BACKGROUND
This is the story of the one that started it all.
Although not the first-ever animated feature-length film – the oldest of these appear to have been made earlier in the 1900s, and some lost to history – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs does hold the title of being the first full-length traditionally cel animated film.
More importantly, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first feature-length animated movie to come out of the Disney Studios, starting their collection that came to be known as the Disney Animated Classics.
After years of making cartoon shorts, where the medium of animation was experimented with and humour was defined, in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was finally released into the world, fourteen years after Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, founded their film studio.
It wasn’t an easy journey by any means. The press was brutal in their opinions of Walt’s plans, what they liked to call “Disney’s Folly”, and no-one outside of the Disney Studios thought that they could either pull it off, or that the audience would be receptive to it.
Well, the press was wrong. Very wrong, in fact. They couldn’t have been more wrong.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a huge success. Audiences were overjoyed with the movie that they were presented, plus it was artistically amazing, something they had never seen before. A full cartoon story that had heart, humour, and drama.
It put Walt Disney in line with the major film studio owners of the time. At last, animation was finally being recognised in film as something just as good as live-action.
I do like Snow White, although I think I found it too scary to watch as a child, so it’s a movie that I definitely had to grow to like. The only problem is I grew up in the 1990s, so I was thoroughly spoilt by the musical fairy tales of the “Disney Renaissance Era”, so Snow White will never be too high on my ranking of the Disney Animated Classics.
Although Snow White was released as a “family-friendly” piece of movie entertainment, not everyone remembers it that way, since it has some very dark and frightening moments, as many of Walt Disney’s earliest movies did.
PLOT
The plot of the movie is pretty well-known, but let’s go through it anyway.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs begins with a queen asking her Magic Mirror who the “fairest one of all” is, hoping that it will be her. The Magic Mirror bluntly states that there is another who is fairer than the Queen. Though he does not state her name, merely describing the girl as having “lips red as the rose, hair black as ebony, skin white as snow”, the Queen knows it is Snow White. Being the girl’s stepmother, with Snow having lost both of her parents in some unknown way, the Queen forces Snow to work as a maid at the castle, even though Snow White is the princess of this kingdom.
Snow tries not to let this get her down, as she knows that she can always wish for her life to get better, hoping for her true love to find her someday. A prince overhears Snow singing and decides to jump over the wall of the castle grounds to get closer to her. He surprises Snow by singing right next to her, at which point she runs inside. He proceeds to serenade her whilst she stands on a balcony, and they fall in love instantly. I mean, good for them I guess, but if any man ever acted like that today, then they’d just come across as a creepy stalker. Not the best first impression.
The Queen continues to be jealous of Snow White and asks her Huntsman to take Snow into the forest and kill her, bringing back her heart to the Queen. Whilst in the forest, unbeknownst to Snow, the Huntsman does plan to kill her, but he finds he cannot bring himself to do it. He tells Snow to run into the forest and never come back. Terrified, Snow does as she’s told, but the forest is much scarier in the dark, and she finds herself scared of the wind, the trees, and all the animals. Eventually, she comes to a clearing and faints from fear. As she begins to come round, the forest animals, who are actually really cute, little things, come over to her. Snow finds herself outside a small cottage. She goes inside.
Inside the cottage, she finds a very untidy house, with seven small chairs and seven small beds. Snow assumes that this must be the home of seven messy orphaned children, and decides to tidy up the house with some help from the animals. After all that work, Snow becomes tired and falls asleep on the beds, but not wanting to choose just one, she ends up sprawling out over multiple of them.
The owners of the cottage, seven dwarfs who work in the nearby mine, come home to find their house clean and believe there is an intruder inside. As they go upstairs to investigate, they discover a monster in their beds! Except, it’s just Snow White. She is welcomed into their home by six of the seven dwarfs – Happy, Doc, Bashful, Sleepy, Sneezy, and Dopey; Grumpy isn’t at all impressed by Snow White though, which makes much more sense. Welcoming the person who broke into your house like a friend wouldn’t be the normal reaction of anyone today, regardless of whether they said they’d clean and cook for you. Well, maybe university students would like that, but I wouldn’t.
