Snow White: How Disney Plays with Roles | Big Joel
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- Опубліковано 28 гру 2017
- In this video essay, I take a close look at the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. It's a strange old movie, and it was interesting to see it again. This analysis centers on the idea that Snow White is fixated on roles, gender and otherwise. I also claim that the way Disney treats roles in this movie is quite different from the modern Disney approach.
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I’ve been seeing a lot of comments to the effect of “people don’t love snow white because she’s pretty, they love her because she’s kind to various things!” On one level, I think that’s fair enough. but within the film’s logic, snow’s beauty/obedience/passivity is the way that this kindness is displayed. From my perspective, her kindness isn’t an “active force” so much as it’s just an essential quality about her. Like beauty, she doesn’t express kindness so much as it is expressed through her.
your very INTGERESTING about this topic
But her kindness is where her help comes from. The animals like Snow and help her because she is kind to them during their introduction and the Dwarfs let her stay because of how kind she is. The conflict at the end of the film also comes from her kindness as that is what the Evil Queen knows she can manipulate,by playing the hurt granny she knows Snow will take pity on her even protecting her from the animals.
I didn't watch the animation but I guess it has different things from tale here and there. Idk if you read analysis on the tale itself but I think they are important because what represents what is bound to time and culture. And movie sets on the tale so it won't be fair to judge the movie on it's own.
I have limited knowledge but I know many old tales are simple storylines. Good vs evil and good mean beautiful while evil means ugly.
Anyway, I think you would like Kan Turali story from the Book of Dede Korkut. Kan Turali is a brave and masculine man who wants to marry a girl who is as brave as him. He finds a girl but his pride always creates a problem like in competition about beating 3 monsters to get the girl, he has hard time with camel, she gives a hint. But he doesn't want people to say "he got help from a woman" so he tries to beat without using the hint. Story mocks him a lot.
Yes interested in a series.
Please do Pinocchio and Dumbo!
I think the traits you point out aren’t contradictory, but rather, they reflect the enforced gender roles of the time period. Women were both infantalized and expected to cater to the needs of men. So Snow White is naive and gentle, thus needing protection from the male characters, but she’s also motherly enough to scold them into washing their hands. She’s the idealized version of femininity as perceived by Disney at the time-compliant, sweet, nurturing, domestic, etc... as you say, an object lacking in motivation.
When I read your comment I was like "Of course that's what's going on here! How did I not talk about this?" I think you're absolutely right. The relationship between Snow and the dwarves is unstable, and in some sense, it gets at the instability of gender roles, at least in the time the film was made. I don't think that my reading is incorrect, exactly. This section of the movie really does remind me of children playing house, picking up and dropping roles in a chaotic way. But what you're saying here should have almost certainly been a part of my video.
Big Joel Wait... you didn't know that? This is a classic example of the "two kinds of women" writing men perpetuated: 1. Cute, virgin wanna-make-your-babies girls and 2. Manipulative, sexualized older b*tches.
haha I guess i just didn't make the connection. At least it wasn't an explicit thought it my head.
Oh look... feminists theory... and it's still wrong.
Oh look… inevitable edgelord comment. :)
"...through a bright disposition" *as Snow White is shown lying on the ground sobbing*
relatable, tbh
Given the fact that she solved her problem of almost being killed by a hitman who was sent by her mother in law with a song, I'd still say she has a bright disposition.
"One has proper etiquette and the other is rude and mean" she also tries twice to kill a child, which I guess is pretty rude.
lmao
@@kijiji93 I ALMOST SPILLED MY WATER ON MY SCREEN!!!!!
The Evil Queen attempting to kill Snow White is far worse than rude; she's basically being a mean, deranged, murderous psychopath who's such a diva so bent on becoming the "fairest one of all" to the point that she even attempts to kill off any younger girl or woman whom is fairer than her, even if one of them is her own stepchild!
I mean there's just no class at all about going around murdering kids. The woman is, dare I say it...impolite!
@@e-122psi3 she’s the meanest, rudest, impolitest, bothersome, inconvenient, not pleasant, bad-mannered, classless lady I’ve ever heard of, if I do say so myself! Hmph!
When you think about it, Snow White shows a lot of the signs of being an abuse victim. We don't know much about her parents, but as you said it seems her stepmother has been in charge for a while and disrupted Snow White's position of power - the little she has, anyway. If the queen took a Mother Gothel approach to raising her, she could make Snow do whatever she wanted her to do. Worse, she's keeping her hidden from the world because of Snow's beauty and leaves her in rags. She's neglected and isolated. Being trapped within the castle walls and constantly manipulated by her guardian, Snow White takes longer to emotionally develop and fluctuates between roles she wishes she had seen and roles she wishes to play someday. When you think of it that way, you can really only hope the prince is a good man who will help Snow White self actualize.
I've heard they're going to make a live action remake of this movie and while some may cry blasphemy, I'm personally ready for a new crack at the story from the Mouse house... just as long as they don't try to make Snow an action girl. ;)
Snow white will probably be an action girl...It's a conundrum these days. I do stand by characters that aren't always the action hero and have softer personalities, but it's hard to pull off a female character like that...We also don't see enough male characters that are that way , but if you do that now with male characters you'll be told you are neutering their masculinity.
@@eartianwerewolf the protagonist's will to succeed is often what drives the plot. Maybe one factor in why we see less 'soft' personalities in the hero/heroine role is that it is difficult to pull off a character that does not have a willful and strong personality, but is still not passive.
Of course there's society's expectations over gender roles to be considered as well. There is definitely an intentional social agenda behind the proliferation of female protagonists with strong/willful, even defiant personalities. And we still expect our men to be willful and action oriented.
Off the top of my head, some protagonists with 'softer' personalities include: Marge from Fargo, Simba (to some extent, though he's kind of bland), Wallace from Wallace and Gromit.... yeah, its hard to think of more.
it's gonna be mediocre garbage that adds unnsecessary plot points and "modern sensibilities", to drag out the run time wich misses the point of the original story *(beauty and the beast 2017)* just like every Disney live action remake ever made anyway.
ugh, i wish people would stop going to see them already, and give them the "live action anime" treatment these "movies" deserve.
and don't give the "but disney movies were based on other source material too" argument, yeah they were based on books, but it's not just the same fucking movie without any real passion put into it.
also i don't care who you are if you feel genuine excitement for """"""""""live action"""""""""" the Lion King movie, you are supporting everything wrong with modern Hollywood and have no self respect.
ok maybe i'm exagerating a little bit, but you have to be a special kind of stupid to be excited to see the lion king, with realistic emotionless animals, that of course aren't going to be real actors (so it's basically a CGI movie), and doesn't have "be prepared"!
