Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Posted on by Corey

I managed to watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on Saturday night. The children had gone to bed and while it was a little later than I would have wanted, I met my self-imposed deadline of Saturday night.  I’m not sure what direction officially that the blog is going to take, but I think it’s going to be ½ admiration, 3/8 commentary and 1/8 sarcasm. With that said…

I had forgotten how abbreviated film credits were in the early part of the 20th century. Being credited on a motion picture in those days was a big deal. They ran the credits up front at the beginning of the feature and your contribution had to be pretty damn important to be mentioned unlike like those Pixar babies. I know, babies are cute and special and miracles, but we don’t have a list of Snow White babies, now do we?

I don’t think I would have noticed this as a kid and my husband Andrew didn’t notice it as much as I seem to have but there were a lot of cuts in the movie. Not in a bad way, just obvious to me fades to black or changing scenes abruptly. There are probably a couple of reasons for that. One they mention in the documentary that was included in this DVD version of the movie – that Walt himself did a lot of the editing himself. My guess is that if a scene didn’t (in essence) follow the plot, it was cut and there may not have been bridging material. The other thing that crossed my mind was that this was shown in 1937, and that may have been done on purpose for projector changes.

The multiplane camera was used in Snow White in a number of sequences according to the included documentary. I know about the multiplane camera from its use in Fantasia –specifically the Ava Maria sequence (more on Fantasia in a few weeks). I didn’t know that it was used in Snow White, but on watching the movie again I was able to pick out the scenes in which it was used. One sequence really struck me – where Snow White was walking through the woods to the dwarf’s cottage for the first time and they pass a body of water. In fact, I immediately thought of the Popeye short “Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor” (1936). There are some techniques in that short film that also gives a sense of depth that isn’t really duplicated. It’s almost like looking into a diorama. There are even scenes in “Sinbad” that look like a live action film more than a short.  

As for the animation, as I was reminded, the artists at Disney really advanced their skills to make this film happen. They came up with new techniques (such as the multiplane camera) to achieve the results of the film. I am in no way trying to diminish their work but the only thing struck me as out of place was the Queen’s raven/crow. That creature looked like he belonged in another animated feature all together because of his style. Now that I think about it, it very well could have been done on purpose to make sure you noticed him.

As for character development, Dopey by far, to me is the most well developed and animated character of the film. I have no idea which of Disney’s animators was in charge of him. The fact that he doesn’t speak in the conventional sense and only communicates in pantomime is extraordinary.

Overall, I believe that it was appropriate to watch the “Film that Started It All” as I play tourist to the Fifty-one Disney Animated features. It’s going to be fun to see the growth and development of the animation over the course of seventy-five years.

UPDATE: Found this article late today called The Definitive History of Disney’s “Snow White” is Coming!http://www.cartoonbrew.com/books/the-definitive-history-of-disneys-snow-white-is-coming.html

UPDATE #2: From imdb.com ” The first full-length animated feature film to come out of the United States. (The first ever were El apóstol and Sin dejar rastros by Quirino Cristiani but both films are considered lost. The oldest full-length animated feature film that can still be seen today is The Adventures of Prince Achmed, which clocks in at 65 minutes, and was animated entirely in silhouette.)” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029583/trivia?tab=tr&item=tr0657228