Disney animation from the age before they became dull, predictable and saccharine

Rating: Null/10 (19 June 2020)

I watched this very soon after watching what was considered one of their 80s high points (though largely now forgotten), The Great Mouse Detective. I've also been forced to watch recent Disney fare like Frozen in recent times and can remember my feeling about them. It is years since I've watched Snow White.
What a difference!
This is an actual, proper attempt at a meaningful film, not some marketing or pandering exercise with paper thin intent, tiresome & predictable design & characters, and an OD of sugar or saccharine. Very refreshing.
It feels far more like the masterpieces of animation that are still possible in Japan and were possible with Pixar but which Disney's shallowness has made impossible from them in decades.
The quality of animation of figures has a naturalistic movement that is simply so far ahead of current Disney it isn't funny. And the backgrounds. Even with modern day computing power recent stuff is weak, while the second half of the 20th century stuff is just plain cheap and childish in comparison.
There is also actual atmosphere. The noirish shadows, the angles, there is genuine foreboding.
Pus it thankfully, so very thankfully, doesn't suffer from the pregnant pause face shots and poses that plague ends of scenes of so many of today's productions, animated or live action. If anything the transitions move a couple of seconds too quickly. But I'd still far rather have this older style of film making than the soapish current vogue.
The music is also wonderful. I don't know whether they work because I've heard them all my life or because they are actually good. But they do.
So, after all that, why not a 10? For 2 reasons.
1) Snow White herself. She is so matronising and privileged. Not a pleasant characterisation. The singing voice is also rather twee.
2) The denouement simply isn't believable.
If this film was made today like this I'd probably mark it 8, but given when it was made it deserves more, so a 9.
Wonderful.