Snow White (2-Disc) (1937)

Sight and Sound
"...One of the most successful films of all times....SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS remains eternal..." 08/01/1994 p.55-6

Los Angeles Times
"...A landmark in the history of animation....A tour de force of character animation..." 07/16/1987 p.C2

Entertainment Weekly
"...The fairest Disney 'toon of all..." 10/05/2001 p.115

Empire
"The film that launched Walt Disney's glorious career as the king of animation still holds up over 70 years later as a true classic of its kind." 03/01/2008

DVD Town 10 of 10
Time is the ultimate critic...What makes a classic? What makes people want to watch the same movie over and over, even makes people from one generation to the next want to watch it again and again? A timeless story no doubt helps, timeless characters, timeless dialogue, timeless music. Throw in timeless animation and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" becomes the very definition of a classic, having survived now over six decades as possibly the most-beloved movie cartoon of all time. Despite what you hear from Hollywood?s PR mills, classics are not made overnight. They take time to ripen and mature, to bear up under the test and scrutiny of time. "Snow White" succeeds on all counts...Walt Disney?s 1937 production of "Snow White" has the distinction of being the world?s very first full-length animated feature and the first one in color. (Disney had publicly introduced Technicolor in their 1932 short, "Flowers and Trees," so they were no strangers to the system.) But "Snow White" has more distinctions than that. It was not only the first of its kind, it?s still among the best of its kind, one of the finest cartoons the screen has ever seen...The film has a lot more going for it than most other animations, which probably accounts for its continued popularity among adults as well as children. Included in its favor is the glorious art work, still a standard of the industry...Then, there?s the story itself, adapted from the old fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It combines comedy, romance, adventure, terror, and thrills. And, I might add, it?s more grisly than it first appears. I mean, we have a wicked villainess here who orders her huntsman to murder Snow White and cut out her heart! Finally, there are the immortal songs: "I?m Wishing," "With a Smile and a Song," "Whistle While You Work," "Heigh-Ho," "The Dwarf?s Yodel Song," and, of course, "Some Day My Prince Will Come." It all adds up to a brief (only eighty-four minutes) but totally enchanting movie experience. - John J. Puccio
 
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
If Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' had been primarily about Snow White, it might have been forgotten soon after its 1937 premiere, and treasured today only for historical reasons, as the first full-length animated feature in color. Snow White is, truth to tell, a bit of a bore, not a character who acts but one whose mere existence inspires others to act. The mistake of most of Disney's countless imitators over the years has been to confuse the titles of his movies with their subjects. ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' is not so much about Snow White or Prince Charming as about the Seven Dwarfs and the evil Queen--and the countless creatures of the forest and the skies, from a bluebird that blushes to a turtle who takes forever to climb up a flight of stairs...Walt Disney's shorter cartoons all centered on one or a few central characters with strongly-defined personalities, starting with Mickey Mouse himself. They lived in simplified landscapes, and occupied stories in which clear objectives were boldly outlined. But when Disney decided in 1934 to make a full-length feature, he instinctively knew that the film would have to grow not only in length but in depth. The story of Snow White as told in his source, the Brothers Grimm, would scarcely occupy his running time, even at a brisk 83 minutes...''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' was immediately hailed as a masterpiece. (The Russian director Sergei Eisenstein called it the greatest movie ever made.) It remains the jewel in Disney's crown, and although inflated modern grosses have allowed other titles to pass it in dollar totals, it is likely that more people have seen it than any other animated feature. The word genius is easily used and has been cheapened, but when it is used to describe Walt Disney, reflect that he conceived of this film, in all of its length, revolutionary style and invention, when there was no other like it--and that to one degree or another, every animated feature made since owes it something. - Roger Ebert