Snow White has survived as a BRAND separate from the film itself, yes, although even there she’s not one of the more popular princesses.
When I discuss the historical context, I’m not talking about the usual Disney talking point of SW as an artistic innovation, something that is true but doesn’t alter the actual content of the film. The actual film Snow White feels like something from an era with entirely different expectations and understandings in a way something like Casablanca doesn’t.
The protagonists of Snow White have no character arc or real agency. Snow herself harkens back to silent film damsels rather than reflecting, say, the willful female leads of the contemporary screwball comedies. Frankly, she acts like a child. The Prince is an utter nonentity. Compare the nonexistent character growth and development of SW and the Prince to that of Gepetto and Pinocchio just a few years later. The only characters who experience meaningful growth are the dwarfs, secondary characters.
The film has few if any, thematic throughlines. Action doesn’t rise and fall in the expected way - there’s a brief set-up, a long series of gags, and a perfunctory conclusion. It’s essentially structured as an extended short.
The film is still a masterpiece, of course, but more then any other Disney film it feels like an artifact from another time.
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