Dumbo

Dumbo is going to prove to be extremely difficult to critique as though I am looking at it from 1941, when it premiered. It was Disney’s first success since Snow White, having lost money on Pinocchio and Fantasia.

We all know the story, little elephant, big ears. But there’s more to it than that. The story opens with the great song “look out for Mr. Stork.” I realized I really enjoy the beat and the tone of the voices in the songs. As for the words of the songs, we’ll get into that later. As I watched the storks fly down and drop the little bundles of joy down to the expectant mothers, I can’t help but wonder if this is something I’m going to do to my children – lie to them. Fortunately, I will never have to broach the subject of Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, but as to the tooth fairy and “where do babies come from,” I know that I’m uncomfortable lying to my children (yes, the non-existent, invisible ones). So the fact that this movie propagates the idea that babies come from “heaven above” (as stated in the movie) bothers me but I figure I can always explain that it was the best way to represent a baby in cartoon form.

In any case, the babies arrive and the new moms almost look surprised. I only wish it could be that easy. The expectant elephant (we don’t know her name yet) looks longingly at each bundle hoping it’s hers. And of course, none of them are.

All the animals get loaded up onto Casey Jr. (and I’m not a fan of PETA [unless your definition of that is people eating tasty animals] so I won’t get into the animal cruelty of putting the huge elephants into a tiny little car) and then we see the stork with the baby elephant up in a cloud. He figures out where he’s going and, after almost losing the baby through the cloud a few times, dives down to find Mrs. Jumbo (as we have a name now). He finds the right car and drops on in. He asks which elephant is the expectant one and the other elephants get almost insulted that he can’t figure it out. I can’t decide if it’s because they’re too old (in the case of the ringleader) or just would never have children. Mrs. Jumbo opens the parcel to reveal a little baby elephant whom she names Jumbo Jr. I find it interesting that she names the baby, presumably, after the daddy even though no male elephants are ever shown in the entire movie.

The eldest elephant does the “coochie, coochie, coo” thing to Jumbo Jr.’s nose and he sneezes, revealing his large ears. The other elephants are appalled and shocked. I can’t really figure out why, unless it has something to do with the size of the ears. I mean, well, if it has to do with the type of elephant he is. The elephants with the smaller ears are the Indian elephants. If Mrs. Jumbo is an Indian elephant, does that mean she cheated on Mr. Jumbo with an African Elephant? Or if you don’t believe that the elephants had sex, is this Walt’s way of dealing with racism? That it’s horrible? Or, as my coworker would say, perhaps I’ve “stretched things too far” or “looking for something to be offended by” and the elephants are just making fun of him because he’s different. In any case, they all make fun of him, calling him an F-R-E-A-K and giving him the name he will be known by for the rest of the movie - Dumbo. Mrs. Jumbo closes the door on them so she can have some alone time with her new baby. She then rocks him to sleep.

The next scene shows that the train has docked and everyone who is able to gets out to put everything up. A group of faceless men jump out and start singing the following lyrics:

Hike! Ugh! Hike! Ugh! Hike! Ugh! Hike!
We work all day, we work all night
We never learned to read or write
We’re happy-hearted roustabouts

Hike! Ugh! Hike! Ugh! Hike! Ugh! Hike!
When other folks have gone to bed
We slave until we’re almost dead
We’re happy-hearted roustabouts

Hike! Ugh! Hike! Ugh! Hike! Ugh! Hike!
We don’t know when we get our pay
And when we do, we throw our pay away
(When we get our pay, we throw our money all away)
We get our pay when children say
With happy hearts, "It’s circus day today"
(Then we get our pay, just watching kids on circus day)

Muscles achin’
Back near breaking
Eggs and bacon what we need (Yes, sir!)
Boss man houndin’
Keep on poundin’
For your bed and feed
There ain’t no let up
Must get set up
Pull that canvas! Drive that stake!
Want to doze off
Get them clothes off
But must keep awake
Hep! Heave! Hep! Heave! Hep! Heave!

