HOME INTRUDER!
As noted in Disney historian Leonard Maltin’s 1973 book The Disney Films, there is much “cross-cutting” in subsequent sequences of Snow White. The first of these happens now, as the film “cuts” from the dwarfs’ march home back to their cottage where simultaneously our heroine and her animal buddies have been cleaning. The housework apparently by this time a fait accompli, Snow White – candle in hand – guides her friends to the bottom of an ornately carved staircase and suggests “Let’s see what’s upstairs…” The animals follow her up, last of all the turtle, which clamps each step in his mouth and hoists his body up behind. Snow White opens the door at the top and steps inside the dwarfs’ bedroom where she discovers “adorable little beds”, each with a name carved in the footboard. She reads each name, highlighting each with the light of her candle, as ubiquitous birds, squirrels and chipmunks observe. This is the first time in the film when the dwarfs’ names are indicated.
Still believing this is the home of orphaned children, Snow White finds their names “funny” – as in “peculiar”. Reading the last of them, “Sleepy”, she yawns, stretches and sets her candle on a convenient shelf, confessing she’s a little sleepy herself. A family of rabbits yawns in chorus, already settled across a pillow on one of the beds. The girl gently collapses across three beds. One of the bluebirds tamps out the candle and other birds pull a light blanket over her. She is already asleep, as are the doe and her fawn in another bed as well as that family of rabbits.
Outside this boudoir the turtle is still making “headway” climbing the stairs. Suddenly distant singing can be heard: “Heigh-ho… Heigh-ho…” The animals awaken, assemble at an upstairs window, then flee out of the chamber just as the turtle at last reaches the landing. Their retreat sets the turtle spinning. When it comes out of the spin, it sees the others now at the bottom of the stairs, reverses course and steps off to follow them, stumbles and bounces down the stairwell bashing harmlessly into the wall at the bottom. Outside the cottage all the critters take refuge in the dark recesses behind a nearby fallen tree wherefrom to watch what transpires…
The dwarfs – still marching in line and singing – round a bend emerging out of the forest. Dopey is the caboose, now swinging a red lantern over his broken pickaxe behind him. At the sight of their cottage, leader Doc stops short in his tracks the others behind crashing into him and each other like a train wreck. “The light’s lit!” Doc observes. All of them scramble into hiding among the roots of a couple large trees and peek out, exclaiming in unison “Jiminy Crickets!” Immediately they all assume the worst, that their abode has been invaded by some sort of demonic creature. Grumpy confirms their assumption because his “corns” have been aching all day. Doc takes command and in his usual befuddled speech commandeers the troops to sneak up on whatever it is. So they approach and peek in through the window. Doc cautiously pushes the creaky front door wider and all huddle together in the opening, Dopey at the bottom of the pile parting Sleepy’s beard to get his view.
Shoes squeaking, they creep into the room until Dopey slams the door shut behind them. All turn in unison to shush him. Dopey turns and shushes the door. Doc suggests they search the room. The dwarfs’ animation here groups them in proximity as a co-ordinated mass pleasing in its choreographed movement similar to the ensemble of animals often surrounding Snow White. This effect was the work of animator Frank Thomas:
…he animated the group of dwarfs as a single mass, then broke the mass down to individual figures… they move, think and react as one.[1]
Their shadows play a significant part as well, falling across walls and windows as the dwarfs explore the room. Animals secretly observe them from the rafters or through a window.
The dialogue here is comically inspired and reveals much about the dwarfs’ personalities and lifestyle. Surprised, Doc points out that the floor has been swept. Grumpy observes grumpily that a chair has been dusted; Happy, that the window has been washed; Bashful, that “their” cobwebs are missing. When they realize the whole place has been cleaned, Grumpy complains that there’s “dirty work afoot”. Sneezy finds the sink empty and surmises someone has stolen their dishes, to which remark Happy responds that the dishes “ain’t stole: they’re ‘hid’ in the cupboard”. Bashful laments that his cup has been washed and now the “sugar’s gone”.
