Supper last night was at Kathy’s dad’s place – and the after- dinner entertainment turned out to be Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” There wasn’t quite time for all of it, but we watched it through the moment when the evil stepmother fishes out of her cauldron the poison apple which she has just created. . . with the water dripping off of it in the image of a skull. Brilliant and frightening stuff!
Which is not to say that this is a brilliant and scintillating film from start to finish. With all due respect to Mr. Disney and his colleagues, this film seems much more important than actually great. Snow White is a fairly shallow character and not even all that cute – and her singing voice sounds like something you’d hear around your backyard bug zapper. . . and the Seven Dwarfs, outside of Dopey, are a rather boring and generic group and whoever wrote their dialogue must have graduated close to the bottom of their College of Screenwriting class.
And yet, we were fairly mesmerized watching it – Lorelai, not surprisingly, but her mom and dad and Kathy and me as well. And this is a film which seems not to have been created with any sly hidden humor for the sake of adults- it’s crafted for children all the way. But there is something beautiful about it- and of course you also feel like you’re revisiting a bit of history by watching the first feature length animated film of them all – the one that started it all. So watch it we did – and believe it or not, Kathy and I will put on our “Snow White” DVD (which we bought more than a year ago but have never even taken out of its wrapper) and will watch the rest of it tonight, just to make certain that Snow White gets rescued. (At least that’s what I’m planning to do- We’ll see if my wife is on board.)
There are a lot of fringe benefits to having young nieces and nephews – and yesterday evening underscored one of them that’s easy to take for granted. Hanging out with Lorelai as often as we do means also hanging out with Snow White, Charlie and Lola, Dora the Explorer, Little Einstein and company on a fairly regular basis- and it’s so much fun and surprisingly stimulating to set aside the “Frasier” and “Friends” reruns from time to time in favor of younger fare. (I’m just glad to live in an era where we’re not stuck with Bozo the Clown or Huckleberry Hound for children’s entertainment.) And I know that ten years from now, when Lorelai is on the brink of high school – incredible to imagine – I will miss these days when (because of her) we gathered in front of her grandfather’s television set, cheering on Snow White and her seven silly pals.
pictured: Lorelai watching “Snow White,” flanked by her dad and her Aunt Kathy, who appear to be just as captivated.