Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Walt Disney’s first animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs follows the title character (Adriana Caselotti) as she flees her evil stepmother (Lucille La Verne) and befriends a septet of hard-working dwarfs. It’s familiar subject matter that’s employed to predominantly pleasant and engaging effect, as the movie, which runs a brisk 83 minutes, boasts an appealing visual sensibility that’s heightened by its likeable characters and assortment of memorable moments – with the compulsively watchable atmosphere heightened by the inclusion of several catchy (and downright iconic) songs. And although the narrative is occasionally just a little too delicate and uneventful for its own good, with this particularly true of the repetitive stretch detailing Snow White’s efforts at cleaning the dwarfs’ home, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs builds towards an unexpectedly enthralling final stretch that ensures it ends on a completely satisfying note – with the end result a bonafide classic that does, on top of everything else, boast a refreshingly low-key sensibility (ie it’s not the frenetic, joke-heavy assault that tends to represent the animation genre these days).

***1/2 out of ****