Swing that sledge! Sing that song!
Work and laugh the whole night long
You happy-hearted roustabouts!
Pullin’, poundin’, tryin’, groundin’
Big top roundin’ into shape
Keep on working!
Stop that shirking!
Grab that rope, you hairy ape!
Poundin’! poundin’! poundin’! poundin’!

And yes, the faceless men are black. Sweetie tried to tell me that we couldn’t tell because it was dark, but I pointed out that the elephants don’t change color, so yes, the men are black. However, they are faceless because they are not important to the story, and that’s not what bothers me. While some people would call the song outwardly racist, I am just curious to look at the lyrics and analyze them.

“We work all day, we work all night, we never learned to read or write” – Unfortunately, during the 1940s, this was probably the way that they were perceived. I’m not saying its right, but it is probably what was perceived. Although, do you (yes, you!) assume that people who put together circus equipment today are ignorant or do you think they just love the circus?

“When other folks have gone to bed, We slave until we’re almost dead” – They need to put up the circus, so of course they slave all night. People who cook for a long time say they slaved over a hot kitchen. The word does not bother me at all.

“We don’t know when we get our pay, And when we do, we throw our pay away” – This does bother me. Why would anyone assume that a fellow human being would throw their pay away? To me, this is ignorance on the part of the writer of the song. Its one thing to be a rich, stupid kid who throws money away, but for someone who works as hard as these men, how would that be possible? Although, I suppose the question then arises of what do they throw it away on? I’m sure the common understanding is booze, but from this, I take that they just throw it away, which is really odd.

In any case, while they are working on the circus, the elephants are helping, pushing, pulling, lifting, etc. It’s very interesting to see this especially because at one point in the movie, one of the elephants reminds the others that they are “ladies.” And while this was released right before Pearl Harbor (October 23, 1941), it’s odd that the future could have been known. I would always consider Rosie the Riveter to be a lady who also worked, but it’s just an interesting point to me.

After everything is put up, everyone goes on parade to tell the people of the town that the circus is here! Dumbo walks behind everyone else and trips over his ears and lands in the mud. Mrs. Jumbo then washes off Dumbo and they play a little before cuddling up for bed. When the people are let into the circus, some of the boys, some with very large ears, make fun of Dumbo’s ears, going so far as to pull him over to the rope and play with them. Mrs. Jumbo gets angry and spanks the boy who pulled on her boy’s ears. Everyone flips out, calling her a mad elephant and she gets locked up.

Dumbo is left alone without a friend in the world. Timothy Q. Mouse (who’s name we know only because of the end of the movie) notices what’s going on and decides to lend a hand. This is the second time in three movies where a small creature has decided to help out a larger creature. Timothy and Dumbo become good friends and Timothy tries to get Dumbo to be the climax in the elephant act. However, Dumbo screws things up because of his ears and is sentenced to become a clown. The other elephants discuss this over their aches and pains and one of them mentions that they are a proud race. They take a vow and proclaim him no longer an elephant.

As a clown, Dumbo is made to jump into a bath of water and have everyone laugh at him. After the first night of doing this, he is beyond miserable. As he is crying, Timothy tells Dumbo that he’s a pachyderm and that he’s a proud race. It strikes me as odd that this same phrase has now been said twice in the movie. Does the movie have a motif running through it or am I reading too much? I don’t think that I’m reading too much due to the fact that the statement has been made twice. Is the point of the movie that no matter what you look like, you’re important and should be treated with respect? In any case, Timothy informs Dumbo that he’s going to take him to see his mother. Dumbo gets excited and they go to see Mrs. Jumbo who rocks him a little as a really sad song plays (by the way, the song won an academy award).

As they walk back, Dumbo is crying and gets the hiccups. Timothy instructs him to have a drink, not realizing that, earlier, the clowns spilled some alcohol in the bucket. Dumbo takes a few huge drinks and gets really drunk. Timothy goes to inspect the liquid and gets sloshed himself. Dumbo begins to blow bubbles and from here, we get “Pink Elephants on Parade,” a very bizarre but incredible piece of art. Parts of it are truly odd, some are frightening and others I think that the animators of Fantasia had some leftover pieces that they wanted to use. So much goes on that it’s hard to comment on it, having only seen it once in the last 19 years or so.

