Reviews Snow White re-releases

[Blackbird]

Hi,

I'm in college with a major in Film Studies. This year I have to write a study before I can graduate.
My study is going to be about the re-releases of Snow White. It has been re-released several times in the past 70 years (1952, 1958, 1967, 1975, 1983, 1987, 1993, 1994 (video), 2001 (dvd) and 2009 (dvd and blu-ray)). I want to find out if the reception by the critics changed over the years and if so, how.
Therefore I need lots of reviews by critics from the different moments it was re-released (theatrically as well as on homevideo/dvd). Does anyone have reviews for me that were written at the time of one of these re-releases?
Or does anyone know a place where I can find this information?
Any help will be appreciated!

Kind regards,

Maarten

[AliceinWonderland]

It was released in the movies in the 80s too.

[Rudy Matt]

You better find a new subject.

Snow White has always been hailed as a great work of cinema, If you're trying to take a sociological bent, I'm sure you'll find some feminists who misunderstood the film and attacked it in the 60's and 70's. But it seems to me you have already decided on that point of view by asking your question in the first place. So I could help you, but I won't, because I utterly reject the buried sexist premise of your paper to begin with. Have fun doing your own thinking, however biased and prejudiced it may be.

[Dragonlion]

Wasn't Snow White also released in the '40s too?

[Blackbird]

You better find a new subject.

Snow White has always been hailed as a great work of cinema, If you're trying to take a sociological bent, I'm sure you'll find some feminists who misunderstood the film and attacked it in the 60's and 70's. But it seems to me you have already decided on that point of view by asking your question in the first place. So I could help you, but I won't, because I utterly reject the buried sexist premise of your paper to begin with. Have fun doing your own thinking, however biased and prejudiced it may be.

I'm afraid you misunderstood the intention of my paper. What I'm looking for is the shift Snow White has made in the eyes of the critics that it was first seen as a picture for adults and now a lot of people (and I'm not one of them) see it, along with a lot of other Disney Classics, as children cinema. It's this view that I'm trying to argue against. I hope my paper will contribute to seeing Disney animation as a serious artform within academic circles.
Believe me, no sexist premise was intended.

[Rudy Matt]

You better find a new subject.

Snow White has always been hailed as a great work of cinema, If you're trying to take a sociological bent, I'm sure you'll find some feminists who misunderstood the film and attacked it in the 60's and 70's. But it seems to me you have already decided on that point of view by asking your question in the first place. So I could help you, but I won't, because I utterly reject the buried sexist premise of your paper to begin with. Have fun doing your own thinking, however biased and prejudiced it may be.

I'm afraid you misunderstood the intention of my paper. What I'm looking for is the shift Snow White has made in the eyes of the critics that it was first seen as a picture for adults and now a lot of people (and I'm not one of them) see it, along with a lot of other Disney Classics, as children cinema. It's this view that I'm trying to argue against. I hope my paper will contribute to seeing Disney animation as a serious artform within academic circles.
Believe me, no sexist premise was intended.

All right - you need to read Chuck Jones' anecdote regarding the original Snow White in his book "Chuck Amuck" (or it might be in "Chuck Redux", I forget). Like most of Walt's animated features, Snow White was attacked for being too frightening for children. Chuck wrote that a group tried to prove Snow White was too scary for kids and (I'm not making this up, it's in Chuck's book), they hired scientists who put electrodes into the seats of a theater that would alert when children wet themselves watching the movie. The belief was that the kids would pee their pants when the Witch appeared on screen. And therefore, kids wetting their pants would prove how frightening this film was for kids. Cause surely peeing your pants was a symptom of trauma.

Well, as expected, kids did wet their pants while watching Snow White. Just not where the group thought they would.

The kids wet their pants when the dwarfs appeared, and the electrodes lit up while they sang their mine song on through 'Heigh Ho'.

It's a true story. Kids pissed their pants in joy watching Snow White.

Go check out the two Chuck Jones books I mentioned, you'll find it one of them.

Hope that helps your paper.

[Margos]

Kids pissed their pants in joy watching Snow White.

That may be one of the best sentences I have ever read in my entire life. That brightened my day, thank you ever so much!

[IagoZazu]

All right - you need to read Chuck Jones' anecdote regarding the original Snow White in his book "Chuck Amuck" (or it might be in "Chuck Redux", I forget). Like most of Walt's animated features, Snow White was attacked for being too frightening for children. Chuck wrote that a group tried to prove Snow White was too scary for kids and (I'm not making this up, it's in Chuck's book), they hired scientists who put electrodes into the seats of a theater that would alert when children wet themselves watching the movie. The belief was that the kids would pee their pants when the Witch appeared on screen. And therefore, kids wetting their pants would prove how frightening this film was for kids. Cause surely peeing your pants was a symptom of trauma.

Well, as expected, kids did wet their pants while watching Snow White. Just not where the group thought they would.

The kids wet their pants when the dwarfs appeared, and the electrodes lit up while they sang their mine song on through 'Heigh Ho'.

It's a true story. Kids pissed their pants in joy watching Snow White.

Go check out the two Chuck Jones books I mentioned, you'll find it one of them.

Hope that helps your paper.

Wow. I was going to snap at you for saying Blackbird's project was sextist but you posted something like that and... it's funny!

[Rudy Matt]

I'm a bounty of contradictions and knowledge. I have no patience for the tired "Disney was a sexist woman hater blah blah blah" , but if you present me with a legitimate question, I've got encyclopedias dripping off my tongue. Cause I'm Rudy Matt, and there aint a mountain in the world I haven't climbed.

[2099net]

But it's not an unreasonable thing for people of the time to have thought about Snow White. Remember, only a few years before films like Universal's Frankenstein was fighting with the censors and (reportedly - although it could all just be hype) causing audience members to faint or walk out of showings half-way through due to fright.

And of course now, while still a great movie, Frankenstien (and other Universal Horrors) are commonly watched and celebrated by children... without adult supervision.

I'm sure, at the time, the witch was if not "adult" frightening, was pushing the boundaries of what could be acceptable for "childens/family" viewing.

Its a shame, because after Pinocchio, Disney never really did make any more films as "frightening" as his first two (maybe some of Fantasia was to some). Perhaps the fuss of the time did influence him.

As for how Snow White has become seen as a children's film remember when it was released it was (to all intents and purposes) the first full length animated feature. And animation itself was quite new. Heck, Cinema was quite new. Adults and children alike were fascinated by animation and it as an art form, like the audience was growing up year after year. Crude rubber banding of the early years was gradually being replaced by more refined, "plausible" animation (to quote Walt). Of course, most of this change was driven by Disney.

And then Snow White was released and it was a revelation. You can see how the entire audience no matter what age they were would be enthralled by Snow White.

My theory is familiarity breeds indifference. Not only is the audience familiar with Snow White (due to its popularity) but animation is so common these days (and almost always aimed at children) that as a medium it doesn't hold as much magic any more. People have been told endlessly how animation works. Yes, people can see Snow White and other Disney animated films are created with skill and passion, but its "just animation" to them. It has now wow factor, because we've all been inducted to just accept animation because we're the generation who watched animation on TV.

[Blackbird]

Thanks you guys for your information. It's very helpful.

But what I also need to have are reviews by critics that were written during the time of a re-release. It isn't too difficult to find reviews from the original release (1937) or from the dvd releases (2001,2009) but it's very hard to find reviews from the 40s, 50s and 60s. It doesn't matter how they rate Snow White, as long as they comment on this movie in re-release. Maybe some of you have books in which these reviews (or part of it) can be found?
It would really help me out.