Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Snow White, depending on how you view her, is either way too trusting, naive and friendly for her own good or just plain Too Dumb to Live.
    • Also, The Queen: Unrepentent Complete Monster who values being beautiful over the life of her own stepdaughter, or an extremely dark Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds (to Kefka levels) who, after being reexposed to mental anguish caused by her father regarding not being beautiful at all and an extremely low self-esteem left her so broken and insane that she felt that killing her stepdaughter was the only thing left to match up to her abusive father's standards of beauty. The Book Fairest of All seems to nudge to the direction of the latter.
  • Awesome Music: The opening and ending sequences.
    • Pretty much every song in the movie counts, but "Some Day My Prince Will Come" is a standout. Its impossible not to get chills when the melody kicks in as Snow White wakes up at the end.
  • Big Lipped Alligator Moment: "The Silly Song" segment.
    • There was a segment planned where the Dwarfs have soup after washing their hands and sing a song about...soup. If it had been put in the final product, it would have qualified for this trope!
  • Complete Monster: The Evil Queen is arguably Disney's first example of this trope. See Moral Event Horizon below.
    • Her transformation into the old hag was meant to be symbolic of her nature. Not only is her true ugliness brought to the outside, but her inhibitions are lessened, allowing her to act as unhinged and gleefully evil as she pleases.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: The entire movie could be considered one for Walt Disney. He had to fight tooth and nail to get it made, with everyone from Hollywood executives who sneered at the movie for being "Disney's folly" to his own wife who thought a movie about dwarves (due to their social stigma at the time) would never catch on thinking it would be a massive waste of time. When it was released in theaters, it was a huge success and accumulated enough money for Walt to produce more animated films, causing the naysayers to eat their words.
  • Ear Worm: "Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's home from work we go...."
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: The Dwarves in general are probably more popular than Snow White thanks to their distinct lovable personalities and humorous moments. Grumpy and Dopey are stand-out examples among them, as they get most of the film's merchandise dedicated to them. In Grumpy's case, his character development from sourpuss to sweetheart towards Snow White probably helps.
    • Dopey, particularly around the time the film was originally released. Many predicted that he would become as big as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. It didn't quite turn out like that, but still, to think that it might have is impressive.
    • Dopey was, in fact, the initial choice for the apprentice role in the Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence from Fantasia. He was replaced because Donald was the public's favorite Disney character at the time, and Walt Disney wanted Mickey back in that seat.
    • Grumpy seems to have amassed a big following in recent times, to the point where a reasonable amount of merchandise is dedicated to him and his sourpuss attitude.
  • Evil Is Sexy: The Queen, until she transforms herself into the hag.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Snow White wonders if the seven "children" don't know how to clean because they don't have a mother and are orphans. While saying how awful that would be, a fawn nuzzles his mother.
    • Meta-example: The original German dub becomes this when the VA for Grimhilde, along with almost all of the other Jewish cast members, were murdered at Auschwitz.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Decades after the film premiered at a 20th Century Fox-owned theatre, Disney acquired the company from 21st Century Fox. This also spilled over to Shirley Temple, whose films she made for Fox are now part of Disney's extended back catalogue.
  • Moment of Awesome: At the film's climax, Grumpy completes his Character Development by leading the dwarfs in chasing the Queen down after she poisons Snow White.
  • Mary Sue: Well, she's not called "The fairest of them all" for nothing.
  • Memetic Mutation: This parody of Snow White sarcastically complimenting Franklin Clinton from Grand Theft Auto V of all people.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Oh dear God...The Queen definitely crosses it: She wants to kill an innocent girl (who is probably 16 or less) and for what?!? Just because she's more beautiful than her. And if that's not enough she plans to poison her with the Poison Apple making her fall into the Sleeping Death hoping the dwarves will bury her alive.
    • And it was also originally planned that she tried to force the Prince - the guy who loved Snow and who Snow pined after - to marry her. And when he refused, she would try to drown him in the dungeon.
    • The Queen crossed it long ago when she hired a huntsman to try and kill Snow White. How? Because she tells the hunter that in order to make sure Snow White's dead, she asks him to cut her heart out and put it in a box to present her with!
  • Nightmare Fuel: The Evil Queen's hag form is terrifying what with her grotesque appearance and absolutely psychotic facial expressions.
    • The fact that she wants to trick the dwarves into burying her own stepdaughter alive (Who is officially fourteen, by the way!) is also pretty nightmarish. How sick do you have to be to enjoy condemning someone to such a terrifying fate?!
    • The fact that Snow White herself looks and sounds no older than about 13 or 14, and the prince's voice places him as quite a bit older than that. Suppose we should be grateful she's not 7 as she is in the original...
      • It's only Nightmare Fuel if you don't know the time period. Getting married at thirteen or fourteen would be perfectly normal for the Middle Ages. Having a marriage arranged from when a child is born wouldn't be that odd, either.
    • The tree scene,
    • Hell, most of the movie is this and Disney's first notable example that doesn't involve Deranged Animation.
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny: Virtually any scene of significance in this movie has been copied, homaged, parodied and ripped off incessantly for over 70 years. Best advice to parents is to show it to the kids quickly.
  • Tear Jerker: After the chase and death of the Queen, the dwarfs return home to find Snow White dead and the soundtrack skips to complete and total silence for a full minute; after the musical chaos of the previous scene it's the cinematic equivalent of a punch in the gut.
    • Technically, the scene isn't completely silent; there's very soft organ music playing in the background, but the effect is still there. The shots of the Dwarves crying...hell, ANY shot of a Disney character crying is pretty saddening, especially Grumpy, who is far in the corner of the room they're in, and begins to cry just as well.
    • When the dwarves are surrounding her coffin and are all placing flowers, then Grumpy is the one who goes up to put the flowers into Snow White's hands...aw man, it gets people every time.
      • The worst part about that is that Grumpy can't even bear to look at her after all the crap he gave her.
    • Heck, the final scene as a whole.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: Snow White. Some fans might understand why the queen wanted to kill her, and her squeaky, high-pitched voice doesn't help matters either.
  • Uncanny Valley: Even back then, everyone loved the cartoony dwarfs and noted how stiff and wooden looking the rotoscoped human characters were.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: Possibly the Ur Example. In fact, Walt never intended "Disney" to become synonymous with "Children's Entertainment". Animation was just easier for all the detail he wanted to include in the story.
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