Disney Princess Review - Snow White And The Seven Dwarves

[zelda_queen]

Hello I'm ZeldaQueen, and if there's snark, I'll take it. 

There's no doubt about it, one of Disney's most defining features is its princesses. And by "princesses", I mean "female leads". Because really, that's all it takes to be considered a princess by Disney's standards. And yes, there are the official ones like Cinderella or Jasmine or Ariel or Belle, but people still lump others in there, even obscure ones like Princess Eilonwy (yeah, remember her?) or Jane or Esmeralda or Megara.

So really, things got stirred up nice and good when Disney announced that they'd be doing a brand new princess - Princess Tiana, in The Princess and the Frog!

And yes, I will fully admit that I am one of the many getting worked up over this. It also started bringing back my fond memories of the other Disney princess classics. Thus, I have decided to do a review of our very first official Disney Princess...Princess Snow White!

So we start the film with the classic book opening and receive our exposition in the form of the first page of the story. Through it, we learn that Snow White, though a lovely princess, is forced to be a servant to her vain and wicked stepmother. Hmm, apparently this happens quite frequently amongst Disney princesses. They really need to start a support group or something. And maybe one for the stepmoms, just because spending all of your time worrying over how pretty your stepchildren are can't be healthy or productive. And maybe they need to also set up some sort of child protection services, seeing as how the king isn't doing anything to help his daughter! Anyway, next page of the story tells us that the queen has a magic mirror which she constantly asks who the fairest of the land is. So long as the queen is told that she herself is fairest, Snow White is safe.

Onward to the actual movie now! Yay! We come across the castle, which apparently has a population of three people in it. Inside, the Wicked Queen stands before her mirror and again asks who is fairest of the land. We know she's wicked because she has billowing sleeves, has a low, dangerous voice, and thunder strikes when she says a poem. The mirror, speaking through a Phantom-of-the-Opera-mask face, informs her that though she is lovely, there is another maiden who is lovelier: "Lips red as the rose, hair black as ebony, skin white as snow!" It must be...Snow White! (duh, duh DUH!)

We jump to Snow White, happily scrubbing the stairs and humming. How is she so happy with all of the work she's given? Is she stealing from the Queen's supply of Valium? Might explain why the Queen's getting progressively moodier. Anyway, she informs a flock of doves that they are at a wishing well and begins to sing about how to make a wish in it. Dang, her singing voice isn't much like her speaking voice. She goes on to sing about how she wishes for the one she loves to find her. Yeah, no wishing for her freedom or for the Queen to be kicked out of power or for the King to get off of his rear and do something. Nope. Getting a True Love is all that matters.

But danged if the well doesn't actually work, since the song isn't even over and Snow White's True Love comes climbing over the wall, in the form of a rather foppish prince (and for future reference, his name is never given but he's apparently named "Prince Ferdinand". Yeah, I know). He jumps in on the refrain, spontaneously deciding to join Snow in singing down a well. He seems to be off key though, since Snow, rather than being grateful that her eternal happiness has just shown up on a silver plate, gasps and runs inside. The prince tries to win some bonus points by singing to her about how he loves her and only her. This pleases Snow White not enough to go out to him, but enough to kiss a dove on the beak and send it down to him where it proceeds to kiss him on the lips (or the teeth rather). The prince is quite happy about this, since nothing's more pleasant than getting pecked on the lips by a dove.

The Queen meanwhile has been seething and trying to figure out what to do with Snow now, what with all the "fairest in the land" thing going on (as well as the fact that she keeps singing on the job). Her devious plan, which she explains to a rather reluctant Huntsman, is to lure Snow White into the forest to pick wildflowers and then cut out her heart and bring it back in a freaking box! O_O

The Huntsman is understandably freaked out by this, but has no choice but to comply. At the last minute though, he has a change of heart (har har) and is unable to kill her. He tells Snow about the plot and orders her to run and hid in the forest. This then leads us to one of the first instances of Disney mindfuckery, with literally everything (trees to logs) appearing to turn into monsters that attack our poor princess. After some time of running around and shrieking, she collapses to the ground where she lies sobbing.

 

Turns out that the scary stuff in the forest was actually a bunch of cute little bunnies and birds and other animals who promptly come out and cheer Snow up. She apologizes for her behavior and promptly forgets about the freaky stuff she saw in the forest. In fact, it's never mentioned again. Um?



