Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Released 12th March 1938, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs follows Snow White as she tries to escape the Evil Queen of the kingdom. Naturally, this film is renowned for the being the first animated feature film of all time (more on that later). Other than that, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is also an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm story with an emphasis on the theme of kindness and its importance through its varied cast. Lucille la Verne is able to give a sophisticated, sharp articulation of the Evil Queen’s dialogue. Harry Stockwell and Stuart Buchanan also do a successful job at encapsulating the masculinity of their macho archetypes. While I would normally begrudge one-dimensional characters, this film is very much the original mainstream Fairytale film so I must give it credit where credit is due.

Adriana Caselotti is able to convey Snow White’s youth and innocence through her high pitched yet soft vocalisation; Caselotti also delivers several harmonious musical numbers across the film too. As for the dwarfs, Pinto Colvig’s Grumpy is easily the vocal highlight with his sustained low-pitched angry tone which becomes less growly as he warms up to Snow White; interestingly, Colvig also provides the (minimal) drowsy vocalisation for Sleepy rather well too. Roy Atwell is another dwarf standout as Doc, the timid and stuttering leader of the dwarfs. Atwell is able to make Doc feel greatly wholesome through the aforementioned stutter but also from his gentle volume and fairer pitch too. Out of the ‘exceptional’ dwarfs, Eddie Collins and Jimmy MacDonald both work to deliver Dopey. Whereas every other character is animated from scratch, Collins acted out routines with heavy emphasis on his gestures and pace for the animators to reference for the character. MacDonald gives a juxtaposing drowsy vocal performance which is able to emphasise the physicalisation of the character.

Of course, Dopey’s physicalisation owes itself to the revolutionary animation too. For the first animated film, it has aged extraordinarily well and actually looks better than other animations in the late 20th century (i.e., Anne Frank’s Diary). Every frame is bustling with movement and life from the water, the animals and even Snow White’s chores. Another success of the animation is giving a visual energy which is able to match the musical nature of the film and the various songs throughout. Whereas live-action could only do so much for musicals in the early 20th century, animation provided a new expressive cinematic artform to present such energies. Overall, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a cornerstone of cinema with its kickstart of the fantasy genre, renaissance of musicals and the birth of feature length animation.