Snow White and the Three Stooges.. an incomplete discussion.
It is my opinion that there is an inherent sadness to the Snow White picture that strives to make it all the more
endearing to me though, no less, insufferable. It truly is a picture I can't forget for better or for worse. It comes off as over-long and far too dramatic as a film, and I feel like the soundrack album is better as it encapsulates the story, abbreviates it and makes it seem like a better film that it ultimately became. Certainly, it should never have been billed as a Stooges picture, although that may have been all it had going for it by the time production was done. While it became too dramatic and far too much of a downer, such is a common fate for quite a bit of "family" fare. But that's what makes it memorable. You don't come away from that film remembering the Stooges' predilection for pugilistic punishment (as in their Columbia Shorts iteration), you remember it because the Stooges knelt and mourned Snow White's death.
Think of other pictures/stories like Charlotte's Web, or even Snoopy Come Home, both of which force us to face loss
and the emotional impact of never seeing someone that you care about ever again. Charlotte died and we knew it was
going to happen. But we watched anyway, and tried to enjoy the ride for as long as we could stand it. Until the tears came. Snoopy left home and left Charlie Brown utterly empty inside-- just as emotionally devastated as
us (Or me! hell I cried like a baby when I saw those kids pacing in circles while the song begged "Come home,
Snoopy"!) who were attached to those characters and who, at a predictably young viewing age, had never even
considered the impact such a loss would bring. At least not until those stories planted that little nugget in our developing, immature and overactive imaginations. What we failed to realise is that those films become an allegory for death (ultimate loss) and, in the case of Snow White and the Three Stooges, pluck our emotional strings as if to say, "This picture may not be the best telling of the story, but we sure as hell want you to remember it as being the one that hurt the most!"
These films and stories masqueraded as entertainment, only serving to introduce us to one facet of life and living that we never anticipated. Loss. And how you just have to deal with it.
Being a familiar tale, we know what will happen to Snow White, the effect it will have on the characters but, are
we prepared to see our Stooges wracked with real emotion? It is such a downer you can't help not forgetting the
film. Even the signature song "A Place Called Happiness" which, ultimately, should have been uplifting and
inspiring at its placement within the picture, seems more to accentuate the briefness of life and the losses
incurred.
Some do it better than others, as in the case of Spielberg's E.T.-- I don't recall a dry eye in the house when I
saw this during its original theatrical run. Even Garfield, yes Garfield! The cartoon sent up so many times for its
banal nature (Read: Kelly Bundy and higher forms of literature) attempted to tell a memorable (by being thoroughly
depressing) tale of Christmas in a prime time special years ago. Charlie Brown's Christmas? Somber, melancholy,
introspective and manic/depressive (he didn't have those worry lines around his eyes and that crinkly, frowning, drawn-down mouth for nothing, you know!).
Snow White and the Three Stooges.. memorable? Yes. For all the wrong reasons.
