Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

• Directed by Perce Pearce, William Cottrell, Larry Morey, Wilfred Jackson, and Ben Sharpsteen
• December 21, 1937 (Carthay Circle Theatre) / February 4, 1938 (US)
• Based on the 1812 German fairy tale Snow White by the Brothers Grimm

Voice Cast

• Snow White-Adriana Caselotti
• The Queen, The Witch-Lucille La Verne
• Doc-Roy Atwell
• Grumpy, Sleepy-Pinto Colvig
• Happy-Otis Harlan
• Bashful-Scotty Mattraw
• Sneezy-Billy Gilbert
• Dopey-Eddie Collins
• The Prince-Harry Stockwell
• The Magic Mirror-Moroni Olsen
• The Huntsman-Stuart Buchanan

Exiled by her wicked stepmother a princess is rescued by seven dwarf miners who take her in and protect her.

Without Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs there would be no Disney. Today an animated feature is almost a safe bet but in 1937 not so much. While it contains sight gags and the general humor that Disney is known for, it’s vastly more cinematic and artistic than anything that came for it. It’s also much more dramatic and downbeat than what one thinks of for Disney. Not soul crushing or anything but dark.

Some of the shots are absolutely amazing even to this day. They’re quite impressive, like Snow White’s reflection in the wishing well. That ripple effect still is amazing. I have seen it done elsewhere since but not nearly as good. The film drives for a distinct level of realism.

The potion scene before the climax when the Queen transforms into the old woman is perhaps one of the best spell scenes of any film live action or animated. From the ingredients of the potion to the transformation it is absolutely amazing. Creepy and a touch frightening. Very effective moment of horror to this day. This has other creepy or horror images. The vultures imply death and are often used as such in older examples of the genre.

One of the things that makes this really disturbing-something that stuck with me since I was a child-is that the evil Queen orders the Huntsman to take Snow White into the forest and kill her with the demand of proof. That proof? Her heart. That’s just messed up! This is for kids?

The Seven Dwarves live in a pigsty and rather than being confused and possibly pleased when they arrive home from work at the level of cleanliness they now have they were upset by it. Not because some stranger had tidied up but because it was tidy. Huh? It’s a play on the old joke of men being fine with filth and women being the clean ones.

There is a bit of a lull at the midpoint when our main character finally connects with the dwarfs in their home. It’s a lot of silliness and jokes that would form up large portions of Disney’s animated shorts. It does serve to establish the characters, but I think we got plenty of that with their names being very on the nose of what they are. 

It serves the purpose of showing that Snow White fills a role that was missing largely in their lives. These are characters that needed to mature and the only way they could do so was with a little motherly love which Snow White provides. It’s a short way of saying that you can’t go it alone emotionally in life.

The point in part of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is that genuine beauty is more than skin deep. The Queen is a beautiful woman, but it’s all cold and frigid and just on the surface. She does not have the internal beauty which makes Snow White’s external beauty so, well, beautiful.

People act like the Prince is some stalker. They either have never watched Snow White or forget that Snow White and Prince meet in the beginning. Their only meeting in the film has always looked to me like they knew each other on some level. How long and how well I don’t know and neither will you. But Disney communicates that it’s love if not true love that the two have for each other.

The movie is about the triumph of good over evil and how true love can save the day. It’s about how kindness builds friendships. If you’re driven by greed and envy things do not end well for you. Snow White does not have an evil bone in her body. True love’s kiss from Prince wakes her from her slumber. The Queen who is jealous and envious of Snow White’s beauty pays the ultimate price for trying to destroy her.

This is very nearly perfect. My only gripe is the lag in the middle which spends a great deal of time focusing on the general happy and carefree life that the title characters quickly settle into. If anything I would’ve trimmed that down a little bit and used that extra time to show rather than tell some of the elements that were covered in the storybook at the opening of the film.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with themes of true love and good overcoming evil resonates as strongly today as it did when it first premiered. A must see!