A Masterpiece only Disney could have conjured up...

Rating: Null/10 (8 November 2000)

[May contain slight spoilers, but who doesn't know the story of Snow White?]
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is said by many to be the first and the best. The first feature length animated motion picture- yes, no doubt about it. As for the best, I'm not that sure. Don't get me wrong, I could definitely see why many people would say that this is Disney's best. For me it would be very hard to say what was Disney's best of the best but if I had to choose top 10 our dear Snow White would be amongst them. It's quite an extraordinary film, especially considering the time it was made. It features characters you're bound to bump into at Disneyland, the characters who perhaps shaped future Disney characters to come. First we have- who else but our heroin a girl with lips red as the rose, hair black as ebony and skin white as snow... did you guess yet? Of course this is Snow White, and no wonder from that description why the Queen, her stepmother is so jealous of her. The Queen in Snow White if you ask me is the coldest and one of the cruelest Disney villains to have ever roamed on movie screens. In fact she was deemed so scary that in England children under the shocking age of 16 had to be accompanied by adults to see this movie. You can clearly see the effect the Queen had on Disney villains to come, after the animators' lesson with her, no villain became as cold and scary and usually from then on the villains were accompanied by humor and sarcasm, which the queen does not have. No, she is out for Snow White and does not stop for jokes- how does Snow White dare be prettier than her?! I tell you if this Queen was to attend a beauty pageant I pity the other contestants. And so the Queen hires a hunter to kill Snow White but who (but the queen) could kill Snow White? Such a young beautiful and lovable woman? The hunter warns Snow White and off into the forest she runs and that forest scene is still one of the scariest Disney animators have drawn. Soon enough we meet the seven dwarfs whose names reflect their personalities. I always believed that everyone on earth has a bit of each trait of each of the seven dwarfs in him. There's Doc (the 'leader' of the dwarfs). There's Happy, Sleepy, Bashful and Sneezy (who I am often compared to seeing that I can probably get into the Guinness Book of Records for most sneezes). And finally there are perhaps the two most memorable of the little men- Grumpy, the grumpiest of them all and Dopey who can't speak, he never tried. Dopey is also the more childlike dwarf and the only one without a beard. But do you really think Disney could let Snow White off that easy? Nope, neither did I. The Queen soon finds out that the heart that her huntsman gave her was not that of Snow White, but that of a pig's. Well then, dear Queeny here will not let Snow White be prettier than her (even though she's living in a little house somewhere in the woods where the only people who can see her are seven tiny men... just shows how cruel this queen was). She transforms into an old peddler woman, the transformation being one of Disney's most unforgettable scenes. She tricks Snow White into eating a poisonous apple and just when all hope is lost Prince Charming comes and kisses her and she awakens and... they lived happily ever after.
Flawless? No, is there a flawless movie? I highly doubt it and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is no exception, but like many other Disney movies it has very few and rather irrelevant flaws. The biggest thing that bothered me was the simple fact that the prince was to effeminate (as was the one in Cinderella but Sleeping Beauty proved that Disney could draw a more masculine prince). The songs include Some Day My Prince Will Come (a song which many girls, I know have sung to themselves), Whistle While You Work (which many people have heard so much that they have forgotten it is from Snow White). And of course who hasn't hummed Heigh Ho while in rush hour on their way to work? God knows, I've hummed it way too many times. The animation I will say is spectacular, of course more sophisticated animation was yet to come but it still remains very well- especially the animation of the evil queen. Ranks high up there, though maybe not at number one as one of Disney's greatest achievements and greatest motion pictures of all time.