Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Hello! I'm terribly sorry for posting so late this week. I still intend to post Monday as well. Treasure Planet and Frozen are winning on the poll at the bottom of the page. I didn't do either this week though because I am attempting to alternate between the classics and more modern Disney movies. Hence, why I'm doing Snow White this week.  I will try and do the others as soon as the pattern allows. I also have private requests coming in. I just wanted to let you know what's happening as far as the poll. 

      Oh Snow White. Back in the good ol' days of the nonconsensual pre-movie credit viewing. 

    

                                                                Two hours later...

The audience is formed, via writing, that there's this girl named Snow White, and her father married this crazy woman before kicking the bucket, and then Queenipoo got all jealous and made Snow White clean stuff. Basically, Snow White is the original Cinderella.  

So the queen talks to this creepy talking mirror and asks the big question. You know the one. And he's all like, "Naw, you're okay. But there's this one chick with dark hair and light skin"(not verbatim). The queen is all like "that doesn't sound like me at all."

                                 

                                                   Those eyebrows though.

Queenipoo then decides the mirror is talking about her stepdaughter Snow White (who named this woman?). While I'm on the subject, let's talk about appearances. The queen and Snow White do have some similarities in appearances. For instance, dark hair and pale skin, small red lips, etc.

    

                                              Granted, Snow White has normal eyebrows.

   The biggest difference is wardrobe which doesn't count because it's a reflection of status, which will be discussed later. The alarming physical similarities bring the attention to the behaviors instead of appearances of the two women.  The only thing making Snow White more beautiful than her step mother is her soul. The mirror also mentions how rags cannot hide her beauty. This is fighting classism. Wealth does not make a person more beautiful. Tell that to Gucci.

     Back to the plot, Snow White is doing her thing by the wishing well, and she's awfully chipper about that. She's also got enough vibrato to cause an earthquake.

    Then Mr. Dreamy, Prince Charming himself, shows up.

     A lot of people consider this a very sexist Disney film, but I disagree. My goal is to convince you otherwise by the end of this post. One of the sexism accusations is that Snow White is too eager to trust the Prince.  They think that this portrays a weak woman who feels the need for a man in her life. Let's think about this logically. Snow White is a teenage girl. How many teenage girls are quick to trust charming men? How many teenage girls love attention from guys? The movie isn't sexist, it's accurate. It may seem horrible and unfortunate, but it's true. Teenage girls have such a reach for romantic attention.

      Snow White decides to play hard to get and she runs inside and up a staircase. Then his masculine singing voice persuades her to go onto the balcony and listen. So we have a prince in an orchard-like yard and a tragic princess on a balcony. Both are newly in love. Hmm...what does that sound like?

     

                                        *cough*Shakespeare*cough*Romeo and Juliet.

                                    Oooh! And look at Snow White's shoes!

 
   Turns out the queen was creepin' on them so that's weird. Queenipoo in her fit of jealousy calls the on-staff huntsman and says, "So I want you to stab my step-daughter and bring me her heart." Seriously though, this is a kid's movie. He's not too happy but then she threatens him so he sets off to go do some murdering.

                          

                      At the cost of sounding pretentious: that haircut should be outlawed.

So he takes Snow White out to go pick flowers which Snow White does not find weird at all. If you are a regular reader of 2nd Star to the Right, you know that I like to talk about colors. At the beginning we have Snow White dressed in a really dull brown dress which comments on her dreary lifestyle. It speaks to her tragedy. When Snow White goes to pick flowers she has switched to a very colorful ensemble. This does a couple things. First, it foreshadows happiness and fulfillment. Second, it shows her being at peace while picking flowers. At peace in nature. Nature will be expressed as both a villain and hero in this story, but we'll get to that. Mr. Huntsman decides to be a good guy and not kill her. Slow clap for Mr. Huntsman.  Suddenly, Snow White is in a terrible hurry and runs into the deepest, darkest forest around. No joke, this forested is screwed up.

      

                                                          How is this okay?!?!?!

          Snow White survives the forest despite its attempts to fricking ensnare her, and she throws herself down in a surprisingly happy-looking meadow and attempts to drown herself in her own tears.

Now, however, the setting is quite pleasant. This is where the nature juxtaposition becomes prominent. Snow White, only seconds ago, was consumed in the darkest forest ever. Now she is in a happier area with flowers and animals. On one side we have darkness and evil, and on the other we have happiness and peace. This motif can be seen throughout the movie and is a direct reflection of human nature as represented by Snow White and her stepmother. One is violent and villainous and the other is soft and sweet (yay for alliteration). 

