Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film): Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Some day, my prince will come,

''Some day, we'll meet again,

''And away to his castle we'll go,

''To be happy forever I know...

''Some day, when spring is here,

''We'll find our love anew,

''And the birds will sing,

''And wedding bells will ring,

''Some day, when my dreams come true... }}

[[Walt Disney Animated Canon]] made ''[[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (novel)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]'' into an animated movie in [[The Golden Age of Animation|1937]], the first full-length animated feature film in the English-speaking world and the first entry in the [[Disney Animated Canon]]. Using a number of new technologies and animation techniques, the film set high standards for future projects and can be considered a defining moment in animation history. Disney adapted the Grimms' story fairly closely, but allowed Snow White and her prince to meet earlier in the story (removing some of the [[Squick]]), and made the dwarfs into individual characters. He condensed the three assassination attempts into one, and gave the queen a much more family-friendly [[Disney Villain Death]] (though, all things considered, it's arguably ''more'' violent than the original one.)

Part of the reason ''Snow White'' was made was for the purpose of economics -- despite the ambitious art and extreme popularity of the [[Mickey Mouse]] and [[Silly Symphonies]] shorts, Walt came to realize that no matter how successful his shorts were, the profit came solely from the length of the shorts, not popularity. Realizing that venturing out into making a feature length animated film could not only net him more profit in the long run, but also progress the medium of animation as an art-form, he began work on his daring project. Around four years were spent by Disney trying to get this mammoth project off the ground--first: First, there was the obsessive attention to story -- Walt had the savvy to realize that a feature that played out like a traditional short cartoon comedy would never work, resulting in focus on the characters' personalities, their interactions, as well as their development in the context of the tale. The most prominent example of this character development would be the character of Grumpy, arguably the most important character in the film aside from Snow White herself.

Another obstacle was getting the animation to be on par with a live-action film -- even the best Silly Symphonies and Mickey Mouse cartoons during the early 1930s were still rigid and crude in their motion. As a result, life-drawing classes and frame-by-frame studying of live-action film took place, in an ambitious attempt to get the most life-like animation possible. The Silly Symphonies began to be used as testing grounds for the work that would go into ''Snow White'' -- from advancements in story and character animation, to major special effects discoveries. The studio also had to expand considerably to complete the film -- from a measly few hundred to nearly 1000 staffers by the filmsfilm's completion. At one point, Walt almost ran out of money during production, and was lucky enough to receive a bank loan by showing what footage had already been finished. During production, the film was derided by critics, as well as Walt's own wife, as "Disney's Folly", the notion that Walt had gone over his head with this project. But upon debut, ''Snow White'' was a smash hit -- at the time, it was the highest grossing film of all time, and was universally praised by critics, setting the stage for the future Disney films to come, and proving that animation could compete with live-action films.

Also, you just know Disney did something right when a man like '''[[Adolf Hitler]]''' of all people considered this the greatest film ever made, to the point where he even acquired a personal copy of the film's print for himself, and possibly [http://boingboing.net/2008/02/23/adolf-hitler-disney.html drew fan art fromfor it].

* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: Sticks ''very'' close to the original story, but the things it cuts out (the two other ways Snow White was going to be murdered: by a poisoned comb and by being strangled from a tight corset) and the things it adds in (personalities for the dwarfs) usually work to the story's benefit. The failed assassination attempts were originally going to be there, but were cut for time and animation limitations.

** Some comics subvert this, where it is shown that she survived her fall. In addition, Valentino's novel implies that not only had the Queen ''not'' been killed, but her spirit was [[And I Must Scream|doomed]] to be sealed within the mirror.

* [[Don't Go in The Woods]]: Well, no, you can. Unless you usually jump at shadows or you're scared enough to imagine things as hideous monsters, giant bats, logs -as alligators, etc.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: While itsit's not clear exactly how "evil" the hunter is, it is implied that he has killed people for the Queen before, or at least done dirty deeds. Doesn't mean he has the stomach to brutally murder a young girl for no good reason.

* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: The dark forest sequence where seems like everything exepct the soul has comencome to life to catch Snow White.

* [[Fan Art]]: The most notorious oneinstance is a couple of fan-drawings found in an old cellar in Norway, during German occupation in the late 30s... signed by the talented amateur artist [[Adolf Hitler|"Adolf H."...]]

* [[Follow the Leader]]: What with being the highest grossing film of all time upon release, it was only natural that [[Paramount Pictures]] would give [[Fleischer Studios]] the chance to make their own answer to ''Snow White'', that being their animated adaptation of ''[[Max FleischersFleischer's GulliversGulliver's Travels|Gulliver's Travels]]''. Even [[Walter Lantz]], [[Terry Toons|Paul Terry]] and [[Harman and Ising]] had plans to make their own features after the success of ''Snow White'' (none of which materialized, unfortunately).

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: In Valentino's prequel novel "''Fairest of All''," it was explained that the reason for the Queen's obsessedobsessive desire forto beingbe the most beautiful of all was due to emotional abuse from her father, who refused to acknowledge her as beautiful at all prior to his death. In fact, when she married Snow White's father, the king, she actually did care for Snow White as if she were her own daughter. It wasn't until her father's witch cousins supplied her with the magic mirror (containing her father's spirit) as well as the King's death that she lost her sanity.

* [[Ink Suit Actor]]: Snow White hasbears some resemblance withto her voice actress Adriana Caselotti.

* [[Insubstantial Ingredients]]: The peddler disguise was comprisedcomposed almost entirely of these.

* [[Irony]]: The apple, in a way, DID''did'' made Snow White's wish come true.

* [[Meaningful Name|Meaningful Names]]s: The dwarfs' names.

* [[Offstage Villainy]]: It's implied the Queen committed others horrendous crimes before trying to kill Snow White -- there are a lot of skeletons in her dungeon...

** Grumpy's displeasure of having her around also stems from the fact that shesshe's essentially a fugitive and he correctly predicts that the Queen will be able to find her thanks to her use of black magic. His anger at her being a disciplinarian could very well be the fact that they're doing each other favors (the dwarfs house her and she cooks for them) yet Snow White ''still'' bosses them around.

* [[Palette Swap]]: Both averted and played straight with the dwarfs. In the original story they were all essentially palette swaps of each other but Disney gave each of them a distinct personality and with that gave them alleach a unique face. But all seven wear the exact same clothes, just in different colors.

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: The Queen suffers this, but initially a rare cold - blooded one once she realizes Snow White is still alive. Then after she tranforms herself intinto an old witch she definetly loses all her temper and lets her emotions get hold.

** For that matter, what happens to the kingdom after the Queen's death? Snow White is supposedly dead, so she can't ascend to the throne. So who's in charge then? Does Snow White claim her throne after she's awokenawakened? Does her kingdom and the Prince's kingdom get united when they marry?

** What DID''did'' happen to the queen's magic mirror, anyway?

*** Solved in ''[[Kingdom HeartHearts: Birth By Sleep]],'': when the queen died, the magic mirror iswas freed.

* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: The Queen/Queen Grimhilde/The Witch is perhaps one of the darkest interpretations of the trope: Evidence from the book "Fairest of All" suggests that it isn't so much that she's murderously jealous of her stepdaughter being more beautiful than her as it is that she is simply incapable of letting herself not be the fairest of all, her mind and integrity just being too far gone thanks to years of emotional abuse from her own father for apparently not being beautiful inby her father's standards, and having said traumatic memories being forcibly reintroduced into her life by her father's witch cousins fusing his spirit into a magic mirror, and; this combined with the death of her husband led her to believe that the only way she could ever amount to anything in terms of beauty iswas to kill Snow White.