Dumbo and Timothy wake up in a tree, apparently having flown up there. The crows are in the tree with them and Dumbo falls to the ground. I tried really really hard to judge this based upon the fact that they were birds, but the fact remains that the leader’s name is Jim. How do you overlook that? And how could that have been put in? Timothy spins a sob story that could have been the predecessor of the American Idol sob stories and the crows agree to help. Timothy is given the “magic feather” and convinces Dumbo that he can fly using it. And Dumbo is able to fly!

The next circus show, as Dumbo is supposed to jump from a much higher platform, he loses the feather and Timothy convinces him that he can fly without it. Dumbo goes whizzing through the air, causing a ruckus to those who made fun of him. He gets into the newspapers, a line of airplanes named after him and Timothy Q. Mouse (we see his signature) becomes a major Hollywood talent agent.

The final scene shows Dumbo flying to his mother in a private car at the back of the circus as Dumbo is the star. They nuzzle together and wave good-bye to the crows who seem to give Dumbo a send-off.

So, the movie is odd, slightly and overtly racist at times, but beautifully animated. The focus, unlike in Disney’s previous movies, is on the story and not on the animation behind everything. I can’t decide my opinion on a lot of things, so either I’ll come back to it at in a little bit or I’ll decide when I have kids.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Inauguration

Enjoy!

The speech was great! I noticed a few people in the crowds starting to nod off, but eh.

Oh and the best part was the Reverend who gave the benediction (whatever that is) and said the following:

When black won't get back, brown will stick around, yellow will be mellow, the red man can get ahead man and white will do what's right.

Fantasia

Tonight's movie was Fantasia. I will try, like always to judge it based upon what I can see in the movie and not what I try to see, but I'm not sure it's possible in this one.

First of all, the conductor - Leopold Stokowski - looks like Emperor Palpatine. I know it doesn't mean anything, but his profile is almost perfect.

Everything opens with the musicians, from the Philadelphia Orchestra, walking into their places. I know it was 1940, but do you think that they could have had women play something other than the harp? Seriously, the only 2 women in the orchestra are the harp players. But anyways....

The first piece is Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is my honest interpretation that this piece in Fantasia is the reason we now know what synesthesia is. The piece has beautiful colors represented by sound. When the sound plays, the color changes. It was my first introduction (when I was a child) to this sort of thing and in college, I got tested multiple times for synesthesia. Whether or not I have it is still up for discussion, but what is interesting is that I know where it came from.

The second piece is the Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. I have a slight problem with the sprites in this piece. First of all, Peter Pan is not far off from this point (having debuted in 1953). While I understand that this is a difference of 13 years, Disney decided that Tinkerbell should have clothing and actually have a shape to her body. While the idea was for these sprites to be androgynous, I'm not sure that the point was conveyed well. They are as skinny as a pencil and the form of the rear is obvious. I'm not sure if I have a huge problem with the fact that they are nude or that they are shapeless. Of course they're going to be nude; all animals in nature are nude. I suppose it's because this is one of the last times we see something like this in a Disney movie. After this, all the women are covered up and tasteful.

I enjoy the mushroom dance immensely, but probably because I like mushrooms so much. :) The dancing leaves and the floating flowers give the piece a nice touch. Sort of like having uplifting, enjoyable air to it. The one thing that bothered me, and I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into this, was the sultry eyes on the fishes in the sea. Why make it look like fish wear makeup?

Next we see the Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas. It's the same thing we see over and over again and what Fantasmic is based upon. Not much to say besides the fact that it's fun to see Mickey get punished for not following the rules.