I HATE THESE FUCKING REMAKES CAN YOU TELL?!? ok now i'm gonna chill good day...
Oh they're definitely going to put a 'girl power' spin on it, like Disney does, even though I think it's usually worse. Check out Lindsay Ellis' video on Woke Disney, she's right on the money there.
I can't help it, everytime he says Snow without the White part, or I see it written in a comment, my mind automatically thinks of President Snow from Hunger Games. Which makes this review very amusing.
Fun fact about this movie. Snow White, the Prince, and the Queen were all rotoscoped which is why they look so out of place design wise from the animals and dwarves. Originally their art style was supposed be a bit more cartoony like the dwarves and done without the aid of pre-recorded humans, but since animation was still very experimental at the time and most animators weren't sure how to animate realistically proportioned humans properly Walt had no choice but to use rotoscope in order to make sure the characters looked good under the time frame and budget he'd been allotted.
wait the dwarves weren't rotoscoped? I had no idea.
No. It was primarily Snow White, the Prince, and the Queen. That's why the dwarves, animals, and the Queen in her hag form have more squash and stretch and exaggeration. You can see their shape and form break when they perform more extreme movements. Rotoscoping was saved primarily for the three humans as Walt really wanted them look good.
That is a bach of half-truth BS...
Seems the channel deals in a lot of that and draws a lot of it in.
Not a fan of animation history when it pisses you off, huh?
I was under the impression that they weren't directly rotoscoped, but that the rough rotocope was used as a reference for the final animation.
Disney has always used live-action refernces and rotoscoping as development tools, but I'm not aware of any of it actually making it into the finished movies.
Snowwhite makes the best out of whatever situation she is in and treats all creatures with compassion and respect. That’s pretty cool
did you watch the video
@@fairyeater The thing about this movie is, it came out after the war ended so people were just used to being affected by things out of their control. There's a whole video essay I watched about this. Basically, people didn't need a heroine who was trying to find herself because people were dying. When there's a war going on, you have to put aside any personal struggles you have aside to help contribute so you don't die. Snow White was able to adapt to her situations easily in order to survive. Obviously, this does NOT excuse all the issues with the characters in the film; however, it gives perspective to what kind of heroine she's supposed to be. All the heroes from the 90s were able to focus on personal struggles because there was no war and people felt no pressure to contribute in any way, now people were just focusing on the advancement of society.
@@catherinew.5878 What war? It came out almost 20 years after World War 1 and right before World War 2, so what's your frame of reference? Saying it came out after the war ended seems weird when it came out so long after the last major conflict America was involved in.
@@SonicTheFrenchHorn i know what video they're talking about, but it wasn't after the war, it was the Great Depression.
edit: the video is by user there will be fudd, called something like "why snow white is still the strongest disney princess"
I thought snow whites whole thing was that she was a symbol for innocence? And that’s the reason she was spared by the huntsman and the dwarves? Since she’s so young and sweet
Tamara Bars. is everything good dude ?
@wings of a butterfly Ok then.
Can someone still be innocent at 14? 🧐
@@RebeccaJ720 In 1937, more likely than not. Think of a 6yr. old of today.
My Mom, age 83, told me this about her grandma:
"She had 11 children before she learned what "caused them"." Of course that would be way before 1937. It just goes to show how closed mouthed they were in generations past about "worldly knowledge".
@@lawr5764 oh my god that sounds like a nightmare
Right before the huntsman spared her, she helped a baby bird find its parents. He couldn't bear to kill her because of her goodness. It wasn't because she was pretty! I get so tired of hearing this.
me too. For some reason nobody can understand that disney princesses AREN'T just pretty people who depend on princes to save them and all that. Being an extremely NICE, CARING, person IS a personality.... It's so frustrating! Also.... did anyone ever think that maybe people don't want to kill snow white because... she's a human?
that's one tall 14 year old
Valentine well the body model they used was the one of a woman so there is that...
Sugar Venom
You're wrong on that. When the Evil Queen orders the Huntsman to take Snow White somewhere to kill her, he immediately objects to it. That gives the implication that he wouldn't do such a thing.
Isn't he supposed to known her since forever? That adds an extra emotional layer there
I think you're discounting a few things. One is that, like with the real life incident of people who stole Mister Rogers' car returning it, it was her kindness to the baby bird that caused the Huntsman to not kill her and to be ashamed he was going to. Another thing is that cleaning, because she was made to do it, was a skill she had. She took that skill she was forced to have into her own hands and used it to make the dwarfs' home look nice, and it earned her a place to live where she could be protected from the queen for a while. Completely discounting how she affected their lives and made them better through cleaning, cooking, and singing and dancing, on her own terms, does her a disservice. This is my favorite Disney princess, and I can't agree with an assessment that she is only acted upon. I honestly think it really is about who she is that the Hunstman spared her. I like how they clearly show her fear when she goes through the forest and how she stays positive and looks for practical solutions like cleaning their house to try and get a place to stay. Animals like her and strangers like her because she radiates trustworthiness. The dwarfs had the power to make her leave their house, and they weren't great at cleaning or hygiene which were things she knew about, but they become friends who have a social exchange. There does't have to be a clear authority for them to have that social exchange. Agreed, about the possible sexualization, though, which isn't okay.
Yes! Thank you! She's kind and selfless, that's why the animals, huntsmans and dwarfs like her. She also values work and earning her bread and board, taking the horrible way she was raised and turning it into a positive.
As for the sexualization, it's seriously turned down from the original. Some versions for the fairy tale had Snow sleeping in the dwarfs' beds *with them*.
Yea they think she's pretty but we all go by looks but it's more than that; she brought them happiness and love (like a family)
Unfortunately, the original book/tale didn't include much of that... She was sweet, and kind, but only as a consequence of her beauty. Her beauty came first, and then the wonderful traits that we all aspire to have, as an afterthought in order to justify her inherent goodness.
This was usually a trend for fairy-tales... As a child, I adored them, but now that I come to think of it, they really pose beauty as the key to being "good" and "pure".
@bishes be mad lol why?
She did have a set role, and she worked around it as much as she could. Which is what makes her amazing! Despite all the circumstances, she made it through
3:43-3:46 The huntsman ALSO sees Snow White's kindness... That means he realizes just what a monster someone would have to be in order to *truly* hate her. Snow White demonstrates an extraordinary gift with animals--*while* sympathizing with a baby bird who (seemingly) lost its patents! The fact Snow White remained so sweet and kind after everything she'd hitherto experienced is nothing short of miraculous...
