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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American film based on the eponymous German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full length animated feature to be produced by Walt Disney, and the first American animated feature film in movie history.
Walt Disney's Snow White premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater on December 21, 1937, and the film was released to theaters by RKO Radio Pictures on February 4, 1938.
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Encyclopedia
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American film based on the eponymous German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full length animated feature to be produced by Walt Disney, and the first American animated feature film in movie history.
Walt Disney's Snow White premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater on December 21, 1937, and the film was released to theaters by RKO Radio Pictures on February 4, 1938. The story was adapted by storyboard artists Dorothy Ann Blank, Richard Creedon, Merrill De Maris, Otto Englander, Earl Hurd, Dick Rickard, Ted Sears and Webb Smith from the German fairy tale Snow White by the Brothers Grimm. David Hand was the supervising director, while William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, and Ben Sharpsteen directed the film's individual sequences.
Snow White was one of only two animated films to rank in the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films of all time in 1997 (the other being Disney's Fantasia), ranking number 49. It achieved a higher ranking (#34) in the list's 2007 update, this time being the only traditionally animated film on the list. The following year AFI would name the film as the the greatest animated film of all time
In 1989, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Plot
Through a textual prologue the audience is told that Princess Snow White is a princess living with her vain and wicked stepmother the Queen. Fearing Snow White's beauty, the Queen forced her to work as a scullery maid and would daily ask her Magic Mirror "who is fairest one of all." The mirror would always answer that the Queen was, pleasing her.
At the film's opening, the Magic Mirror informs the queen that Snow White is now the fairest in the land. The jealous queen orders her huntsman to take Snow White into the woods and kill her, demanding that he bring her the dead girl's heart in a jeweled box as proof of the deed. The huntsman instead urges Snow White to flee into the woods and never come back, bringing back a pig's heart instead (thus saving Snow White's life).
Lost and frightened, the princess is befriended by woodland creatures who lead her to a cottage deep in the woods. Finding seven small chairs in the cottage's dining room, Snow White assumes the cottage is the untidy home of seven children. It soon becomes apparent that the cottage belongs instead to seven adult dwarfs, who work in a nearby mine. Returning home, they are alarmed to find their cottage clean and surmise that an intruder has invaded their home. The dwarfs find Snow White upstairs, asleep across three of their beds. The princess awakens, introduces herself, and the dwarfs, save one named Grumpy, welcome her as a house guest after they learn she can cook. Snow White begins a new life cooking and keeping house for the dwarfs.
The queen eventually discovers the girl is still alive when the mirror again answers that Snow White is the fairest in the land. Using magic to change herself into an old hag, the queen goes to the cottage and tricks Snow White into biting into a poisoned apple that sends her into a deep sleep, which can only be broken by love's first kiss. The dwarfs chase the old hag up a cliff and trap her. She tries to roll a boulder over them but lightning strikes the cliff she is standing on and she falls to her death.
The dwarfs return to their cottage and find Snow White seemingly dead. Unwilling to bury her body out of sight in the ground, they instead place her in a glass coffin trimmed with gold in a clearing in the forest. Together with the woodland creatures, they keep watch over her body through the seasons.
After several seasons pass, a prince learns of her plight and visits her coffin. Captivated by her beauty, he kisses her, which breaks the spell and awakens her. The dwarfs and animals all rejoice as Snow White and the prince ride off to the prince's castle.
Production
Development on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs began in early 1934, and in June 1934, Walt Disney announced the production of his first feature to the New York Times. Before Snow White, the Disney studio had been primarily involved in the production of highly successful animated short subjects in the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies series. Disney hoped to expand his studio's prestige and revenues by moving into features, and estimated that Snow White could be produced for a budget of $250,000 - ten times the budget of an average Silly Symphony.
Walt Disney had to fight to get the film produced. Both his brother Roy Disney and his wife Lillian attempted to talk him out of it, and the Hollywood movie industry mockingly referred to the film as "Disney's Folly" while it was in production. He even had to mortgage his house to help finance the film's production, which eventually ran up a total cost of just over $1.5 million, a massive sum for a feature film in 1937.