Next, we have the Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky. Right before the narrator begins to explain what the piece is about, the chimes player falls against his instrument and it crashes. They put everything back together, but it is a rather odd moment. In any case, the piece is the one that travels back in time as we watch the birth of the world. It is truly a wonderful thing. The beautiful shots are enhanced by the mystery surrounding everything. As we cannot be exact of the path of evolution, when the animators were unsure of what happened next, a black cloud of smoke would come along to show the passing of time. When it cleared, creatures were advanced and the story moved along. An excellent way of moving the story along, if I may commend the animators. The scene with the T-Rex is, of course, frightening and probably rather accurate.

Next we have an intermission followed by the ability to meet the soundtrack. In coming back from the intermission, we get to witness the orchestra having fun and playing around. It is truly a fun scene to see. The narrator announces that we'll meet the soundtrack. The soundtrack is a visual representation of what the sounds of the instruments sound like. This is most definitely a part of why I think I may have had synesthesia. The visual representation incorporates color into it as well and is wonderful to see.

The next piece is the Pastoral Symphony by Ludvig van Beethoven. The scene opens with unicorns enjoying the day, playing with the cupid looking creatures. Then enter the Pegasus - the most graceful female character that we have seen thus far in the animated Disney movies. She is graceful, strong and powerful. An incredible feature. The centaur scene opens up with the female centaurs with no tops on, breasts bare, bathing and walking around. The fact that there are no nipples does not make it any less of a bizzare thing. Why have it happen? And why no nipples? The female centaurs are matched up with the male centaurs by the cupid creatures so that everyone has a love match. Each female centaur color is matched with her male centaur color counterpart. Blue goes with blue, green with green, etc. It's ridiculous. I almost want to say that this was Disney's way of fighting against some sort of desegregation, but this was far before desegregation was even brought up. The movie premiered in 1940, so I'm not sure what to think of it.

We then meet Bacchus who comes to the picture having flowers thrown at him by two half zebra half woman creatures. Their faces look like what a caricature of a black person looked like from those times. Huge lips, dark face. It's almost revolting. They are never seen again and it truly is frustrating to me. I'm not trying to see the racism, the problems with the situation. They just appear and surprise me. I don't know what to say.

The next piece is the Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli. The people I was in the audience with could not get enough of the hippos dancing and laughed at every chance they got, which I took to be extremely insulting. The hippos are so graceful and fun to watch that I felt like the audience was laughing at the ability for fat people/creatures to be graceful. I loved the piece and how the characters were represented. The elephants blow bubbles and everything is happy and bubbly. The part where the alligators/crocodiles come in and sort of steal everyone away is a bit worrisome, but I feel like the point was to get them into the open space so that everyone could dance together.

Finally we have Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and Ave Maria by Franz Schubert. The idea is that on Halloween, the evil spirits come to play with Chernabog (or Satan). What is really interesting is the way in which the dead are called up by Chernabog. He calls them up and they come up as skeletons, which is not the way I depicted them. What is very cool is the way the first few float up. They float through the noose in the gallow which I take to mean that they were hung. Incredibly creepy. The music is fantastic and incredibly well set against the animation. At one point, Chernabog picks up some fire and it becomes three dancing women. He moves his hand over them and they become a ram, a wolf and a pig. I am SO bitter that it isn't a deer (Wolfram & Hart - sorry, Angel reference). It would have been so great to be able to tie Angel to it, but oh well.

It gets really creepy after this as we can see Chernabog's nails. So very neat. He then smiles and builds the fire up and it becomes multiple colors - blue, green, ink and yellow. He manipulates the fire and as it goes crazy, we see all sorts of demons coming out of the woodwork. There are two in particular that really bother me. One is blue and one is green. They fly toward the screen and there is a close up shot of their breasts - nipples included. Is this a suttle way of telling us that sexuality is something to be ashamed of or that bare breasts with nipples are demonic? We saw bare breasts before (remember the centaurs?), but there were no nipples. I'm SURE I'm reading too much into it, but it's an interesting thing to ponder.

