As promised, here is a closer look at the well-known film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I just want to get one thing clarified before this whole shebang: I really don't like this movie. And by don't like, I mean loathe. As a child, the only thing I thought scarier than Snow White was Dumbo (is anybody going to argue that it is not the trippiest thing out there?). I feel like there a lot of things just...wrong with this movie. And it's all of these little quips that makes this film so easy to scrutinize. I would just like to say that everyone is entitled to personal preference and if anyone likes this Disney flick, that's just fine and dandy.
But first, a history lesson. Snow White's kind of a big deal because it's the first feature-length animated movie. In 1937, Walt won an Honorary Academy Award for his crazy innovation in film technology. Funny little tidbit, he received one full-sized Oscar and seven miniature ones for all of the dwarfs. [Sidebar: I hate that the plural form of Dwarf is Dwarfs according to Disney it could have just as easily been Dwarves. It doesn't bother me as much that he uses the politically correct term because they always seemed like fairy-tale creatures living in the middle of the woods.] Let's start the movie.
So in typical Disney fashion this movie starts off with a older matriarch who is jealous of the youth of her younger ward which is typically her step-daughter. Queeny here seems to spend zero time ruling her kingdom, and all her energy into making sure she is the prettiest person in the world. I like how she thinks that this is no big deal. She does have a pretty fierce face, but is it that great? Anyway, she talks to her magical mirror who constantly says she's the fairest of them all. Don't we all sometimes wish our mirror would say that you were looking hot today? What nice validation! Then one day, Poof! Her step-daughter is declared the prettiest in the land. This gets queeny in such a tissy that she decides that Snow White must die. Just to make this perfectly clear: because a magic piece of glass said a sixteen year old girl was "fairer" than a middle age woman that stresses about appearances, the teen must die? Where is the logic in that? That's really where my biggest beef with this movie is. This is the only Disney villain that I don't understand the motive. Other people want the power or the prestige and that's what makes them grumpy, the Queen here just wants everyone prettier than her dead. It makes zero sense to me.
Anyway, the Queen sends her hunter to take the princess out into the woods and kill her. As proof she asks that he cuts out her heart and puts it in a pretty ornate box. Whoa! We're getting into some pretty dark Disney stuff here, which kind of makes sense because this movie was never intended to be a kids movie. Continuing, Snow White changes from her rags into a glorious dress and cape ensemble so that she can pick berries in the woods in her finer clothes. This is already an indication that she is not the smartest character out there. So the huntsman takes her out into the woods and is about to stab her, when his conscience gets the better of him and he can't go through with it. He insists that she runs far away so that the Queen can never lay a hand on her. As Snowy runs, the forest becomes dark and all of the trees look like scary monsters that are going to eat her. She appears to be much more afraid of these fictional dangers than the man who was standing above her with a knife five minutes earlier. She then begins to cry which brings the sun back out and all sorts of woodland creatures come out to comfort her. She immediately forgets all of her troubles because she has now contracted rabies. That's not quite right, but I feel that the fuzziness erases all of her worries away. She starts talking to them, and they obviously all understand her and try to cheer her up. As she perks up she starts to ask about the practical aspects of her exile. This is the only practical and smart thing Snowy does in this entire movie. She realizes she needs shelter and asks her new animal friends if they knew of any place near by.
Instead of sharing their forest home with her, they show her to a little cottage in a clearing. She knocks on the door and when no one answers she lets her pretty little self in. Is that good manners? I think not. How many times have you knocked on a complete strangers door and just let yourself in when they don't answer? I'm not judging if you enjoy breaking and entering, but it's not my cup of tea. And what does she do once she's in there? She critiques the way the little children keep house! And the must be children since everything's so small and only children could be that messy. Instead of minding her own business, she decides to clean up the house. So she doesn't get her little dress dirty, she makes the furry creatures do all of the dirty work. She holds a broom and pretends to be sweeping, but it's the squirrels and bunnies that are doing the dishes and sweeping the cobwebs out. How selfish could you be? And when she's done, she finds the beds of the owners and decides that it would be polite to take a nap in them!!! Urgh, she just annoys me so much it hurts.
Heigh Ho! Here come the dwarfs home from a hard days work at the gem mines. Why are they mining precious jewels? It looks like they just keep them in a vault with no intention to sell them. It also appears that they don't really need an income since they make everything they need. As a kid, this made zero sense to me, but it did mean that I got to hear my favorite song in this whole movie so that was a plus. So the dwarfs come home to a clean house, which would terrify me, and they think an evil cleaning monster is in their beds. It turns out just to be a naive princess who needed her beauty sleep. They decide to keep her, because who doesn't love free labor? She'll keep their house tidy and cook all of their meals for them. Sexism at its best because once again, there's no reason for the dwarfs to go to work. They could cook for themselves like they have been for the past however many decades.
