Matts Cinema DiaryA reflection of who I am and how I came to be. In this diary, you will hear the stories, the events and just generally what was happening in my life when I saw the movies I did in the theatre from 1993 onwards. Sometimes you might just get plain old movie reviews as that might be all I can remember! I aim it to be as personal as possible, I will probably venture into deep corners of my own warped psyche and relive painful and happy moments of my life and how I came to be the founder of a little site called Obsessed With Film.
Still the fairest of them all - SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1993)
Weekend of August 2nd/3rd 1993 - UCI Cinema Gateshead Metro Centre With my Mum, my Step Dad and my sister. They should re-release a classic Disney film every year, without question. A different one should play every 12 months with a wide release. Kids today aren't as fortunate as I and those before me were with what material they were brought up watching. I worry that kids today don't know what happens to little boys when they lie or what happens when you are tempted by that juicy red apple given to you from a total stranger. Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 101 Dalmatians - these were my earliest film memories, movies where I first understood right from wrong, and that a bigger world existed outside of my town. Not just magical places but also those grounded in reality like London. My first memory as a Northerner of Big Ben isn't exactly the real image of the impressive clock tower but the image of it in Peter Pan.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs received a startling re-release in July 1993, I saw the movie just one week after I lost my cinematic virginity with Jurassic Park. I was desperate to go back, I pleaded that I wanted to see Jurassic Park again but quite wisely on my mum's part, I don't think she was interested in sitting through that again. Dinosaurs aren't her thing I guess. Instead she saw an opportunity. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs... a movie she knew that she liked. And how could she NOT take me to see it after seeing trailers such as this... I remember being particularly frustrated and confused on the drive to the screening. I already knew about Snow White... I already knew her tale, I had met the Seven Dwarfs already, I knew their names and their idiocentricities. They had already become part of my pop culture psyche and I understood their meaning. Why was I being taken to see it again? I remember being adamant that the movie was going to be a sequel... it had to be. Why would they re-run something on the big screen I had already seen, the concept or re-releases I never quite grasped back then. I associated the multiplex with seeing something that was new and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was not new to me. I will admit I was initally frustrated and annoyed when the film started and it was a story I knew inside out already but there's a depthness to it that sucks you in and before long you get caught up in it once again. I remember also being surprised at the length. After Jurassic Park, I had become accustomed with long ass movies that would take up the whole day but Snow White brushes by at a quick paced 83 minutes, I actually thought they had cut out some of the film. I remember it being more epic in my head... this was aged 7, sure that I was being robbed (or at least my mother was) of cash.
There's a simplicity to the story that you catch onto when you are young, you fall in love quickly with the dwarfs. Dopey, Grumpy, Sleepy... each of these guys you can relate too, especially when your young because with names like those little characterisation is needed. Sleepy is Sleepy... you get it, he sleeps. But the animators do a wondrous job of keeping us interested in them, my favourite was always Grumpy. The film carries some fantastic sequences. One I remember vividly is the Snow White run through the woods near the beginning or the terrifying transformation of the wicked queen into the old hag. And the moral message of the film will carry on forever... lust (for the forbidden apple) and uncontrollable vanity (the queen) are potent ideas that I really think should be ingrained on the young. That mirror on the wall, what a complex character and and his sinister motives. Would you agree that damn magic mirror on the wall could be the sickest film character in history, I always have a small spot for the queen who is very much manipulated into her actions. Each of us of course have one such mirror and trying to ignore it can be difficult. I always thought Snow White carried the biggest message out of all of Walt Disney's movies...
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a wondrous masterpiece which was the catalyst for Disney's epic run of amazing films through the next several decades. The basic structure that runs through each and every Disney release is found here and it's a testament to the greatness of Walt Disney that he alone came up with it. He wasn't working from a blueprint.. he CREATED the damn blueprint right here.
I hope they give this movie a re-release around the same time as Disney's 2D return with The Princess and The Frog next year. The kids today deserve it... I worry they are getting loaded on stuff like Shrek and it's watering down what should be a richly full filling and exciting introduction to the magic of film.
Though Pixar keep me from being too worried when they bring out such greatness as Wall*E.
Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.
