Movie Title-Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Release Date-December 21st 1937 (at the Carthay Circle Theatre)
February 4th 1938 (Nationwide US release)
Walt's role during production-Producer
Budget-$1,488,429
Box Office-$418.2 million
Welcome to the first episode of Evan Vs. Disney. Where I go watch and review every single film in the Disney animated canon.
What....you say this sounds like I stole it from another blog.
Horseradish.
OK I will admit when I released the introduction to this show I had no idea about Unshaved Mouse. I only recently discovered the blog and it's a blast. I recommend it.
I still wanna do this though even if other people have done it as I have my own thoughts and feelings about each movie and I'm gonna share them.
I'm going in order so that means we're starting out with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Walt's first movie.
But before the review it's history time.
Yay.
This was the very first full length cel animated movie in history.
As such there was a lot of trouble. Both his brother and his wife told Walt to just give up on the idea of a full motion animated picture. Walt was determined though.
In fact he was so determined that he was willing to mortgage his own house to cover financial cost.
Before movies Disney worked on theatrical shorts. Their biggest series of theatrical shorts was called Silly Symphonies. Named very similarly to Loony Tunes and Merrie Melodies.
However both series of theatrical shorts were very different.
However that's not what this blog post is about. It's about this movie. Walt wanted to expand his company to the realm of films and it all goes downhill from there.
It was originally thought the movie could be covered with a budget of $250,000 which was 10 times the budget of a Silly Symphony. However the budget got much higher than that. As seen above the budget was over 1 million dollars.
The production began in 1934 and was officially announced to the New York Times as the first movie under the name Walt Disney Productions in June of the same year.
A lot of people in the film industry thought this movie was gonna fail apparently, but it ended up as a success.
And that's where it all begins. The beginning of the Dinsey Animated Canon.
And as such is also the first movie in the first era of the Disney canon. The Disney Classic Animated Films Era.
So is this movie that good. Was it a good first entry to the canon.
Well lets get to the review and find out.
So what's the plot. There's an evil queen that is immensely jealous of her daughter's beauty and fairness. So she puts her to work as a maid. The queen asks her magic mirror everyday who the fairest in the land is. As long as the mirror says she's the fairest of them all Snow White is safe. But one day the mirror says Snow White is the fairest as such the queen sends a huntsman to kill her. The huntsman can't bring himself to do it so he tells her to run away. She eventually stumbles upon a little cottage that happens to belong to seven dwarfs. Snow White says in exchange for letting her live there she'll take care of the house and cook. She pretty much starts acting like a mother towards these guys. Anyway after the evil queen finds out she's still alive she decides to handle matters herself. She disguises as an old lady and gives Snow White a poison apple.
Now let's be honest with ourselves here.
If this face
just suddenly looked into your window and offered you an apple would you take it.
I hope the answer was no.
To be fair though she does really play up the whole 'sweet innocent old lady' act.
Anyway you know how the story goes. She eats the apple falls into an eternal sleep and at the end her prince comes to wake her up with true loves kiss.
So how does Walt's first film hold up.
Surprisingly well actually. When I came into this I thought I would find it to be OK just bland. But that was not the case. I actually really enjoyed this film.
First let's talk about the animation. It's fantastic. It's beautiful and colorful and looks 10 times better than a lot of films that actually come out today. I have kind of a soft spot for hand drawn animation I guess.
Even without my bias it's still great. This was the 30s and this movie was completely hand drawn. I know it's time consuming to do hand drawn animation which is why most people use flash or do CG animation, but I would love it if they was more hand drawn stuff out there.
Don Bluth is trying to get funding for a hand drawn Dragon Lairs movie so maybe.....
Sorry back to the movie.
The characters were also great as well. I really like the character of Snow White. She's always so happy and tries to make the best of every situation. She's also just a lot of fun to watch. I love the relationship she forms with the dwarfs as well. She kinda acts like a mother to them but she and the dwarfs still have a lot of fun together.
The dwarfs by themselves are also a lot of fun. By the way my personal favorite is Dopey. I mean how can you not love him. He's just so fun and hilarious. Grumpy is also pretty cool. He gets the short end of the stick a lot but it works as he kinda deserves it. I mean he can be pretty rude sometimes but he's still all around a likeable character.
Speaking of which this is a really cartoony movie. Like it has a lot of cartoony gags like the ones you'd see in the Disney Theatrical Shorts. It's a lot more cartoony than a lot of the other Disney Canon films. I don't mind though. I actually really like a lot of the gags. I don't remember laughing as much as I did now compared to when I watched this a long time ago as a kid. By the way before coming to watch the movie for this review I only saw it once. I guess it must've not been my cup of tea back then but now, upon rewatching it, it's probably up there with some of my favorite Disney movies of all time. Not just the ones from the canon but all Disney films. (Yes even Marvel and Star Wars.)
It's definitely in my top 10 but if I'm gonna be honest I haven't seen all the Disney movies. I haven't even seen all the ones in the animated canon and there are a big handful I hadn't seen in so many years so my opinion more than likely well change.
Another point I have to give to the movie is how emotional it got when the dwarfs thought Snow White had died. I was literally about to cry. It was a really sad scene and just so I don't ruin the emotional impact for those of you who might not of seen the film I won't say much else about the scene. Let's just say you can tell the Dwarfs really care for her and Snow White also seemed to really start taking a liking to them as well. The bond they share is just fantastic.
There's really not much to this film. It's mostly about the relationship Snow White develops with the Dwarfs. It's a fun movie and highly enjoyable, but that doesn't mean there isn't things to complain about.
I kinda don't like the evil queen. She just seems pretty generic. She's not completely bad and heck she is intimidating. I mean things got really tense in that scene where she was about to put Snow White in her eternal sleep while the dwarfs were rushing to save her. Speaking of which why did she put Snow White in an eternal sleep instead of just......I don't know....tainting he apple with actual poison.
I mean if she's still alive wouldn't she still technically be the fairest in the land. Why not just kill her. I know I should look past things like this but my suspension of disbelief only stretches so far. In fact that whole scene is pretty dumb. Why would Snow White trust this strange lady who looks like a Witch especially after the Dwarfs told her to be careful of strangers. I guess you can defend it by saying that the queen played up the old innocent lady act and Snow White just doesn't have it in her to judge people like that. So yeah I kind of agree with those two points but at the same time she should've been a little more cautious. She just kinda came of as a bit dumb to be honest with you. But yeah the queen is kinda bland. But not as bland as the prince. I mean we don't see much of him (he only gets like two scenes) so I can overlook it but I feel it would've been a little better to develop the relationship between Snow White and Him.
I do like how Grumpy and Snow White form a bond despite Grumpy initially not liking her but the development was a bit rushed in my opinion. I still enjoyed it overall though so you may consider that just a nitpick.
Overall I really like this film. It has faults but generally it's very fun and energetic with great characters, songs, and animation. It was also surprisingly emotional. I enjoyed it immensely and it was a decent surprise. I highly recommend it.
Overall Score-9/10
I'm also gonna make a list to keep track of the best films in the canon as I review them and my favorite Disney princesses from it as well.
Films in the Canon from best to worst:
1-Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (Considering this is the only one so far this shouldn't be a surprise) (9/10)
Disney Animated Canon Princesses from best to worst.
1-Snow White (again no surprise)
Well that's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. 1 down 53 to go. See you guys later.
Peace.
Next Evan Vs. Disney-Pinocchio
Next Animated Critic-Gorilla (Teen Titans Go)
Next Anime Critic-Madoka Magica Episodes 1 and 2
Also am I the only one who finds this message from Walt at the beginning really Heartwarming.
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