During the day, Snow stays at the cottage doing housework, whilst the dwarfs are out at work, and at night, they all sing and dance together. It all seems to be going well, until the Queen discovers from her Magic Mirror that Snow White is still alive, and living in a cottage with seven dwarfs. Furious, the Queen goes to her secret basement where she keeps all of her magic and potions. She decides to feed Snow White a poisoned apple. Though it won’t kill her, just putting her into a deep sleep until woken by “love’s first kiss”, the Queen believes that it will make Snow White look so convincingly dead that she will be buried alive. To ensure Snow White takes the apple from her, the Queen turns herself into an old hag as a disguise and heads to the cottage.
Whilst Snow is cooking and the dwarfs are away, the Hag, or the Witch as she is more generally known, goes to the cottage and tells Snow that she should use some of her apples to make the dwarfs apple pies instead of the gooseberry pies Snow was already baking. Snow isn’t sure, but the Witch insists, making her way inside the cottage. The forest animals see through the disguise, and try to warn Snow, but she ignores them. The animals go to the mine and attempt to get the dwarfs home. The dwarfs don’t move, but when Sleepy mentions that the Queen may have found Snow, they rush back. Meanwhile, the Witch tells Snow that the apple she has is a wishing apple, and that if she wants to meet her true love, she should wish for it and take a bite.
The dwarfs get back to the cottage, but it is too late; Snow has already taken a bite of the apple and passed out. The dwarfs see the Witch leaving the cottage and chase her into the mountains during a thunderstorm. The Witch climbs up to the top of a cliff and she tries to move a huge boulder, to have it tumble down on the dwarfs as they make their way up to her. But a lightning strike hits the ledge she is stood on and it crumbles, taking the Witch with it, as well as that boulder which crushes her to death. The Queen is defeated.
Though the dwarfs believe Snow White to be dead, since she is so beautiful, they cannot bring themselves to bury her, but instead encase her body in a glass coffin. The next spring, the Prince, from the beginning of the film, learns about this tragic death of the girl he loved and visits her coffin. With the dwarfs still keeping watch over Snow’s body, the Prince proceeds to say goodbye to Snow White, by giving her one kiss. Suddenly, Snow White awakens; it was love’s first kiss. She is surprised to see the Prince next to her, but is overjoyed at the same time – as are the dwarfs and the forest animals. Everyone celebrates as the Prince carries Snow White to his horse, and she kisses the dwarfs goodbye as her and the Prince ride off into the sunset together, to live “happily ever after”. Aww.
Despite some intense scenes and some awful close-ups of the creepy old hag, this is a relatively tame plot compared with the Brothers Grimm version of the tale. The Brothers Grimm version includes the death of Snow White’s mother during childbirth as well as multiple murder attempts of Snow by the Queen. One of these involved lacing Snow White up into a bodice so tight that Snow passes out. The dwarfs arrive in time to save her though. On the second attempt, Snow is poisoned with a comb and again passes out, but the dwarfs save her. With the third attempt of the poison apple, the Queen cleverly only poisons half the apple so that she can eat the unpoisoned half to calm Snow White’s suspicions. Another difference is that Snow was not awoken with a romantic kiss, but instead, as the Prince and his servants transport Snow White’s body back to her father’s castle, the poison apple simply dislodges from her throat. The two still get married though and on the wedding day, the Queen learns from her Magic Mirror that the Prince’s bride is now the fairest of them all. As she investigates, she sees Snow White is the bride. The Queen is then caught and made to wear red-hot slippers that force her to dance until she drops dead. Nice. That’s actually the main plot point of The Red Shoes – but that’s a different story[1].
CHARACTERS & CAST
These days, Snow White is not considered to be a good feminist role model. She’s a bit too sweet, a bit too naïve, and she only dreams of finding her true love. There’s nothing especially wrong with that, but unlike some of Disney’s more contemporary princesses or female lead characters, Snow White gets a lot of criticism these days.
Watching Snow White, or Cinderella, or Aurora all through my childhood just made me decide that being kind and caring to others is important, and that there’s nothing wrong with having dreams. Not exactly a negative, is it? So, I don’t really care about all that.
There is one thing I really don’t like about Snow White – and that’s her voice. I’m not a big fan of my own voice, so I guess I’m just a hypocrite, but I find Snow White’s voice to be too high-pitched and very grating. I was very surprised when I was younger to find that the “face characters” at the Disney Parks speak in exactly the same way – though why I was surprised, I don’t know, because of course, they’re try to be as authentic as possible.
But she’s not so bad. Snow White is very caring and helpful; she’s not spiteful or resentful even though she has basically been banished from her kingdom by her crazed stepmother, and she just wants to move on with her new life. She is too trusting, by letting a random old woman come into her house, but then again, she is kind and doesn’t have a suspicious or cynical bone in her body, so that’s something she would do.