They then lead her to the exit of the forest and a cottage where she can spend the night. Upon peeping in the window and noticing a large number of cute little tables and chairs and other such things, she decides that the house belongs to a number of children with no parents. She decides to break in and enter since no one's there (why not?) and figures that so long as she's here, she might as well clean. Because that's what women should do when they break into a messy house! Oh, and she sings another song while she does it.

However the "children" are none other than the seven dwarves whom the title indicates. Huh, probably should have seen that coming. All of them have adjective names (Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, Sleepy, and Dopey) except for their leader (Doc) and all of them are only ever defined by that adjective name. They're a cheerful lot, enjoying nothing more than to dig up beautiful, clean, sparkling gems in a neat and safe mine without the slightest danger of coal dust damaging the lungs or ceilings collapsing and killing them. They also apparently make so much that they can afford to store the finds of the day in a shack with the key hanging outside of the locked door. Or, maybe they're just too stupid to realize the cause and effect of doing that and their stuff going missing. Serves them right for leaving the safekeeping of their valuables to the one dwarf named "Dopey".

The dwarves come home to find - shock and horror - the house is clean. They go off in search of the villain who would do such a terrible thing...and find that it is none other than the adorable little girl asleep in their beds. Snow wakes up and various hijinks ensue as she meets the seven "children". Grumpy (rather rightly so) insists that she has no right to be in the house, but the others feel rather sorry for her and agree to let her stay on the grounds that she cook and clean. Because of course that's what a woman can do when she's around the house. Oy... Oh, and there's a rather cute bit in which she sends them to go wash for dinner

Unfortunately, that stupid mirror rats Snow out by telling the Queen that the Huntsman actually brought back the heart of a pig. The Queen decides to get the job done herself by first making a poisoned apple and then transforming herself into a hag for a disguise. Wait, if she's so concerned about being beautiful, isn't that counterproductive? I mean, there's no real indication that she can turn back. Oh well.

Back at the cottage, Snow White and the dwarves are having a grand time singing and dancing. I have to wonder, how far away from the castle is this place? Evidently it's close enough for the dwarves to recognize Snow White's name and she didn't seem to have traveled too far. If that's the case, then wouldn't she expect her stepmother to search all of the surrounding areas if the deception was found out? Is she so delicate that she couldn't continue onward to another kingdom or something? Apparently so. Snow still thinks of her True Love though, and sings about him to the dwarves.

Things soon go south for everyone when the dwarves leave for work the next day. Snow stays at the cottage to bake a pie (of course) and is surprised to see a mysterious old hag at the door. Didn't her mother ever tell her not to let in strangers? The animals all know something is afoot and try to drag the hag away. This doesn't absolutely nothing to clue Snow in to the fact that something is amiss and instead shoos away her little friends and lets the strange woman into the house. The hag thanks Snow and offers her a magic apple which can grant wishes. Hmm, this doesn't sound suspicious at all. Snow evidently doesn't consider the fact that this is all mighty odd and quickly accepts the apple, wishing once more for her one True Love (AUGH!) and biting into it. She promptly falls to the ground in a dead-like state and the hag triumphantly shouts that she is the fairest in the land (right...)

But the dwarves arrive, having been summoned by the animals. They take one look at the hag and - probably because they have more brains than an oyster - figure out that she's up to no good and chase her away. They chase her up a mountain, where she tries to pry a boulder loose to drop on them. She is struck by lightning and falls off of the side of the mountain with the boulder falling after her. Yes, really. That must be one heck of a lot of bad karma she's racked up.

A page of text kindly informs us that the dwarves couldn't bring themselves to bury Snow, so they put her to rest in a glass coffin where they all cry over her body. She is found by the prince, who has heard of the maiden in the glass coffin and apparently has nothing better to do than go look for her. You know, not like he has a kingdom to run or anything. And who's running Snow White's kingdom anyway? Snow's in the coffin, the Queen's dead, and the king is apparently nonexistent. Anyway, the prince shows up (singing as usual) and his first thought is...to kiss her. Yay for necrophilia tendencies. Snow wakes up - surprise, surprise -  and the dwarves dance for joy as the prince and Snow ride off to live happily ever after. And apparently they forget about the dwarves. Seriously, do those guys ever get any credit or anything for keeping Snow safe?