Anyway, the piece gets followed up by Ave Maria, which ends Chernabog's night and puts him to sleep for another year. We then see a bunch of people walking with candles and people singing Ave Maria, or at least an English version of it. I don't know what Ave Maria sounds like or even is supposed to mean, so perhaps I'm at a disadvantage here, so maybe someone can suggest a place to get a better idea of it (Hint: Joe, this means you).

Well, that was Fantasia. Next week is Dumbo and it should be interesting. Dumbo was made because Fantasia lost money and Disney needed something to make up the budget. Dumbo, as I understand it, was actually supposed to be a short that just got extended.

Oh, and a nice piece of trivia for you. The sorcerer's name is Yensid, or Disney spelled backwards.

Pinocchio

Last night’s movie was Pinocchio. I’m not sure I had ever seen Pinocchio, so it was definitely something interesting. I phoned my mom to talk and mentioned we were going to see it and she asked me why. She felt it was a horrible movie and why would I want to see it?

The movie began sort of as Snow White did, with a book. But a different sort of book. And Jiminy Cricket opens the story and reads. An interesting introduction, but what I noticed most of all was how clear the picture was. Apparently, this was the first time that a multi-plane camera was used and it totally shows. Looking back at Snow White, it looks hazy and foggy compared to the town that Pinocchio is set in. The detail and definition in the buildings just screams “Walt.” Walt was incredibly detail oriented, as you can tell from the minute details put into Disneyland.

In any case, the scene that gets set is that of a puppeteer in what I assume to be Italy, from Pinocchio and Stromboli. Geppetto is set as the sweet, loveable, wonderful toy maker who longs for a son of his own. And thus my question now gets raised. What did Disney have against the “traditional” family? Was he trying to prove that kids from non-traditional families, we assume, turn out just fine? Or was he proving that people can overcome obstacles? Or was he being cruel? The few Disney characters in the 1900s with both sets of parents were the Darling children and Mulan. Everyone else is raised with one parent (Geppetto, the little boy from the Rescuers Down Under, King Triton, Maurice), a step-parent (Snow White, Cinderella), a pseudo-parent (Briar Rose, little girl from Oliver & Company) or no parents at all (Bambi, little girl from Rescuers).

Anyways, Geppetto wishes that his new little toy – Pinocchio – could become a real boy. We don’t get an answer as to why he wants to be a parent, but I suppose it can only be because he is lonely. For heavens sakes, he talks to a cat and a fish! He makes a wish on the wishing star and then falls asleep.

Enter the blue fairy. She is the keeper of truth and has the ability to see the obvious difference between right and wrong. She grants Geppetto’s wish and Pinocchio becomes a real (wooden) boy. She tells him that if he is selfless, brave and courageous, he’ll get to become a real boy. Jiminy signs up to be his conscious and throughout the rest of the movie, I couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t actually real. Everyone else makes fun of Pinocchio for talking to either a nobody or a bed bug.

Geppetto wakes up and finds Pinocchio and freaks, like any normal person would. He then rejoices and then, after a small scare of Pinocchio burning himself, everyone went to sleep. It’s interesting because I figured, after watching so many modern movies, that Pinocchio burning himself and Geppetto telling him not to would have been a foreshadowing moment. But, it wasn’t. I don’t know if that’s a nice way of being shocked or if modern movies have just become so predictable.

The very next day, Pinocchio heads off to school. It’s really odd to me that Geppetto gets a kid and then sends him off to school the first chance that he gets. Don’t you think that Geppetto would want a little time with him to teach him basic things? Anyways, Pinocchio skips merrily off to school when he is stopped by Honest John and Gideon who tell him that “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life for Me).” Pinocchio becomes the star puppet of Stromboli because he can sing and dance with no strings. He does his solo part:

I've got no strings to hold me down
To make me fret or make me frown
I had strings but now I'm free
There are no strings on me

Hi o the merio, that's the only way to be!
I want the world to know notin' ever worries me

I've got no strings so I have fun
I'm not tied up to anyone
They've got strings but you can see
There are no strings on me!

