Released to limited theatres in December of 1937, and a broader release across the USA the following February, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first feature length animated film ever released. An initial budget of $250,000 (ten times the budget of a short) ballooned into just under $1.5 million in the 3 years of production and earned this film the nickname “Disney’s Folly”; however, its initial release brought in $8 million and immediately cemented Disney Animation as a contender in the feature film arena. Stunningly realised backgrounds, incredibly memorable songs, and a newly attained fidelity of animation all combine into a work that is so clearly high quality that one is not surprised to see how this film captured the imagination of the film going public in the late 1930s. It’s just a pity that the story leaves so much to be desired.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs begins with the now classic story book fading into the animation giving us the opening exposition. Snow White’s stepmother the queen is an arrogant woman who requires the affirmation of a magic mirror as to her being the “fairest one of all”. Eventually the mirror informs her that putting her step daughter in rags and forcing her to do labour (the labour we’re shown is seemingly polishing the stone on a well??) doesn’t actually make her less beautiful. Snow White and a random man we assume to be a prince sing a song about wanting love. The two kiss vicariously through kissing the same dove. The Queen sends a huntsman to take Snow White into the woods and kill her, returning with her heart; however, the huntsman can’t bring himself to do it and lets Snow White go, returning with what we later learn is a pig’s heart. Snow White learns that the forest can be scary when you’re running for your life then sings a song which makes it better, partially due to all the animals that now flock to her and seemingly follow her commands. She is led by the animals to a neglected house in the woods which she then proceeds to clean with the aid of the animals. She falls asleep on the tiny beds upstairs after spending the day cleaning. We cut to watching the dwarfs finishing a day “in the mine (in the mine)” and have a couple songs. Eventually they make it home and are shocked to find the house cleaned. We get some comedy sneaking as well as the great lines “The whole place is clean” “There’s dirty work a-foot” “They hid the cups in the cupboard”. The Dwarfs wake Snow White and all but Grumpy are won over by her being a pretty girl (and her tale of woe). Snow White mothers and befriends all the Dwarfs except Grumpy over a number of subsequent scenes whilst the Queen learns that she survived and makes a plan to kill her and disguises herself as an old crone. The Queen notes that the poisoned apple can be cured by “Love's First Kiss”. In what is suggested to be the next morning the Dwarfs leave and all receive a kiss on the forehead, Grumpy appears to have come around after he receives a kiss. The Queen in disguise tricks Snow White into taking a bite of the apple and Snow White collapses. The animals bring the Dwarfs back (with most of them riding deer) and they chase the Queen. The Queen eventually climbs a rock spur which then collapses underneath her as she begins a Disney Villain tradition of falling to an unseen death. The Dwarfs put Snow White in a glass coffin until she is kissed by the Prince (who thinks she is dead at this point!) and wakes up. They leave and go to his castle which seems to be literally suspended in the clouds. The end.
One of the traditional ways of analysing stories is to break them down into their plots, their themes, and their characters; however, I would like to add tone to the three legged stool. I believe that tone is a crucial part of all storytelling, but especially audiovisual media. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in particular this additional leg becomes critical as it is what holds the film together. As subtly hinted in the introduction I do not believe the story holds up to a detailed analysis as the plot is threadbare, the themes practically non-existent, the characters simplistic to the extreme, but the tone is impeccable, to the extent that it holds the entire experience together.
To begin with what works in this film, the tone, I must first say that this made me happy that I watched all the shorts in the previous post as it allowed me to realise that this film was clearly plotted as a series of shorts. The plot summary above probably does not do a good job of displaying this, as I have cut many of the scenes that serve primarily to set the scene or show character interactions. Most of these scenes are longer than a modern viewer would expect, usually being around 4-10 minutes long and containing a song. The clearest examples of this are the “Whistle while you work”, mining, and yodelling scenes as while they do not advance the plot, and as we’ll discuss shortly none of the characters are given arcs, they fill the runtime with entertaining escapades and animation. While this could have killed the pacing of the movie, I found that it kept a momentum to it and provided an almost anthological tone to the film. This did a lot to keep me engaged through all the flaws that I will be discussing below, and many of the scenes and lines that are most fondly remembered come from the parts that are most clearly shorts that have just been linked together.
To continue with the reverse order, the themes of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are so minor as to make me think there aren’t any. Perhaps there is something there regarding “True love” but it is so underdeveloped, if at all present, that I would not credit it. The theme that is most present is that of “beauty”, but unlike most stories that include a transformation to show the ugliness inside as somehow more important, Snow White is put in danger because of her kindness and is only saved due to her beauty being so great that the Prince can’t pass up an opportunity to kiss even her corpse (WE’LL GET TO THAT!). Perhaps then the theme is something to do with hard work, Snow White is certainly shown doing housework or other chores throughout the movie. Here too, unfortunately, the theme is so muddled as to be absent. While it is true that Snow White is shown performing domestic labour for the Dwarfs, we are also told/shown her being forced to do similar work by the Queen as punishment for her beauty. If work is supposed to be good when done for the Dwarfs, but bad when done for the Queen - especially when many of the Dwarfs are explicitly uncomfortable with her presence until they’re shown her usefulness as a cook/cleaner/general mother figure - then this is not communicated through any of the tools the storytellers have at their disposal.
