The Nine Disney Animated Masterpieces
Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty
The yodeling intro precedes the song proper. Happy sings the first verse of clever meaningless lyrics followed by a group chorus during which he tap-dances (though silently). The chorus is a model of self-deprecation: “Ho-hum, the tune is dumb; the...
Cross cut back to some festivity at the dwarfs’ cottage where a jolly evening of entertainment contrasts dramatically with the dark evil of the preceding sequence. The camera trucks out of the forest toward a brightly lighted window of the...
Here Walt made another excision, a big one, eliminating the “Soup Eating Sequence”, which had been fully brilliantly and painstakingly animated by another superior early Disney artist, Ward Kimball. Along with it another song bit the dust too, Churchill/Morey’s “The...
Assigned to Fred Moore (1911-1952) this “Bedroom Sequence” – as it became known – was one of the first to be animated. Snow White yawns and stretches and starts to wonder whether the “children” have returned then notices seven pairs...
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...
After that blackout on Snow White and critters cleaning the cottage, Churchill’s glorious music punctuated with melodic clinking introduces the dwarfs’ song. The film employs effectively what is called in cinematic parlance a “telescoping wipe”, in this case brilliantly modified:...
The screen fades to black and now the film presents a whole new delightful surprise. So far it has established an already powerfully-engrossing storyline involving the romantic or dramatic relationships of four realistically-drawn human characters – the “Snow White half”...
Declaring this dwelling to be “adorable – just like a doll’s house”, Snow White dashes up to it with a little skip in her step and all her new animal buddies follow her, last of all that green-shelled turtle which...
Without a moment’s relief from this attempted murder, the film proceeds into another spectacular sequence of terror, a kaleidoscope of ever more frightening images brilliantly illustrating how the young girl’s panicking mind transforms all surrounding forestry into tormenting demons –...
Crossfade quickly out of the darkness to Queen Grimhilda (her name is never mentioned in the film) seated upon her magnificent throne with peacock feathers splayed behind it. She is addressing someone in front of her with instructions to take...
