Each week, THN takes a look back at one of the Walt Disney Animated Classics. The ones that the Walt Disney Company showed in cinemas, the ones they’re most proud of, the ones that still cost a bloody fortune no matter how old they are. The really good ones get through more editions than the Star Wars trilogy, and that’s saying something.
Let’s get the ball rolling with week 1: SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
1937/ 83 Minutes
Directed by David Hand
Budget: $ 1.5 million
Box office: $ 416 million
The big one, the one that Uncle Walt bet his own house on being a success. Chosen by the American Film Institute as the number one animated film of all time. It almost never got made. Disney’s animators, and even his family, weren’t sure it could even be done, let alone make a profit, but Walt stuck to his guns and soldiered on, with the budget going from a mere $250,000 to the 1.5 MILLION it eventually cost.
SYNOPSIS: The Wicked Queen, Grimhilde (yes, that’s her actual name) gets jealous of her stepdaughter, Snow White’s good looks and the affections of a random Stalky Prince, and plots to do her in. She hires a hit-man to bump her off, but he bottles it and lets her go.
Befriended by the Cute Woodland Animals, Snow escapes a miserable life of unpaid menial labour for a wonderful life of unpaid menial labour when she shacks up with the Dwarfs.
Finding out from the Magical Mirror of Exposition that Snow is still kicking, the Queen then turns to witchcraft, disguising herself as an old hag and brewing up a poison apple. Rather than actually kill her, which is what she wanted in the first place, the Queen’s apple will actually put Snow in a death-like sleep which can only be cured by “Love’s First Kiss”. Figuring none of the Dwarfs have a chance with Snow, Queenie brushes it off and visits Snow, who is easily duped into biting the apple and drops off into a deathlike slumber.
The Dwarfs meanwhile have gone off to work in the mine, rather than stay behind and look after the freaking princess. Alerted to danger by the Cute Woodland Animals, they rush back to face the Queen, who falls off a cliff, thereby relieving the Dwarfs of having to do it themselves.
Unable to tell the difference between narcolepsy and death, and unwilling to bury her, the Dwarfs lock her in an airtight glass coffin. The Stalky Prince then shows up and kisses her, thereby breaking the spell.
Seemingly none the worse for being poisoned, starved and/or suffocated, Snow swiftly trades up and rides off with the Prince.
Lessons Learned:
1. Woodland animals are smarter than they look.
2. Woodsmen make bad hit-men.
3. Sometimes it’s okay to ride off into the sunset with someone you’ve only met once.
THE HERO: An unnamed Prince, voiced by Harry Stockwell
Doesn’t really do anything vaguely heroic. He shows up at the beginning, then completely vanishes from the narrative until the final scene.
One could of course argue that the Dwarfs themselves are the real heroes, and the Prince himself is the sidekick. In either case the score’s the same so, meh.
THE HEROINE: Snow White, voiced by Adriana Caselotti
Cutesy, harebrained, sings about everything; sets the bar pretty low, really. That said, she seems pretty happy with her lot in life; she’s not seen to make any attempt to fight back against her wicked stepmother forcing her into effectively slavery.
Apparently, she’s fourteen years old.
THE VILLAIN: The Evil Queen, voiced by Lucille La Verne
A real Disney Villain is the kind that stays with you long after the credits have rolled, and the best have their own story, their own goal to achieve, rather than just your standard moustache-twirling. The Wicked Queen is a brilliant, psychotic narcissist. She can’t stand to let Snow live, knowing she’s fairest in the land. The only other “living” thing she’s seen to speak to is a freaking mirror, which has to be saying something. Menacing and resourceful, she loses points for bad plotting. She sets out to kill Snow White and then decides to poison her into a coma.
HER FATE? Plummets to her DOOOM (sorry, force of habit) whilst trying to crush the Dwarfs with a boulder, which then falls on her for good measure.
SIDEKICK(s)/HENCHMEN
Seven of ’em, all brilliant characters in their own right, and each gets their little moment to shine. Eight if you count the crow, who has a few moments too.
Special mention: Dopey. A silent comic in the vein of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, he gets a lot of the laughs by just being himself. But it wouldn’t be fair to not mention the other six. Did you know at one point there were going to be NINE?!
PLOT
Basic version of the fairy tale. Aside from making the Dwarfs individual characters, it does little to enrich the story, insomuch as soften it considerably from the original Grimm fairy tale. Parts of the story removed for the film include several other attempts on Snow’s life, the Queen eating the heart she’s given in a stew, and the Queen’s original fate, being forced to dance to death in red-hot iron shoes. The whole “Love’s First Kiss” routine wasn’t in the original story either, it was made up by Walt himself.
LAUGHS
Plenty; mostly at the Dwarfs’ expense; Doc’s stutter and Dopey’s apparent stupidity are the main targets, and most of it in the slapstick variety. Dopey gets some great sight-gags but it’s mostly laughing at each Dwarf’s disability. Cos, you know, stutters and funny.
SCARES
Snow’s trip through the woods is still pretty scary stuff, with Snow’s imagination getting the better of her. The Queen’s transformation still chills, and the Magic Mirror is still creepy as fuck.
MORAL/EDUCATIONAL VALUE
We learn virtually nothing from Snow; she breaks into a house, cleans without consent, talks to and accepts apples from total strangers. From the Dwarfs we learn it’s important to wash before dinner.
MUSIC/SONGS
Most of them are a bit mawkish and naive, sung by Snow White herself, who makes up for her lack of personality with a singing voice pitched at the same level as a dentist’s drill. The Prince’s serenade, One Song, is better, but it’s the Dwarfs that steal it again with two great numbers, one of which is still sung today, much to the annoyance of potholing instructors. The main number, One Day My Prince Will Come, has become a standby for crooners the world over.
LEGACY
Come on. It’s Snow White: The one that started it all and set the benchmark. Without it, we wouldn’t have the Walt Disney Company as we know it today (I’ll leave it to you to decide whether that’s a good thing or not), and some of our most cherished childhood memories and heroes may never have existed at all.
Not to mention, it gave the writers of SHREK enough in-joke material for four films.
FINAL SCORE 35/53
(By about March we should have enough movies on this list to bother with a scoreboard.)
Any thoughts, questions, complaints? As the Candlestick said, “Be our guest”.
Sources: disney.wikia, IMDb