And then come the girls. First, a girl from Holland:

You have no strings your arms are free
To love me by the Zeider Zee
Ya,ya,ya if you would woo
I'd burst my strings for you

And then a girl from Italy:

You've go no strings comme ci comme ca
Your savoir faire is ooh la la
I've got strings,but entre nous
I'd cut my strings for you

And then one from Russia:

Down where de Volga flows
Dere's a Russian rendezvous
Where me and Ivan goes
But I'd rather go with you

It’s interesting to me that these girl puppets, the only other females seen in the movie besides the blue fairy, want to date Pinocchio. And it makes Pinocchio uncomfortable. As you can see, he runs away from the girls and instead chooses to imitate the Russian kazatski dancers.

The show gets over and people throw money to the stage. Jiminy thinks perhaps he’s made the mistake and leaves him, depressed and questioning himself and his worth. Stromboli thinks he’s got a winner here and while laughing with Pinocchio, realizes that Pinocchio is a dim-witted kid and locks him away in a birdcage. Jiminy comes to wish him luck and tries to free him. The blue fairy shows up to make everything well and this is the only part in the story where Pinocchio lies. Having never seen the movie before, I figured it was a central feature to the story. Turns out, not so much. She makes everything right and then tells Pinocchio and Jiminy that this is the last time she can help them. They escape and go to run home.

On the way, they run into Honest John and Gideon who have just met with the coachman who is a greedy man. He runs a place called Pleasure Island (when Honest John hears the name, he grabs Gideon in fear) and strongly requests Honest John to send him misbehaving boys. The last boat, he tells Honest John, leaves at midnight. Honest John encourages Pinocchio to take his ticket (the Ace of Spades – does that have significance?) to have fun on Pleasure Island.

Pinocchio befriends a kid named Lampwick and eats too much, drinks beer and smokes cigars. Jiminy finds them and scolds Pinocchio only to have Pinocchio explain that Lamwick is his new best friend. Jiminy gets angry and leaves only to find that the boys are being turned into mules (or jackasses as the movie shows) to work in the salt mines. As Jiminy runs back to warn Pinocchio, Pinocchio watches Lamwick drink beer and begin to turn into a jackass. Pinocchio puts down the beer. Lamwick smokes his cigar and turns more into a jackass. Pinocchio then puts down his cigar. Was Disney trying to make a point about the evils of these to children or the evils of them entirely? Could Walt Disney, a chain smoker until the report in 1960, have seen into the future or was he just telling kids to wait until they grew up?

Pinocchio grows mule ears and a tail and he and Jiminy escape, jumping into the ocean. They get back onto land and run home only to find that Geppetto isn’t there. A message from the blue fairy tells them that Geppetto went looking for Pinocchio and got swallowed by a large whale named Monstro. Pinocchio knows he has to rescue his father and thus ties a rock to his tail and goes after Geppetto. Being wooden, he can breathe underwater, but the same cannot be said for Jiminy, so I’m not sure what to make of that. In any case, all the fish run away whenever Pinocchio mentions Monstro.

We cut to Geppetto, Figero and Cleo, starving in the belly of the whale. As an adult, what I find amusing is that Geppetto and Figero have not eaten Cleo. In any case, the whale gets hungry and swallows up lots of fish and Pinocchio right along with them. Pinocchio gets reunited with his father and has the brilliant idea to make Monstro sneeze. Monstro does and gets very angry and comes after the group. After a fight scene, Geppetto, Figero and Cleo all wash ashore and we see that Pinocchio has been the casualty in the story. We see him face down in the water.

The next scene shows Pinocchio lying on a bed and Geppetto crying. The blue fairy’s voice can be heard saying that because Pinocchio was brave and true, he can become a real boy. Pinocchio is transformed and tries to talk to his father. Geppetto, still crying, says “I’m crying because you’re dead Pinocchio.” Now, how can a wooden boy, who walked and talked underwater, have died from a wave? In any case, the family is united and all is happiness. Jiminy gets his gold badge and the movie ends.

