Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Released: December 21st, 1937
Basis: German Fairy Tale by the Brothers Grimm "Snow White"
Synopsis: A cruel queen and sorceress, absolutely vain and determined to be the most beautiful lady in the land, is jealous of the unparalleled beauty of her stepdaughter, Snow White, who is said to have hair as black as ebony, lips as red as blood, and skin as white as snow (hence the name). The Queen first forces her daughter to be a scullery maid and then orders a huntsman to murder her. However, the huntsman, overcome by Snow White's beauty, instead tells Snow White of the Queen's plot and orders the princess to flee into the woods. Snow White, frightened, heeds the huntsman's orders and flees into the forest, where she is found and aided by the woodland animals, which bring her to a secluded cottage. The cottage's residents, a group of seven dwarf miners, discover the princess and allow her sanctity in their cottage. The Queen discovers of the princess's location and transforms into an old peddler woman so that she might give the naive princess a poisoned apple, killing her at the first bite. Despite the dwarfs' chasing the queen to her death off a cliff, they are too late to save Snow White, and place her into a glass coffin. Six months later, Snow White's lover, a nameless Prince, discovers the princess and gives her a kiss, unwittingly curing the witch's poison and bringing Snow White back to life. Happily, Snow White and The Prince ride off in the sunset.

Notes:

• In the beginning, before the feature begins or the (opening!) credits, Walt Disney inserted a "thank you" note to the other members on his staff. I just thought that was kinda interesting.
• The movie opens and closes with a "Storybook" frame - the opening and closing are presented as text in a (real) storybook. It's something I've seen done in other movies in fairy tale or fairy tale-like settings (The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Court Jester come to mind), but it's interesting to see such a convention in an animated movie. The first animated part of the movie, consequently, is the queen finding out that she is not the fairest in the land.
• The entity living in the Magic Mirror is referred to as the "Slave in the Magic Mirror." This movie doesn't touch upon it, and I'm not sure how many other tellings of the story do, but what is the origin of this entity, and why is it a "slave"?
• There's a distinct difference between the animation for the humans and the other characters - the animals, the dwarfs, and the queen as a peddler woman. The animals, for example, look very reminiscent of Disney's various "Silly Symphonies" (the turtle that keeps showing up resembles Toby Tortoise from The Tortoise and the Hare), while the humans are drawn and animated realistically, suggesting to me that models were used prominently in making this movie.
• Even though the Prince is never given a name, the Huntsman is, according to Wikipedia (Humbert the Huntsman). This seems odd, as the Prince has a larger role than the Huntsman.
• In the beginning and the end, the story progresses very quickly - Snow White comes upon the Dwarfs' Cottage about 9 minutes in. Likewise, it's only 10 minutes at most from the time Snow White bites the apple to the very end. However, the dwarfs are the most lovable characters in the movie, so it works to the movie's benefit.
• The usage of lighting in this movie is very effective - even though the shading is usually only two tones, one for shadow and one for light, it works very well, as detail is taken to depict where the shadows would fall.
• Likewise, the multiple cell layers are used effectively, too.
• The dwarfs say "Jiminy Crickets" a lot, suggesting to me that the character Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio has a name pun based on a figure of speech that has fallen out of the lexicon.
• Grumpy has to be my favorite of the dwarfs. He's actually the most well-developed character of the movie - he disapproves of Snow White and how all the others are complete pushovers when it comes to her. Snow White wants to gain Grumpy's approval (during her bedtime prayers, she asks for Grumpy to like her) and is in the middle of making him a pie when she is visited by the Queen. Despite his cold exterior, he does care for her, and he leads the charge to save her.
• Some of the dialogue in these movies surprise me, even though it's only really used in passing - when the Dwarfs think that Snow White is actually a dragon that invaded their house, they talk about how they will "kill the monster" and "chop it to pieces."
• There are subtle differences in each Dwarf's animation or animation style. Sleepy, for example, has floppy cheeks and tends to wiggle around as he moves.
• The Queen is implied to be a very powerful sorceress. Grumpy mentions that she can turn herself completely invisible. I'll avoid the obvious question of why she doesn't use her magic to kill Snow White sooner and instead ask why "Mummy Dust" is a potion component and how one obtains it.
• The Queen has a serpent-like nose. Not sure if it's intentional or not, but works.
• There are a lot of songs in the movie (and a few rejected songs, too), but even some stuff not sung is said in meter (Snow White commenting on how dirty the Dwarfs' Cottage is, Snow White describing her Prince, etcetera).
• The Queen's whole plot is to have Snow White bite into an apple infected with the Sleeping Death. After making the apple, the Queen realizes that Love's First Kiss can overpower the curse, but the Queen doesn't worry too much; she will see to it that Snow White is buried alive. It is that Snow White's beauty that saves her a second time, as they decide that she is to beautiful to bury. The Queen's plot is actually pretty well thought-out, and the only reason it fails is that she is caught leaving the cottage.
• The movie's method of implying things rather than showing certain things works well. The pig's heart used to deceive the Queen into thinking Snow White is dead is never shown, but it never needs to be shown. Snow White is never seen taking a bite from the apple and is next spotted with her arm falling limp on the ground. A skeleton can be seen in the Queen's dungeon reaching for a chalice of water, which works very well in implying her cruelty. The Queen's death is represented by her falling off a cliff, a boulder falling after her, and a pair of vultures that had been following her flying down after, which my sister and mother agreed was a pretty effective way of announcing her death.
• I don't get the ending. So the Prince saves Snow White, they ride off into the sunset... then they see a castle appear in the heavens? Is this their dream castle? Is this heaven?

Overall, I really liked Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It's a lot better than I remembered, and it feels like a lot of work was put into it (which makes sense, as Disney probably wanted his first major project to be its best). It's very effective with the emotions it tries to get across, and it's very well done artistically. It's easy to see why it was very popular when it first came out and is still regarded as being a great movie to this day.