Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is now one of Dani’s favourite films. He watches it in English and Spanish.

It has been a very long time since I first saw this Disney Classic. More years than I care to remember. I think I saw it in the local Odean cinema with my parents and siblings. I only ever saw it once in the cinema and never again on video or DVD. Disney only released this money-spinner on video in 1994. That’s 57 year after it was first released in the cinema in 1937!

Now of course I have seen it at least 50 times in the last few weeks.

It is still considered one of the greatest animated films of all time but having studied it in detail I now have some burning questions.

1. Why is it dwarfs and not dwarves? Which should it be? One elf, two elves right?
2. Who do the 7 dwarfs work for and who owns that diamond mine? If it is their own business where do they go to sell the fruits of their labour? And who the hell is in charge of security? I cannot believe my eyes when they throw billions of dollars worth of diamonds into the vault locked by a single key which they keep on a hook beside the door. Unbelievable!
3.  Why are seven creepy looking, pick-axe wielding dwarfs so afraid of one young woman?
4. Why does only one of the 7 wear glasses? What’s more where did he get them from? I have seen no opticians in this film. Assuming this is set in some medieval time, was there even anyone making glasses in those days? I did some research and right now  there are as many as 60% of the population who need glasses or contact lenses. I could not find data specific to dwarf vision but one in seven represents  just over 14%. That is significantly lower than statistics suggest even accounting for better vision back in 1937.
5. How come their musical instruments are in such good working order? Even the fantastic pipe organ works like it was new. Everything else in the house was a complete mess when Snow White first arrived.
6. What happened to the Huntsman who was supposed to kill Snow White? Surely he would have come to some gruesome medieval end once the Queen discovered that he had not done as ordered? If ‘Game of Thrones’ is anything to go by he would have been made to suffer for some considerable time before finally being put out of his misery.
7. Is that some kind of hijab the queen is wearing? It certainly looks like. If she really thinks that she is the fairest of them all then why not show off her hair? We only get to see her hair when she turns into an old hag – and that doesn’t count.

Can anyone help with these unanswered questions? These things could start to spoil the film for me…

Actually it is great fun watching it with Dani.