Over at the fireplace Happy and Dopey notice the kettle’s brewing something that smells good but ever-skeptical Grumpy cautions that it might be poison, to which remark the kettle responds by spitting steam at them with a fierce hiss. “Witches’ brew”, Grumpy decides. Doc calls attention to their “stable – uh, table”, which is tidy and perfectly set for a meal, including a vase of flowers. Delighted, Bashful snatches up the bouquet of goldenrod and shoves it under Sneezy’s nose which of course initiates his signature trait, a sneeze. Four dwarfs prevent this catastrophe by thrusting all their pointer fingers under his nose at once thereby actually lifting him off the floor. The respite is only temporary however because as soon as they back off Sneezy lets fly with a hurricane blast so powerful that it blows all the others across the room along with furniture, a book, a bucket and assorted crockery. Grumpy berates him, to which Sneezy responds there’s no helping it: “When y’ gotta, y’ gotta… and I gotta!” To prevent this next impending blast all dwarfs pounce on him and tie his beard in a knot tight under his nose.
Still watching amused from their perch above on a rafter the blue bird family wink at each other and use their beaks to drum a knocking on the wood. From this sound the dwarfs determine whatever it is, it’s in the room with them “right now”. The birds follow up with a spooky screech. This noise sends the dwarfs into a panic and all of them take cover: Sneezy in a large urn; Sleepy in a bucket with the broom on his head; Happy behind a chair; Dopey in the woodpile, a log on his head with a hatchet embedded in it; Grumpy in a potato sack, his nose identical to one of the tuberous vegetables. Cautiously all come back out of hiding and gather at the bottom of the staircase now certain that “it” is upstairs in the bedroom. Doc suggests that one of them go up and chase it down. All stare at poor Dopey, who looks behind himself to see whether there is some other candidate. Seeing none, he tries to sneak away but the others drag him back, force a candle into his trembling hand and send him up.
Nearing the upstairs landing, Dopey looks back to see the other dwarfs huddled down at the bottom urging him on, assuring him they are right behind. He gulps, then opens the bedroom door a crack, thrusts the candle into the chamber, peeks inside, then pushes the door open wide, steps in and gazes all about. Over on the bed, Snow White stretches and moans beneath the white blanket. Assuming she is a ghost, Dopey is terrified, lets out one of the only two sounds he verbalizes in the entire film – a guttural scream – and hightails it back out of the room, colliding with the other dwarfs on the stairs and knocking all into a jumble at the bottom. Six of the dwarfs dash out the front door in a blur and slam it shut. The seventh – Dopey of course – collides against the closed door. Outside the others pull in concert on the door to keep it shut. Trapped inside tugging at the handle, Dopey breaks it off and tumbles backward into the room with a mighty crash. He has landed against the cupboard and is hopelessly enmeshed in an assortment of pots and pans, a teakettle upside down over his head its spout resembling a snout. He extricates himself enough to scram outdoors where the others with pickaxes at the ready await the emergence of – whatever. Dopey now resembling some sort of dragonesque creature charges into their midst and gets a serious clobbering before they realize who he is. They interrogate him with a barrage of questions and – with what in a court of law would be considered leading the witness – Dopey confirms their worst fears, that the thing is indeed some sort of fearsome monster: big, horned, breathing fire, drooling and – in response to “what was it doing?” – sleeping. Armed with this information the dwarfs determine to dispose of the monster while it is unconscious. All snatch up their pickaxes and head back inside to their bedroom.
Once there they witness their adversary again stretching beneath the blanket (the same previous animation repeated). All are astounded at the size of this intruder (“Covers three beds!”) and Happy wants to know which end of it to kill. The others shush him and Doc motions all to gather ’round the beds ready to slay the creature. Their weapons raised at the ready for a mass fatal bludgeon Doc whips off the blanket. Their pickaxes and cudgels pause in mid-strike as all gaze in amazement at the sleeping princess.
“What is it?” Happy wants to know. Doc clarifies that it’s a girl. Sleepy finds her “mighty pretty”. Bashful declares her to be “beautiful like a angel”. Grumpy of course offers a dissenting view, that she’s a “female” and that all females are “poison”, full of “wicked wiles”. When Bashful wants to learn what “wicked wiles” are, Grumpy confesses that he doesn’t know, but he’s “agin ’em”. Doc shushes them all lest they wake her up, which is exactly what happens of course, sending all seven scrambling into hiding below the footboards of the three beds.
[1] Kaufman, J.B.: The Fairest One of All, The Walt Disney Family Foundation Press, San Franciso, CA, 2012, pp. 148-152.
