Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Parent Review

Dad's Take

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs  needs no introduction. Unless you are under 3, haven’t paid attention to pop culture, or have never been to a Disney store, Disney’s Snow White is ingrained in people’s collective mind. And like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, Snow White is a part of the OG Disney Princess squad, which guarantees Disney will market the crap out of her.

Snow White is not monumental because of the amazing story (if we’re honest, it’s largely bland) or character development (Snow White and crew are about as flat as they get). Instead, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is monumental because it is the first feature length animated film that Walt Disney produced. Disney did for animation what Star Wars would later do for special effects: it set a groundbreaking precedent for how movies can be made and enjoyed.

That all said, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs doesn’t even come close to being a preferred film of mine. Snow White is insipid and vacant. The seven dwarfs are enjoyable enough, but they don’t represent a large enough appeal to make me want to go back and watch Snow White over and over. 

You also get the impression that Grumpy is a lot like Donald in Mickey and the Roadster Racers. He’s only so grumpy because he lives with a group of ass clowns. Maybe if the people around him displayed common sense, he’d be a bit happier. 

The Evil Queen is over the top evil and vain. Like Snow White, there is no depth to her character. And Prince Charming is about as interesting as cardboard box. 

Disney eventually did the characters more justice when they made them center stage in Once Upon a Time that aired on ABC until they rebooted it as part of their final season. But even in Once Upon a Time, the dwarfs were still largely useless and lacking depth as they walked around Storybrooke spouting off things like “No one steals from a dwarf.” Meanwhile, EVERYONE stole from them and pretty much got away with it until other, less useless characters, came to help. But I digress.

Still, Snow White is, in some ways, surprisingly less offensive when absurdly applying current cultural sensitivity to earlier works of fiction. Though you certainly won’t see people of different ethnicity and backgrounds represented, there are no blatantly obvious stereotypes that you find in other early works of Disney and other movie companies. The worst issue is that Snow White, like the rest of her OG Disney Princess crew, is a classic damsel in distress that needs a man to save her.

Sill, if you are the type of person to protest a 70+ year old work because it does not fit modern sensitivity, you will find little to protest in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

If you are watching with younger children or super sensitive snowflakes, there are some dark scenes in Snow White. For example, there is a “scary” forest. And the Evil Queen orders her Huntsman to bring back Snow White’s heart. There is also the scene where she poisons Snow White and then falls to her death. If your child can’t handle that, then they probably shouldn’t watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

But if you feel like watching a vacant princess idly prance around the forest while representing the classic damsel in distress, then you should definitely watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on Disney Plus. If you want to watch something with more depth to the princess and characters, you should try something more modern like Frozen or Moana.