman-hater, but he is outnumbered and also hilariously forced to take a bath before supper. But while the dancing and singing goes on (Snow has a voice reminiscent of Glinda the Good Witch), the Queen discovers from the Mirror that Snow lives with the seven dwarfs and she devises an evil plan with her magic to remedy the situation. Interesting how transformations are not seen, but I guess that would’ve been too horrifying for kids.
At under ninety minutes, the movie hurries to the romantic ending where her prince comes back and they live happily ever after. It’s a suspenseful, sad time until then, even for me and not just for the bewildered dwarfs, but ultimately a satisfying one.
Final Comments
This movie could be as much terror as some kids could desire this Halloween. When Snow is running from the Queen’s compassionate hunter, who saves her life and growls at her to flee the Queen, the forest becomes a black prison, filled with monstrous, yellow eyes chasing her. The scene in the castle’s dungeon as the Queen cackles and hatches her plan, the scene where she peddles her poison apple, and the scenes with the animals rushing willy-nilly to save Snow and then to kill the Queen were all breath-taking with panoramic tension.
I felt I learned enough about the history of its making from the first disc without the second. The first had, besides the movie, a Barbra Streisand version of the song, “Someday My Prince Will Come,” an interactive game called Dopey’s Wild Mine Ride, which was a lot of fun if you knew the answers about the movie, and commentary. Film makers or students of filmmaking might better enjoy the second disc as it expands on how the movie was made. I found it repetitive and boring.
You really don’t have to be a child to be swept off your feet by Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs; just have an inner child. Each dwarf has his own personality and quirks to be amused with. Only Dopey, the silent, goofy one, has blue eyes of all the characters, but I really wouldn’t feel insulted if you have blue eyes. Maybe Disney felt they were too beautiful to give to more than one character!
See the custom-painted brilliance of 1937’s revolutionary film that rocked the whole world. You won’t regret it.
Recommended:
Yes
Viewing Format: DVD Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4
Disney's first full-length animated masterpiece features all the elements of a classic fairy tale--a beautiful heroine an evil queen Prince Charming.....More at Family Video
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