I have vague recollections of seeing Walt Disney’s first feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in theatres when I was a little kid. Upon looking at IMDB’s release dates stats, I noticed that this film was re-released in both 1987 and 1993. It was probably the 1993 version I saw. This would’ve been after The Little Mermaid. After Beauty and the Beast. After Aladdin. What did I think of the movie that day in 1993, my hair in a bowl cut, my shirt hanging over my flabby belly, my long sweats covering up any sign of a pair of shoes. Did I even like this movie? Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs must have made a huge impression on audiences in 1937, and it has influenced so much in animation that it’s unfair, at all really, to criticize this movie. Upon watching this film again, however, especially after watching other Disney classics from the 40’s and 50’s, I wasn’t head over heels in love with it. It’s a wonderful movie, don’t get me wrong, but it’s nowhere near perfect.

The magic of the movie is in its visual look. It’s been seventy years since the release of this movie, and it still looks fabulous. I have the 2000 2-Disc out-of-print DVD, which has all sorts of great bonus features (including a mine cart game and Angela Lansbury guiding us through the DVD!). Every little nook and cranny of the frame has great care taken to it, whether it be the initial animation or the pristine restoration. There’s a sense of awe in looking at animation this old, that looks this amazing. Every scene is rich in detail, especially the scary forest scene that has Snow White running in circles around various forest dwellers. The design of the witch is also memorable, hunched over, the wart on her nose, a shiny red apple in her hand. She may be the most iconic image from the movie. Her alter ego of the Queen is also pretty fantastic, one of the classic older female Disney beauties. In these older features, I’ve always been more interested in the villain than the hero, and all the material involving either the Queen or the Witch is the most interesting in my mind. She poses the threat, yes, but she’s also got personality, a want, a desire. She gives the movie its main substance.

The songs are also delightful. One of the main staples of Disney animated features is the music, and the ones that have songs to remember remain the most memorable. Snow White has the staples. Some Day My Prince Will Come. I’m Wishing. With a Smile and a Song. Whistle While You Work. Heigh Ho. While I would reach for the soundtrack to Beauty and the Beast (which features my all-time favorite Disney soundtrack), the songs here are note-worthy and catchy. They also make some of the material with the dwarves move a little bit faster. Whistle While You Work is a perfect example of a song that makes a fairly dull scene entertaining, just in the way the scene is edited with the song. Heigh Ho is the one that is tough to get out of your head after hearing it. A shame, since it can be really annoying when pounding inside your brain after a good hour or so. The score of the film is also terrific, with the suspense heightened at different times. The final chase up the giant mountain features some great music.

In watching the film with my roommates, recently, we did tend to get restless in some of it, and we found that this first Disney feature, while admirable in many ways, has it downfalls. Roger Ebert said, in discussing this film in his terrific Great Movies essay archive, that if this film “had been primarily about Snow White, it might have been forgotten […] treasured today only for historical reasons, as the first full-length animated feature in color.” Roger has a point there. Snow White may be the blandest of all the Disney heroines. While she has more to do than some of the other ones, she has an annoying, blank personality, almost to the point where we kind of want her to bite into the apple in the end. She’s not as blank, however, as the Prince. While the Princes of all the old Disney animated features are known for being a little bit banal, especially the one in Cinderella, this one has to be the worst. He shows up for a fleeting couple minutes in the beginning, then disappears until the end. He’s like a plot device, planted where he needs to be just to give Snow White something to dream about in the beginning and something to be taken away with in the end. The heroes of the 90’s new wave of Disney animation, from The Little Mermaid to The Lion King, are so richly complex, it’s hard to imagine what the storytellers were thinking back then in coming up with these flat male characters. The biggest unintentional laugh of this film has to be when Snow White is singing “I’m wishing… for the one I love… to be find me… today…” and then, in a big booming male voice, the Prince sings, “TOOOOOO-DAAAAAAAY!” I’m laughing just thinking about it. It’s so over-the-top it may be one of my favorite moments in the movie (not in a good way, necessarily).

And then there are the dwarves (or should I say, dwarfs, as the title suggests?). I don’t hate them, or dislike them, necessarily. But there is a huge chunk of the movie, a chunk that to many is probably twice as long as they remember,  dedicated to material of just Snow White and the dwarves going about their daily duties or singing and dancing in the living room. The tremendous material with the Queen and the Witch is kept down to a minimum, and the more mundane material with the dwarves is stretched out as if Walt Disney knew he needed to pack in as much of the seven little guys he could because, gosh darn it, they’re cute, and the movie needed to get to a full length running time. I remember hearing a quote about Walt Disney describing how when people went and saw Pinocchio, they told him their bewildered disappointment, due to the fact that the cute dwarves from Snow White were missing in the storyline. People loved these guys. My personal favorite has always been Grumpy. Does that make me a pessimist? I hope not.

I don’t want to look like a pessimist when it comes to this movie, though! I have great affection for almost all of the Disney animated features, and this being the first, the one that truly set the path for all that was to come, I can’t be too hard on it. The characters all have their moments, there are many scenes of great power, and there is much to love in this. I would never discourage anyone from watching it, and I certainly wouldn’t tell someone with children to not show this to them. I would maybe suggest better movies, like the more recent Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King, or some better older titles, like Pinocchio, Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty, but that’s not to say this one isn’t worthy in any respect. I would never find fault in anyone who chose to love and embrace this film. It’s a great film. It’s a classic in every sense of the word. It’s just not one of the best.