That strange relationship between Snow White and Grumpy we should probably talk about

 

I was feeling under the weather last weekend so I decided to watch one of Walt Disney's most proudest achievements; his first ever animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I've seen it thousands of times, most of them in childhood, some of them even recently. Yes, recently. (Movie reference. Don't mind me.) For the first time, I noticed something new; the strange albeit not-so-strange relationship between Snow White and Grumpy, one of the dwarfs.

No, I'm not talking about some twisted fanfiction I found on some dark hallows of the Internet. I'm talking about how little let-ups in the movie's script that leads one to believe the relationship between Snow White and Grumpy was different from that of the rest of the dwarfs. Give me a minute to prove my point before I completely lose you now:

1) Upon first meeting, all the other dwarfs are absolutely delighted at having Snow White stay for them and keep house for them. Grumpy is not. We assume he's just being 'grumpy' and hesitant to accept change. He refuses to follow orders from Snow White, too.

2) The first night Snow White spends in the dwarfs' cottages, she says a goodnight prayer which ends in, "Oh, and please make Grumpy like me." Why? Did Snow White have some strange need to please people and have their approval? (That wouldn't particularly fit in this telling of the fairy tale as even when the Evil Queen and Snow White's stepmother made her dress in rags and work as a scullery maid, she still seems oddly content. To be content in a position such as a scullery maid would not make any normal person feel such a way. At least not in the Disney Princess universe.)

3) As the dwarfs are leaving for work in the mines the next morning, Snow White kisses all of them goodbye. All of them enjoy it, specifically Dopey, who sneaks back for seconds. Grumpy procrastinates and is finally forced into a kiss, which he doesn't appear to like.

4) When the dwarfs get word that the Evil Queen has found Snow White and attempted to destroy her, Grumpy is noticeably the first to lead the group back to the cottage to rescue her. (Maybe he didn't dislike that kiss as much as he lead on...)

5) Moments before the Evil Queen disguised as a witch comes to the cottage to lure Snow White with the poison apple, she is seen making a pie for Grumpy with his name on it. Buying a man's love with food. Very coy of you, girl.

6) When Prince Charming comes riding through the forest, awakens Snow White with a kiss and asks her to leave with him to be married, she says goodbye to all the dwarfs. However, we distinctly hear Snow White say, "Bye, Grumpy!" And Grumpy doesn't exactly appear to hate the woman anymore either. He's just as affectionate as the rest of them.

I'm not trying to make this sound all twisted. I know it's a children's tale and Disney made this feature with children in mind. I just couldn't help noticing all these little plotpoints thrown into the movie dealing with Snow White and Grumpy. Obviously Snow White became a surrogate mother to the dwarfs in the short, short time she stayed with them... Was Grumpy the exception? He went from hate to love in the matter of a short time that included a tragedy. Sounds like a minor league love story if you ask me.

And, as by evidenced by the photo above, I'm not the only one who's noticed this before. (Although I don't entirely agree with what the photo says. Ah, Tumblr.)

'The DUFF': The classic teen tale with a modern twist

If you saw a preview on TV for The DUFF, starring ex-Parenthood star Mae Whitman, you probably thought to yourself, "That looks kinda dumb." But I guess it was one of those movies that you have to see to fully believe in it. I was actually pleasantly surprised.

Whitman stars as Bianca, an average teenage girl trying to survive her senior year in high school (with a seemingly bad sense of style). Her best friends, Jess and Casey, are always turning the heads of boys in the hallways, and Bianca is always the one no one gives a second look to. She never really gave it a second thought until one night at a party when Wes (Robbie Amell), Bianca's former childhood buddy, neighbor and "man whore" of the school, tells her she is a "DUFF": designated ugly fat friend. The approachable one who'll never have a chance with the popular people but can divulge any information to people wanting to date her hot friends. She's horrified and denies this is a thing...until she realizes it's 100% true. She decides to cut Jess and Casey out of her life and start over by asking Wes to help her become anything but the DUFF, much to the dismay of queen bee, mean girl and Wes' on-again off-again girlfriend Madison (Bella Thorne).

The movie has every plot element just about every other teen comedy flick has ever had: the social awfulness of Mean Girls, the "not giving a damn about your reputation" quality of Easy A, the loveable nerdiness of Never Been Kissed, and the nerd-makeover goofiness of She's All That. Yet at the same time of channeling all of these other great movies, The DUFF managed to still be fully unique. While Mean Girls will always be an amazing, socially relevant film, we can't ignore the fact that it was made in 2004. Therefore it couldn't have covered the widespread use of social media that we have today. And that's just what The DUFF did. It had everything every other teen comedy in history has...with the perfect addition of social media. Without spoiling the plot of the movie, let's just say something awful happens to Bianca in the movie that has a large part to do with the use of social media with today's youth. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and countless others have great uses, if you use them for the right things. And obviously stupid teenagers don't always follow the rules of morality. And that's exactly what is shown in The DUFF. And it was perfect.

I'm a sucker for a good comedy that ends up having a deeper, heartwarming meaning. I recommend you see The DUFF if you loved any of the teen flicks I mentioned above. Mae Whitman was absolutely the perfect choice for the lead role and I hope we get to see her in much more fun roles in the future.