          Snow White gets over the creepy forest and lures the animals with her singing. 

                                                  That's Disney, folks.

The animals are also a symbol of happiness and peace. Notice the beginning of the film.

  

                                          Good thing she doesn't have allergies.

Whenever Snow White is happy, there is a surplus of animals. The queen, however, is shut indoors and only has one feathery companion: a crow. Snow White asks for  the animals' opinions on available real estate and they point her in the direction of this homey little cottage. Snow White, ignoring all social graces, invites herself into the house.

    

                             Don't you just love her completely natural arm movements?

     She starts creeping and comes to the conclusion that children must live there. House full of unattended children out in the middle of nowhere that you have to cross a murderous forest to get to...seems legit. Snow White and the animals start to tidy up, because why not? 

      Let's go back to the sexism talk. A lot of people like to claim that Snow White is a subservient woman because she is okay with cleaning and cooking. I would just like to say that she is far from that. She is a friggen' goddess! This woman lured these animals with her voice, convinced them to find her a place to stay, then convinced them to clean for her!! That's tough superhero stuff. 

        Really though, there is a reasonable explanation for Snow White's cleaning. She was forced into what was practically slavery by her evil stepmother. Cleaning was her life, and she grew comfortable with it, as we know from the beginning of the film. The fact that she cleans is not a result of her womanhood, but a result of her being a servant. 

        Now let's talk about music. This movie originates the Disney musicals. There is a profound reason why Disney theoretically chose to make this a musical, and I think that reason still stands in films today. Song was something Snow White uses to improve her situation. She uses it as a coping mechanism. It gives her joy and it was a way for her to bond with Prince Charming. This, I think, is important because Snow White came out in the 1930's which, as we all know, was The Great Depression. Music played the same role for that era. It was a way for everyone to cope. It was a speck of joy in a tragic time. Radio was extremely popular, as was the Jazz age. Snow White herself is also a reflection of The Great Depression as she was once a princess and then suddenly was flung into poverty. That's part of why Prince Charming isn't "the man that needs to save Snow White", but a symbol of hope. He is a prince that reflects her once royal status and represents everything she wants in her future. Moving on....

      DWARVES!! SINGING DWARVES!!!! 

           

   This is the coolest dang mine! Seriously! You don't even have to really mine! You could just waltz over to the wall and pluck a diamond out! How are these dwarves poor?

    So this scene is fun. The end.

    Back at the cottage, Snow White decides to look upstairs. She's cleaned the whole downstairs but hasn't looked upstairs yet. I was talking about animals as a symbol of peace earlier. In this scene we see rabbits carved into furniture. This could be emphasizing my previous theory or it could be because some consider rabbits a symbol of maternity. That would foreshadow Snow White's mothering role to the dwarves. 

     Snow White falls asleep on the beds (that's right, plural) and her animal minions tuck her in. Her magical animal powers wear off, however, because they all flee when the dwarves come home. The dwarves, completely freaked out that someone has introduced their home to cleanliness, pull a Snow White in their own home and go creeping around. Except for they go creeping around with their pick axes ready to strike. I'd hate to be bludgeoned to death by pickax-wielding dwarves. 

       After Sneezy risks their stealth with a 200 mph sneeze, they head up the stairs. Snow White awakens and the dwarves mistake the classic feminine morning moan and stretch for a monster.

       I'd like to take a moment to talk about the dwarves' appearances. Dopey is the childlike figure in this movie. He is young-looking (as apparent by his lack of facial hair) and is always acting out of innocence.

                        

                                                 Look at those baby blues!

            Dopey is actually the only dwarf to have blue eyes. This describes the vibrancy in his youth. The other dwarves have brown eyes. Except for Grumpy...

    

                                      What is it with the eyebrows in this movie?

      Grumpy has black eyes. That's pretty self-explanatory. While I'm talking about how the dwarves look:

     

        Doc's glasses make absolutely no sense. It must be a fashion statement because that's the most impractical thing. Also, why is there a dwarf named Doc? At least call him Smarty or Blindy. "One of these things just doesn't belong here!"

         Another reason Snow White isn't sexist: She just gets up and starts ordering those men around. It's great. She is a strong independent woman and does not let those men order her around. She takes no prisoners and no dirt.

        So now we have this Three Stooges-esque scene in which clueless males try and wash themselves. If anything, the movie is sexist against men (which I also don't condone). Grumpy decides to show Snow White that he, too, can play hard to get. The scene then turns startling violent as the other dwarves try to wash him against his will. Like really violent.

    

                                                                 But oh so clean.

