Josie gave me Disney's Pinocchio for Christmas. I hadn't seen the movie since I had it on video when all the kids were little. I remembered that it was very funny and a spectacular piece of animation. My memory hadn't done it justice; it was better than I recalled.
So last week, I bought Snow White, the very first full length animated feature. This is the Mother of all Disney Movies.
Several things occurred to me while Josie and I watched it the other day, the first being that this was clearly made before the concept of "Disneyfying" a fairy tale had sprung forth from the marketing department. Snow White is a frickin'
scary movie.
In the first few minutes, the Evil Queen graphically describes to the Huntsman how she wants him to take the innocent girl out into the forest, murder her,
butcher her and bring back a TROPHY!!
In a box
.
"Jeeez!" Josie said "This is a
Disney movie?!" Hey. The Great Depression was a much more honest time than now. Shit happens. Kids should know this.
The second thing that struck me was how magnificently GORGEOUS the movie is.
Not knowing how an animated feature would be received, Disney and his crew pulled out all the stops to make this one a movie worth watching and over seventy years later not only is it unsurpassed, it's untouched.
This is like if Star Trek 2009 had come out in the 1930s and movie makers were still trying to figure out how they did it.
Specifically; every single background of Snow White is a richly detailed, beautifully executed water color painting. The composition of every single frame is perfect; hit pause anywhere in the movie and the screen is filled, corner to corner with beauty and interest yet it's so well done that nothing ever detracts from the main focus of what the story is telling at that particular moment.
Snow White herself is an education. The performance of this character, made of ink and paint, is better than many Oscar winners I've seen. Every moment is perfect, every movement she makes, every gesture, right down to her fingertips, adds to her personality. She has weight, mass and grace.
It's been over twenty years now since Beauty and the Beast wowed audiences and reminded them of how good animation can be. I remember people saying things like how stunning it was when Belle first appeared in her golden gown, how wonderful the computer generated background of the library and the ballroom were...
Let me go on the record; Belle is a galumphing oaf compared to Snow White and that ballroom is
nothing compared to the Dwarfs' diamond mine.
Don't get me wrong; I love all the Pixar movies. I love them because they are brilliant, well told and original stories
not because the CGI goes beyond hand drawn capabilities. Snow White proves that
nothing is beyond hand drawn capabilities. I've heard people say things like "Look at "Finding Nemo"; you couldn't do that by hand!" Really? In the first scene of Snow White, there's a shot looking up at her through the water of the wishing well that's better than any frame of Finding Nemo.
I'm aware of the fact that even if the studios could find anyone who draws like that anymore, it would take too long and be too expensive to produce a Snow White today but that's a very different thing from convincing yourself that CGI's quality is better.
Back before it became the all "House Hunters" all the time channel, HGTV used to have a show that featured a gorgeous, designer room and then demonstrated how viewers at home could copy the look of it for a fraction of the price. Does the Taj Mahal feature hand carved inset tile mosaic floors that cost a million dollars and took twelve years? You can get the same look with this laminate for three hundred bucks and it'll be in next week!
I'm not saying that Snow White is the Taj Mahal and everything else is a trailer park. Pinocchio is a masterpiece as well, and if you over look the Rite of Spring segment in Fantasia, it's almost perfect, too. The folks at Disney quickly figured out that they didn't have to be as elaborate as Snow White to produce a great animated movie. Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmations and Robin Hood are all great with very, very different looks to them.
I'm just saying that Snow White is the greatest animated work the world is ever likely to see.
That's all.