As much as it's knocked on, this is a good movie. The songs are sweet and catchy and the voice acting for most of the characters was really nice (though I thought that Snow White's voice was rather annoying). Mostly people get irked by the blandness of the prince and Snow White's doormat-ish personality, but that's slightly more forgivable if you consider that the film was the first full-length movie that Disney made and their animation talents were stretched rather thin (apparently they were forced to scrap a subplot with the prince escaping the Queen's dungeon because they were unable to animate it). While it is not as flashy or dramatic or complex as the later Disney movies, it still was the one that brought on the rest and the style truly is timeless.

Note: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves belongs to Disney. BLAM logo belongs to Nostalgia Chick and Critic. That is all.

Back to Medival-Pirate Reviews

Comments

[carmyn]

You know, my mom has this epically lulzy joke about the seven dwarves and drugs. Freaking hilarious, but I suck at retelling it (my mom is a very funny person). I just remember that Doc is their drug dealer. I should REALLY write down that joke.

Does anyone else notice, with the Disney Princesses(tm) that NONE OF THEM HAVE BIOLOGICAL MOTHERS?! It's all step-moms! I know Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) has a mom, but she doesn't even get mentioned and you see her once. But everyone else? No mom. They all mysteriously die. With no mention. Does Disney have a thing against moms?!

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

If you ever do write down the joke, let me know. XD

Well, it's a bit hard to blame Disney because in all of the fairy tales the moms are dead! There's actually a bit of speculation that it's because the stories serve to divide the concept of "mother". On one hand in the tales, you have the biological mother who is dead. She still works from beyond the grave to provide her daughter with protection and a means to escape servitude (think the original Cinderella, when the fairy godmother was actually the spirit of the mother providing the dresses). This represents to "good" side of a mother, the side that loves and cares for the child. Then, there's the stepmother. She's wicked and forces the child to do the chores all of the time. That represents the "bad" side of a mother, the side that's harsh, criticizing, and makes the child work.

Then, there's the idea that the later, more popular adaptations were softening the stories. A lot of fairy tales with wicked stepmothers? They originally had it that the *biological* mothers were the ones doing the horrible things. Evidently it was thought to be nicer to have the biological mother die and the abuse come from an unrelated woman.

Although, it is worth mentioning that Mulan and Tiana have moms. ^^;

[carmyn]

Happy - Has Drugs and loaded.
Sneezy - Wasting Drugs.
Grumpy - No Drugs.
Bashful - Not sharing drugs.
Sleepy - Ran out of Drugs.
Dopey - Stole the Drugs from Grumpy.
Doc - For overdoses.
Snow White - Is the drug dealer
Step Mother - Drug Cartel.

Makes sense. They already fluffed up enough of the fairy tales, may as well keep SOMETHING right.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

XD Thanks!

[shaolina.livejournal.com]

Very good! The whole evil stepmother is also a way to represent domestic struggle for power too. Remember that these stories were based on folktales made by the people themselves to entertain themselves. A woman with an insufferable mother in law may feel like Cinderella stuck at the servitude of the older figure. There's also the fact that youth and inexperience are marked as attributes for goodness and in this case Snow is younger than the queen.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

XD Thanks!

There's also the fact that the as hard as the queen tries, she's not able to ruin Snow's beauty (the source of the jealousy). Even when she kills Snow, the princess doesn't decay or rot. She just stays beautiful forever.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

Yay, you're doing Disney reviews! My inner Disney fan squees! ^^

/And maybe they need to also set up some sort of child protection services, seeing as how the king isn't doing anything to help his daughter!/

That's usually the case in fairytales, which is why I label them either Clueless Fathers (TM) or Criminally Negligent Fathers (TM). At least in "Cinderella," we're informed that the father died, which is why her wicked stepmother is free to do horrible things to her. But you're right; when the father is indeed alive, his failure to do anything to protect his child is inexcusable. I always thought that the father in "Hansel and Gretel" got off the hook too easily.

I had no idea that the prince's name was Ferdinand. I thought it was just "Prince Charming." And as for Snow White's voice, I always thought her singing voice was very high. It's funny how all the stuff you pointed out (such as why was the prince in the neighborhood when Snow White was there, why Snow White immediately starting cleaning everything once she got into the dwarves' house, why she only wanted a True Love and not freedom, etc.) just completely flew over my head the first time that I saw this movie. I guess because I was younger, I just took everything that I saw for granted.