      Back at the palace, the mirror snitches on Snow White (uncool) and Queenipoo gets a wee bit upset that her stepdaughter isn't dead and decides to go do it herself. Unfortunately, just stabbing an innocent, unprepared woman isn't nearly an elaborate enough evil plan, so the enraged evil queen decides to turn herself into a hag. That's a much better plan...

       It is interesting though. The queen is so consumed in jealousy that she gives up the only thing that was important to her (beauty) to kill Snow White. Seems a tad bit counterproductive.

       She makes this potion with a few ingredients that you, too, can find around the house: mummy dust, the black of night, an old hag's cackle, a scream of fright, a blast of wind, and a thunderbolt. The queen transforms into a hag which is quite frightening, but the color switch is interesting. Previously the queen wore black with splashes of red and purple. Now she wears all black without a thread of color. She has switched to complete darkness.

     

          I wouldn't jump at the chance to help her cross the street...still it's good to see she kept her            eyebrows in all of this.

        Back at the cottage, Snow White and her vertically-challenged companions are partying it up. All the animals are back so things are happy and Grumpy is even playing the organ. The dwarves ask Snow White to tell them a true story so she recounts her meeting with Prince Charming, the dreamboat. She refers to the heroine of her story as a princess. She still considers herself a princess despite her circumstance. It inspires women everywhere to hold themselves in high confidence no matter what. It also tells women that they don't have to be rich to be poised. Then as the dwarves ask her question after question, she catapults into song at which point my brother-in-law says, "Nobody asked her to sing." 

      After their magical, musical moment they decide to go to bed. The dwarves so generously offer up their beds to Snow White who has no objections whatsoever. Dopey gets a head start of the first pillow but is then overpowered by the others. Dopey's speed in grabbing the pillow while the others are not paying attention shows that he is smart and underestimated. Refer to the Lilo and Stitch post.

      Back at the castle, The hag poisons an apple as her weapon of choice. *cough*Biblical allusion*cough*. She states that it will put Snow White into a deep sleep that can only be turned off by love's first kiss, and since no one else knows that, the dwarves will bury her alive. THIS IS A KIDS MOVIE!! 

      Let's take a look-see at the idea of love's first kiss. Is that a sexist concept? Is it endorsing the idea that men should save women or that women need to be saved? No, and this is why: This concept only shows how important love is. Love saves. I would actually argue that love's saving power is equally prominent in men and women in Disney films. Love is a powerful emotion. 

       The next morning, the dwarves return to their mine and Grumpy gets a little happy. The hag sets out to go do some damage on Snow White. It's an interesting journey...

     

                       You know stuff is going to go down if vultures start following you. 

     The witch finds the unprotected Snow White and offers her the apple. She does everything she can to make it seem appealing. Which is such a Biblical allusion. Forbidden fruit that will take you away from happiness and what not. The hag starts to fake heart pains which must be hard for someone who doesn't even have a heart. Naturally, the nurturing Snow White takes her into the cottage.

      The animals sense that something's about to go down so they take off to go get help from the dwarves. The animals, being a symbol of peace, foreshadow horror. 

     The hag tells Snow White that the apple will grant her a wish so Snow White says, "sounds good", takes a bite, then hits the floor. So that's a downer. The hag takes off in a fit of maniacal laughter, because that's the only way to do it. The dwarves return, riding deer majestically into battle. Then they dismount and chase after the hag. Now, they don't have pick axes. Where's the logic in that.

      It's interesting though, that the vultures follow the queen in the chase. Foreshadowing! Stuff happens and the hag falls off of a cliff to her probable death. So that's fun. 

      Unfortunately, Snow White is still in a coma. Time passes....a lot of time actually. And word gets out that there's this hottie in a glass coffin and the Prince, still saving himself for the dream girl by the well, searches for her. The dwarves have her surrounded by nature in the most beautiful form and are celebrating her life and not her death....or unconsciousness. 

      

     My funeral request: I want birds to drop flower petals on my coffin. Also I want rabbits present.

Prince Charming shows up, gives her a peck on the lips, and sweeps her off her feet. Snow White never stopped believing and her dream did come true. She had to say goodbye to the dwarves, but she said hello to a better existence. They ride off into the sunset on horseback and we are left with the image of a castle in the clouds. This is a divine reference indicating that happily ever after is heaven...

             or if you're my sister you think that she's been dead this whole time...

                                               I'm sorry, I had to throw that out there.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is so much better than I remembered it! It's inspiring and happy and bittersweet. It teaches hope, and to be content, and most importantly, beauty comes from within. Now that I've been sufficiently cheesy....that's it for now.