Also, the Dwarves thought she was a dangerous mythical beast... When they saw that she was a person instead, her beauty was just a side note; her being *human* was sufficient reason in and of itself not to kill her.
Exactly. Also, Wreck it Ralph is an odd movie to use as an example of characters being able to escape their roles in life because this is actually one of the few Disney movies in which the protagonist accepts the role he had at the start of the movie at the end of it.
That's why my godchild considers Snow her favorite Disney Princess, because Snow White can easily befriend anyone and takes the time to help others, especially animals. I personally like the scene with the baby bird a lot and it's her favorite scene (mine are Grumpy's scenes though cause I like his character a lot) I know Snow White's not deep or complex character but I like her being the Disney Princess with the best way with animals.
I never thought that the dwarfs didn’t kill her because she was pretty. I always thought they imagined it was a bear or a scary animal there that could hurt them and they were prepared to fight it. But they stopped because it was a person.
Me too
It's based on a very old fairytale, so it can best be looked at archetypally. I think we apply a modern day lense to stories such as his when we should consider it from its original perspective hundreds of years ago. People weren't dumb or archaic then. Their mode of thinking seemed to serve them well, and is no less true today. Fairytales endure for a reason. I think there is much to learn from them, but we're blind to it because we apply our modern day sensibilities to them. Also, Walt Disney was still learning at this stage. This was his first full length film.
Hmm, how should we go about divining this perspective from hundreds of years ago?
Well, science definitely was not ingrained into the European worldview hundreds and even thousands of years ago. To them the world was a place of phenomena. They had a phenomenological perspective. They told stories as a way to communicate deeply useful information. That's where myths and fairy tales come from. They compounded the world into symbols. Stories were not a model of the objective, material world, but a guide to action. This old perspective is still present in religion, such as Orthodox Christianity, which is heavily symbolic. Heck, all religions are deeply symbolic. The ancient perspective never went away, it just isn't the natural mode of thinking anymore. We built our civilizations on it. It's our heritage. We live it out. It's present in our modern stories, we just can't recognize it because we inhabit a more scientific mindset.
I guess I would point out two things. First, we ought to remember that while the fairy tale is old, the film is relatively recent--made around 70 years ago for a contemporary American audience. Second, although we can point to a set of sort of vague things that defined the so-called ancient mindset, there is not an exterior to the act of interpretation. If we received a document that told us somebody's account of snow white, we would then be in a position of interpreting that document, which might prove difficult. Moreover, finding out how historical people thought about things is notoriously difficult. And while various texts can provide us some insight, we have to remember that this story was recited, retold, and enjoyed by many peoples--There is no cohesive "snow white," no one way it was understood. And even if we could read the minds of our ancestors, hear how and why they told the story, we still wouldn't have all the answers that I'm looking for. Because snow white isn't just their story, it's our story, for us to understand and interpret.
I agree, the movie has its quirks. Singing dwarves and dancing forest animals teehee. But it runs parallel to the "original" fairy tale. Of course the tale comes in variations, but they all revolve around a central theme. The central theme is really what I'm getting at. We can always interpret anything in an infinite amount of ways, but they are, of course, not all equally valid. I also do not know what you mean by "exterior to the action of interpretation". I do not think an individual can have his own account of Snow White. It isn't something that happened, and you cannot make it your own, your own account. You said it yourself. This story was recited and retold. It is a work of the collective imagination, and is part of the collective drama of mankind. It is everyone's story. It is a story that has been extracted over many, many years. There is a central thread, or theme that makes "Snow White" Snow White across all its variations. It is a pattern extracted over time and across variations into the Brothers Grimm version we know best. This story has been boiled down to an essence, and it is the story the movie is based on. The characters and events are symbolic and archetypal. That is the beauty of myth and fairy tale. They are collective works across generations handed down through action and ritual. They have an archetypal underpinning that speaks to something rooted deeply, deeply in us. It's what makes them so compelling. They can always be interpreted in a multitude of ways, but the central symbolic theme always stays. It should always be acknowledged. Am I being clear? I've never had an internet conversation before. This is quite fun!
My point isn't so much that there is no non-valid interpretation of the story or the movie. It's that our interpretation shouldn't be foreclosed on by the idea that we have to stick with whatever function the text originally had. That is to say, even as the film works with an old story, and even as that story might have some connection to our collective imagination, we can still reread and re-understand how the film works: Not what it meant to people in the past, but what it means to us now.
Ultimately, I think that an over-reliance on traditional interpretation gives the authors of a work (or its original interpreters) too much authority over its performance.
All that said, I don't think my interpretation of snow white runs so far off course from the archetypal read that you seem to want to give it. Also, I think you're being real clear, internet conversations are fun
Hey everybody, I was thinking about making this the first in a series of videos about the Disney golden age. Is that something you'd be into? If you hate Disney and hate me and would rather die than see another video like this happen, now's your chance.
I'm very interested
Any video from this channel would be amazing :D But videos you make on completely "different" subjects are way more interesting for me. Kind of like what you said about Pixar sequels. A Disney golden age series is great but if It's gonna prevent you from uploading even more interesting videos, I think I'd rather watch those instead.
Big Joel
I would really love to see analyses of early Disney movies. I'm not really connected to any of them on a personal level other than "Lady and the Tramp" or "The Fox and the Hound" (are those golden age or later?). But I've been fascinated with them on an animation and/or cultural level.
P.S. On a tangent, has the color of Aurora's dress ever bothered you? I mean, there's the whole thing about how she spends most of the movie in blue, but she's always marketed in pink to make room for Cinderella's blue (even though her in-movie dress is silver). But honestly, I've always felt that Aurora's dress should have been purple. Her eyes are already violet, and it would resolve the pink vs blue debacle.
+ Siev Hmm this is a good point. I guess it comes down to the extent to which the following golden age Disney movies are different from each other.
+ Raqui jar You know, I've never noticed her eyes before. But now that you mention it, they are a little strange.
i like this video but i'm sorta surprised at some of the analysis. snow white isn't saved because she's beautiful on the outside, she's beautiful on the outside because she's worth saving. in other words her outer beauty is meant to be a reflection of her inner beauty. disney shows this inner beauty through her kindness to animals. back in 1937 people didn't even think their dogs had consciousness there was a bright line between "beasts" and man. so snow white being kind to animals or the little people she encounters is a way for disney to show this. also in terms of the step mother this follows. you say it's strange that someone obsessed with beauty would choose to become ugly but the point of making this change permanent, again is to reflect the ugliness of her soul. it's a pretty consistent theme throughout disney movies--pretty people good/ugly people bad. you also say she and snow white are the same in that they have no power to change their roles, but i am not sure that this is true. the step mom seems to have full agency, in fact her decisions and actions are what drive the entire story. while snow white is acted upon the step mother shapes the world we see through her actions. so in what way are they both equally trapped in their roles? because the step mom was always going to age? perhaps but again she seems to be the only character (maybe other than the huntsman) who's able to make decisions that shape the world around them. also she has magic so i'm not totally sure her aging was inevitable...ok sorry this got so long. good video, def got me thinking! :)
Ok but… Snow White has a personality! She is brave, she just discovered that she has no home, she went into a terrifying looking forest, she learned that her only family wants to murder her and yet within minutes she wipes away her tears… apologizes for being afraid, looks for a way to “start over” her encounter with the animals and puts on a brave face while in search of a new home.
