This week’s featured film on the "Hit me with your best shot" series is one of the most important films in cinema. 1937’s "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was the first full-length animated feature in history. Although it’s far from my favourite of Disney’s animated classics, I still appreciate its importance in the studio’s canon. It’s a bit twee at times and Snow White herself is slightly irritating. It had been ages since I had seen this film and with 2 live action interpretations coming our way, it was inevitable that I compared them in this re-visit. I assumed that the animated version would be more light-hearted in the vein of "Mirror, Mirror", but there are certainly some sinister elements that are more in line with "Snow White and the Huntsman". For example, this children’s film includes the huntsman and his orders to return with Snow White’s heart! My favourite shot looks at the main source of the film’s darkness – The Evil Queen.
Click below for my favourite shot...
My favourite shot comes from the scene where the queen (in disguise) sets off to poison Snow White. On her way she pauses to taunt one of her previous victims. The evocative shot shows a skeleton unsuccessfully reaching for water. Quite heavy for a kids' flick don't ya think?! It’s easy to understand why this character was voted #10 on the American Film Institute’s top villains of all time.
Oooooh, I actually have the screen shot in a post, because I considered this one long and hard. I love how the Queen's lair is so dusty and --- well, diabolical and I started thinking who are these skeletons of? Who did she kill? Great choice.
ReplyDeleteat one point in the development of the story, the queen kidnapped the prince after his meeting with snow white and locked him in her liar. as she leaves for the dwarfs' cottage as the witch, she has an encounter with him and the skeletons were gonna have a dance number.
ReplyDeletethe animators never felt comfortable with how they were able to animate the prince, which is why there's so little of him. and the skeleton dance number was thought to stop the flow of the story too much. that's probably all for the best...
Wow, that skeleton dance would have been creepy!
ReplyDelete