Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

     

     Early this morning I finished the first of the Disney Animated films, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I think everyone probably knows this story of the girl who had to run away from home and finds herself living with the seven little men until she's tricked and poisoned by the one who she initially ran away from. So, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the story. You can't say it for alot of the shorts or other animation of the time, but, you can see how much work went into Snow White and with that making it hold up against time a little more. I know its been re-colored and re-mastered for the Blu-Ray I watched it on but the drawings and animation are the original and that's what is more involved than the shiny gleam they gave it for High Definition. The one thing that stands out watching this after the recent release of 'Tangled' is how much progress they've made animating human figures. But, whats amazing is here you have this movie from 1937, that still today, kids are brought up watching and fully aware of the characters and the story. You can go back to other studios and films like Fievel, All Dogs Go To Heaven, Land Before Time and Anastasia and I'm sure half the children now a days have not seen those. Walt did Snow White right, you had a story, great character design and some catchy songs. After watching this movie and really watching it, not doing anything else, just sitting and watching. There is one thing I kinda don't like about the movie and that's how quick everything progresses once Snow White eats the apple. It's she eats it and right away dwarfs are coming to the rescue and the next thing you know Prince is waking her up. I think for the time period it was released in and the full length animated film, I can see why Walt would of wanted to keep this movie just over an hour. Now a days I think people are so accustomed to longer movies, you wouldn't of minded the extra twenty minutes to build up a bigger ending. I think Julie would agree with me on this (She being a huge Snow White fan) and that is I'm kinda surprised they really don't do alot of merchandise with her or give her enough mention in the parks, for the girl that paid for everything else to come, I think she deserves some special ranking in the princess category. The other thing is since I watched this not too long ago when I bought it on Blu-Ray, I figured I'd just watch it with the commentary. I've found Disney cartoons are one of the few things I don't like commentary on, its almost like if you can't fully hear the dialogue and music, your missing out on half the movie. So, not a big fan of Animation commentary, but boy-o-boy does Disney still hold the key for extras on dvd and blu-ray. I know people gripe how Disney keeps re releasing different editions of the movies, but you almost want to go buy each one to watch the extras Disney has made for that edition. I do like now how if you've bought the previous edition and registered it online with Disney how you can get a coupon for money off the newer version. I'm actually writing this blog early, though I'm not going to post it right away, as we plan to visit the Magic Kingdom today after I get off work and want to be able to put in some comparison to the ride. One of the main things of the ride is it stays true pretty much to the story except where they inserted the queen turning into the Hag at the beginning and chasing you at the beginning, she actually didn't turn into the hag till after Snow White has found the cottage and been with the dwarfs for awhile. Other than that, the ride does cling to the story pretty well and giving you that feel or running away from the queen. What's interesting is when Disney built Snow White and gave it the scary, dark, ominous tone, that sets it aside from the other Fantasyland dark rides, cause its really not a scary movie. Moving the Hag scenes around to make a scarier trip through the story, they were incorporated well into the rest of the story told through the ride. You know here you start off running away from the castle and into the woods, but half way through you get a nice little song and dance at the cottage, to break up the scares before you head out again after the queen and chasing her through the mine. I know there's been rumors going around about Walt Disney Imagineering removing this attraction for a new meet and greet location for the Fantasyland expansion and building the Mine coaster. I have to same I'd love to see what they could do with a Mine coaster, but, I have to side with the dark ride and say keep the dark ride over the coaster. It's unique, was an opening day dark ride, and all different ages can ride it opposed to the coaster. Plus you have a ride now taking you through the story of Snow White where the coaster is focusing just on that little bit of the Mine sequence in the film and the end of the current attraction. So, here's hoping Snow White can stay, and also I hope because it's the only dark ride in Fantasyland you don't have to wait an hour for, I'm talking to you Pan and Pooh.