There is a saying that every one of us has his favori Disney movie, favori Disney moment, and favori Disney character. For a long time that was true for me too. And then, one day, I realized that the whole thing suddenly became complicated. Disney’s liste of masterpieces has grown over the last years to a point, where it would impossible for me to make a haut, retour au début ten liste of my favorites, never mind being able to pick one of them to be one which stands above them all. After all, can toi really compare Dumbo, Fantasia, The Little Mermaid and The Emperor’s New Groove? Some of those films are as different as it gets, and picking one of them over another is like deciding if toi prefer your evening robe over your favori jeans. It all depends on circumstances in the end. So I have begun grouping the films together: The fairy tales, the package movies, the real-life mixed with animation pictures, films based on livres and those based on original storylines.
Especially in regards on the Fairy-Tale movies, Disney often gets accused of using the same formula again and again and again. And while this is true in many aspects, Disney also developed the formula over the time. Looking now back on all the years spend with those movies, my view on them naturally has changed. And I admit I’m kind of sad that I can’t see them any longer with the eyes of a child. On the other hand, I now have a whole new appreciation for some aspects of those movies. But let’s take a look at Disney’s most successful formula.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is naturally the movie which started everything, and will always be remembered for this fact alone. Walt Disney bargained everything in order to realize his vision and Snow White became a huge success. But does it still hold up? Well, yes and no. As a child the scenes which mostly stuck to my head were the really scary and the really funny ones. This hasn’t changed much. I still smile about the antiques of the dwarfs, and I’m still suitable chilled when Snow White gets Lost in the woods and the evil Queen undergoes her legendary transformation. But even as a child, I very much preferred Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella over Snow White. Looking at it now, I see why: The story. In the end, this one boils down to the most basic elements of the fairy tale. The characters are very bland and the only thing Disney added to the original story was a five minute meeting between Snow White and the Prince and a lot of comic-relief. It’s not like the character design is bad, quite the opposite: Snow White’s innocence is underlined in every way possible, the dwarfs got all defining characteristics (and the fitting names for them) and the evil beauty of the Queen is impressive. But all those characters are reduced to this one characteristic. The only conflicted personality is the huntsman, but he vanishes at the beginning of the movie and we never learn what becomes of him.
It’s fairly obvious that Walt Disney was mostly interested to demonstrate what animation could do, especially compared to live action movies. He chose Snow White specifically because the seven dwarfs would allow him to point of the advantages of his kind of filmmaking. His focus simply wasn’t on the story; it was on the visuals, on montrer the audience things which couldn’t be done with real actors. It’s obvious that a lot of work and l’amour went into those scenes. Even par today’s standard the animation is impressive, and the scene in the woods as well as the transformation scene is still very effective.
What doesn’t hold up that well is the music. The style is a little bit dated, but that doesn’t change the fact that the melodies are likeable and catchy. The problem is the topic of most of the songs. There is the usual l’amour song (and really, there is not one l’amour song par Disney which isn’t memorable), the “I want”-song (which boils down to Snow White waiting for her prince), and the iconic “Heigh-Ho” which introduces the dwarfs, but otherwise Snow White and the Dwarfs sing about such exiting things as cleaning up and one song which is deliberately utterly nonsensical (they even say so in the refrain).
Does this make Snow White a bad movie? Definitely not, but it ranges quite low on my personal favori list. And in a way, this is a good thing. It would have been very frustrating if Disney had never managed to surpass the very first masterpiece.
Especially in regards on the Fairy-Tale movies, Disney often gets accused of using the same formula again and again and again. And while this is true in many aspects, Disney also developed the formula over the time. Looking now back on all the years spend with those movies, my view on them naturally has changed. And I admit I’m kind of sad that I can’t see them any longer with the eyes of a child. On the other hand, I now have a whole new appreciation for some aspects of those movies. But let’s take a look at Disney’s most successful formula.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is naturally the movie which started everything, and will always be remembered for this fact alone. Walt Disney bargained everything in order to realize his vision and Snow White became a huge success. But does it still hold up? Well, yes and no. As a child the scenes which mostly stuck to my head were the really scary and the really funny ones. This hasn’t changed much. I still smile about the antiques of the dwarfs, and I’m still suitable chilled when Snow White gets Lost in the woods and the evil Queen undergoes her legendary transformation. But even as a child, I very much preferred Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella over Snow White. Looking at it now, I see why: The story. In the end, this one boils down to the most basic elements of the fairy tale. The characters are very bland and the only thing Disney added to the original story was a five minute meeting between Snow White and the Prince and a lot of comic-relief. It’s not like the character design is bad, quite the opposite: Snow White’s innocence is underlined in every way possible, the dwarfs got all defining characteristics (and the fitting names for them) and the evil beauty of the Queen is impressive. But all those characters are reduced to this one characteristic. The only conflicted personality is the huntsman, but he vanishes at the beginning of the movie and we never learn what becomes of him.
It’s fairly obvious that Walt Disney was mostly interested to demonstrate what animation could do, especially compared to live action movies. He chose Snow White specifically because the seven dwarfs would allow him to point of the advantages of his kind of filmmaking. His focus simply wasn’t on the story; it was on the visuals, on montrer the audience things which couldn’t be done with real actors. It’s obvious that a lot of work and l’amour went into those scenes. Even par today’s standard the animation is impressive, and the scene in the woods as well as the transformation scene is still very effective.
What doesn’t hold up that well is the music. The style is a little bit dated, but that doesn’t change the fact that the melodies are likeable and catchy. The problem is the topic of most of the songs. There is the usual l’amour song (and really, there is not one l’amour song par Disney which isn’t memorable), the “I want”-song (which boils down to Snow White waiting for her prince), and the iconic “Heigh-Ho” which introduces the dwarfs, but otherwise Snow White and the Dwarfs sing about such exiting things as cleaning up and one song which is deliberately utterly nonsensical (they even say so in the refrain).
Does this make Snow White a bad movie? Definitely not, but it ranges quite low on my personal favori list. And in a way, this is a good thing. It would have been very frustrating if Disney had never managed to surpass the very first masterpiece.
