When Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs went into wide release in February of 1938, it was an instant cultural phenomenon. Not only did it represent an incredible artistic achievement and breakthrough but it was also an enormous financial success, quickly becoming one of the highest-grossing movies of all time — and it still is when you account for inflation. The New York Times reviewer Frank Nugent called the film an instant “classic” and “as important cinematically as Birth of a Nation.” Cecil B. DeMille famously lamented that he wished he could make films like it. And in the almost 80 years since, after many successful theatrical re-releases and VHS, DVD, digital and Blu-ray editions (the latest available this week), the film has continued to earn new fans and accolades, including being one of the only two animated films to make the AFI list of the greatest American films in 1996 (it was ranked # 49, Fantasia was #58), and when the list was revised in 2007 the film moved up 15 places (Fantasia was dropped and Toy Story added at #99).
There are many reasons why the film was so well-received and why it continues to be popular. When Walt Disney was making Snow White, he didn’t cut corners. In fact, the film ended up costing about six times its original budget, threatening to destroy the studio and Walt financially if it didn’t pay off, but it certainly did. The lavish production budget and the insistence of perfection from the studio head paid as many artistic dividends as it did financial ones. Almost every frame of the film is gorgeously detailed. The jewels sparkling in the dwarfs’ mine, the detailed wood carvings in the cottage, the queen’s ornate peacock throne and its contrasting sinister dungeon are all incredibly and meticulously detailed in a way that modern technique and contemporary budgets would not allow. The visuals of the film draw me in and I often find myself noticing new details and nuance whenever I revisit it.
Snow White is a great example of a movie that you need to watch the old-fashioned way to truly enjoy. You need to make some popcorn, turn off the lights, close your laptop and power down your phone. Just watch the movie, focus on it and it will absorb you into its world. And if you are not watching it in high definition, you are missing out. In fact, it was not until I first saw the movie on Blu-ray that I really understood how special it is. It is a true feast for the eyes.
The storytelling is also pretty impressive here. What I love about the film specifically is that it’s not afraid to be dark. There’s a richness to the plot that you would not see in a movie made today because of this. Snow White, as Roger Ebert wrote, “like all good fairy tales is terrifying.” There’s the huntsman drawing his dagger above the cowering princess, the unsettling (and trippy) flight of the horrified girl through idyllic woods that become a treacherous haunted forest in her imagination and best of all a wicked queen who is the ultimate villain.
After all, it is not Snow White’s delicate grace that opens the film, but the queen’s slow and dignified assent to her mirror. Her feminine flourish and cold command as she casts a spell, summoning the “slave” and filling the room with wind and fire, establishes her as the dominating force in the film, and her later appearances do not disappoint. She is at her best when she orders her huntsman to kill her stepdaughter. She commands him, “Bring back her heart,” in a close-up shot in which pure hatred radiates from her piercing green eyes and a scowl graces her bright red lips while she is framed with beautiful, golden peacock feathers. She is, at this moment, vanity itself and the evils that come from it. The scene gave me chills when I was a little boy and continues to do so today.
In addition to the elements of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that I have mentioned above, there are so many parts of the movie that are simply charming. The dwarfs are flat, but wonderfully expressive and great fun. The songs are sweet and memorable, especially “One Song” which somehow always stands in the shadow of “Someday My Prince Will Come” and is the most underrated Disney love song. Even the pacing of the movie feels perfect. The film never lulls or feels too manic, something that is really remarkable if you consider that it was the first animated feature film. If you haven’t watched it in a while, and even if you have, it’s worth picking up a copy of the Blu-ray, turning off the lights, and like the prince before you, letting the fairest of them all steal your heart.