IF I were asked to list the most important movie activity of 1937 ten years from now, I should have only one item to report: Walter Disney made a full length picture. And this one event may save the industry as it is now organized.
Ordinarily I would not write an article about Walt Disney because I feel when an artist is accepted and beloved by millions of people all over the world, it is fairly gratuitous on the part of a critic to "discover" him. But the fact that Disney has made a full-length musical color picture from the Grimms fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has rather important implications.
Snow White is not important just because it is a longer and more elaborate Disney. It is important, for one thing, because the colors themselves are beautiful as well as utilitarian; you see not only a series of lovely panels, but a continuity of color effects ranging from bright effects to somber and terrifying shades, all in perfect harmony with the mood of the characters and with the musical score: a flowing use of color that will be the despair of directors working with human actors for many years to come.
And Snow White is not a childish little production for the children; it has a mature and pathetic note that far surpasses any emotional feeling Disney hitherto has created with his little figures; there is enough of the hate and sorrow of the old Black Forest tale in it so that it is indeed dramatic at times, even though for the most part it has simply Disney violence, than which there is no greater violence ever created on stage or screen.
[…]
