Snow White's Timeless Magic: 87 Years of Enchanting Audiences

At the time of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' release in 1937, there was a lot of skepticism over whether the art of animation could be used to make a successful full-length feature or not. During Hollywood's Golden Age, cartoons were typically presented as shorts in cinemas ahead of the movie audience members paid to see. In fact, Walt Disney and his company often produced animated shorts for cinemas in the form of the Silly Symphonies series. It wasn't until Disney conceived of the idea of producing an animated movie in 1933 that plans for an animated Snow White adaptation began to take shape in 1934.

Based on the 1812 German fairy tale Schneewittchen by The Brothers Grimm, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs centers on the titular princess escaping the clutches of her vain and murderous stepmother, the Evil Queen. After the latter hires a huntsman to kill the young princess with her heart brought back as proof of her death, Snow White flees to the woods and takes refuge inside the seven dwarfs' cottage. After befriending the dwarfs, she stays with them for a bit before the Evil Queen attempts to kill her again, this time disguised as the Old Peddler. Snow White is eventually revived by the prince she met earlier, and goes to live with him in his castle. While the 2025 live-action Snow White remake aims to build on the legacy of its animated predecessor with Rachel Zegler in the titular role, it's worth revisiting what made the original film a timeless classic.

Revolutionizing Animation

The first thing that stands out about 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the animation. As the movie that revolutionized the animation techniques that are still in use today (albeit with more advanced technology), its quality far exceeds the standards set by the animated shorts of its decade. One way that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' animation differs from its contemporaries is that it aims to be as life-like as possible. One technique that the movie uses to achieve this is rotoscoping. In this case, the scenes were recorded with live actors performing the actions, and the animators traced over the footage frame by frame to capture fluid, lifelike motion. This technique was primarily used for the characters of Snow White, the Evil Queen, Prince Charming, and the Huntsman.

For the other characters, more traditional techniques were used to capture their more cartoony qualities. This technique was chiefly used on the dwarfs themselves, the Evil Queen when she donned the disguise of the Old Peddler, and the woodland animals. While a combination of rotoscoping and more traditional animation techniques sounds like a terrible combination that's bound to distract audiences, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made it work in perfect harmony. While Snow White and the Evil Queen are easy to identify as the more traditionally human characters, the dwarfs still possess human qualities despite being given more exaggerated features and other cartoony qualities.

Artistic and Musical Excellence

Another way Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs uses its musical score to great effect is in heightening the tension and emotional impact of certain scenes. This is once again notable in the scene where Snow White escapes to the woods. Part of what makes this sequence such a terrifying experience is the juxtaposition of frightening images with fast-paced music to capture the anxiety Snow White is feeling while trying to survive harsh terrain. Snow White's escape through the nightmarish forest was so perfectly executed that it could be viewed as its own stand-alone horror short. There's a good reason why even those not too familiar with the movie know of this scene by reputation alone.

Modern Reflections

With the amount of work that went into producing a high-quality animated feature like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, there's no doubt that it stood the test of time as an artistic marvel, even with all the advances in animation technology. But despite the film's groundbreaking qualities, it does have some storytelling flaws. These shortcomings are due in part to the movie being a product of its time. What's more, the original fairy tale the movie is based on is itself problematic, at least under a modern lens.

Knowing that they were adapting a dark story, Disney and his team mitigated the more problematic aspects by repurposing or rewriting some scenes. For instance, instead of Snow White eating the dwarfs' food and making a mess of their home, the dwarfs are instead presented as untidy in the Disney film. This prompts Snow White to clean their house for them in exchange for letting her stay with them. This effectively makes Snow White's decision to become the dwarfs' housemaid her own instead of one that's imposed on her by the dwarfs like in the original story. While this change is understandable, it also reinforces the harmful and outdated stereotype that men are naturally messy, while women are more prone to cleanliness and housework. This was, unfortunately, the accepted gender norm of the time. The original fairy tale at least subverted these stereotypes in its own twisted ways.

The other problematic element the Disney film attempts to fix is the prince's introduction into Snow White's life. Instead of being a random stranger who falls in love with Snow White when she's dead, the prince is introduced in the opening act when he hears Snow White singing. Likewise, Snow White is presented as someone who yearns to be loved by a prince, which is not unusual for a teenage girl. While this is off to a good start, the Disney film unfortunately still misses the mark by not making two more crucial changes: making the prince closer in age to Snow White and featuring him more prominently in the story. As it stands and even momentarily ignoring the creepy age gap, Prince Charming is little more than an incidental character who's only important in the movie's beginning and ending. While these same issues were fortunately avoided in 1959's Sleeping Beauty, 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs could've still benefited from using a similar narrative approach.

Despite Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' narrative flaws, it's still a film that has aged surprisingly well, and is worthy of the praise it gets. Not only did it truly revolutionize animation as a medium, but it's thanks to the techniques Disney and his team pioneered while making the film that animation is now its own industry. There's no doubt that the upcoming live-action remake has its work cut out. It has no choice but to either meet the standards set by the original animated film, or better yet, surpass them. While the remake already missed a major opportunity to cast Little People actors as the seven dwarfs, from the trailer alone, it does look like it still wants to honor what came before while updating some aspects for a 21st Century audience. Whether it succeeds in building on the legacy of the animated classic while still being different enough to stand on its own remains to be seen. As for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it will always remain a wonderful classic, regardless of the remake's quality. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is available on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and can be streamed on Disney+.