Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Review- By Michael Carlisle

Title: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Year: 1937
Director(s): William Cottrell & David Hand
Country: US
Language: English

Born on Dec 5th 1901 in Chicago Ilinois, Walt Disney was already a modestly successful artist by the time the 30's rolled around. His early cartoons, such as Steamboat Willie, were simple yet inspiring. They revealed the man's enormous potential. In 1934 Disney decided to start a feature length animated picture based on a play by the Brothers Grimm, despite critics assuming that any feature animation would be an  enormous flop. He proved them incorrect as it was a great hit, and it still is 77 years later.

"Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is essentially about an evil vain queen who wishes to murder the most beautiful woman in the kingdom, because it isn't her. She sends a huntsman to kill Snow White, but allows her to escape. She eventually finds a cottage which is occupied by seven dwarfs; doc, grumpy, happy, dopey, bashful, sleepy and sneezy. 

Disney's most triumphant achievement in regards to this film is the fact that he creates a living and breathing world out of animated cels. Though it is called Snow White, the woman in question is not the subject of the picture. She's more of a living MacGuffin, a plot device that the characters pursue. As a character she is rather boring, but that is purposeful; it is meant to take the focus off her and onto every other character. Thus even the forest has a personality; in one scene it almost consumes her with it's evil intentions. 

Another Disney achievement was the "multiplane camera". It gave the illusion of three dimensions by placing several levels of drawing one behind another and moving them separately--the ones in front faster than the ones behind, so that the background seemed to actually move instead of simply unscrolling. This was remarkable considering before this animation was considered children's entertainment, usually played before the main feature. The animators freed Snow White from time and space, giving it a whole new dimension. Seeing the film nowadays, one finds it hard to believe that it came from the 30's. 

In conclusion, Russian Film Pioneer Sergei Eisenstein once called Snow White the "greatest film ever made" and its not difficult to understand why. Disney's picture is a whirlwind of emotion, it even features vaudevillian slapstick comedy in form of the seven dwarfs who physically express their wonderful personalities. Considering animation has greatly tranformed since 1937 it's easy not to see Snow White as a revolutionary picture, but it is in every sense of the word. I can only hope that more generations see this amazing masterpiece. Praise it! 5/5