The One That Started it All ...

Rating: 10/10 (23 November 2011)

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is the triumph of guts, imagination and talent, an outstanding mixture that only a visionary genius like Walt Disney could have concocted. He was told it was a folly that would bankrupt his company, no one would endure bright colors and little creatures fooling around on a big screen for more than an hour but since when do geniuses listen?
"It all started with a mouse" loved to remind Walt Disney, as an encouragement for people to believe in their dreams and never underestimate the magical value of the smallest creations. The road for success is paved from these little ideas, visions and intuitions  even the iconic Mickey Mouse would have been named Mortimer if it wasn't for a precious advice from Disney's wife. And starting with his iconic mascot, Walt Disney established a real laboratory on the field of animation. It was the famous 'Silly Symphonies' era that brought up to screen so many enchanting cartoons, featuring animals, trees, flowers and music in the purest tradition of European storytelling. When you compare "Flowers and Trees", first animated cartoon in colors made in 1932, with the unforgettable "Band Concert", made three years later, you realize how impressive the progresses were but when you see "The Old Mill", 1937 classic masterpiece of realism, you immediately get the feeling of a crucial step finally reached, and asking for something more adult, more revolutionary
Mickey Mouse and the 'Silly Symphonies' contributed to the success of the Walt Disney company but what Disney needed was a flourishing empire, a bigger project that probably started with an innocent 'what if' question. Making an animated feature  think about it, in term of works, it's probably equivalent of making ten or twelve animated films with the same level of artistry as "The Old Mill" with the whole gallery of emotions we would expect from a film: thrills, laughs, passion, endearing characters and memorable songs. I make it sound like a 'business plan', but we're talking of the then highest grossing film of all time on which the whole existence of the Disney Company was jeopardized. If only for that, "Snow White" deserves all the praises for having been one of the most groundbreaking creations, on the same sensational level as "Star Wars", 40 years later.
And Disney couldn't have thought of a better story to begin with. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is in total aesthetic harmony with the 'Silly Symphonies' (the setting, the presence of animals) and the drawing, especially of the dwarfs as cartoon characters, was the final step of what was developed during a whole decade by the Disney studios, inspired from the old classic European drawings that always had a sort of cartoon feel. "Snow White" stylish simplicity makes it appealing on a universal and timeless level. It can look old but never dated, and Disney proved his international ambitions by allowing the foreign animation studios to adapt the frameworks to their own language. Disney meant business
And the result is a triumph of both storytelling and perfectionism, Disney didn't think animation and made it into a film, he thought of a realistic film first, hence encouraged his staff to use classic designs to draw the face of Snow White, the Prince, and the Evil Queen, they might look very basic compared to Disney's following works but they're human enough to suspend the disbelief that we're watching a cartoon, an important element in order to catch the interest of the adults and awakes their inner child. And the film respected the viewer's comfort so much that the use of relief, perspective, zooming and lights and shadows was made in a constant attention to the smallest realistic details, and on that level, the making-of of "Snow White" is an inspirational encouragement for work and perfectionism, with dreams fulfillment as the pay-off.
Another interesting aspect relies on the character of Snow White herself, so unfairly mentioned as one of the least interesting Disney heroines, when her main interest was to be a foil for the dwarfs and the villain. The dwarfs prove how intuitive Disney was for his first film, as they allowed to provide a set of seven different personalities with an almost three-dimensional value, this is the fantastic trick of the film, try to watch the other versions of Snow White, and you'll see how cruelly lacking a personality the dwarfs are. It's almost impossible to think of them without visualizing Dopey, Doc, Sneezy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Happy and Bashful. And Snow White is the central of that universe, like the emotional core of the film that justifies the dwarfs' comicality, the Prince's passion and the Queen's evilness, another aspect of the film that provides it a timeless feel. The Evil Queen embodies the combination of beauty and vanity, she's so cold, she looks like a modern woman with an undeniable sex-appeal, and if one thing, she's the very proof of the Disney Golden Rule, there's no good Disney film without a great villain.
And thanks to a final and successful pacing, the rest is history and like every classic masterpiece, each scene of "Snow White" is a classic on its own, the forest with eyes, the dwarfs coming from home, the Queen's haunting metamorphosis, so many songs forever engraved in our memories, "Whistle While you work", "Heigh-Ho", "Someday my Prince Will Come" the party and a finale that would make all the people, kids or adults, in the world cry and laugh, and finally cheer  discovering the Disney effect, that for each laugh, there would be a tear, a feeling that would last for many decades over and over again.
Thank you, Mr. Disney for your contribution to the world of animation, film-making and entertainment!