Released 1937
American
Animated, color
83 minutes
Directed by William Cottrell, David Hand, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen
Voice Actors include Adriana Caselotti, Harry Stockwell, Lucille La Verne
(watched back in the day on VHS from the awesome giant-sized plastic Disney video case)
The Plot Basically Breaks Down Like This:
Seriously, is there anyone who doesn't know the story of Snow White? Its been around in some form or other forever. But just in case you've been living under a rock for the last century or so it goes like this: there is a princess who is all pretty and sweet and meek and lovely and her step-mom is a heinous witch monster who hates her guts and decides to have her killed. But the dude who is supposed to kill her is all moved by her sweetness and loveliness and lets her escape and she takes off and breaks into this house where these little men live and even though that seems kinda hinky on several levels she ends up staying with them and doing womanly things like singing and dancing and forcing small animals into slave labor to clean the house and the little guys mine sparkly stuff and sing and its all wonderfully happy and crap. But then the heinous witch monster returns and tries to kill the girl and she ends up looking pretty dead but a magic kiss from this hottie on a horse who she sang at once wakes her back up again and they ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after and all that blah blah blah.
My Thoughts Basically Break Down Like This:
When I was little this movie was all kinds of magical for me. There was singing and dancing and communing with helpful animals and evil witches getting their just desserts and a handsome prince on a horse doing handsome princely things. It was a fairy tale and I was a little girl who loved fairy tales. And then I got older and became more cynical and stopped looking at fairy tales as the be-all-end-all of existence. And when I saw Snow White again later on after I'd grown up a bunch, it wasn't nearly as magical for me anymore. Snow White herself seems weak and passive, letting bad stuff happen to her and not doing anything about it herself, instead leaving it up to others to keep saving her dumb ass. She falls in love with this prince that she doesn't even really know and rides off with him to his castle like its totally safe to marry an almost complete stranger. He could be a human-skin wearing psychopath who likes to sleep with his horse and smear feces on himself for special occasions. Grown up me doesn't see magic and fairy tales anymore. She sees bad ideas and female characters that she can't be proud of (except the witch, she's pretty badass now that I think about it, she just does what she wants and is who she is and sure she's a bad guy but she's a strong female character so she has that going for her and yeah anyways) and ridiculous amounts of naivety and she can't watch it very often anymore. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Disney and I think they did alot for animation in the United States. But my heart belongs to girls like Mulan* (she saved China!) and Tianna** (she made her dreams happen!) now.
*Mulan
**The Princess and the Frog
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