Magic Mirror, on the wall, which animated feature film is the greatest one of all?

Rating: 9/10 (7 October 2007)

Contrary to common belief, Walt Disney's 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' is not the earliest feature-length animated film. This title goes to Quirino Cristiani's now-lost 1917 Argentinian film, ''El Apóstol / The Apostle.' Even as far as current availability in concerned, you can turn towards Lotte Reiniger's 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)' for a brilliant animated film, featuring endearing silhouette animation and an exciting tale of heroes, villains and monsters. Released in 1937, 'Snow White' was Disney's first feature-length effort, as well as the first technicolour animated movie, and also briefly the most successful film of all time (until the release of 'Gone with the Wind' in 1939). After the excellent 'Fantasia (1940),' this was the second feature-length film I'd seen from Disney's early era, and I was instantly able to appreciate why it is so revered. One can only imagine how much effort must have gone into the 83 minutes of animation, and, despite this relatively brief running time, the film manages to flesh out so many wonderful characters and effectively evoke a range of emotions.
The story is roughly based upon the German fairytale by the Brothers Grimm. A beautiful and wicked Queen (voiced by Lucille La Verne) learns one day, through her Magic Mirror, that her stepdaughter  the beautiful Snow White (Adriana Caselotti)  has surpassed her in beauty. Enraged, the Queen orders the princess murdered, but the kind-hearted servant cannot bring himself to commit the act. Abandoned in the forest, Snow White is aided by the gentle animals of the forest, and she stumbles upon the modest dwelling of a group of seven dwarfs, respectively named Doc, Dopey, Sleepy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Happy and Bashful, each with a personality that mirrors their own titles. Though initially hesitant about having a woman in their home, the little men eventually come to appreciate her presence, and all is going well until the Queen learns of her servant's disloyalty, and so crafts a new and terrible revenge for the sweet and innocent Snow White.
Visually, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' is nothing short of a masterpiece. Compared to the primitive cut-out silhouettes of 'The Adventures of Princess Achmed' just a decade earlier, the animation in this film is nothing short of staggering; every single frame is simply alive with vibrant colour and movement. In fact, the film proved such a monumental advance in the field of animation that it took until the arrival of Pixar Studios and CGI before anybody truly progressed beyond what had been achieved here. Colour is used magnificently to create intense moods, and the chasing of the Queen (transformed into a witch) through a raging thunderstorm is an absolute triumph of film-making, equal to anything produced before or since. Notably, a flawless 1937 Silly Symphonies short, 'The Old Mill,' served as an essential testing ground for many of the techniques used in 'Snow White,' including the animation of animals, rain, wind, lightning, ripples, splashes and reflections. Additionally, 'The Old Mill' also served as the trial-run for Disney's revolutionary multiplane camera, which was also used to remarkable effect here.