Disney Rewatch Review: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

This is the first installment of my Disney Rewatch reviews!  My first review focuses solely on Snow White however, I figured I would lump other reviews together to get make them easy and fun to read through. I will touch on the overall plot of the film and my personal thoughts and adding some fun facts or history here and there. I won’t be doing a review for every single movie, unless I’m asked to review a certain one. I will mostly focus on movies I personally have never seen before, some that have a great effect on me, or movies I feel aren’t talked a lot about. In other words I will probably not focus on the more popular, well known Disney films. I also thought it would be fun to rate each of the movies on a 1-5 star scale.  Take into account I will be grading the movies on storyline/plot, my personal enjoyment, and overall quality of the film. Onto the reviews!

The first on my list was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This adaptation of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale is the first full length cel animated feature film and the first film in the Walt Disney Animated Series. The film follows the young and beautiful Snow White who is living with her stepmother, the wicked queen, since her parent’s death. Once Snow White is deemed the fairest one in the land, the queen seeks to kill Snow White. From there the film follows Snow White’s journey in escaping from her evil step mother and her eventually finding her prince charming.

While the overall story lacks some substance in comparison to some of the other Disney movies, I appreciate Snow White for what it represents and what it did for Walt Disney Animated Studios. Granted, this is not the most exciting, sitting at the edge of my seat movie, it is worth the watch in my opinion. Others may feel different, for example about 15 minutes into the film Jason wanted to pull his hair out resorted to looking up Iron Man facts on his phone. You watch this film to appreciate the animation in 1937. To think this was during the times where these cartoons were hand-drawn and every slight movement involved hundred of drawings done by hand. I realize a lot of the animation has been digitally re-mastered however, I was still in awe over the intricate details of the shadows and the gems the dwarves handle at work. The movie was slightly darker than I imagined as well. Grant it for all of my childhood I couldn’t watch the scene where Snow White runs through the forest. The imagery of the queen’s servant cutting the heart out of young Snow White struck me as particularly dark for the innocence I associate with Disney. Overall this film is worth the watch for what it did for Disney as a whole. The story lacks intrigue and excitement but you have to factor in the time period and what the movie was meant to do.

I give Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs  3 Stars.