Snow White, which spent three years in production, was the end result of Walt Disney's plan to improve the production quality of his studio's output, and also to find a source of income other than short subjects. Many animation techniques which later became standards were developed or improved for the film, including the animation of realistic humans (with and without the help of the rotoscope), effective character animation (taking characters that look similar — the dwarfs, in this case — and making them distinct characters through their body acting and movement), elaborate effects animation to depict rain, lightning, water, reflections, sparkles, magic, and other objects and phenomena, and the use of the multiplane camera.
The names of the Seven Dwarfs (Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy and Sneezy) were created for this production, chosen from a pool of about fifty potentials. The one name Disney always had in mind from the start was Grumpy, or something similar. Blabby, Jumpy, Shifty, and Snoopy were among those that were rejected, along with Awful, Baldy, Biggo-Ego, Biggy, Biggy-Wiggy, Burpy, Busy, Chesty, Cranky, Daffy, Dippy, Dirty, Dizzy, Doleful, Flabby, Gabby, Gloomy, Goopy, Graceful, Helpful, Hoppy, Hotsy, Hungrey, Jaunty, Lazy, Neurtsy, Nifty, Puffy, Sappy, Sneezy-Wheezy, Sniffy, Scrappy, Silly, Soulful, Strutty, Stuffy, Sleazy, Tearful, Thrifty, Tipsy, Titsy, Tubby, Weepy, Wistful, and Woeful.
The songs in Snow White were composed by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey. Paul J. Smith and Leigh Harline composed the incidental music score. Well-known songs from Snow White include "Heigh-Ho," "Some Day My Prince Will Come," and "Whistle While You Work." Because Disney did not have its own music publishing company at this time, the publishing rights for the music and songs were administered through the Bourne Co., which continues to hold these rights. In later years, the Studio was able to acquire back the rights to the music from many of the other films, but not this one. Snow White became the first American film to have a soundtrack album released in conjunction with the feature film. Prior to Snow White, a movie soundtrack recording was unheard of and of little value to a movie studio.
Cast and characters
- Adriana Caselotti as Princess Snow White: Snow White was the daughter of a great king whose wife died when the daughter was very young. Her wicked stepmother forced her to work as a scullery maid in the castle. Despite this, she retains a cheerful but naive demeanor. Virginia Davis, who starred in Alice in Wonderland, was considered for the role of Snow White, but was rejected. Deanna Durbin was also considered, but was rejected because her voice was "too mature" for the role.
- Lucille La Verne as the Queen: The Queen is the stepmother of Snow White and the main antagonist of the film. Once her magic mirror tells her that Snow White is fairer than she is, she immediately enlists Humbert the huntsman to kill her in the woods. After she discovers that Snow White did not die, she disguises herself as an old hag and uses a poisoned apple in order to kill Snow White. While recording the voice of the Queen as the hag, Walt Disney was not happy with the voice La Verne was producing. After several retakes La Verne asked if she could go to the bathroom. When she returned and tried again to do the voice, she performed it perfectly. Amazed, Disney asked how she had achieved it. La Verne replied that she had removed her false teeth.
- Roy Atwell as Doc: Doc wears glasses and often mixes up his words. Joe Twerp, who was famous for confusing words, was considered for the role, but only played Doc in the radio version of the movie.
- Pinto Colvig as Grumpy: Grumpy initially disapproves of Snow White's presence in the dwarfs' home, but later warns her of the threat posed by the Queen and rushes to her aid upon realizing that she is in danger, leading the charge himself.
- Otis Harlan as Happy: Happy is the joyous dwarf and is usually portrayed laughing.
- Pinto Colvig as Sleepy: Sleepy is always tired and appears laconic in most situations. Sterling Holloway was also considered for the role.
- Scotty Mattraw as Bashful: Bashful is the shyest of the dwarfs, and is often embarrassed by the presence of any attention directed at him. In Walt Disney's own words, according to one of the film's original theatrical trailers, Bashful is "secretly in love with Snow White".
