Animated Musicals 2/?: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
↳ Ｓｎｏｗ Ｗｈｉｔｅ＇ｓ ｌｅｇａｃｙ ｉｓ ｉｔｓ ｒｏｍａｎｔｉｃｉｓｍ． Its achievement was its ability to transport away from the period of expanding world conflict that defined its release date and towards the enduring agelessness of pre-industrialised Europe. Thus musically, Disney’s first feature is more backwards-looking than pioneering. Songs are fluidly linked to character and incident yet the mode is still more one of nostalgic operetta than of the American musical comedy that was slowly evolving on Broadway during this same decade. The operetta ambiance is reinforced by the twittery coloratura soprano of Snow White herself – her four arias sweet, lush and enchanting - playing opposite the solid baritone of her Prince. (With the dwarfs themselves filling in as a self-contained operetta chorus).
The first third of the film verges on opera, with one musical number following another in rapid succession, while the film is continuously linked together by a near constant orchestral underscore, which intones the dramatic mood shifts from the romance of Snow White and her Prince to the Gothic darkness of her Evil Queen - Yes, the music of Snow White comes together to create a seamless blend of timelessness and tradition, teaming popular literary tropes with the familiar sound of opera to form a piece of cinema more complete experience than movie.
