There are films which we know for their exceptional quality, others we know for being revolutionary. Disney's "Snow White" is one of those rare masterpieces which is both. It's now 75 years old and I must admit that I remembered it being much more dated than it actually is. It's simple, delicate and beautiful for those reasons. There are plenty of other films that the studio has done since that surpass it in technical quality and richness of stories and characters (who actually cares about Snow White herself?), but this film has a timeless magic that I don't believe has been surpassed.
We all hopefully know the story. It is adapted from tale by the Brothers Grimm about a evil and jealous queen who sends a huntsman to kill her stepdaughter turned slave, Snow White, after learning from her magic mirror that the girl has surpassed her in beauty. Fleeing into the enchanted forest, Snow White is taken in by a group of seven dwarfs who guard her from the wrath of the Queen. Their efforts prove to be in vain, eventually leaving the power of love's first kiss to combat her black magic.
Besides being a lovely little film with a fantastic set of characters, this was the first full length animated feature in color and for that reason it represents a milestone in cinematic history. I can't say that I know the mechanics of how a cartoon is made, but from the very little bit that I've read it does seem to me that this was a painstaking labor of love. Walt Disney's personal touches are interspersed and it has the quality that comes from him having done so.
Sometimes complexity can be brushed aside when we think about the importance of the film. This was not anything new in terms of story or characters. "Pinocchio" would end up being a far better example of that and is probably a "better" film than "Snow White". However, when something is created that has not been done before and, in this case, ushered an entire era of quality film making, special attention needs to be given.
That is not to say that it is special only because of its length. The animation is something spectacular and another innovation of the cinema. Study the scene where Snow White runs into the forest. The cels used by the animators were increased in size for the film so they could incorporate all of the details that Disney wanted. The very landscape comes to life which it had never done before. The world in which Snow White inhabits is not simply a stagnate backdrop, it seems to breathe.
When I watched it I felt a very odd sensation. It seemed to be more than simple nostalgia that comes from watching any old film from my childhood. It was more than a simple memory. Rather, it felt like all of the happy moments of my youth could be seen and relived in just over an hour. My love for the movie did not come simply from that charming quality and funny dwarfs; there is some hidden magic to that forest, that cottage, the smile of Prince Charming that made me laugh for the sake of laughing, smile for the sake of smiling. It was an utterly pure contentment, clean of any worries and struggles of real life. That in itself is what I love about cinema. It is those moments when the outside world is washed away leaving nothing but a complete involvement in the story at hand. The theater is an escape and "Snow White" is one of the supreme examples of this escapism.
4/4
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