Great then, inadequate now

Rating: 5/10 (27 November 2016)

Disney's "Snow White" deserves its due as the first full length, sound and colour animated movie. I had a fear the animation may not hold up, but it still looks great.
The movie itself feels a little empty, though. It feels like there isn't enough story to make a full length movie: it seems to take a long time for anything to happen. The titular dwarfs don't make an appearance until much later than I had expected. Their uniquely descriptive names call attention to the only character traits any of the characters have. Snow White is hardly a character. Like the dwarfs, her name is a description; unlike them it is a descriptor of her appearance, not her personality.
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" must have looked like magic up on the big screen in 1937 for adult and child alike, but nowadays there's just not enough going on on screen to hold our attention. The musical numbers, aside from the dwarfs' chant that everyone knows, are forgettable, it doesn't have any memorable characters, and the ending is underwhelming.
For classic Disney, I recommend "Pinocchio" for a better story and characters, and "Bambi" for atmosphere.