Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, while not great, is still a pretty good Disney animated feature

Rating: 7/10 (14 December 2009)

After watching the recent Disney animated feature-The Princess and the Frog-I decided to finally see the recent DVD I bought of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs-Uncle Walt's first attempt at a full-length cartoon-for the first time ever. Now, despite the bland characterization of the Prince-not to mention his stiff drawn movements which caused the animators to reduce his role-and the female title character only marginally better personality-wise, this is still a very entertaining initial attempt at an animated feature from the Disney studio. That's largely due to the way each of the Seven Dwarfs become charmingly charismatic in their personalities due to both movements and voices. I mean, Dopey is the perfect Harpo-like character with the way he communicates without saying a word (though we do hear him express shock and sadness when those moments appear, courtesy of Eddie Collins). Also perfect are the characterizations of Sneezy-with Laurel & Hardy player Billy Gilbert doing his iconic sneeze-and Grumpy-with Goofy creator Pinto Colvig giving his grouch a touch of likability that makes one identify with him. And Lucille La Verne is just suitably atmospheric voicing both the mean Queen stepmother of White and that Queen's later change to the Witch. While Ms. White is not a vibrant personality, she still has some naive charm that makes it understandable why the Dwarfs, even eventually Grumpy, fall for her. That's all due to her voice of Adriana Caselotti when she's both singing and speaking. It's too bad Mr. Disney didn't allow her to do any further outside work (though it's nice to know her voice can be heard in both 1939's The Wizard of Oz-as part of the Tin Man's thought-and my favorite film of It's a Wonderful Life-as a singer in the Martini's Bar sequence). Many classic sequences include the "Heigh Ho" number, Grumpy's bath, the Queen's transformation, and the chase sequence involving the Dwarfs, the forest animals, and the Witch Queen's attempted escape. So on that note, while I don't think this movie is one of the best animated features-Disney or otherwise-ever, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is still pretty compelling as such things go. P.S. The Prince's singing and speaking voice is that of one Harry Stockwell, father of child and adult actor Dean Stockwell.