Next are the characters. In some ways this is a strength the film has, it was marketed partially on the characters, but the under 90 minute run time coupled with the size of the cast means that all the characterisation is quite shallow. The only character with anything resembling an arc is Grumpy, who goes from being grumpy and not liking Snow White, to liking Snow White and channelling the grumpiness into saving/avenging her. The motivation of the Queen is so shallow that I find that it undermines her character. If we didn’t know why she wanted Snow White dead it would almost be more intimidating, and would place us more in the shoes of Snow White as this terrifying force bears down on her. As it is the Queen trying to remain the fairest by murdering those she views as fairer feels so petty, which only serves to make her a character that I cannot understand or engage with. This would potentially bother me less if Snow White learned anything about beauty (or anything) as discussed above; however, Snow White as a character is very one note. She wants to find love, she ends up mothering some Dwarfs, but then a Prince who thought she was hot finds her and she lives happily ever after. Not only does the character not change or grow, but she doesn’t even have a particularly coherent want vs. need dichotomy established. She also is a completely passive participant in her own story, the only choice she clearly makes is to clean the Dwarfs’ house. The Prince who saves her is shown to be enamoured with her seemingly because of her singing and beauty, but we aren’t shown more than a single interaction between them, and that interaction does not suggest a deep or storied connection. Finally there is the fact that he kisses a woman that he believes to be DEAD at the end of the film. It is so creepy and the fact that the film doesn’t even bother to have him or the Dwarfs communicate that they know of true love’s kisses saving maidens or SOMETHING makes it so much worse. As a child and as an adult I have always found it to be a strange and inexcusable plot contrivance. Given that the Prince’s characterisation is this action and singing with Snow White at the beginning while he has more agency we are not invited into any understanding with him.
I shall not repeat the plot summary from above, but suffice to say it is not intricate, complex, or particularly challenging. What the plot does well is be an excellent vehicle for showing the characters in entertaining antics. As discussed above the structure of the quasi-shorts within this film are aided by being tied to a larger plot and therefore constrained in the cartoonish violence or physical comedy they are able to engage with. What I did not discuss in much detail previously is how phenomenal the animation in this film is. While the animals and the Dwarfs are largely familiar to the earlier cartoon styling, albeit rendered in a much greater fidelity of linework and overall animation quality, the standouts to me were the human characters and the backgrounds. The backgrounds, as was a trend throughout the shorts, were absolutely gorgeous pieces of artwork. I don’t have much to say beyond I was often noticing them which usually is a good (or terrible) sign for background art. The human animation was particularly interesting, as there is something different about it that I haven’t really seen elsewhere. The closest I can call to mind is the 3D cell shaded models that are seen in some works today, where the lack of inked lines in some places clash slightly with the fact that there is obviously movement happening. This effect is not off putting in this film and mostly served to impress me that the effect was reminding me of the ways that 3D models and shaders interact. I’ll be curious to see if this continues in any of the next films that we will be looking at as it is an intriguing style.
After seeing Disney’s animation improve over the 21 pre-1937 shorts I didn’t expect to be surprised by the quality of the animation but it is so clearly a step up, even if I feel the storytelling has some growth to go The core of the “Soul” of the Disney company’s brand feels like it first metastasized into primitive form of what would make it the animation juggernaut worthy of having a ‘canon’; however, given the benefit of almost 90 years of hindsight, it certainly is not fully realised yet. The lack of proper character growth, arcs, or even just struggle hampers a still visually stunning work that will likely forever be a masterpiece simply due to it being the first. Much of the modern marketing and discussion around this film talks about how it is the “first and greatest” animated film and while the first part of that is a definitive fact, I hope that the above discussion reveals what I think of the second part of this statement. Beyond the actual quality I find the idea that the very first time something was ever done would be the pinnacle of the art form 90 years later laughable and insulting to the generations of artists and storytellers who have built on the legacy that this film began. The fact that the first animated feature is as high quality as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is even more astonishing to me having watched the shorts that preceded it. All the criticisms that I level are with the benefit of hindsight and the SIXTY (and counting) further films that have been made since this. If I cast shade on the origin of this art it is only so that we can see the stellar works I know will come. Next time, we jump forward 3 years and see what Disney can do when they are no longer breaking new cinematic ground and can properly stretch their storytelling muscles in 1940’s Pinocchio
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