There is a saying that every one of us has his 最喜爱的 迪士尼 movie, 最喜爱的 迪士尼 moment, and 最喜爱的 迪士尼 character. For a long time that was true for me too. And then, one day, I realized that the whole thing suddenly became complicated. Disney’s 列表 of masterpieces has grown over the last years to a point, where it would impossible for me to make a 最佳, 返回页首 ten 列表 of my favorites, never mind being able to pick one of them to be one which stands above them all. After all, can 你 really compare Dumbo, Fantasia, The Little Mermaid and The Emperor’s New Groove? Some of those 电影院 are as different as it gets, and picking one of them over another is like deciding if 你 prefer your evening 袍, 礼服 over your 最喜爱的 jeans. It all depends on circumstances in the end. So I have begun grouping the 电影院 together: The fairy tales, the package movies, the real-life mixed with 动画片 pictures, 电影院 based on 图书 and those based on original storylines.
Especially in regards on the Fairy-Tale movies, 迪士尼 often gets accused of using the same formula again and again and again. And while this is true in many aspects, 迪士尼 also developed the formula over the time. Looking now back on all the years spend with those movies, my view on them naturally has changed. And I admit I’m kind of sad that I can’t see them any longer with the eyes of a child. On the other hand, I now have a whole new appreciation for some aspects of those movies. But let’s take a look at Disney’s most successful formula.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is naturally the movie which started everything, and will always be remembered for this fact alone. Walt 迪士尼 bargained everything in order to realize his vision and Snow White became a huge success. But does it still hold up? Well, yes and no. As a child the scenes which mostly stuck to my head were the really scary and the really funny ones. This hasn’t changed much. I still smile about the antiques of the dwarfs, and I’m still suitable chilled when Snow White gets 迷失 in the woods and the evil 皇后乐队 undergoes her legendary transformation. But even as a child, I very much preferred Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella over Snow White. Looking at it now, I see why: The story. In the end, this one boils down to the most basic elements of the fairy tale. The characters are very bland and the only thing 迪士尼 added to the original story was a five 分钟 meeting between Snow White and the Prince and a lot of comic-relief. It’s not like the character 设计 is bad, quite the opposite: Snow White’s innocence is underlined in every way possible, the dwarfs got all defining characteristics (and the fitting names for them) and the evil beauty of the 皇后乐队 is impressive. But all those characters are reduced to this one characteristic. The only conflicted personality is the huntsman, but he vanishes at the beginning of the movie and we never learn what becomes of him.
It’s fairly obvious that Walt 迪士尼 was mostly interested to demonstrate what 动画片 could do, especially compared to live action movies. He chose Snow White specifically because the seven dwarfs would allow him to point of the advantages of his kind of filmmaking. His focus simply wasn’t on the story; it was on the visuals, on 展示 the audience things which couldn’t be done with real actors. It’s obvious that a lot of work and 爱情 went into those scenes. Even 由 today’s standard the 动画片 is impressive, and the scene in the woods as well as the transformation scene is still very effective.
What doesn’t hold up that well is the music. The style is a little bit dated, but that doesn’t change the fact that the melodies are likeable and catchy. The problem is the topic of most of the songs. There is the usual 爱情 song (and really, there is not one 爱情 song 由 迪士尼 which isn’t memorable), the “I want”-song (which boils down to Snow White waiting for her prince), and the iconic “Heigh-Ho” which introduces the dwarfs, but otherwise Snow White and the Dwarfs sing about such exiting things as cleaning up and one song which is deliberately utterly nonsensical (they even say so in the refrain).
Does this make Snow White a bad movie? Definitely not, but it ranges quite low on my personal 最喜爱的 list. And in a way, this is a good thing. It would have been very frustrating if 迪士尼 had never managed to surpass the very first masterpiece.
Especially in regards on the Fairy-Tale movies, 迪士尼 often gets accused of using the same formula again and again and again. And while this is true in many aspects, 迪士尼 also developed the formula over the time. Looking now back on all the years spend with those movies, my view on them naturally has changed. And I admit I’m kind of sad that I can’t see them any longer with the eyes of a child. On the other hand, I now have a whole new appreciation for some aspects of those movies. But let’s take a look at Disney’s most successful formula.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is naturally the movie which started everything, and will always be remembered for this fact alone. Walt 迪士尼 bargained everything in order to realize his vision and Snow White became a huge success. But does it still hold up? Well, yes and no. As a child the scenes which mostly stuck to my head were the really scary and the really funny ones. This hasn’t changed much. I still smile about the antiques of the dwarfs, and I’m still suitable chilled when Snow White gets 迷失 in the woods and the evil 皇后乐队 undergoes her legendary transformation. But even as a child, I very much preferred Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella over Snow White. Looking at it now, I see why: The story. In the end, this one boils down to the most basic elements of the fairy tale. The characters are very bland and the only thing 迪士尼 added to the original story was a five 分钟 meeting between Snow White and the Prince and a lot of comic-relief. It’s not like the character 设计 is bad, quite the opposite: Snow White’s innocence is underlined in every way possible, the dwarfs got all defining characteristics (and the fitting names for them) and the evil beauty of the 皇后乐队 is impressive. But all those characters are reduced to this one characteristic. The only conflicted personality is the huntsman, but he vanishes at the beginning of the movie and we never learn what becomes of him.
It’s fairly obvious that Walt 迪士尼 was mostly interested to demonstrate what 动画片 could do, especially compared to live action movies. He chose Snow White specifically because the seven dwarfs would allow him to point of the advantages of his kind of filmmaking. His focus simply wasn’t on the story; it was on the visuals, on 展示 the audience things which couldn’t be done with real actors. It’s obvious that a lot of work and 爱情 went into those scenes. Even 由 today’s standard the 动画片 is impressive, and the scene in the woods as well as the transformation scene is still very effective.
What doesn’t hold up that well is the music. The style is a little bit dated, but that doesn’t change the fact that the melodies are likeable and catchy. The problem is the topic of most of the songs. There is the usual 爱情 song (and really, there is not one 爱情 song 由 迪士尼 which isn’t memorable), the “I want”-song (which boils down to Snow White waiting for her prince), and the iconic “Heigh-Ho” which introduces the dwarfs, but otherwise Snow White and the Dwarfs sing about such exiting things as cleaning up and one song which is deliberately utterly nonsensical (they even say so in the refrain).
Does this make Snow White a bad movie? Definitely not, but it ranges quite low on my personal 最喜爱的 list. And in a way, this is a good thing. It would have been very frustrating if 迪士尼 had never managed to surpass the very first masterpiece.