She is hard working, despite the servant work being forced upon her, she was shown to be efficient with her chores, she even cleaned the house for the dwarves all while never minding the work that had to be put into such a task. Also she doesn't take her blessings of finding shelter in the dwarfs' cottage for granted, instead she decides to work for her residence.
She is playful and somewhat sassy, as she takes advantage of Grumpy's sour disposition and initial dislike for her by teasing him.
She is assertive, once she takes residence in the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs, Snow White takes control of the household. She furthered her authority by giving the dwarfs a designated bedtime, as well as persuading them to wash in order to eat dinner.
Most of all she is kind, her kindness guides her through her the hardships of her life.
It is with her kindness that she befriends the animals as well as the Dwarfs and charms the prince. It is also her kindness that saves her life… the hunter didn’t kill Snow White because she is kind and innocent. Yet it is her kindness and compassion towards others that also end up being her down fall, she was kind to the witch who just ended up being her step mother in disguise.
As you can see Snow White is brave, hard-working, childlike, assertive, optimistic and kind.
I'm tired of hearing Snow white does nothing but cleaning and be pretty. She was forced to clean his own home for many years, she was a servant, she had no parents. She is someone who's been through a lot of abuse for being so young, and for her to be so kind and empathetic is something to admire, it's what makes her so special, her physical beauty just adds to those traits. The Huntsman doesn't kill her because she is talking to a bird she thinks lost his parents, it's not just because she's pretty, it's because of her innocence and pureness. The same with the dwarves, first, they think it is a monster sleeping in their beds, when they see it is actually a girl, they decide not to obviously, again, it's not just because she's pretty. If she was mean and rude she wouldn't have received the love from the dwarves. The dwarves fall in love with snow white and want so badly to protect her because she changed their lives for good, she made them extremely happy, and it's why they decide not to bury her, it's the emotional attachment they have to her. Yes, the text says she was beautiful even in death, but beautiful doesn't necessarily mean physical beauty, and most of the time it doesnt mean that, there's a huge difference between saying someone is pretty and saying someone is beautiful, she was a beautiful person inside out.
And you say that ''What allows her to go from the start point to the end point it's not something that comes from her'' that is false. Although what triggers the conflict are the queen's actions, snow white's personality is what allows her to go through this, it is her way of being what makes the movie flow basically. Like I said, had she been a different type of person, maybe a spoiled brat or just a bad person, it would have been completely different. It is Snow white's kindness and empathy what makes the huntsman not kill her and it is what makes the dwarves let her stay in their house, she obviously plays a huge part in the way things turn out for her. It's just like in life, your outlook and attitude play a big part in the way things turn out for you even though you may not realize it.
It's just insane to say Snow White doesn't have a personality and that she just cleans and wants to date.
Up until just a few decades ago, male psychology was the norm and female psychology was the deviant. It really does bother me that if you're not a masculine, aggressive character, then you're not much. Even though going through abuse without becoming just bad a person as the abuser is a huge thing that many people cannot do. I wonder if part of it is the connection to something benevolent like nature/the animals that allows them to separate themselves from the abuse, and if so then it would be great to see how the princesses came into relationship with nature. Or just more of how they live through it.
There is another youtube video about Cinderella that really elaborates well on how strong a character she is to live through abuse.
👏👏👏👏👏
This dude just wants to find things to be cynical about
Saurr truee
I disagree that Snow White lacks agency to a degree. Once the Dwarves know who she is, she is easily able to get them to do as SHE wants. She very much becomes a mother-figure to them, kind, but assertive. Even small things like telling them to wash their hands, they do it, because she tells them to, it's clear the way they act around her she is the authority figure in the home now.
I guess her clout of being the princess also helps her have more assertiveness in the house. It goes to show that Snow White is also capable of being a good leader to her kingdom.
@@Wizard608 Exactly, people who crap on Snow White forget she was basically the authority figure of the house soon as she asserts herself. Being domestic does not equal being weak.
@@PlanetZoidstar true. Because if domestic is weak, then try telling that to all the housewives and mothers who stay at home.
It might have something to do with being made in 1937, where roles in society were pretty cut and dry. I like it, and it’s satisfying to see a simplistic movie. And it was a masterpiece in its time because film making was new. Versus nowadays where you have to come up with something unique or ELSE.
Yeah, I definitely think that the time period played a big part in this movie. I sort of wanted to discuss the culture surrounding this movie, but I ended up not including it.
"I sort of wanted to discuss the culture surrounding this movie, but I ended up not including it."
Yea... you made yourself look stupid enough in the video with the amount of gender studies feminists theory trash... why include more?
The culture surrounding this movie was one of sheer drive to move animation forward and make the public see it as a high art form... but yea... why don't you talk about how men and women aren't different instead and insert a bunch of feminist BS into a time period beyond your tiny little internet warped mind...
Did we watch the same video? Because this video seems to be more about outside forces shaping their destiny vs them taking it into their own hands? And he doesn't even crap all over Snow White's character 'she rolls with the punches, treats people well'. Plus, he talks about the weirdness of Snow White and the
Dwarves relationship? Plus he related it to cultural shifts and how our attitudes about who we are have changed? It's not just all 'gender studies blah blah blah' though it has that in it , sure.
You do know that the idea of self alters through history right ? And that our environment can change that? Right? I mean we didn't always think of 'I' the same way we do now. Man, you need to go study some philosophy.
Well, this is the first full length cartoon, so at the time it was pretty unique
Big Joel Moana is pretty much as un-unique as it gets outside of the setting. It's really enjoyable in part because of how simple it is.
