The start of something wonderful

Rating: Null/10 (30 May 2015)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is one of the most influential films in history. The first full-length animated film, for a few brief years the highest-grossing film of all time and still to this day one of the most successful films in Disney history. Still the most successful if you account for inflation. And there is a reason for all that success, and not just the fact that it was the first. It's the crown of Walt Disney Studios. There might be gems that shined brighter later on, but this is the base, the foundation of the studio's brilliance.
And no, it's not a perfect film. You can still see that the animators were still learning away from the brief animated shorts they were more used to doing. The whole film is very episodic, with most of the time spent on general gallivanting and merriment. Especially with the dwarfs. There's a whole segment dedicated to them washing their hands. Actually, I lie. There's a whole segment AND a song dedicated to it. And sure, the dwarfs are great character, each a unique personality with hiccups and all, so the viewer doesn't really mind that the plot is pretty much forgotten much of the time, but you can nevertheless see that it's a work in progress as far as feature length storytelling is concerned.
Luckily we have the Queen. And oh, what a way to introduce us to Disney villains. To this day she's one of the greats and it can be argued that the movie is actually about her, not Snow White nor the dwarfs. She's the first character we see, has pretty much the most dialogue and her scenes are the most captivating and actually move the plot forward. And she's a menace. Always plotting, scheming, cackling, being absolutely terrifying. The first look she gives us after her transformation is one of the scariest looks in cinema history.
You've all seen this movie already. It's one of the most well-known pieces of art there is and has absolutely held up its charm to this day. Not the best film Disney has ever done, but for their first, it's unbelievable.