You've got to like it...whether you like it or not

Rating: Null/10 (26 November 2003)

For almost 70 years, Walt Disney Pictures have brought you classics such as Pinocchio, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Alice in Wonderland and ...erm...The Fox and the Hound (something went wrong there). But you wouldn't have been able to be able to watch forty-three animated hits, plus many semi-cartoon classics like Mary Poppins if it weren't for the first fairy tale adaptation:
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS.
You've got to like it. One must appreciate it was the first of its genre. I must admit I prefered Pinocchio (the second Disney classic which followed) as a child. And that's not saying Snow White is rubbish. It's a beautiful and jolly film. It's got a lot of good points, as well as bad points. Note possible spoilers.
The film opens as a white book helping set the scene that the Queen is vain and selfish. We then zoom into the Queen's bedroom in which see her see who is beautiful and if she's the sexiest woman in Cartoonland. Unfortunately, the Mirror says Snow White is. The Queen starts to show her evil by her bid to kill ther mysterious princess stepdaughter. The Queen's dialogue is beautiful, similar to that of Lady Macbeth (Walt did partially base the Queen's character on the Shakespearian villainess). The language is at it's beat in the transformation scene.
The next scene is where we meet Snow White. This is where the film falls flat. Snow White is a giggly bimbo with a freaky voice. If a pop singer had that kind of voice these days, she would fade away. Since when did Britney Spear's voice vibrate rapidly in a nausiating fashion? What's more, as the film progresses, the character gets even more nausiating. Snow White is even more stupid than the Mad Maddame Mim from Walt Disney's Classic The Sword in the Stone. In the last scene where she talks, she lets a strange stranger in, despite the warnings from the Dwarfs. And that didn't get her anywhere, did it now?
The Prince is equally as stupid. Unlike in Sleeping Beauty or The Little Mermaid, the Prince did not join in the Let's-Kill-The-Witch scene, which destroys his character as a Robin Hood hero and changes him into a lazy slob of a Prince.
The Dwarfs, on the other hand, are loveable and believable, mainly due to the fact that everybody is like one of the Seven Dwarfs. But my favourite character is the Henchman. By keeping him out of the story a lot, he is the only fully believable true-human character. Just shows how Disney works wonders with people, doesn't it?