That night, they all dance for joy and we start to really get all of the different personalities down. Doc, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, and Dopey all want to dance with the new lady so that when they over power her later on in the night, it won't seem quite so forceful. Grumpy wants nothing to do with the gang bang so he sulks in the corner. All of the dwarfs seem to know what's up except for Dopey, who I think is one of the saddest Disney characters out there. He clearly has some mental disabilities that the rest of his friends/brothers (?) exploit at every possible moment. Since he doesn't talk, he really can't protest. They all make him risk his neck for the safety of the rest of the clan. It makes my heart hurt.
The next part of the film, I fell asleep through so please bear with me. The huntsman returns to the queen with the heart of a pig as evidence that Snow White is really dead. She then consults her mirror to see if he's telling the truth (then why would she need the heart?) and finds out that Snow White still lives happily in the woods. Since she is also magic she transforms herself into an ugly hag who is going to try and sell a poisonous apple to the maiden so she drops dead. There's only one loop-hole to her whole plan; if Snow White is kissed by her true love she'll awaken from her sleep of death. Why doesn't she pick a more fool-proof method of murder? You don't leave things like that up to chance!
The dwarfs leave for work the next day warning Snowy not to leave the house because the Queen could be out looking for her. This includes not letting strangers into their house. She nods absent-mindedly and starts making lunch for the little people. Then all of a sudden, BAM!
This shows up. How terrifying is that? This is probably where children are taught to be afraid of ugly people and how they all must be monstrous witches that wish to poison you. Why in the world did the Queen turn herself into something so ugly? She could have just changed into a normal looking peasant selling apples, that would have probably worked better. Snowy does not appear phased however and lets the stranger with the scary face and hands into her home because she says she has delicious apples. The woodland creatures see the Queen enter the cottage and race off to the mines to warn the boys because there's no way a teenage girl can handle this situation on her own, right? They're too late and Snowy takes a bite of the poisonous apple and drops dead. The dwarfs realize exactly how late to the party they are and race after the witch. By the way, it is now storming out (the weather in this fantasy land certainly is volatile!). They chase her up a mountain and she eventually plummets to her death, so that loose end is tied up. But what about Snowy?
The Dwarfs use all of their precious resources and build her this elaborate glass coffin because they can not bear to put her cold body in the ground. They stand a 24/7 vigil at her grave for over a year because now, work doesn't seem nearly as important as mourning someone they knew for a day. All of the animals show up to pay their respects as well and everyone is very sad. After a year, a prince rides up since he has heard tales of the princess in a glass coffin. He walks up, and the first thing he does is kiss her smack dab on the lips.
Here's the thing. Her body has been sitting there for the past year. She would have been decaying through that time since she was in fact dead. Would you want to kiss her? And how in the world did he know that would do anything? He's barely mentioned except for a couple of lines of song in the beginning of the movie. He just assumes that he's her true love and that's that? We don't even know his name!!! But it works, and she wakes up and goes off to be another subservient woman for the man who rescued her. The Dwarfs are ok with this plan and let her go off with this complete stranger. The movie then ends on happy note for everyone. What they probably fail to mention, is that the Prince then over hunts the woods and kills all of Snowy's friends. She also never visits the Dwarfs again because she now lives like a queen in a castle. I don't mean to get side-tracked, but that brings up another good point: who was ruling the kingdom since the queen died and the princess was in a glass coffin? Was there complete anarchy? And now that she's back was everyone happy to go back to being second-class citizens? I highly doubt it, but that's not how Disney films work, and that's why I love them!
One last remark on Disney in general. You can over analyze every kid's movie out there and find flaws in every single one. It is one thing to comment on these, and it is a complete other to take offense and write off all Disney films out there as sexist, age-ist, racist filth. You're more than welcome to do this, but it's like ruining a part of childhood that I personally cherished greatly.
I really love discussing Disney so drop a comment and I'd be more than happy to respond. I hope you liked my first deep look at a film, and look for more to come, I"m going to try and make it a weekly thing that is not so text-heavy (sorry!). Do you like Snow White? Did you ever see anything wrong with it as a child or adult? Let me know, it would be great to hear from other people out in the world.
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