Hófehér

No matter how many fairy-tale travesties have you seen through your life, you just cannot be totally ready for this twisted animated-movie:) The story starts in a typical fairytale-world, where if you're a queen of some sort, stabbing needles into your finger, while sewing, is the traditional way, to get pregnant... The wife of King Leo Lionstench are about to give birth to a girl with hair white as snow, and eyes red as blood... but she dies. Still, the child has born, with the help of the evil court magician, whose only joy is when he gets a kiss on his elbow. Afterwards the king marries his evil maid of honor, who stuffs him to death with chicken sausage, and throws snow-white out of the castle... and its just the start of this one+half hour long concentrated madness... I haven't even mentioned the skinny, and almost blind hunter, and the ultra-neat dwarf community.:)

High ratings from a small number of voters - so this must be an obscurity with something of a cult status, right? Actually, "Hofeher" is far from being an obscurity here in Hungary, where it was made some 20+ years ago. It is one of the best films produced by the once-strong domestic animation industry (all but extinct now - thanks, capitalism), and it is still very popular due to its excellent black & dry humor, a trademark for director Jozsef Nepp. It recounts the tale of Snow White from an extremely disillusioned point of view, which results in heaps of caustic gags and impossibly funny lines. (What's your name, darling? - asks the king, supposedly in mourning. -Be it whatever you wish, Majesty - purrs the lady-in-waiting. -That's a bit long. I'll call you "Be" instead.) In fact, "Hofeher" is one of the most quotable movies ever - if only a decent English translation existed. There isn't one truly likable character here: everybody displays some vice or weird obsession, such as egoism, snobbery or an over-developed taste for the company of hens. At one point you'll even find hard not to hate the lead character, giant albino butchgirl full of good intentions but dumb to the point of danger to herself, Hofeher (=Snowhite), a victim of general indifference and heartlessness around her. The dwarfs who give her shelter (not quite voluntarily) are named after the days of the week, and are tiny doppelgängers of those who expelled her from her native castle. Her stepmother - cornice poles fall on her head, when she furiously draws the curtains in classic Disney manner - becomes unexpectedly human when she declares, in full deforced political power, an intention to become alcoholic. With all of its misanthropic acerbity, the movie packs an emotional punch. You can't help feeling a lump in your throat while watching the most obviously phoney happy-end of all times.

As a kid, this cartoon really frightened me. I just couldn't understand, how an animated movie can be so bizarre and different. Didn't like it at all. About 17-18 years later, I watched it again, and I thought, from an adults prospective, this will have a different effect on me.

Well, I still find it pretty disturbing... Of course, I understood much more of its humour and bizarre world, but I do believe, this is a really overrated movie. Can't believe why it has such a cult-status over here.

The story itsself is kinda lame, and boring. Nothing really happens, no gag-fireworks. Also the parody factor isn't really worth mentioning.

If you want to see something different from the old Disney movies, check this out, but it's not as a big deal, as promised

In a castle where scheming is required to not get the chop, a royal baby is born in very unusual circumstances... growing up to be a bizarre and overlooked royal maid.

Nothing about the story goes the way you'd expect, and the humor is probably too dark for a young audience to properly digest. Nevertheless, if you like 80's animation that's decently made and a tad on the gloomy side (the only pink in this movie I believe is from a bare buttox), with a good 90 minutes of proper story development, than this is surely movie not to miss out on!