Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

I am embarking on a new writing assignment for myself. I've decided to watch every feature length Disney animated film. And write about it. And if the story isn't an original Disney story then I'm going to read the original source and talk about both. So here we go from the beginning...

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs...


The Disney version doesn't actually stray all that far from the original story. Some of the key differences for me were;

• The number of times the queen tried to kill Snow White
• The fact that the dwarfs had no names in Grimm
• The fact that the Prince never met Snow before she was poisoned in Grimm
• Grimm has no First Love's Kiss

And of course the film added a lot of it's own Disney flare. But those were the big ones for me. 

The main thing I noticed while I was re-watching Snow White (I have seen it before a long time ago. There are a few films on the list I've never seen which I feel will change how I feel about them since they are not part of my childhood memories.) was how long the film felt. The story in Grimm's took me less then ten mins to read. The film felt long,

The film had eight songs in it which according to IMDB had been dwindled down from over a dozen. And I've got to say for the most part I still love the music. As I was listening to it I realize I strongly associate the music from the film with going to Disneyland, particularly being in Fantasyland.  Hearing the songs immediately brought feelings of childhood nostalgia. 

That being said the film spent a lot of time showing life at the cottage with Snow White and the dwarfs. The amount of time spent on the dwarfs approaching her sleeping in the bed, the sequence where they are all washing up and the whole scene where they are playing music and dancing altogether felt very long. A little too long for me.

Frankly I'm surprised so much of the dwarfs were kept in the movie when the two other times the queen tries to kill Snow were cut. She goes to the cottage in multiple disguises tricking Snow into taking things like a suffocating bodice and a poisoned comb. Also if Snow was fourteen like she is supposed to be in the film that would make her a little gullible but in the book she was seven so I guess I can excuse it. I guess...

And in the book Snow never meets the Prince in the beginning of the story. After Snow is poisoned by the apple and placed in the glass coffin the dwarfs take turns keeping a vigil over her. The prince goes by and sees how beautiful she is and asks the dwarfs if he can take her (Weird right?). Then as the Prince's men are carrying the coffin one of them stumbles and a piece of the poisoned apple pops out of Snow's mouth and she wakes up. 

I definitely understand Disney changing the ending. Snow spitting out a piece of apple is not nearly as romantic as First Love Kiss breaking the spell of Sleeping Death. And I love the classic Disney usage of starting and ending the film with the opening and closing of a story book. And this being the first full length animated feature film I understand why this movie was such a big deal. 

But...

Snow White really should not be the main character. The Queen should be.

The Queen is the character that struggles with a fatal flaw; jealousy and insecurity. She can't stand the idea of anyone being prettier than her. She continually tries to kill Snow and eventually meets her own demise in her attempts. It's her character's journey that the viewers can get something out of. Snow White on the other hand is pretty. She wishes for a prince and she gets a prince. She doesn't have any character growth through the story. The only thing she does for herself is she cooks and cleans for the dwarfs in exchange for somewhere to live. Although the animals do like 90% of the cleaning so I'm not sure that even counts as her doing anything. 

I've never really understood the appeal of Snow White as a princess to be admired. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with her but I guess I just don't see what all the fuss is about. She's pretty, she sings and she seems sweet. That's fine. Nothing to condemn but nothing to really admire either.

I guess I wouldn't place Snow White very high on my list of favorite Disney films. Though I definitely enjoy the feeling I get when I here the music from the film.

My rating of the film: 6/10.