I suppose my main issue with this is the greed of people. Pinocchio was made in 1940. How did Walt Disney know that people would be so greedy in the years to come? Human trafficking, drug laundering, bounty hunting, etc. would not all come into the world until years later. Were there people like this in 1940?

The other issue is that only little boys can be corrupted. And while I’m not insisting that little girls are the devil’s playground, neither am I stating that little girls are perfect angels. I find it interesting that only little boys went to Pleasure Island. Is it because little girls make bad mules? Or just that little girls cannot be jackasses? Or that little girls of the time don’t do the sorts of things that go on at Pleasure Island, things like drinking and smoking?

I like the fact that there is an equal balance between the two creatures that represent the truth and all that is good. Jiminy Cricket represents the male half and the blue fairy represents the female half. While I’m a bit annoyed that the blue fairy is called just that and has no other name, I understand the purpose of it.

Next week is Fantasia. It should be awesome!

Snow White

Sweetie and I got invited to go and start seeing Disney movies, in their order of release, every Monday evening. Since it’s free and not too far from where we live, we decided it would make a good “date night.” Last night was the first night of it and the movie was, obviously, Snow White.

While I understand that the movie was meant for those people in the 1930s and thus to judge it by today’s standards is incredibly ineffective and anachronistic, I feel like it still deserves a fair critique, or at least as fair as I can give it.

Before the movie, we learned a few facts about the movie, like how it was the first full length animated film, that Walt Disney received an honorary Oscar from Shirley Temple for it being the first full length animated film and that it took in $66 million at a time when a child’s ticket to the movies was 10 cents.

The movie opens with few credits and then goes to what I think Disney did best, having the actual book open. It is one of my favorite things, because it means that the audiences were educated enough to be able to read it and not have to have it read to them. It also sets the stage for a beautifully artistic development.

We learn about the evil queen, who is only evil because of her vanity. We don’t really learn anything else about her, with the exception that she wants to be the most beautiful woman in the land. What strikes me as odd about this is that once she is turned into the old hag, we see that someone she has imprisoned has died trying to get a drink of water. This is the only other reason she could be evil. And while I understand what the point of the story is, why have everything situated on vanity? Were women of the 1930s and 1940s so desperate for beauty that they would kill for it, transform themselves? I should hope not, which then brings the question of how is this relatable? The point of movies is that people can see themselves in roles, get lost in them or just understand what the characters are going through. And perhaps that is the point of the protagonist. Maybe we aren’t supposed to understand the antagonist. But if that were the case, why would Walt Disney give us such wonderfully rich and evil characters such as Cruella DeVille or Malefiacent? But I digress…

The evil queen dresses Snow White in rags to hide her beauty and when she does, Snow White has a two and a half second encounter with the Prince (remember, Prince Charming is from Cinderella. Snow White only refers to her man as “the Prince”), the “one true love” who will eventually wake her from the sleeping death.

But rags and dirt cannot hide Snow White’s beauty and the queen has the huntsman take Snow White into the forest to kill her. At this point, I am still wondering how old Snow White is. We see that Disney’s next female lead is Cinderella, a young woman as can be seen from the breasts that she has on her body. Aurora has them as well, and the future will bring us the rest of the princesses with breasts, such as Ariel, Jasmine and Pocahontas. The one princess who is lacking in the breast department is Mulan. Is this a deliberate action on Disney’s part? Does this tell us that Snow White is Asian or just that the both of them are young? Again, I digress.

Snow White runs into the forest and her imagination runs wild with all the crazy trees and whatnot. She flips out and then cries until she can compose herself. When she stops crying, she utters the phrase “I’m ashamed of the fuss I’ve made.” Is this a proper woman who is not supposed to show emotion or is this a young girl whose mother taught her well? It’s neither as we can see that Snow White has a stepmother who we can assume never taught her anything and no father. While we cannot guess as to what happened to him, we can only focus as to what is on the screen. In which case, the fuss is being terrified. Why should she be ashamed of that? Because children are to be seen and not heard or because society has implanted in her what a woman is to be? It seems as though we have a problem here due to the fact that Princesses are not usually allowed outside the palace walls (see Jasmine in Aladdin). Therefore, is she a young girl who was taught by someone that she should be seen and not heard or is she a woman who has the ability to fall in love? She cannot be both.