I believe the term you were looking for in this video is "narrative causality". It's a term described by the late author Terry Pratchett, which refers to the concept that once a particular narrative is set in motion, all the actors within the story are placed into specific roles that are inescapable (for the most part). However, these roles can still be played around with to affect the outcome of the story. For example, Snow White is always going to be the princess who must be rescued, but her actions dictate how the rescue will be carried out. Had Snow White been a spoiled brat who demanded the dwarves follow her bidding, the dwarves could have kicked her out and Snow White could have come across the witch while lost in the forest. Or one of the dwarves could have been a prince himself, and it's the dwarf prince that revives and marries Snow White, not the human prince. Or the witch could have used her evil magic to transform herself to look like Snow White and then claimed the real Snow White is an imposter who must be executed.
It's interesting when you see it like this, that roles in society are so well-defined (for good and ill) in earlier works, and that the base assumption in later works is that your role in life/society is entirely up to you, which isn't necessarily the case for most people in the world. We tend to think very individualistically these days, even when most people don't raise beyond or fall below their starting circumstances by all that much, even (or especially) in the U. S. It would be interesting to see a modern Disney take on a character who finds happiness within a pre-determined role in society without pandering. I think Cinderella does it as well as any, where she has agency and escapes bad circumstances, but never wants to necessarily escape her own place in society.
I agree with you, it would be amazing to see a modern Disney film that was less invested in characters agency and being uncomfortable in their prescribed roles. It would just be so peculiar to watch.
I think in the 90s Disney movies, it was kind of like that...Well they wanted more, but they ended up finding their own way to fulfill what society wanted out of them, if that makes sense? Belle still becomes a wife, Ariel is still a princess, so is Jasmine, Mulan goes back home after bringing honor to her family etc. It's just they found their path to doing it, instead of letting society tell them how it should be done.
Wreck it Ralph is a good example of a character learning to be content with pre-determined roles. At the end of the movie, Ralph isn't a hero, he's still the villain of the game but he learns that shouldn't define who he is as a person even if he can't change his role in society. At the end of the movie this even becomes Ralph's mantra: "I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me."
Snow's relationship with the dwarfs, as you described it, reminds me of the relationship of Peter Pan with the Lost Boys.
They are also playing house in the forest and even though Peter rejects the idea of growing up, he needs Wendy to play the role of "the mom", the movie establishes the children need a slightly older child to read them stories and sing them to sleep.
I wonder how they are going to handle the live action version of this movie and if they're going to make any big differences to the characters.
The Disney version is an accurate adaptation. But in the Grimm version everyone has way smaller roles, the queen disguises herself and tries to kill Snow White three times instead of once, Snow White is in that death-state for about 5 years or something and she doesn't meet the prince until his men accidentally drop the glass coffin causing the piece of poisoned apple to get out of her throat (because she literally choked to death instead of being poisoned). And the queen has a miserable ending as well. Dancing on hot iron shoes until she drops dead.
As a film student, these videos are golden. I don't know why you don't have more people binging on your content.
Because it's filled with post-modernist, gender studies feminist theory. Which is not only unsubstantiated nonsense... it's patently stupid and subtly evil.
Most people don't buy into this "OMG THE EVIL PATRIARCHY!! THERES NO BIOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN!! AND IF YOU RECOGNIZE THE FACT THAT THERE IS, YOU'RE AN EVIL WOMAN HATING BIGOT!!!"... because it's evil, sexist, conspiratorial garbage that demonizes reality.
@@waterheater5853 you're clueless
@@waterheater5853 I love your name because it perfectly matches the level of conversation you seem to be capable of.
Assuming that maybe Snow is in fact meant to be a “mother,” that would mean as far as the house goes, she’s in charge. Mopping and sweeping would also mean encouraging the dwarves to be orderly and clean. Meanwhile outside the house, dwarves would have the most say in earning for the house and Snow’s safety. Which would make sense, considering a single mother and her grown son may have had the same dynamic in 1937. He would recognize his mother had some authority, but that he was still a man and needs to take charge.
The only reason her ugly transformation is permanent is because she dies before she can go back and undo it. Nothing in the movie implies that she wouldn't be able to turn back.
I feel like critizisers of Disney movies never read the original fairy tales. In the original stories, the dwarfs' house is very clean, and in payment for hiding with them, her job is to keep it clean. Moral = offer something in return for hospitality. When Snow White is tricked to eat the apple, the moral is = even the most unassuming looking person can have bad intentions. Snow White does not die, she falls into a deep sleep. That is why the dwarfs don't bury her, but put her in a glass coffin and keeps guard over her. When the prince passes, he offers to help. He is the Prince, he has the best help out there. Moral = trust authority. When the coffin rattles on the sleigh, the apple piece becomes unstuck and Snow wakes up. Moral = even dire situations can have logical solutions. No kiss btw. Snow white gets to marry the prince. Because she was a good person, good things happened to her. And a marriage to a prince would be considered a comfortable life back then. Finding your own way and staking out your own life wasn't much of a thing.
So the real story is full of moral for children. I hate how we today look back at our ancestors and our own history as something negative. Everything they did lead up to our morality today. Arrogance and lack of knowledge.
It is also good to remmeber that ancients tended to use hyperbole as a quiding tool to make a point. While there was dire warnings and denounces for evil, it was not like they weren't able to find redemption or forgiveness as desirable.
Survivality was an important factor and it was worth it to make precautions to halt the chaos, redemption was there but it was treasured and people didnt want folks to misuse forgiveness.
What a fascinating breakdown of the themes of Snow White and early Disney and the society present in the 30's in general. In a sense, the modern Disney formula of protagonists breaking away from their established roles wouldn't be possible without these early films establishing those roles! I'd never realised that before, but it really shows Disney playing the long game and being able to create films that are relevent and feel relevent becuse of other films that came generations before.
This is the most interesting Revolutionary Girl Utena analysis on UA-cam.
The movie holds up just fine. It's the first movie and it's obviously going to be held in what the current roles of the time had. Snow White does have a personality and she is a lovable character. For the time this was a great Heroine and was more than most in other animated things where they were just one note/annoying (Olive Oil from Popeye stands out as this for me). The movie is still a masterpiece and shouldn't be looked out from modern sensibilities and current trends. The archetype of the passive female hadn't become so commonplace that it was unprogressive at the time so the movies released during that time period shouldn't be treated as if they don't hold up because they didn't update female characters to the same extent as the Disney Renascence movies and current ones did.
There's a part of me that has always been enamored with Snow White's level of complete chill. She's weirdly my favorite Disney princess and it's hard at times for me to really put a finger on why. The fantasy of being like Snow White is so appealing to me, to have such a Zen like ability to roll with all the punches, to adapt to any situation.
I think one key is that often in modern Disney movies, the villain often has a plan that the main character is intruding on, while in Snow White, the main character IS the target of the main plan, and the side characters, the Dwarfs are intruding on it. It is perhaps why they seem the most colourful and active characters in the movie while Snow White feels a bit like a likeable "Macguffin".
