Animation Flashback

Happily Ever After

Recently I reviewed the movie Snow White, the first animated feature film by Disney. Now we are going to look at its sequel. Now to those of you thinking you missed something important calm down, this is not a Disney film. This is a film made by Filmation studios and was intended to be one of a series of Disney Sequels but a quick lawsuit from Disney made it so the film would look nothing like its intended predecessor but what I assume is a sequel to the story as a whole. By default this is a bad idea as most people associate the story of Snow White with its interpretation done by Disney (or the actual fairy tale) so we will be comparing it to its original intended prequel. Looking back on it I always find it weird that Disney hasn't already tried to make a sequel of Snow White, hopefully we won't ever see one. In my mind, a sequel should always start with the writers asking the question "can we make a good story out of it?" Sequels either have to continue the story or continue the theme. I'll probably go more into sequels as a whole later on but now, let's look at this.

Let’s take a look at the cast. The protagonist Snow White (voiced by Irene Cara) is somewhat different from her Disney counterpart. First of all her design is different to show a somewhat older character and a bit more demure. In this story she has to rescue her prince (voiced by Michael Horton, and still has no name) from danger yet she is not much help even at the end. An issue for Snow White is her voice NEVER seems to change; happy, sad, scared, it always sounds the same. This Snow White is supposed to be more mature and that shows more in her design than character. While Disney’s Snow White does little but cook, clean, tell stories, and eat an apple, she still felt like a character who was able to communicate with her emotions. This Snow White is trying to be proactive and while I feel she is trying, the film still makes her like a stereotypical damsel in distress.

Next are the dwarfs, or dwarfelles. In this story the seven dwarves have opened up a new mine in the next kingdom and left their old home to their cousins the dwarfelles. I think this is more due to Filmation having to make sure that this movie did not at all resemble Disney’s own Snow White as they are really nothing like them. These dwarfelles are put in charge of different aspects of nature like the earth, sun, animals, and the weather and have “powers” centered on their specific duty. However these powers are rarely shown or explained, an example being the Doc of the dwarfelles (in the idea that she is the leader) Muddy (Carol Channing), is in charge of the earth itself but all she does is put mud on her face. Sunbeam is in charge of the sun but all she seems to do is be able to move sunlight around and focus it and only for a short time it seems. Marina, who is in charge of the lakes and rivers only shows that she can breathe under water and Moonbeam who is in charge of the night sleepwalks during the day and when she wakes up still does nothing. The only dwarfelles that can do anything is Blossom (Zsa Zsa Gabor), who controls the plants (she can grow them in any soil), Criterina who is in charge of all the animals and Thunderella (who I think is the movies only attempt at character development), who can control the weather. Like any group of siblings they fight and according to Mother Nature they spend more time fighting amongst themselves then doing their own job which I find odd because only Muddy and Sunbeam seem to fight at all.

Now these ladies were given their “powers” by Mother Nature (Phyllis Diller).. Mother Nature is a bit of a fail in my opinion and more evidence to prove this is not a Disney film nor qualified to be an actual serious character. She comes off as an incompetent enchantress who uses more complicated methods to create things when she can do them easily. An example being she tries to make a door mouse using some complicated method and creates a mouse with a door for a body. She fixes it with a wave of her hand but you have to wonder why she is going with this more complicated and dangerous route. She gives the dwarfelles their powers to according to her “to be there when she can’t” which is weird, what else does she have to do that is more important than her job? Why does she give powers to people for a job when she herself admits they spend more time arguing than doing their job? Why did she give the power to control the weather to such a young girl like Thunderella who in addition to lacking confidence in herself is also afraid of thunder? This is really inconsistent with the idea of magical based characters in Disney who despite not being very involved, have a certain degree of confidence in the people they choose to do things. While she tries to be and look professional she comes off as a joke in design and character but she, like the movie does have her own charm in a non-Disney universe.

Lord Mallis (Malcom Mcdowell) serves the role as villain of this movie and is the brother of the evil queen. Like Mother Nature and the dwarfelles, his abilities really step outside of the universe of its intended prequel. This guy is a sorcerer, he can transform into a dragon, curse people, and many other powers. His castle and the land it is on are immune to the powers of Mother Nature though he himself cannot enter her realm. But the problem is he is not scary, for all the things he can do, he comes off as uninteresting. The Evil Queen in Snow White was a witch but her magical skills seem limited so when she had trouble it made sense. This guy could just end her with any skill he possesses but he doesn’t and instead tries to trap her. His only “henchmen” (and I use that term lightly) are the magic mirror, and owl, and a bat. The mirror (Dom DeLuise) is one of the biggest mess ups for a movie trying to be a sequel to the Disney version. In the Disney version, the mirror is very ominous sounding, and comes off as a being from another world. Dom DeLuise mirror sounds like he lives in Toon Town.

The Bat and Owl, are the movies attempts at comedy. Scowl the Owl is the proclaimed leader of the two, and Batso is the light-hearted bubble head making them a more incompetent and unfunny Pinky and the Brain.  This is also where I found my first “Big Lipped Alligator Moment!” in the form of Scowls song. For those of you that do not know, this is when a song comes out of nowhere and goes against the theme of the song with not proper build up. An example would be in Ferngully with the lizard that sings about eating Zach. The two of them spend the better part of the movie trying to be bad and by the end choose to be good.

So what does this movie do right if anything? Well if you can ignore the fact that it was originally trying to be a sequel to Disney’s Snow White, not much. While that helps, the movie tries to do at least three different things; Snow White saving the prince, dwarfelles learn to work together to keep their powers, and Thunderella getting over her fear of thunder and these aren’t handled that well. If the movie focused on one or two things then it would probably work better. Mother Nature says the dwarfelles spend more time arguing than doing their job but only Muddy and Sunbeam argue. Snow White shows courage going off with the dwarfelles (especially since their powers do not work in Lord Mallis’s realm), but why did she have to go alone with just them? My favorite part of the story is Thunderella’s attempt at growth; she goes from a scared girl to showing that she is very smart and later gaining her own courage with her powers (I mean her last moment is just epic in my opinion). You could have made a movie with the premise of just the Seven Dwarfelles learning to use their power with Thunderella as the focus and Snow White in the background.

Very few animated movies tell two stories properly let alone three and in my opinion this movie does not but that does not mean it’s BAD. There is nothing bad about it for kids that I can see in it and it really does try and it may have been a good movie if they had been allowed to make an actual sequel to Disney’s Snow White. They also seem to not get the idea that there is a certain degree of dignity to the popular fairy tales, which is also where the Shrek films get their laughs from, playing with that angle. The movies failings (a 10 million dollar movie that only made 3 million) later led to Filmation Studios declaring bankruptcy and shutting down.  So I’m going to give this movie, a 2 out of 5, what little about this movie I do like that is good does not make up for everything else about it.

Images are property of Filmation Studios.