Monday, June 17, 2013

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) ***

Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first film my mother ever took me to see.  Mind you, I saw it in re-issue, and only after I was so frightened by the newspaper advertisement for Charlotte’s Web (1973, also in re-issue) that I refused to see a film with a menacing-looking spider. In retrospect, I now know that I saw the more frightening of the two.  As a child it was easy to adore the dwarfs and to idolize the beautiful Snow White. As an adult, however, I find many troubling elements.

While I’ve always been a fan of the Magic Mirror—he was the thing I most looked forward to on Disney Sunday nights—he was ultra-creepy in SSnow White - wicked queen and her magic mirrornow White and the Seven Dwarfs. So, anytime I watch the movie it’s unnerving to see my beloved Mirror sell Snow White (Adrianna Caselotti) out to Queen Grimhilde (Lucille La Verne). I know it’s a small thing, but it’s sort of like watching Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) play evil Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele in The Boys from Brazil (1978)—something just isn’t kosher!

Then there’s the unsettling fixation of beauty that everyone in the film has—except Snow White, of course.  The Queen spends her days asking the Mirror who’s the fairest in the land, and her nights disguised as an old crone casting spells to kill her rivals.  This, obviously, does not send a positive message to young girls in a culture tumblr_m6pvqe0dKx1rawb5do1_400fixated on their outward appearances.  Ordering the execution of your step-daughter because she has surpassed your beauty seemed ridiculous in 1937, but today it doesn’t seem so far-fetched when beauty queens and cheerleaders have plotted to kill their rivals.  The dwarfs get in the act, too, by allowing Snow White’s beauty to endanger their lives and to put them out of their beds. Really, in what world should seven miners (don’t let their ‘happy’ singing of “Heigh-Ho” fool you, they did back-breaking work) give up their bed for one woman?  Why? Because Heigh HOE she was a good-looking woman.  Bad message…

Oh, and then there’s the carnivorous slavery issue—not so much Snow White, but the forest animals.  After her foray into the creepy woods after the Woodsman (Stuart Buchanan) told her to run for her life, Snow White snow-white-seven-dwarfs7befriends a whole host of adorable animals.  Not long after this she puts them to work cleaning the dwarfs’ scuzzy cottage so she can live there.  Yes, they hung out with her in the day, but at what price?  Snow White was the dwarfs’ cook, right?  I ask you this: did the Dwarfs look like vegans to you?  I‘m sure having animal ‘friends’ came in handy for her…

Finally, after Snow White ate the poisoned apple and succumbed to the ‘Sleeping Death’ spell, who was it that built her that gold and glass coffin and sat in constant vigil?  Prince Charming?  No, it was the seven dwarfs. Yet, as soon as the handsome prince came and broke the spell with a kiss, Snow White was waving princess-snow-white-horse_4ba795c1a75b6-pgoodbye and riding off into the sunset on his white horse. What message does that send?  Bald dwarfs, no matter how devoted, just can’t compare to tall, handsome princes?  As such, now countless women dream of the day when their princes will come and take them away from housework and less-attractive men. Hmmm…

Still, in all seriousness, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a delightful film.  As the first feature-length animated movie, it is historically significant. It launched Walt Disney as one of the most important (and bankable) film companies, too.  What they did with animation in 1937 has to be admired as well.  For several children, like myself, it has served as an introduction to the amazing worlds that cinema can create. Even if I give it a hard time as an adult, that does not minimize the lasting memory that it created for me back in 1975, when my mother took me to see my very first movie. 

8 comments:

  1. I thoroughly enjoyed your review! I have never considered Snowwhite in that light, but by and far you are right. This film does have some serious issues. My own "issue" is exactly what you mention that the dwarfs take her in and care for her through the long vigil, yet when Prince Charming comes around they are all forgotten. Who is he anyway? He is entirely anonymous but for a smart haircut and a tailored outfit. This film would have been so much more interesting if Snowwhite had ended up with Grumpy and gotten a whole lot of small grumpies... I see a love story in the making there...

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    1. Grumpy and Snow White--what an interesting pairing. LOL

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  2. "Snow White" is the first film I remember seeing in a theater with my family...a re-issue, too, though several years earlier than your viewing, Kim. Possibly because I tend to favor anti-heroes (even then???), I was rather fond of the queen - up to a point.

    Somehow, with all its "troubling elements," I managed to watch "Snow White" (also Disney's "Cinderella"!) as a quite young and impressionable child and still grow up to be a very independent (some would say ornery) woman...

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    1. The Queen is the far-compelling character, isn't she? As for growing up independent after watching this and Cinderella--that's because you grew up in a normal age where we knew the difference between fact and fiction--something sorely lacking in today's youth.

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  3. I love your review.

    My grandparents took me to see "Snow White" when it was reissued sometime in the 80's...I must have been about five. I was TERRIFIED of the old witch and I remember sleeping in their bed with them that night!

    My daughter is three and has been sucked into the vortex of Disney Princesses. Her favorite is "Cinderella" and she can watch that all day long. She also likes "Tangled" and "Little Mermaid."

    She was introduced to "Snow White" because she is included among all the princesses on all the merchandise. I have only let her watch YouTube clips of the "Whistle While You Work" and "I'm Wishing" songs. That is all I feel comfortable of her seeing at her age! I suppose I am remembering my own bad memories and am protecting her.

    There really are a lot of disturbing elements in Disney films that were totally lost to me as a child but now as I have a child and am seeing the films again I am a bit shocked. The scene in "Cinderella" where the stepsisters rip her dress off is very violent and comes across as almost a kind of a rape. "Snow White" is indeed a rather dark film and she is rather selfish. Ariel in "The Little Mermaid"---willing to give up her ability to speak just for the chance to spend three days with a man she doesn't even know? Even "Tangled"---which is fairly new, is distrubing in how Rapunzel is kept captive and snowed over by this woman claiming to be her mother.

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    1. I always have fun reviewing Disney films. As an adult we see things in a jaded fashion, but most children are lucky enough to enjoy Disney movies without tainting them with world-weary minds. I know women who will not allow their children to watch Disney because they feel the films are misogynistic. I don't know if I'd go that far, but I do see where they are coming from.

      Thanks for commenting.

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  4. I'm liking this deconstructionist view of Disney films. More, please.

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    1. I don't have many Disney's left on the list now. I think there's just Jungle Book and Lion King left to do. I'm glad you enjoy my skewed perspective. LOL

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