The animation is so beautiful for such a long time ago.
How can you compare the original Disney films, made in the 1930s/40s, to the films made 60 years later that are obviously very indicative of the time period lol
Hmm that's an interesting question. I guess I think looking at this movie gives us an interesting perspective on the way the culture that made it represented agency and roles, and that by comparing it to more contemporary films, we can understand that culture even better.
ok, that makes sense. Studying animation as part of my visual media degree at the moment and things like this make me think throughly about wether media shapes society or society shapes media. Or rather, how much one influences the other and how much
also I love your film analysis videos, please keep making more!
@@tjjones33 Hey if you haven't already because i know this is a common essay to read and this comment is two years ago lol but check out Oscar Wilde's essay "the decay of lying" it's short and well written and answers just that question of art v nature/society and how they inform one another.
Prince JellyFish thanks Prince! I’ll check it out
The fact she is 14 made the "her childhood is over line" sound more uncomfortable then it was meant to be. I know it was just the time it was set in but it's still...weird. I mean even at 18 you kind of still have growing up to do. I'm sure there is a case to be made for being forced to grow up kick starting your adulthood but is your brain really grown up or do you really need those extra years to really be ready to be a adult?
I thought she was caring in that way because she wanted to be the opposite of the queen. I think she's motherly and selfless towards everyone because that is how she's always wanted to be treated. The movie is definitely an product of its time and her motherly nature is exaggerated, but I don't think its offensive. My mom makes me think of snow white, she's caring and family oriented, she keeps her house clean because it makes her feel happy and comfortable. Snow White cleaned the house because she is a clean person, and thought that if she did nice things maybe whoever lived there would let her stay. The queen is evil and beautiful, but even the huntsman isn't swayed by her beauty because she is evil and instead he chooses not to kill snow white because she is kind and pure, its her kindness that makes her beauty rival that of the queen's..
That bye at the end was so cute lol keep up the good work!
In terms of characters being emblematic of their roles as opposed to unique, fully-formed people, I've always noted that no one in this movie really has a name. They are "The Evil Queen", "The Huntsman", and the prince is literally just "Charming". Even "Snow White" is more just a description of her appearance than a name, and likewise, every dwarf is named after a single descriptor (except maybe "Doc", but again, that's a job). So yeah, I'd agree that no one in this movie is an individual, but rather a personification of the role they play in the story.
I see that other commenters have touched on this, but--this was a great analysis of how Snow White works as a story in the modern day! And I think you're really hitting on something in regards to the roles being portrayed. But if you want to look at what the story WANTS to communicate, I think a comparison and contrast with other works from the period would be helpful! There was a lot unique about Snow White (especially from an animation perspective) but it was a fairy tale that already existed. How did others at the time depict the story of Snow White? What were the unique story elements of this film? That could maybe enlighten us on what the movie intended with its story choices.
The topic of characters' agency in pre-1950s works vs modern works is a good one though. The way we tend to interpret and criticise storytelling now (3-act structure, character motivations, empathy for characters, all that good stuff) doesn't seem to always hold up for stories from other eras. What would be "bad storytelling" nowadays may have been a great story back then. So have we just refined the art of storytelling and gotten better at it? Or have the standards shifted, more or less arbitrarily, to a focus on relatability and emotional connection rather than imparting a moral/recounting an adventure/putting the world in balance? I guess that's not really the point of this video, but this video did make me ask those questions!
keep in mind that this is the first full length animated feature. The concept of expanding a story for animation from short films to a full 3 act story is already hard enough to crack. On top of that, yes, snow white's personality is influenced by the limited worldviews the society have at the time. So to anyone who judge this movie based from the lens of standards that we adopt today is wholly unfair. If it weren't for Snow white none of the nice things we have today will be possible; therefore i always think it is imperative that we pay the respect that this movie wholly deserves.
Even The little mermaid has been criticized today for the protagonist being obsessed with a man and that film was only released in 89. But if you really go through the perspective of the time, Ariel is already a huge step compared to the earlier princesses for being more spunky and opinionated. As to the problem of her giving up her voice in exchange for being with a man, that material is from the original fairytale itself and the world back then, fortunately, is not as sensitive and politically correct like today.
In my opinion, most Disney films today have become too "safe" and "preachy". They care more about what message they're trying to convey and not trying to offend anyone at the expense of the story. While people has always criticized Disney films back then for always ending with the prince getting the princess, I will say that Disney films nowadays are always about going on a quest to prove themselves and to save the world, and yeah that formula is getting boring to me.
It was Disney's full length animated picture, but not the first in general.
@@ErickSoares3 it is the first. Unless you can give me evidence of another made before snow white
@@nathanielsantoso2173 "El Apostol" (1917), "Sin Dejar Restros" (1918), "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (1919)
You are missing *so* much. The characters display about as much personality as characters in any other movie from the period.
First, Snow White. The huntsman spared Snow White not just because she's pretty but because she's kind and innocent, so what she does is very important at that point. The dwarfs didn't know what was upstairs in their beds and *of course* they stopped when they found out it was a young woman. They remained uncertain for a while, especially Grumpy, but her kindness won them over. Again, her actions. She displays inner strength by getting herself out of the fear and depression she fell into after learning the queen wanted her dead and reassuring the woodland creatures. The glass box is straight from the original fairy tale and she wouldn't have been revived if not for the relationship she developed with the prince, which we see part of at the very start of the film. If she wasn't a good person, she wouldn't have gotten that happy ending.
Second, the wicked queen. What's so odd about her remaining ugly? It's called consequences. The animals Snow White befriended warn the dwarfs she befriended who rush to save her from the queen. They chase her until she ends up on a cliff and tries to push a boulder onto them. But instead lightning strikes and she falls. Chances are, even if there hadn't been any lightning, the dwarfs would have caught her and pushed her over the edge. She wanted to be beautiful and she dies ugly. This is something called dramatic irony.
I simply can't watch the rest of the video to critique it as it's clear you have no knowledge of the literary devices, themes, and historical context at work here.
Holy crap, an actual smart comment! Thank you!
You're welcome! I sometimes wonder if most of the people 'analyzing' classic Disney movies bothered to watch them. Or learn anything about the time period besides the 'women were subservient' stereotype. Because a fourteen-year-old girl completely dominating a bunch of (literally) unwashed bachelors is *so* infantile. Her sex has nothing to do with her lack of character development, either.
Seriously, watch any movie from the first half of the 20th century. *All* the characters are roughly two-dimensional archetypes because the stories were strongly plot-driven rather than character-driven as is popular now. The acting also tending to be highly stylized because it was mostly based on theater, where your actions had to be obvious to granny in the back row. Early 'talkies' also held over quite a bit of pantomime from the silent-movie days, thus some of Snow White's odder gestures.
