So how does it stand up?

Rating: 7/10 (3 April 2016)

The Wicked Queen arranges for Snow White to be killed, but she finds sanctuary with 7 dwarfs.
Made 80 years ago, how does Disney's trailblazing animated feature hold up, he asked, having just watched it through in its entirety for the first time - I can't imagine how I haven't seen it in full at some point during the last half century or more. But now I have.
The story is familiar - this is a fairly faithful adaptation of the Grimm Brothers' original, albeit nicely tweaked to point up (for instance) the humorous role of the dwarfs and, frankly, to pad it - there are a number of sequences which are very entertaining but not very plot relevant. The drama works well, the character design is excellent, the animation is very good (and the effects animation is stunning), several of the songs are classics (and several aren't), and there are places where it is genuinely scary, especially for small children.
It's not perfect. Current audiences might find stylistic elements somewhat dated, and Adriana Caselotti as Snow White is rather irritatingly twittery.
But on the whole, it fully justifies its classic status.