'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs' (1937)

'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs' tells the story of lonely princess Snow White whose defining sorrow is engineered by her evil step-mother, the wicked Queen. The narcissistic Queen orders Snow White's brutal execution in an act of extreme vanity provoked by a talking mirror. The Queen's cowardly, treacherous actions result in Snow White being banished and presumed dead. Snow White is led to a house of seven children by her harmonious animal friends, but they're actually not children living there at all; they're hard-working dwarves intent upon preserving an ancient way of life deep within the magical forest.


'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs' is a Walt Disney production based on a German fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm, fraternal instigators of the current wave of Asylum Pictures' cut-price 'Grimm' productions. It's been hailed as being the first full-length cel animated feature film and the earliest Disney animated feature-length film. The film premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, California on December 21st, 1937 - birthday of counter-revolutionaries Jane Fonda & Frank Zappa - before being granted a nationwide release the following year. It's since become a hallmark picture of the globally popular Disney Channel. Walt Disney received an honorary Oscar for his work. In 1989, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Disney's fairy tale madness has maintained a significant cultural impact through the careful implementation of advertising and merchandise lines. It's also inspired block parties and theme park attractions.


'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs' finds Disney at its most enchanting. There's something about the light, early animation style that strikes a feathery, fantastical chord (flapper Betty Boop had parlayed a strange variation of the character Snow White in 1933 in a more aggressive manner which was said to have angered Disney). As a horror fan, I feel I understand the importance of this seminal work. Dario Argento adopted plot points, colour schemes and audio dynamics from 'Snow White And The Seven Dwarves' when making his groundbreaking supernatural 'Three Mothers' trilogy. Keen ornithologist Wes Craven worked closely alongside actress Janus Blythe during the making of the cannibalistic 'The Hills Have Eyes' series to bring a "touch of the Snow Whites" to the back-to-nature audio-visual design. There are obvious parallels to be drawn with the adult fairy tales of Tobe Hooper, Charles Band's adult fairy tales 'Cinderella' (1977) and 'Fairy Tales' (1978) cast Anne Gaybis in parodic fashion as Snow White, both Lucio Fulci and Umberto Lenzi paid homage to the film within fantasy works, and Stuart Gordon worked alongside writer Ed Naha and his wife Carolyn Purdy Gordon to evoke the dwarves' mystical "dollhouse" in 'Dolls' (1987). From Mario Bianchi's 'Biancaneve & Co.' (1982) to Rupert Sanders' 'Snow White And The Huntsman' (2012), the Disney moniker has been readily identified as being part of the fairy tale's screen transition. 


'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs' has some great music and fantastic animation. Cosplayers today frequently dress up as their favourite Disney characters, honouring a movie that's due to celebrate its 80th birthday next month. Long may they continue ...