Impressively Animated

Rating: 8/10 (28 April 2014)

Snow White was Disney's first feature-length cartoon, and it's clear he wanted something that would wow audiences. The animation is ambitious and wonderfully detailed. Of particular note is the scene of Snow White running through the forest and the scenes involving the forest animals. Those forest animals are the single most impressive thing in the movie, flowing and swirling like leaves in the air, almost constantly in motion yet never unpleasantly chaotic.
At the same time, these scenes have been so well parodied in other movies that at times they seem a bit absurd. Even before the parodies, there is something over the top about the dainty, domestic princess with a way with animals.
For me, the movie lost a little momentum with the entry of the dwarfs, whose broad humor interested me less than the more serious earlier animation. This is not to say that the dwarfs weren't funny, in that mild, Disney way (both now and as a child I preferred the sharp, sarcastic style of Warner Brothers cartoons to the genial Disney style), but the focus on comedy meant less of a focus on pure artistry.
The movie is also very much of its time. Snow White is the small-town girl ideal, a sweet and trusting princess who wanders into an empty house and immediately starts cleaning it. She has the girlish voice of Betty Boop without the attitude, and I found her a bit bland (although less so than Sleeping Beauty, many years later.
Overall, this is a very entertaining movie with moments of greatness.