Disney's great animated classic

Since I just recently purchased the DVD of this animated classic, this seemed like an appropriate time to write a review on this wonderful film. Walt Disney's animated fairy tale is the movie by which all Disney films, and indeed all animated films must be compared to.

I remember when I first saw this film in the theater as a kid (possibly on its 1987 release), I was completely blown away. This film can stand up to the best animated films made today. The wonderfully detailed animation is quite remarkable, especially when you realize that this was during the days when everything was hand drawn. Even in this era of computer animation, animated films rarely reach this level of expertise. The rich colours seem to jump at you out of the screen. As for the songs, they are so well known that many people can hum them by heart. "Whistle While You Work", "I'm Wishing", "Heigh-Ho", and "Someday My Prince Will Come" have all entered into public conscienceness. I'll never forget the queen's terrifying transformation into an old hag. Has anyone noticed the irony in the queen's needing to turn into an ugly hag in order to stay the fairest in the land?

Disney doesn't forget to add some humour. For a kids film with such grim subject matter (an evil queen trying to kill her step-daughter), humour is a vital necessity. I love the way Disney gave each dwarf a distinct personality. There's Doc, Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Bashful, and Dopey, all named for obvious reasons. I loved the scenes where Sneezy's chronic hayfever causes the dwarves to be blown across the room like in a hurricane. It's terribly amusing to hear Grumpy expressing disdain over Snow White's cooking ("Careful, it might be witch's brew!"), and Snow White's policy of cleanliness. Then there's poor Dopey getting selected to investigate what it is that is laying upstairs. The forest animals are not without moments of their own, the scene where the animals help Snow White to clean the dwarfs' cottage is one of the film's most delightful moments.

All that being said, I have a couple of minor quibbles. It occured to me that Snow White herself is rather poorly drawn. Her features are all vague and without great detail. It's odd that a film with such otherwise great animation could do such a poor job on its main character. Also, the person who voices Snow White speaks in too high a voice. But it's to this film's credit that such problems can only be noticed by nitpickers.

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'" release in 1937 was unexpectedly timely. In Europe, Hitler was viciously persecuting the Jews, while Stalin was conducting his brutal purges of suspected enemies. The way the dwarves take in Snow White and shield her from the evil queen can be compared to the way brave and kindly people hid the Jews from Hitler's Gestapo. But these comparisons are probably accidental.

"Snow White and the Seven Dwars" is not just a great family film, but one of the greatest of all films.

They Don't Call Her The Fairest Of Them All For Nothing!

It's quite amazing after 60 plus years,"Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs" still seems as fresh,charming,entertaining,and ageless as when it first came on to the big screen.I've watched it countless times on VHS when I was a kid and yet I have never gotten tired of it.On DVD,however,it is a true splender to behold,looking like it could have been released today.The 2-disc set is packed with great features,such as an excellent 40-minute making-of featurette,a newly recorded version of "Someday My Prince Will Come" sung by Barbra Streisand,a thorough "Disney Through The Decades" history recap including clips of "Dumbo","Sleeping Beauty","Mary Poppins","The Lion King","Toy Story" etc.,and A LOT more stuff.As a gift for the upcoming holidays,it's a no-brainer.But get it fast before it is put on mortatorium in January 2002!

Great movie for beauty experts

Snow White's Step Mother sure had the power to transform to an ugly witch, Why not use her power to transform fairer than Snow White ? In present situation there are so many people who wants quick fix, Liposuction, Facelift, Botox etc.But with Snow White's Step Mother She wished for her death instead,that's her quick fix.
There's one classic Wile E. Coyote scenario also, When the Witch was being apprehended by the seven Dwarfs, The Witch is about to drop a huge boulder onto the seven dwarfs but she was strucked by a lightning and the boulder fell with her in a cliff.
What's the moral of the story? Don't ask a mirror who's fairer but ask an Expert Doctor who does miracle face transformation instead.