Branca de Neve

It is fair to see it in the context of the period and not ignoring the purpose. It is just a simple, silly in many scenes, adaptation of the classic fairy tall. Nothing awfull , only not always inspired. But the spirit of the storytelling is far to be wrong, the performances are reasonable, the Bavarian air is a virtue and the children in the roles of dwarfs- few drops of imagination solve many details. A decent film. And nothing less. Or more.

This movie scared me so horribly when I was younger, that I refused to ever watch it again. Well, my friend talked me into doing so last night (she has been bugging me for years). And I can see why it scared me; the dubbing is pathetic, the little children dwarfs are horrifying, that prince wears a great big yellow blob on his head that's supposed to look like blonde hair, all of the characters are painfully stupid...okay, to be fair, the sets ARE quite lovely. But my friend and I just burst out laughing so many times over how ridiculous everything was! Yes, it was made in 1955, and so I can forgive the guy dressed in the bear suit who wanders out behind a tree to scare Snow White, as well as the giant fake spider web behind the queen while she is mixing potions, and the snow that looks like shredded toilet paper. But some of the dialogue in the script! I have never read the original Brothers Grimm story, but please don't tell me that Snow White cried, "Oh, can I cook and clean for you?!" after the dwarves begged her to stay. And how stupid IS Snow White? Three times the dwarves come marching home, singing their annoying, creepy songs, to find her keeled over. And the third time, they think she is dead, so they stick her in a glass coffin, in which she remains in perfect condition, until what seems to be a WHOLE YEAR LATER (what took them so long? HMM!) the prince and the hunter come alone, the prince wants to take Snow Whites body home so he can oggle it, the coffin falls down, and she WAKES UP! WOW! Aside from all this, the material is painfully stretched, with scenes with that obnoxious music blaring on in the background as various characters pace, do chores, stare off in space, eat, sleep, and march, scenes comtaning no meaningful context whatsoever. I loved the part when the dwarves "carried" Snow White inside, shouting, "Watch her head!" "This way!" "Okay, easy now" while the camera focused on another dwarf gathering water, so we couldn't SEE them doing all that hard work (since, um, they weren't). Another scene that should have been cut entirely! Oh well, I'm being reaaaal snotty. I want to see the German version but also am afraid to, for...well, you know.

AND WHAT WAS UP WITH THAT HOST?! AHHHHH! Scary!

In the 1980's, video brought dozens of "classic" fairy tales to video for children to "enjoy". Many of these came from the 1960's and originated in foreign countries. The most common countries of origin were Mexico, Germany, and Russia. Of the three, Mexico's contributions are the most unbelievably bad and Russia's are the most gorgeously filmed. Germany's fairy tale films fall somewhere in-between.

"Snow White" is long out-of-print on the Interglobal Video label. American distributors added narration and an introduction by Paul Tripp and new music and songs as well. None of the new elements helped the film, they, if anything, killed the film. The film is rather well-filmed; the colors have faded with age, but look nice. The sets are great and the exteriors are gorgeous; this is Germany, of course. I remember hating this movie when I was younger, but now that I've seen it again, it holds a special camp value. I bought it at a used video place for $4.50 and was worth every penny (not more). A few bad things: the dwarves are played by little children, the songs are wretched, and most of the acting is pathetic. But it is beautifully nostalgaic and for anyone who grew up in the 1960's, they will certainly remember being dropped off by busy parents at a theater to see this! Hard to find, but worth a look for camp/nostalgaic value.

The story is simple. You know the characters. While it sticks to Grimm's tale for the majority of its plot, the ending is a bit Disney-fied with the death of the Evil Queen. I mean, they scared the bejesus out of us for an entire hour with the little German dwarfs, why not go all the way and give us the real horror of the Queen's death, putting iron shoes on her and making her dance until she dropped dead? For 1955, it's pretty well filmed, with very nice shots of the natural surroundings.

The US dubbed-version is a thousand times scarier, with its music and menacing voice actors. Even the narrator sounds evil. The German version is very childlike with a sort of playfulness that's seen throughout many of the film's pivotal moments.

I recommend watching both versions to get a good kick out of what the US did to a relatively harmless children's film, (even though the Queen tries to kill her stepdaughter multiple times, of course.) The US-dubbed dialog is taken directly from the German film's script. It has simply been translated.

There is so much corny stuff in this movie i couldn't help but laugh through out the film. A lot of it didn't make sense like the belt made her pass out and then the dwarfs return and loosen it and she's fine, and then the comb what was that about she sticks it in her hair and she falls over and the dwarfs take it out put her to bed and then she's fine and then the poisoned apple didn't kill her? the apple was stuck in her throat?and then when the coffin fell she spit it out and was fine that didn't make sense to me. the prince was in love with her and she was in love with him when did that happen? they didn't even know each other they only saw each other from a distance. and the dwarfs only sang one song that annoyed me so bad. snow white didn't speak very much, a lot of the scenes she barely spoke. another thing isn't there more to the story than just the queen killing her? that was the whole movie it needed more than that. but spite all of that i enjoyed laughing at it and seeing west Germany its beautiful there.

another thing isn't there more to the story than just the queen killing her? that was the whole moving it needed more than that.