Speaking nothing but facts. I'm not going to waste my time watching this video. I suspected it would fall into a two-dimensional feminist theory. Thanks for confirming it and debunking it all in one comment. Now to enjoy the movie.
THANK YOU for your comment!!
Did you just create a mini-echo chamber? This comment thread was basically "Oh wow, that's so true!" "I agree" "Thanks, glad to know I'm right!"
"There's a song about hand washing in there... I dunno"
Welp, that got relevant suddenly.
are you saying the huntsman would have killed her if she wasn't pretty? don't you think this had anything to do with morality and the fact that she is an innocent little girl that has done nothing wrong and has been kind to everyone she met all her life?
No, but I do think it’s related to her innocence/purity
man... watching these old videos from my childhood like snow white, Pinocchio, and aladdin, they are all really creepy to me as an adult. somehow lion king isn't creepy. i wonder if others have a similar experience
Yeah, I think that golden age Disney movies are especially creepy. Pinnochio and Bambi freak me out to this day.
My favorite Disney films are still from *just before* the 90's renaissance; Great Mouse Detective and Rescuers: Down Under. Both still good, both still underrated.
Shrimp Man i understand older disney films, dumbo, snow white, bambi, Pinocchio, they all have a certain quality to them that can be eerie. I dont exactly see the sentiment with disney renaissance films...
Lion King is the only story that’s based on a play made for a more mature audience, Hamlet. Pinocchio is a book meant for children (super super dark book but children), Aladdin and Snow White are based on fairytales. I would at first say that the date of these films from the 40s to the 90s would have an impact, but Lion King came out before Aladdin. Disney may be changing the tone of Hamlet for children in Lion King, but the base is stronger because the plot is complicated and made for an older audience.
Lion King further works unlike other adult narratives toned down like Hunchback since Hamelt’s story is applicable to all ages even when toned down. A coming of age story and revenge can be malicious.
Hunchback the book is based on the nihilistic ideas that any argument or struggle we have will be for none, and that material things will far outlive anything we do. This is far too bleak and sad for any entertaining story and plot for children and families. Movie and play adaptions that change the narrative to power struggles and corruption of the church and the ugly duckling narrative still doesn’t work for children on the fact that many of these issues are far too complicated for children to understand or their impact is lost in dumbing it down for children.
Lion King works because it is a happy medium between adult content with good plot and good for children and families to watch and understand.
But I could just be crazy.
Glitter Art interesting theory.
Great video and analysis.
However, I respectfully disagree about the stepmother. Her demise is of her own making. She chose to poison Snow White instead of accept reality for what it is.
Thank you. I greatly enjoyed this high quality video.
Please keep these videos coming, they're fantastic!
DO IT!! I WANNA SEE MORE! I love your videos man, they're sooo good and you totally deserve more subs :)
Haha, thank you. I'm pretty happy with the way things are going, honestly. I didn't see myself having this many subs around five months in.
this is absolutely fascinating, I've never seen snow white discussed in depth before and it's interesting to think about this film's story as it's so often heralded for the mark it made on animation
I'm sure someone has commented this point, and it isn't an argument so much as an acknowledgement and counterpoint - I notice men engendered deeply into their roles tend to actually take on the role of both adult and child when taken care of by a woman if they are traditional. Refusing to buy their clothes, feeling incapable around the house, there is a desire to be mothered by a lot of more elderly men as well, and an expectation around service as a whole.
i really love what you are doing with this channel. there was a part of me that is sort of tired of video essays but somehow you make it new again. Most video essays narration is way overdone like they have to wax poetic over whatever they're talking about and often say little but you talk about things that would have never occurred to me and you just state them as interesting observations, very refreshing.
I'm so glad you used actual movie footage for this, such a pretty movie and such an interesting analysis
youre amazing honestly, im binge watching all your videos
Goodness gracious, the animation is GORGEOUS!
Using a modern day lens to analyze old Disney films might not be the most sensible way to do it, but it sure is interesting.
My impression of the flexibility of power in a household is that it is a reflection of families in the real world. The parents guide children and show them the way to become independent and conservative while the children remind the parents that they still need to learn and to be more carefree. In essence, the parents teach the children as the children teach the parents.... Or maybe that is just foretelling of my childhood?
I know im focusing on one point of many, but thats how i feel.
Really enjoyed this video and your analysis. Interesting perspective.
This is haunting because my sister had those movie phases where she'd watch one movie over and over for weeks or months, and snow white was a looooong one. I can legitimately quote every line of the movie in tune with the actors and in fact I find that nowadays if I hear any bit from the movie I impulsively start chirping along (see: me during the entire video)
Your channel is phenomenal. I seriously can't believe you have less than 10k subscribers.
"Snow White seems like the dwarves' mother and daughter, and the dwarves are the like Snow White's fathers and sons" Holy crud you're not wrong! The fact these roles can be reversed in real life only gives them more weight. She takes care of their home and them, like a mother would, but they also tell her to look out for strangers, like a parent would. I love that. I've never realised this before and it's been right under our noses this whole time.
In regards to purpose in the 90's - wasn't just a Disney thing, it was an every-thing. Think of American Beauty, Fight Club, Rent, all of that stuff. Just throwing that out there. (I liked your essay.)
you're great! keep up the awesome work
Do a bit like this on Alice in wonderland. Awesome video
It's been years since I watched that, I might have to check it out.
7:36 - 7:53
That's such an interesting take. Kind of reminds me of Cinderella too. I mean let's think about it. Not just any person can go through abuse and live as a household slave and still remain such a kind and selfless person. That takes _mental_ and _spiritual_ strength. Fortitude and endurance. It's keeping a hold of the human spirit.
1:49 This kind of goes hand in hand with your video about Pixar and Disney's connection, where both studios are different sides of the same coin. Disney is sort of countering Pixar's (and some modern Disney too) more 'modern' ideas, yet still giving the same central idea, just different ways to handle it.
but Snow White is the most beautiful woman of the world no? In a that world its like a magical power haha. Awesome videos! I realy enjoy and learn with your videos.
Yeah, it's true that Snow's beauty is like a superpower in the film. But still, it's not a power that expresses itself through her identity or agency. Thanks for watching my stuff!
thedarkhal5 it use to show that god thought you were a good person.
So ugly or diseased people were in league with demons or something.
