HEIGH HO, HEIGH HO, It's Wonderful You Know

Rating: 10/10 (8 December 2009)

The Walt Disney Studios went a long way towards earning its nickname of The Magic Kingdom with the release of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. There will never be another version of the beloved Grimm Brothers fairy tale because you couldn't find all the elements that make this one work so well.
I imagine that with today's computer generated graphics you could come up with a more realistic animation. But it would probably frighten the children and in all the wrong places. More than the wicked queen would be frightening folks.
Snow White is a tale of imagination, something that lets the kids work their minds and really get into the characters. The voices selected so perfectly match the animated figures. And with the exception of Billy Gilbert they're not known players. Snow White is first and foremost a character driven story. Today the Disney Studio would probably take from their stable of TV and film personalities for voices, but the emphasis would be on the celebrities not the story. I don't think Disney Studios alone would be guilty of that however.
Much as I like the simple story, the thing I love best about the film is the musical score that Frank Churchill and Larry Morey wrote. This is the Annie Get Your Gun of animated films, so many different and beloved hits come out of it. Even today you can hear people offhandedly humming 'Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho' and they might not realize where it's from, it's so ingrained in our consciousness, almost like Happy Birthday.
A favorite song of mine is the operatic ballad One Song that the prince and Snow White both sing. I have a recording of it that Allan Jones did and it's a gem. It could have come out of a score by Sigmund Romberg or Rudolf Friml, it's that good.
The movie DVD is still a hot seller, it's like White Christmas and the other Christmas songs that Bing Crosby did which still keep his name before the public every Yuletide season and keeps making money for his estate. Why is Snow White so popular? Very simply it's one of the best cartoon features every made.