Escapay wrote:The film focuses too much on grabbing the audience through visuals and enjoyable moments that it results in the story being so mind-numbingly plain and the characters becoming nothing but caricatures of what could have been interesting and believable people. It's a gimmick movie. And amazingly, a lot of people fell for it.
You mean like how Belle could have only danced with the Beast like taking her hairy cousin to the prom, then said she loved him
when he was going to die soo, and not only do we say certain things we don't mean in moments like that, but she wouldn't have to do anything to follow her claim after he died, but then she kisses him when he's a hot human! Look, she could have kissed him right when she left to take care of her father, or kissed him right before he was about to die, but no, it's only after he transforms.
Even you said at first they might have only a friendship. What if that's just what it was, there was no indication that proved it was more.
EDIT: Except the expressions and gestures like resting her shoulder and holding his hand. But often people in love with these renaissance films neglect the subtle things like that in characters of older Disney films where they say the characters are too simple and 2-dimensional so fair is fair.
So Disney did this trick to make it look like she loved him, and audiences fell for it.
But you know what? People believe she loved him. Audiences believed and felt it. So, yes, they intended her to love him, she does, and all you have to do is believe it, movies are about believing, in those drawings, in those characters, in their feelings. And Disney made audiences believe in Snow White and her feelings, too. That's Disney magic. And Disney magic is in, and was started by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It started it all.
I'll take a look at your reasons for this film being something audiences just fell for. Let's see. Gimmick movie? Grabbing the audience with visuals and enjoyable moments? You mean like how the stained-glass windows and computer-aided ballroom dance, long special effected transformation in Beauty and the Beast were visual gimmicks to grab the audience? Unless you would call those innovations, in which case Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had many, many of them, as you know, that audiences even applauded for during the film (the amazing backgrounds!), only this film had these innovations way, way, way before Beauty and the Beast, and came first among animated films. Interestingly, Snow White had a long special effected transformation of it's own for the Queen, and the animators said she went through a whole lot of emotions and thoughts during it, some guy said animating her mixing the potion was very tricky for the queen's internal feelings, etc. I guess it didn't come through to you in the animation. Reminds me of what I said about noticing the subtley in the animation of the characters, though admittedly I didn't notice this about the queen either, I just didn't assume she was a caricature with few simple emotions or whatever.
Next, believable characters? Disney tried so, so hard to make believable characters, and back then, audiences and critics said they succeeded. Indeed, they did succeed at making believable characters for the audience. It is only today that we need our characters to be more and more like us in every way. You can't appreciate fairy tale archetypes? That word has gotten derogatory but it means an ideal example, like fairy tales are idealistic and romantic. And if caricatures means sticking to the character's pure evil or pure innocence, so be these perfect magical fairy tale characters for a perfect fairy tale.
EDIT: Well Snow White was suspicious of the dwarfs and wouldn't let them eat until they washed, but maybe this was still considered "fair". Also
Disneykid said he thought she could be sarcastic to the dwarfs sometimes so...I dunno I would like to talk to him about that. And anyway if those are true than that makes Snow White more believable and realistic anyway.
Now, in something like Cinderella they did seem to modernize the heroine and make her and her stepmother more believable, but Snow White was the fairest one of all, possibly meaning fairest on the inside, while Cinderella was not, in her original fairy tale. Remember that Cinderella stays awake while Snow White's tale is about her protection and salvation from death. At least for the Disney version, Cinderella was meant to be older and wiser and more contend with her stepmother and even did some bad things but that's for some other discussion.
Finally, people cried at the Beast dying, right? People cried at Snow White's death, too. Beauty and the Beast got a standing ovation? Snow White had many. Beauty and the Beast got nominated for Best Picture Oscar? Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs recieved a special Oscar and seven little Oscars.
So, I dunno, this seems to say people's desires and expectations just change with the times. And that's one reason I have so much dislike towards Beauty and the Beast. It's considered so much better than other Disney films today, but it might only be because films were made differently back then and people didn't want, nay, demand the same things we do today. And they couldn't even do certain things back then (animating that prince believably for a long time, remember?).
Escapay wrote:I hated that she was so Stepford Wife-ish to the dwarfs, practically treating them as her children. I hated that she survived the trip through the enchanted forest (which is quite an impressive sequence in itself).
Interesting you picked these because I think these actually show some good things about the Shrill. She takes control of the house she just got accepted in to. It's ironic that the dwarfs say she can stay if she cooks...then she says they can't eat unless they wash! Made ya think, didn't it? Also, the fact that she survived that forest showed she had something in her, bravery or courage or strength or ability, running away from the bad. Though I like to point out that the Hunter told her to run in the first place, she still made it through the place that was after her, trying to harm her, at least in her mind, all by herself.
