Snow White And The Seven Dwarves: Film Analysis

To establish Disney as a lead film-maker, the company had to release a full-length film. Their first film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, was released in 1937 and became the first feature-length film to utilize traditional animation techniques. What made these six years the Golden Age (1937 – 1942) was not the success of the films, but rather the amount of influence these films had over the industry. Disney explored the method of showing a story through a non-human source with Bambi (1942), began taking popular literature and creating films acceptable for children with Pinocchio (1940) and established the now famed Disney Princesses with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) (Odyssey). Villains created during this time period were illustrated

Techniques to invoke that “emotional response” were used heavily in this era, such as in the film Fantasia with the antagonist Chernabog. He is made up entirely of hard angles: triangles and rectangles. Chernabog is the most obvious reference to any sort of demonic creature from the movies debuted during the Golden Age with his large horns and glowing eyes. His character is heavily shaded with black, which not only exhibits the “fear and the unknown” (Edwards-Wright), but his character is also illustrated in a way in which the viewer can not see anything on his body except for his glowing eyes, his snarl, and the outline of his muscles. “Red is widely used to indicate danger” (Edwards-Wright). All antagonists in Pinocchio had some form of red on them. Honest John and Giddeon had red fur, symbolizing that their evil attitudes went deeper than merely a coat or a hat –

In both World War I and II, propaganda was utilized to give Americans a single opinion on those who were either different or “against” them, a technique that is similar to that of the Golden Age villains. Japanese-Americans, even before Pearl Harbor occurred, were facing increasing racism during the 1930’s and were seen merely as “Japs” who could be anything from Japanese secret spies, to farmers with the goal of pushing white farmers out of business, to filthy adulterers (Blair). These one-dimensional reflections of marginalized groups of people – or villains in Disney’s case – was used to demonize those who were portrayed in the pieces of media, caused the general audience to abhor the subjects of these public attacks. However, even if the films that the Walt Disney Animation Company had been creating reflected these one-dimensional views, Walt Disney himself may have believed otherwise. “During the making of Snow White, [Walt] Disney visited Italy and was entertained by Mussolini himself in his private villa” (Home). Although Italy was an ally of the United States during the first world war, they were an enemy during the second war, yet Walt Disney spent leisure time with the dictator of the country. It is interesting to note that although the Walt Disney Animation Company appealed