This probably won’t be a long review, I didn’t think ahead of time how difficult reviewing something from 1937 would be until I started thinking about this.

First thing worth mentioning: I actually enjoyed watching this! I wasn’t expecting much, just a prototype of the Disney formula we’re still getting to this day (and that Disney’s made billions off of). And while yes, that’s exactly what it is, there’s much more personality in the characters than I expected. Especially in the titular character Snow White herself. She’s cheerful and pretty much emotes for everything. One hilarious moment is that when one of the dwarves, Grumpy, looks to not take a liking to her she outright mocks him for it. I did not expect this film to make me laugh but here we are.

The story here isn’t particularly deep, but I don’t know what films had deep stories in 1937. The Queen is told by a magic mirror that Snow White is the fairest one of all, so she (the Queen) formulates a plan to have Snow White killed. She sends her Huntsman to do it, but he cannot and instead warns Snow White about the Queen’s plan. Snow White meets some woodland creatures that lead her to the Dwarves cottage where she decides to just make herself at home.  The Dwarves do welcome her presence though (well, except for Grumpy at first) and we actually spend some time with them having fun and dancing. That scene is actually quite nice to see, you don’t often see characters get closer to one another like this in a Disney film anymore.

The Queen finds out where Snow White is, transforms into an old hag and creates a poison apple. She goes to a cottage and gets Snow White to eat the apple, which kills her. The Queen ends up getting struck by lightning though, ending her story. The Prince comes to kiss Snow White to wake her up, which breaks the spell of the apple and they live happily ever after.

Obviously not much of a story but it serves as a template for many if not all of the Disney princess fairy tales over the next century. But, in contrast my expectations were succeeded. It does have some outdated ideas (especially the kiss at the end waking up Snow White and Snow White’s “I’m so alone” mantra) but I keep feeling like I need to go back to “it’s 1937”. It’s also a shame the Queen is nameless, because she becomes a fun villain when she transforms into the old hag and makes the poison apple. I also feel like I haven’t really wrote about the Dwarves, but they’re all fun supporting characters (and see you see characters like Dopey all the time to this day as well).

The fact that this film is still an enjoyable watch 81 years later is very impressive. Sure the animation has been updated but everything still works overall.

Best Scene: The Queen’s transformation to the old hag is just fun.

Worst Scene: I cringed at the idea of Snow White just entering the Dwarves’ home and touching their belongings.

Final Thoughts: She’s the original princess. Even if it’s for pure historical reasons, this has to get a good grade. Maybe it could get an S on those merits alone but I can’t go that far.

Grade: A