- Billy Gilbert as Sneezy: Sneezy's name is earned by his extraordinarily powerful sneezes, which are seen blowing objects (including his brothers) across a room.
- Eddie Collins as Dopey: Dopey is the only dwarf that does not have a beard. He is clumsy and never speaks, with Happy explaining that he simply "never tried".
- Moroni Olsen as The Magic Mirror: The Slave of the Magic Mirror appears as a green mask in clouds of smoke. The Queen regularly asks him who is the fairest in the land.
- Stuart Buchanan as Humbert the Huntsman: The Huntsman cannot bear to kill Snow White, even when the Queen orders him to take the princess's heart.
- Harry Stockwell as The Prince: The unnamed Prince first sees Snow White singing at her wishing well. He immediately falls in love with her and her voice. He later reappears to revive her.
Unvoiced characters include Snow White's animal friends, the Queen's raven, and the vultures who follow the Witch. The animals' sounds were provided by champion whistler and animal mimic A. Purves Pullen, who would provide bird and animal calls for Disney films (including numerous Pluto cartoons) for several decades. Pullen also produced the bird calls for the Enchanted Tiki Room attractions at Disney theme parks. During the 1940s and 1950s, he performed as "Dr. Horatio Q. Birdbath" with the comedy band Spike Jones & His City Slickers.
Crew
- Supervising Director: David Hand
- Sequence Directors: Perce Pearce, Larry Morey, William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Ben Sharpsteen
- Supervising Animators: Hamilton Luske, Vladimir Tytla, Fred Moore, Norman Ferguson
- Story Adaptation: Ted Sears, Otto Englander, Earl Hurd, Dorothy Ann Blank, Richard Creedon, Dick Rickard, Merrill DeMaris, Webb Smith
- Character Designers: Albert Hurter, Joe Grant
- Music: Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, Paul Smith
- Art Directors: Charles Philippi, Hugh Hennessy, Terrell Stapp, McLaren Stewart, Harold Miles, Tom Codrick, Gustaf Tenggren, Kenneth Anderson, Kendall O'Connor, Hazel Sewell
- Backgrounds: Samuel Armstrong, Mique Nelson, Merle Cox, Claude Coats, Phil Dike, Ray Lockrem, Maurice Noble
- Animators: Frank Thomas, Dick Lundy, Arthur Babbitt, Eric Larson, Milton Kahl, Robert Stokes, James Algar, Al Eugster, Cy Young, Joshua Meador, Ugo D'Orsi, George Rowley, Les Clark, Fred Spencer, Bill Roberts, Bernard Garbutt, Grim Natwick, Jack Campbell, Marvin Woodward, James Culhane, Stan Quackenbush, Ward Kimball, Woolie Reitherman, Robert Martsch
Music
Songs written for the film but not used include two songs for the dwarfs: "Music in Your Soup" (the accompanying sequence was completed up to the pencil test stage before being deleted from the film), and "You're Never Too Old to Be Young" (which was replaced by "The Silly Song").
On Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic, this includes "Some Day My Prince Will Come" on the red disc, "Heigh-Ho'" on the blue disc, "The Silly Song (Dwarfs' Yodel Song)" on the green disc, and "I'm Wishing" and "One Song" on the purple disc.
On Disney's Greatest Hits, this also includes "Heigh-Ho" on another blue disc and "Some Day My Prince Will Come" on the green disc.
Release
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was first re-released in 1944, in order to raise revenue for the Disney studio during the World War II period. This re-release set a tradition of re-releasing Disney animated features every seven to ten years, and Snow White was re-released to theaters in 1952, 1958, 1967, 1975, 1983, 1987, and 1993. Coinciding with the 1987 release, Disney released an authorized novelization of the story, written by children’s author Suzanne Weyn.
In 1993 it became the first film to be entirely scanned to digital files, manipulated, and recorded back to film. The restoration project was done entirely at 4K resolution and 10-bit color depth using the Cineon system to digitally remove dirt and scratches and restore faded colors.
