Parents' Guide to

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 5+

Animated classic is enchanting but also scary.

Movie G 1937 84 minutes
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 5+

Based on 31 parent reviews

age 5+

The first feature-length animation by Disney is a true classic!

I loved this movie 10 years ago, and I still do. Sure it isn't the same as animation is now, but let's face it, most animation nowadays isn't very good. I can name a plethora of reasons why I love this movie. The animation is beautiful, with one or two stiff movements, but have a heart, it is the first Disney animation. The songs are mind-blowing, as well as the gorgeous incidental music(music similar to Great Expectations, 1946) that hardly anybody has mentioned. My favourite is "Someday my Prince Will Come", I cry every time I hear it. The characters are legendary, and the writing is top notch. Who can forget those adorable dwarfs, who added such a lot to this movie. Snow White is the weakest character but I like her innocence very much, and about her singing voice...it sounds weak, but in real life it must have been strong, and let me explain why. The colouratura soprano Amelita Galli-Curci was given the praise "a beautiful and limpid voice" yet I heard it on cassette and it sounds quite quiet. It has nothing to do with the size of the voice, but the quality of the recording. The best character was the wicked queen, who had the most classic animation scene I have ever seen... when she turns into a hag, which freaked me out big time when I was about 9, like Malificent from "Sleeping Beauty." To me the Queen is probably one of the scariest Disney villains ever. The scene at Snow White's coffin was heart-rending, and it was the music that made it so. All in all, a beautiful, funny and touching movie, and I can't believe some people hated this. 10/10. Bethany Cox
1 person found this helpful.
age 5+
Disturbing scenes include the title character running, visibly terrified, through a forest filled with monstrous forms and faces (which turn out to be her imagination), a disturbing transformation scene where the queen drinks a potion and turns into an old woman, images of human remains such as skulls and a skeleton, and the mention of killing someone and ripping out their heart.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
1 person found this helpful.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (31):
Kids say (73):

Although Snow White may not be as brave as Mulan, as intelligent as Belle, or as talented as Ariel, she is, like Cinderella after her, the sweetest among the Disney princesses. Girls nowadays like their princesses and movie idols with a little edge, but considering Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was made in 1937, it's still a timeless tale, chock-full of the key ingredients to Disney's recipe for success: romance, mystery, mild peril, and music (more than 70 years later, people can still sing along to "Some Day My Prince Will Come") .

Snow White has it all, and it's a testament to the original Walt Disney animators that the traditional, hand-drawn animation can still evoke so much terror (the bulging eyes that creep out of the enchanted forest, or the menacing look of the two vultures), pathos (the sight of Snow White's outstretched hand after eating the apple) and tenderness (the dwarfs mourning Snow White's apparent death). Seven decades have passed, and this original wicked Queen is still the scariest of the Disney villains, and Snow White quite possibly the fairest of them all.

Movie Details

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