After she sings a song to the animals, she realizes she has no place to sleep. And while it is admirable that she is trying to take care of herself, the fact still remains that she relies on animals to do the dirty work for her. And not just in finding the place, but in the cleaning up of it. She does make a good point in the bargaining of her thought process: “maybe if I clean up for them, they’ll let me stay here” and that is to be commended. However, when the time comes to clean up, she has the animals do the laundry, the dishes and the dusting. What does she do? She sweeps and delegates, like a good modern woman.

She falls asleep on the dwarf’s beds and then we cut away to the dwarves. They are at work in a big mine and then get ready to go home. They encounter the open house and react like we would expect they would. While each has their own quirk that they have to get around (do we see a similarity between them and the original thought process behind Winnie the Pooh?), they seem to work together well. The rest of the scenes in the lot deal with them finding her, freaking out, accepting her and then washing up for supper.

We are then transported back to the queen who loses her temper when she finds out she has been tricked by the huntsman. Her first thought is not revenge on the man who tricked her, but to kill Snow White herself. And I think this has brought us to something that modern women can relate to. We are so worried about what the other women are doing that we’d rather resort to anger and violence than sit down and talk about it. And I don’t mean the random woman on the street. I mean second generation feminists, third generation feminists, feminists of color, queer feminists of color, etc. etc. No one can see that we all need to work together to be able to succeed. But again, I digress.

The evil queen goes down into her lair and makes brew to change her appearance. She becomes an ugly old hag so that she can become the fairest in the land. Anyone else see a problem with this? But then again, I suppose we can have a look at people like Sabbatai Zevi. In any case, she creates the sleeping death and dips the apple into it. I couldn’t help myself to think if this was flashback to the fruit in the Garden of Eden. In any case, she sets out to find Snow White in her hag garb.

The next scene takes us to the dwarf’s house as they are leaving for work. The animals and Snow White stay behind. Each dwarf, save for Dopey, instructs Snow White not to open the door to anyone, but Grumpy is especially forceful. It is as if they do not trust her to make decisions for herself, which would point to the fact that Snow White is a child.

The hag shows up, of course. The animals flip out and go get the dwarves. However, it’s too late and Snow White has eaten from the apple. The dwarves chase the queen up the mountain and then, as luck would have it, a bolt of lightening strikes the area where the queen is and she falls to her death. Do we have an inkling of Karma here or could Disney just not think of a way to do this otherwise? This trend will be the end of many characters in the Disney universe. Gaston, Mufasa, Malifiscent, Ursula, Kokuum, the bad guy in the Incredibles, etc. etc.

The dwarves cannot bring themselves to bury Snow White so they encase her in glass. (I couldn’t help but think that she was like Lenin, sitting there for eternity under glass.) The dwarves bring her flowers daily and weep beside her glass grave. The Prince from the beginning of the movie comes around, kisses Snow White and she wakes up. He carries her to his horse where he lifts each of the dwarves up so that she can kiss them good-bye. She is smiling and happy the whole time and then he leads away the horse to his castle in the air. She doesn’t get a say in any of it and it’s almost hurtful the way that its done. Of course that could just be my modern way of looking at things. It would be really nice to see what someone else, a feminist from that time, thought about the movie.

All in all, not a terrible movie, but still anti-feminist. It is my belief that Snow White is a child and thus has no ability to argue with her stepmother when required to clean things and wear rags. However, if this is the case, she should not be ready to marry at that young age. The Grimm Brothers version of the story as I found it has Snow White set at the age of 7 and a real dunderhead, allowing the queen to access her three times. In any case, if we judged a company or person on one of the first things they put out, most people would amount to nothing.

Next week is Pinocchio. I haven’t seen it in YEARS, so it’ll be an interesting refresher.