/Does anyone else notice, with the Disney Princesses(tm) that NONE OF THEM HAVE BIOLOGICAL MOTHERS?! It's all step-moms! I know Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) has a mom, but she doesn't even get mentioned and you see her once. But everyone else? No mom. They all mysteriously die. With no mention. Does Disney have a thing against moms?!/

You know, people have wondered about that for a long time. I read somewhere that Disney actually had a good relationship with his mother. The best explanation that I can come up with is that practically all of his movies are based on older fairytales and it's in those stories that the mothers are all missing. So, I guess that he was just being faithful to the original material in that respect. *shrugs*

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

I know. XD I really am a Disney fangirl. And I really do love the princess line, even the obscure ones like Atlantis or Robin Hood. And your icon makes me melt inside. XD

"I always thought that the father in "Hansel and Gretel" got off the hook too easily."

I actually read a sort-of version of the story that fixes that. There's only a girl, but her father is basically cowed by the stepmother to not help her at all. The girl is taken in by the fair folk who love her and care for her, and make a clay duplicate of her with a poisonous snake and piece of poisoned bread inside. The duplicate is sent back to the parents. When the stepmother beats it, the snake comes out and bites her, so she dies. When the father finds the bread, he eats it and dies. Eventually, when the girl has grown up, she's sent out into the world and finds a prince who marries her. ^^

No, Prince Charming is apparently Cinderella's prince.

And yeah, I think it was more Disney being faithful to the tales than being mean to mothers.

[starflow.livejournal.com]

Hi! I found your journal via a google search for the fairy tale your describing in this comment. Do you recall the name of this particular tale? I've been wracking my brain, but I've got nothing.

Thanks!

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

The name of that fairy tale? Hmm, lemme see... Oh yeah, it's called "A Tale of the Tontlawald". It's the first story in the Violet Fairy anthology. You can also read it here: http://mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/083.htm

Hope that helps! :)

[starflow.livejournal.com]

Yes! I remember now! Thank you so much for your help--it was driving me crazy trying to figure it out. I had a book when I was a kid with this fairy tale in it, and I couldn't remember the name of the book, either, so your information is great. Much appreciated.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

No problem at all. I know what it's like to be going nuts trying to look for something on the tip of your tongue. I nearly went crazy trying to remember a mythology/fairy tale computer game I knew of in '95. ^^;

[starflow.livejournal.com]

So after additional surfing, I realized I had the 1984 version of Greg Hildebrandt's Favorite Fairy Tales. I'll have to remember to dig around at my parents' home when I visit next to find my copy. Thanks again for your help, and now I know about Andrew Lang. His collections look amazing.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Lang is fantastic. His books are well worth a look, if only for the pictures. ^_^

And no problem! Glad I could help. :)

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/And your icon makes me melt inside. XD/

Oh, you're welcome! *blushes* Belle and Adam also make me happy. I love those two. *glares at naysayers* And they are NOT in an abusive relationship! Belle/Gaston would be an abusive relationship! Get it right!

Ooh, was that a more recently-written version of the story or another fairytale altogether? It sounds interesting.

I know that Prince Charming is also Cinderella's prince, but for some reason I thought that it was the name of Snow White's prince too, which really confused me. I was left wondering, "Why do they have the same name?"

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

"And they are NOT in an abusive relationship! Belle/Gaston would be an abusive relationship! Get it right!"

Agreed. That always annoys me, especially since Belle is the exact opposite of a woman who lets people walk over her. Plus, if she's a doormat, why wouldn't she have married Gaston from the start?

I don't think it's more recent, but I can't remember where I read it. It was in one of my fairy tale anthologies. It's a different tale from Hansel and Gretel, but it's a similar storyline.

I think Snow White does refer to her love as "prince charming", so yeah. But I swear I read somewhere that his name is Ferdinand. The poor guy deserves some name. He seems to always get forgotten (seriously, I was in a Disney store and saw that they had dolls of every official princess and corresponding prince...but Snow White's prince wasn't there even though she was).

[shaolina.livejournal.com]

At the Disney parks we used to call him the Snow prince. One of my friends over there actually auditioned for the part, but didn't get it.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

"Ooh, was that a more recently-written version of the story or another fairytale altogether? It sounds interesting."

