Big Time Sensuality: on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”
Monday, May 4th, 2009“We just met
And I know I’m a bit too intimate
But something huge is coming up
And we’re both included.
It takes courage to enjoy it
The hardcore and the gentle
Big time sensuality.”
-Bjork, “Big Time Sensuality”
When you’re the first to do something, it’s nigh impossible not to establish precedents. Like George Washington and term limits. Ideally, the precedents are established due to the integrity of their existence, yet it is inescapable that there should also be a level of that Emerson-loathed notion of consistency for consistency’s sake. The latter instance, fortunately, is not entirely the case with the influence of the first animated film, Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Disney’s riskiest venture proved, ultimately, to be his most artistically fruitful; all of its art – animation techniques, yes, but also (and much more interestingly) its fundamental spirit – is still being mimicked and expanded upon in the entire realm of contemporary world animation.