Shows up too much in fairytales, but the one were they cried gold was kinda funny
Thanks a lot!! Your video has helped me with a Dossier I have to hand in!!
this was fantastic! think that snow white relies on these archetypal character that are not so much believable as they are representations of human emotion. the animation and the music mainly is what gives the character their credibility. i liked how you don't question the films motives but rather accept them, as this is a very old film. well done!
Your commentary is always interesting. Please do keep making content, another great video my dude.
great video
Thank you for posting it
Thanks for watching!
no problem
Never thought id need to say this but, damn, we kinda need that song about handwashing again
wowza o.o i guess it is kind of a relaxing narration that way
best review of Snowhite ive seen so far.
Really nice video! I would definitely like to see more like this. Disney stories are always very odd to me, especially these early ones with a very vague sense of direction compared to modern ones.
The song about handwashing hits different nowadays
I like your profile picture a lot :)
That bit of song at very beginning is what inspired Lennon to write "Do You Want to Know a Secret" off the Beatles' first album.
The dwarves don't avoid murdering her because she's cute, they think she's a monster and don't kill her because she's obviously not.
Snow White is from an era where children’s stories (which this was definitely viewed as) were primarily instructional and often especially about good behavior - which for children means ‘do what you are told and don’t complain. In the end you will be rewarded.’ Cinderella is of this type as well. In fact, while I am not sure what specific version of Snow White was used by Disney for their basis (they unfairly get blamed for a lot of changes which were already traditional by this time) but in the Grimm’s story, Snow White isn’t said to have been made a servant by her stepmother. That was swiped from Cinderella. Maybe it was done to explain why she knew how to keep house for the dwarves? In the Grimm’s fairytale, Snow White and the Prince tortured the Queen to death at their wedding. There’s taking action for you.
I love the idea of a thematic analysis of the first four Disney films. Maybe later on you could look at the major thematic structures of other periods of Disney's catalogue.
What an interesting video! When you mentioned the idea of people being happy in their roles and accepting it with grace it got me thinking about the movie from an historical perpsective. In 1937 the US was still deep in the depression and people really didnt have a lot of ability to change their lives. It probably was a better idea for ones mental health to roll with the punches and try to be as kind as possible. In a time when most people are just barely scraping by the ability to rise above and be kind despite the horrible things happening at home would be valuable. When i think about the movies of bread lines at the time no one is pushing or shoving or clawing each others eyes out the way you might think when their literal lives depend on the soup kitchen or bread line. Contrast that with the images we get from black friday when people are literally trampling others for low prices on things that arent as necessary as food and water. The depression could quite easily have torn the whole country apart with people committing mass atrocities for food and shelter but that's not really how people conducted themselves. The queen could almost be seen as someone who is trying to game the system in her favor but the system works far better and far more people survive if people cooperate and help eachother rather than tear eachothers throats out. The movie could have served as escapism and a way to communicate to an audience of both children and adults that kindness and cooperation are how one survives this terrible time with ones humanity intact.
Would love to see more classic Disney content… especially Sleeping Beauty!
The queen change her appearance using a book of Disguises. I think it’s implied that her ugly appearance was reversible.
My point is that it’s never reversed
True, but the reason it isn't reverse is because her plan get's interrupted, there's no implication that it was ever her intention to change permanently.
You just made me want to see an alternate story where, the Queen upon fleeing under the assumption she has won, has to now reverse the spell that made her a hag. Some character growth is involved in order to break the spell yada yada.
Any discussion on Snow White should include ONCE Upon a Time!
0:39 yo ok the dwarves are like the best part just enjoy the humor and good vibes
seriously sometimes people get wayyyyy too deep. its an adaption of a classic fairytale and its a beautiful movie.
yes please do a series on old disney i'm watching all of them on disney+ and i'd love to hear your take
I feel like you have some bias here, but this makes me want to watch Snow White again, with an appreciation for how, even back then, Disney knew how to work in themes into their stories.
Interesting. An interesting commentary on the Disney classic Snow White.
the classic fairy tales Walt Disney adapted into movies he knew how to bring the tales to screen ...He is a legend for a reason... He's movie versions of those tales are the best movie versions we're ever gonna have ...Can you do an analysis of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty ?
The Huntsman doesn't kill her, because he is kindhearted and his conscience will not allow him to carry out the murderous plans of the Queen. It has nothing to do with Snow White's beauty. Snow White herself is just a representation of how kindness touches other people and will help good overcome evil. And if they buried Snow White she can't be awakened by the Prince's kiss. And then the movie can't have a happy ending. That's the only reason she is laid out in the open like that.
I think you're overcomplicating this. It's a simple fairy tale with a fairly straight forward message that Walt Disney chose to use as his first full length cartoon. He put in the song about washing up as a way to entertain the audience and extend the length of the film.
I'm so glad you made this video, I always tried to analized it by jungs archetypes but it didn´t make sense. Snow white had manners and as you said, she almost gets killed by the hunter, then she goes through a dark night of the soul by shaking of innocence in the presence of fear, then recovering it again going numb about that fear. The dwarves serve here as a masculine protection that builds up in the femenine psychic that embrace her maturity. After all this movie is a message of hope I guess, because even if it wasn´t the prince or the dwarfs that killed the queens role, that doesn´t change the ending were "kindness" can reborn and win. Soo thank u!
Very well established point about Snow finding her role in life by playing house with the dwarfs, hadn´t thought about it like that
Ngl, the animation in this movie looks almost spot on to the animation in the legend of Zelda CDI games. I'm just waiting for the prince to tell snow to "go get some rubies".
Nice video, Joel. Snow White is both naturally beautiful and naturally good. A major notion in the film is that the beautiful and the good go together by nature.
To a large extent, I *do* agree with your conclusion.
I am absolutely interested in your golden age, Disney analyses. Pinnocchio is my favorite. And, I'm curious as to what could be gleaned from Fantasia on a thematic, emotional level.
Just watched this five-year-old video for the first time. If you ever did that whole series on the first four Disney animation films, please put it on a playlist. If you didn't do the series, please do it!
Snow White's attitude makes a lot of sense in the context of being written towards the end of the Great Depression, when fulfilling one's role (and trying to find some joy in it) was crucial for survival. Most people/ households needed to focus on muddling through drudgery to keep themselves alive, housed, and fed--that sort of mentality was bound to bleed into contemporary art. The only other princess with a similar work ethic is Tiana, whose film was also written during a time of severe economic hardship.
good video
This was actually really good and I would like to see more of your content and future stuff. I don't say this often but shit was fire yo. Nice job ^^
Thank you!
There is a video essay by Lindsay Ellis about the change in characterisation you mention: from protagonists that just fit their role to protagonists that search to self-actualize.
Both are reflections of how people saw the world and themselves at that time.