Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997)
Directed by Michael Cohn
When young Lili's mother dies in childbirth, her father remarries Lady Claudia, a woman ruled by an evil mirror with the power to make her queen of all living things. After escaping an attempt on her life, Lili finds herself lost in a dark forest, where living happily ever after seems unlikely.
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What critics compared Snow White: A Tale of Terror to
It’s neither the kid-friendly take of 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or the two-month-old Mirror Mirror , nor the R-rated horror version offered by 1997’s Snow White: A Tale of Terror .
…did have baddies -- Michael Cohn?s bloody 1997 Snow White: A Tale of Terror does not match the 1937 original?s…
Hans and Anna’s whirlwind romance seems no more hasty than the love at first sight of Sleeping Beauty or Snow White , though Frozen jerks us back to reality when a shocked Elsa tells her sister that she can’t marry someone she’s only just met — and Kristoff tells her the same thing.
Ever since “Snow White,” the cute craftsmanship of Disney cartoons has blotted out the homicide and sorcery in the source material, which is often the folklore of central Europe.
They’re not the stepmother from Snow White.
Disney is at its best when it’s working with classic stories and/or fairy tales (think “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Snow White” and “Cinderella”).
Horror filmmakers are well aware of that fact and have moved well beyond the simple, supernatural talking mirror in "Snow White."
Cruella De Vil is—despite her penchant for black, white and red—a colorful character who fueled the nightmares of little children beginning the moment that film was released in 1961 and, like so many over-the-top villainesses in Disney’s filmography (the Evil Queen in Snow White , Ursula in The Little Mermaid , Malificent in Sleeping Beauty ), she makes for a great foil to her demure, well-meaning protagonists.
Gone are the princesses who wait for a prince to kiss them in their sleep (Snow White), who give up their voice and their family to be with the dashing prince (The Little Mermaid).
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And that’s a problem, because the cartoon is already basically perfect: the best and most justly beloved film of the 1990s Disney renaissance, and the only cartoon Disney ever made after the mid-1940s that I would rank alongside their early masterpieces, Snow White , Pinocchio , Fantasia and Bambi .
The form was invented by Disney eighty years ago, with “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937), a film I still think has never been surpassed, and when you watch something as transporting as “Snow White” — or “Bambi,” or “Toy Story,” or “Beauty and the Beast” — every gesture and background and choreographed flourish, from the facial expressions to the drip-drop of water, flows together with a poetic unity.
“Be Our Guest” in particular is a choreographic extravaganza that enfolds decades of Disney history (all the way back to “Snow White” and “Fantasia”) in contemporary cinematic craft.
The studio is still following the broad parameters it started laying down in 1937, with Snow White a nd t he Seven Dwarfs , by reshaping a culturally specific fairy tale to fit a family-friendly, accessible template.
Nearly 80 years after "Snow White," the old Disney factory is still crankin' 'em out better than anyone.
Hollywood often bum rushes a theme for our amusement, from dueling asteroid movies in the ’90s – “Armageddon” and “Deep Impact” – to the two upcoming “Snow White” movies.
What, just because Farquaad's kingdom is a theme park with turnstiles and his subjects include Pinocchio, Cinderella and Snow White?
Even a sweet-singing bluebird (resembling the one in Snow White) meets an untimely end.
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The director also exhibits welcome restraint in resisting what must have been great temptation to show the outcome of Turing’s fascination with cyanide and the Snow White legend.
It’s a strange omission — particularly given that Turing was said to have been fascinated by the “Snow White” story.
After a nasty altercation with the Queen in which Merida cleaves a tapestry depicting them in two, the princess races off on Angus to the Standing Stones where will o’ the wisps lead her to the cottage of an old woman wood carver (of bears) who is obviously really a Witch (voice of Julie Walters, "Harry Potter's" Molly Weasley, design courtesy of "Snow White" and "Spirited Away").
In fact, “Brave” feels more in line with the canon of Disney Princess stories like “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella” and “Snow White” than the Pixar films.