One of my friends said to me last week, “Let’s go see ‘Snow White’; I want to see how bad it is!” With that, he bought us tickets to go see the trainwreck. But before I tell that story of what I (and three other people) viewed in a dark theatre, let’s go back to the classic animated version that Walt Disney himself released in 1937. This post is full of scene-spoilers, so if you’re new to this film that’s more than eighty years young, you might want to skip this one!
When I rewatched it the other night, I was reminded of what an expert storyteller Walt Disney was. At a very tight 83 minute length, one does not squirm from boredom as Walt knew exactly what was key to his story and what could be left behind.
With two simple written pages and a brief sequence that introduces the Evil Queen in all her menacing glory…
Walt gives the audience all the backstory and plot motivation they need to know before seeing Snow White, our young heroine.
While obviously very young and naive, she is old enough to have romantic longings and also shows signs of being weary from the manual labor that has been cruelly forced upon her by the Evil Queen, her vain stepmother. At the age of 19, Adriana Caselotti recorded the role of Snow White, imbuing the part with just the mixture of innocence and strength. Her vocal talents served her well and made her solo, “Someday My Prince Will Come,” the 19th greatest film of all time according to the American Film Institute’s 100 Years…100 Songs. Lucille La Verne brought more than enough menace and fright to the roles of the Evil Queen and the Old Witch.
Besides the glorious Technicolor, the innovative camera angles, and the high quality hand-drawn animation, I was impressed with how seamless the musical numbers were woven into the story, with each one carefully moving the story along. Snow White sings a song of longing and her Prince happens to be riding by. Overcome by the surprise and excitement of this unexpected romantic encounter (and one can safely assume it is her first), the Princess runs off to her room in the castle.
The camera pans between the Evil Queen witnessing the scene in horror and Snow White obviously returning the affection of the Prince singing to her from down below.
The rest of the story moves along at a brisk pace, with a good mix of song, romance, comedy, and high drama. The editing is impeccable; the intercutting between the Evil Queen’s transformation into an old witch and Snow White’s bonding with the Seven Dwarfs keeps the tension building while showing how all the dwarfs (including Grumpy) fall for her kindness and charms.
The tension stays high with another perfectly edited sequence, as the audience roots for the dwarfs to get back to the cottage in time to save Snow White from the Old Witch and the poisoned apple. Will they make it or won’t they? I had forgotten just how tightly the film was constructed and how perfectly the musical score heightened tensions and yielded tears. The cutting back and forth between the two scenes keeps you on the edge of your seat. Storytelling at its finest!
The Old Witch escapes, and it looks like she might be completely victorious as she is about to roll a deadly boulder on top of the dwarfs:
While scary, it was sequences like these that made this feature film so endearing to both girls and boys. Walt had no qualms about frightening kids; as he once wisely said:
Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows.
Was there a happy ending? If you haven’t seen the film, do yourself a favor and watch it.
It is TIMELESS!! See more classic Walt Disney movie photos at my main website.
