SAFE AMONG THE CRITTERS
Snow White remains surrounded by probing eyes in the darkness; however as light filters into the glade these watchers are revealed to be merely an assortment of innocent woodland animals curious about her presence in their midst. Cautiously they begin to emerge out of various hiding places all around her – a doe and fawn, squirrels, chipmunks, birds. A tentative bunny approaches her, sniffing. The girl lifts her head and exclaims in surprise “Oh!” This outcry sends all the creatures scurrying back into hiding, the last of these being the formerly lost blue baby bird and its parents all three ducking into their nest and peeking out over its rim. Churchill’s music accompanying this retreat is especially delightful. Apologizing for frightening them the Princess assures all she will not harm them and encourages them not to run away. The baby bird is first to re-approach her. In monologue – again in rhyming verse – Snow White expresses her shame at giving in to fear and asks the animals what they do when “things go wrong”. The bluebird parents which have joined their fledgling on a nearby branch whistle a melodic phrase. The Princess takes this response to indicate that they conquer fear by singing and she warbles the same notes back at them. This repartee leads to a back-and-forth duet with the baby bird which has alighted on her finger. When she challenges it with a coloratura elaboration of the phrase, the cute fledgling attempts to mimic it but hits a sour last note much to the comic chagrin of its parents.
Now Snow White laughs and launches into the film’s next song, “With a Smile and a Song”, a delightful ditty about how a simple “attitude adjustment” can brighten the darkest situation. As she sings, her voice lures more critters out of the nearby forest into the glade: a buck which is grazing along the shore of a stream, birds perching in its antlers; some racoons; a family of pheasants; a turtle with a lilypad on its head. The other animals which retreated into hiding also come out and all gather around the singing Princess, who gradually enamors them one and all, actually petting a hesitant fawn and then a chipmunk in her lap. By song’s end they are cheering for her.
…these animals are not from the world of Mickey Mouse, but they are an integral part of Snow White’s animated world and, in this film, become her devoted companions… in fact, they play in important role in the story.[1]
Resuming her rhyming monologue Snow White assures them she feels much better but now must find a place to sleep at night and asks whether they might know of such. When they seem to indicate in the affirmative, she asks them to lead her there and they oblige, the birds taking the edges of her cape in their beaks to guide her gently along. The entire wildlife entourage accompanies her through the forest to the tune of an orchestral rendition of her recent song…
…which functions like scene change music in a stage musical or operetta, covering her journey from the wooded glade to the Dwarfs’ cottage. The animals that pull back the tree limbs at the end of this segment provide an ersatz curtain opening to the next scene.[2]
The choreographed animation of this throng of creatures is a marvel! Since they interact in the film mainly with Snow White, their drawing and movement was assigned to a subunit of Luske’s princess animation team. First advancing alongside the streambed the entire procession is reflected in the water with stunningly beautiful realism enabled by the multiplane camera. The Princess pauses a couple times to admire the beauty of nature but eventually comes up against a tangle of brush which the animals pull aside in the middle so that she can get a glimpse of their destination – the woodland cottage of the seven dwarfs depicted amidst towering trees in a shaft of sunlight. It is only a short distance away beyond a little bridge over another stream.
[1] Kaufman, J.B.: op. cit., p.85.
[2] Bohn, James: op. cit., p. 63.
