When I first found this film existed on Wikipedia by chance, I read that Filmation, the company behind this movie, was planning on making a series. Unfortunately, their first two films Happily Ever After and Pinocchio and the Emperor of Night were so disliked by critics that Filmation lost its reputation and eventually went bankrupt. Being naturally curious, I decided to investigate the former and see why this happened. True to form, the resulting movie was not so good...in fact, it was downright terrible.
The year in which this movie was produced is almost as unbelievable as the fact that it was able to enlist such names as Ed Asner, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Phyllis Diller into its maelstrom. 1993? Wasn't that about the same time Disney was producing such masterpieces as The Lion King, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast? By watching this show you would never guess it was made in 1993 because of the grainy, outdated 70's animation. The way the characters move ranges from glitchy (the way some parts of a character are missing) to beyond ridiculous (when Snow White is walking or running). This is way below par if you're familiar with better movies.
Even worse than the chintzy animation though is the writing. The story is more full of plot holes than a slice of swiss cheese. To be exact, my biggest beef with the plot comes from the whole "Shadow Man" aspect of the story. It was at the very end when I found out the Shadow Man was really the Prince under a curse that I lost any remaining respect for Malice, the villain. If Malice was such a great villain, why didn't he just imprison or kill the Prince instead of turning him into a creepy little man? At least then the Prince wouldn't be running about saving Snow White. Didn't the writers think of that? And the little "romance" between Snow White and the Shadow Man was bizarre and creepy. She knew this little weirdo for what, two minutes, and yet the writers felt the need to make a pitiful little montage of their "precious moments" at the very end. The fact that none of the main characters are terribly memorable or endearing also doesn't help matters any. For example, when we meet the 7 Dwarfelles, the only 3 that actually really speak are Muddy, Sunburn, and Thunderella (who by the way has a terrible and pointless song). That's not like in the original Snow White where the viewer is acquainted to all of the Dwarfs, who actually have personalities beyond a few "snappy" lines.
After watching this wretched thing, I would fully recommend avoiding this at all costs, if you want to get a nice video for the kids, get Disney instead. As for my 2/10 rating, I did find this very humorous, although not in the way Filmation intended.
The year in which this movie was produced is almost as unbelievable as the fact that it was able to enlist such names as Ed Asner, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Phyllis Diller into its maelstrom. 1993? Wasn't that about the same time Disney was producing such masterpieces as The Lion King, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast? By watching this show you would never guess it was made in 1993 because of the grainy, outdated 70's animation. The way the characters move ranges from glitchy (the way some parts of a character are missing) to beyond ridiculous (when Snow White is walking or running). This is way below par if you're familiar with better movies.
Even worse than the chintzy animation though is the writing. The story is more full of plot holes than a slice of swiss cheese. To be exact, my biggest beef with the plot comes from the whole "Shadow Man" aspect of the story. It was at the very end when I found out the Shadow Man was really the Prince under a curse that I lost any remaining respect for Malice, the villain. If Malice was such a great villain, why didn't he just imprison or kill the Prince instead of turning him into a creepy little man? At least then the Prince wouldn't be running about saving Snow White. Didn't the writers think of that? And the little "romance" between Snow White and the Shadow Man was bizarre and creepy. She knew this little weirdo for what, two minutes, and yet the writers felt the need to make a pitiful little montage of their "precious moments" at the very end. The fact that none of the main characters are terribly memorable or endearing also doesn't help matters any. For example, when we meet the 7 Dwarfelles, the only 3 that actually really speak are Muddy, Sunburn, and Thunderella (who by the way has a terrible and pointless song). That's not like in the original Snow White where the viewer is acquainted to all of the Dwarfs, who actually have personalities beyond a few "snappy" lines.
After watching this wretched thing, I would fully recommend avoiding this at all costs, if you want to get a nice video for the kids, get Disney instead. As for my 2/10 rating, I did find this very humorous, although not in the way Filmation intended.