I just looked it up, and it's called "A Tale of the Tonlawald", from the Violet Fairy Book. ^^

[southerngaelic.livejournal.com]

Awesome! \o/

Personally, I loved this movie growing up. I even had a Snow White doll that came with both rags AND yellow ermine-cap effect dress ^-^

But yeah, some of it has become horribly dated, I.e the idea women should cook and clean and sit around waiting for dudes to marry them. Still, cute.

The Queen has NOTHING on Malificent though. Malificent is a magnificent BITCH and I love her.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

I loved this movie as well. I had it on VHS and would watch it all of the time. And I always made each viewing in to a huge event, dragging all of my stuffed animals into the living room to watch with me. XD

Oh, Maleficent was magnificent! Imagine trying to get a villain like her today.

[southerngaelic.livejournal.com]

OMG YOU TOO?! I remember covering my favourite teddy bear's eyes during the forest scene and the Queen's transformation because he was a cub bear and I thought he was too young for those bits x3

Oh man, we're never getting those classic villains. "And now you shall face me, o Prince, and all the powers of hell!" That is a bad-ass bitch line, right there. No way a line like that will ever get into a family film. Even in 'Princess & The Frog,' they called those demonspawn 'Friends From The Other Side.'

....Or maybe those guys were Heartless, for the inevitable Kingdom Hearts 3 sequel :D

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

:D Oh man, I thought I was the only person who did stuff like that! It was the same for the Aristocrats! XD And my poor mother had to pick everything up afterwards.

Oh lord, that line, there! There are few moments even in live action adult cinema that match it.

The FOTOS? That very well could be. I know Facilier, Tiana, and Naveen are all set to be in it.

[shaolina.livejournal.com]

Cute review. I also had a dislike for Snow's voice. Sometimes it was like nails on a chalkboard and seeing as her voice was supposed to be beautiful... yeah.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Thanks! ^^

It was a little too squeaky for my tastes, yeah. I know she's supposed to be the youngest of the princesses, but yeah.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I always did think that Snow White's voice was very high-pitched. But then again, if you watch a lot of films from that time period, you'll notice that a lot of voices have a higher timbre and quality than many of the voices today. I don't know if it's because of the audio quality or because Hollywood was in the habit of picking actors with those types of voices.

[southerngaelic.livejournal.com]

Yup. I remember a film about Gulliver's Travels that featured that big-nosed little guy named Gabby or summat. The girl part of the Rome & Juliet-type love interest had this high-pitched voice that grated my ears. Maybe that was the thing they liked in women's voices back then?

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

That could be it. It could be that they wanted voices like a little girl's, for a feeling of youth or innocence.

[nintendogal55.livejournal.com]

Snow White really is a timeless classic. The first feature-length animated film, by Disney, and it still holds up in its own rights even to this very day. For back then, the animation and character designs are superb.

So, it does have its flaws, and that can be a little jarring compared to today's standards, but at the same time, it's so hard not to appreciate it. Plus, the Seven Dwarfs were by far the funniest and most interesting characters! XD I love 'em. While the Evil Queen's motivations are lacking in any sense of logic, there is one thing. Her voice acting, and the way she's animated is just awesome. :D

What Snow White has done, is played on our EMOTIONS, rather than storytelling and logic. And strangely, that actually works. If you just sit back, and let the film target your emotions, you can really have a wonderful time.

I mean, the scene where the Dwarfs are crying over Snow White, kind of like it's a funeral wake, that scene is just heartbreaking. You can't help but feel what they're feeling, that they lost one of the only friends they ever had. Even GRUMPY, the toughest of them, is crying! It's such a sad scene.

But when it's all over, and there's a lovely happy ending, you can't help but feel so glad it all ended well.

That's what is very special about Snow White, we all grew up with it, and every time, our emotions played up to what the movie was. And it worked beautifully.

I still love it. I'm not done watching it, and I know a few more views are not far in my future.

XD Here's a funny story. When I was little, around three, according to my mom, I said that the Evil Queen was, well, Evil, because she didn't get enough hugs. Silly kiddy logic! But hey, it kind of works if you think about it. xD

Fridge horror

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

Why would dwarves have a glass coffin in a human's size?