Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

It's been a while since I've seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Like a really long while. I think the last time I had seen this movie was when I was 4 years old, so I definitely had some new perspectives watching it as an older (and hopefully much wiser) college student. The main thing I noted throughout the movie, which was made in 1937, was just how different it was from any of the animated movies that had been made within the time I've been alive. For one, there was a serious lack of action. The movie is already a short 80 something minutes, but even this isn't quite indicative of the lack of action in the movie. The majority of this is taken up with musical numbers or irrelevant scenes, such as the dwarfs cleaning themselves or Snow White tiding up the cabin. The relatively simple plot could've been achieved in 30 minutes. This leads me to think that the reason the movie was so revolutionary, therefore, was because of the animation and sound which were truly stunning at the time. And even watching it today, I definitely noted these aspects as being quite impressive considering the film was created so long ago. I forget who, but one of the authors we read in class mentioned that the early Disney movies were less so about the plot and more so about Disney portraying his immense skills. At the time I dismissed this view as ridiculous, but seeing this movie, it starts to make sense. With all the said, I don't mean to bash Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because it was ground-breaking after all and a great movie; I simply mean to draw differences from modern movies.

With this more serious note mentioned, I will now commence rambling about the things that surprised/annoyed/interested me in the movie. For one, the early scenes were quite startling, particularly the scenes with Queen and the magic mirror and the spooky forest animals. As a little kid, I must've been terrified watching these parts. Shortly after the movie did become significantly cheerier but, I was taken back by this. I also could not stand the voices in the movie. Seriously, they were awful. Of course Snow White's voice was painfully high-pitched but even the dwarfs and the prince were about as squeaky as a pre-pubescent boy. All were very annoying to the ear. Finally, I couldn't believe Disney's depiction of Dopey throughout the movie. It was as if Disney was just making light of mental disability and it made me very uncomfortable at times. I know the times were different back then but still.

So these were my initial views of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Like I mentioned before, lots of rambling with few to none profound statements. But that's okay sometimes, I guess. Right?