On October 28, 1994, it was released as the first video in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. It was the last of the early Disney animated films to be released on home video. Snow White was later released on DVD on October 9, 2001, the first in Disney's Platinum Series line of releases, and featured, across two discs, the digitally restored film, a making-of documentary narrated by Angela Lansbury, an audio commentary by John Canemaker and (via archived audio clips) Walt Disney, and many more special features. It is due to be released again as a Platinum Edition DVD on October 6, 2009, making it the first Disney film to have two different Platinum Edition DVDs. On the same day, a high definition Blu-Ray version of the film will be released, launching the worldwide Disney BD-Live network.
Reception
Disney's wife, Lillian, told him: "No one's ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture." Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater on December 21, 1937 to a wildly receptive audience, many of whom were the same naysayers who dubbed the film "Disney's Folly." The film received a standing ovation at its completion from a star-studded audience that included such celebrities as Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard, Shirley Temple, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Jack Benny, Fred MacMurray, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Burns and Allen, Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle, John Barrymore, and Marlene Dietrich. Six days later, Walt Disney and his magical seven dwarfs appeared on the cover of Time magazine. The New York Times said "Thank you very much, Mr. Disney." RKO Radio Pictures put the film into general release on February 4, 1938, and it went on to become a major box-office success, making more money than any other motion picture in 1938.
The film grossed $66,596,803 domestically when released, and has had a lifetime gross of $184,925,486. For a short time, Snow White was the highest-grossing film in American cinema history; it was ousted from that spot by Gone with the Wind in 1939. Adjusted for inflation, and incorporating subsequent releases, the film still registers one of the top ten American film moneymakers of all time.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full-length animated feature film to be made in Technicolor and won an honorary Academy Award for Walt Disney "as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field." Disney received a full-size Oscar statuette and seven miniature ones, presented to him by 10-year-old child actress Shirley Temple.
The film was also nominated for Best Musical Score. "Some Day My Prince Will Come" has become a jazz standard that has been performed by numerous artists, including Buddy Rich, Lee Wiley, Oscar Peterson, and Miles Davis.
Noted filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein and Charlie Chaplin praised Snow White as a notable achievement in cinema. The film inspired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to produce its own fantasy film, The Wizard of Oz in 1939. The 1941 parody Ball of Fire featured a nightclub singer disrupting the lives of seven scholars (and Gary Cooper) while hiding from the police. The 1943 Merrie Melodies short Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, directed by Bob Clampett, parodies Snow White by presenting the story with an all-black cast singing a jazz score.
Snow White was such a success that Disney went on to produce 18 more full-length animated feature films during his lifetime (though the last, The Jungle Book was released posthumously).
Also since the film it has grossed over $184,900,000 at the US boxoffice throughout the years Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the one of the top grossing musical films of all time in the US.
American Film Institute recognition
Media and merchandise
Theme parks
Snow White's Scary Adventures is a popular theme park ride at Disneyland (an opening day attraction dating from 1955), Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland , and Disneyland Paris. Snow White, her Prince, and the Seven Dwarfs are also featured in parades and character appearances throughout the parks.
Ice shows
- Disney on ice began its touring production of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1986. The production toured from 1986 - 1987, and then again from 1994 - 1995, and once more from 2000 - 2001.
- From 2001 - 2002, a shortened version of the story was presented in the Disney on ice production "Mickey & Minnie's Amazing Journey".
- In 2002, a shortened version of the story was presented in the Disney on ice production "Princess Classics", and in 2006 in "Princess Wishes". The shows are both currently on tour internationally.
Video games
A Snow White video game was released for the Game Boy Color system. Snow White also makes an appearance in the popular PlayStation 2 game Kingdom Hearts as one of the seven fabled Princesses of Heart.. A world based on the movie is slated to feature in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep for the PSP, and so far, the only two confirmed characters from the film who will appear are Snow White herself, and the Evil Queen's Magic Mirror.
Comics
A comic book version was also published around the release of the movie. It was more lojal to the original script, where the prince had a bigger role, while parts of Snow White's dress was green. The movie's characters, especially the witch, also appeared in later Disney comics, stories who were not related to the movie.
See also
- List of animated feature-length films
External links
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