When the character of Snow White was being designed, it was a struggle for the animators to make her look like a real person. The signature animation style of the Disney Studios at the time had not been to make anybody look particularly authentic, it was all quite caricatured, so when they first attempted to draw Snow’s face, the animators said she ended up looking more like Betty Boop than a real girl, giving her huge cartoon eyes After some additional training around drawing realistic human movements, they figured out how Snow White should look though[2]. When it came time to ink and paint the character, another difficulty arose. The animators knew she needed some colour on her cheeks, however, if they applied red paint to her cheeks, Snow White ended up looking like a clown. The women who worked in the Ink and Paint Department, which was all women at the time due to the need for “a delicate hand”, decided to apply real rouge to the drawing directly, and Snow looked great. Walt Disney was concerned that the women wouldn’t be able to do it in exactly the same way each time Snow was being painted, but they scoffed and said of course they could since they already had to do their own make-up every day. Sure enough, they managed. The ladies later received compacts from Walt as a present after the release of the film. They looked at themselves in the mirrors, and thought they all looked so tired and awful after all the stress of getting Snow White finished on time[3]!
Adriana Caselotti voiced the character of Snow White, and she was named a Disney Legend in 1994 for this role. Caselotti first heard about the part when her father, who was a singing teacher in Los Angeles, was asked if he knew of any women or girls who could sing operatic notes but also speak as a child. Caselotti desperately wanted to audition for the part, so her father put her forward for it. A hundred other actresses also auditioned for the role, but Adriana got the coveted role. Sadly, because of Walt Disney’s desire to make the voice of Snow White unique, Caselotti’s career did not sky-rocket after the movie came out. In fact, she had very few roles after this, providing some operatic singing lines for The Wizard of Oz (1939) and It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and then for some Disney animated short films, but these were mostly uncredited. Outside of that, she reprised her role of Snow White for a few Disney projects.
For Snow White’s counterpart, of course we have the Queen. Or the Evil Queen, or Queen Grimhilde, or the Witch, or the Old Hag; she has lots of names. She is beautiful, but also very vain, determined to be “the fairest one of all”. The Queen is not the fairest in the land, and is jealous that her stepdaughter, Snow White, happens to have that title even at her young age and without even trying; it drives the Queen mad with envy. The Queen is actually quite stunning, despite her personality being so cold and murderous. When the Queen transforms into the Witch or the Hag, whichever term you prefer, she becomes as ugly as her inside. The close-up shot of the Witch transformed is particularly scary, and it happens again shortly after when she pops up at the window of the Dwarfs’ cottage. Children of all ages have been scared of her for years, including me. But the Evil Queen is a brilliant character. She is calmly villainous, a straight talker, and just plain wicked. The iciness of her voice and stern look is classic Disney villain, and that’s why she is consistently included amongst the Disney Villains franchise, even after all these years.
Lucille La Verne was chosen to voice the Queen originally, but she then said she could also voice the Witch, so La Verne voiced both parts, which makes sense, given the two characters are one and the same. The animators knew La Verne as a great stage actress, having made her Broadway debut in 1888, but they had also seen her as The Vengeance in A Tale of Two Cities (1935) in which she performed a great, witchy cackle, perfect for the Witch here, with her theatrical voice being a match for the Evil Queen. Every evil queen needs their sidekick though, and the all-knowing Magic Mirror happens to be hers. The Magic Mirror is very brave for actually telling the Queen the truth; I think I would’ve lied if that had been me! The Mirror was voiced by Moroni Olsen, who went on to voice the Senior Angel in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and play Herbert Dunstan, the father-in-law, in Father of the Bride (1950) and its sequel Father’s Little Dividend (1951).
Next, we have Snow White’s prince. The prince with no name. What a shame, given the Queen has several of them. He is simply known as The Prince, though some fan sites have said his name is Prince Florian. I like just calling him The Prince, it makes him a man of mystery. I am not a massive fan of the Prince as a character though. He’s a bit stalker-like if you think about it cynically, walking into the palace gardens without being invited, desperately searching for Snow’s coffin for months on end, kissing a dead girl on the lips… Then again, if he hadn’t done that, Snow White wouldn’t have lived and that wouldn’t be right for a fairy-tale ending. I guess riding off into the sunset with an attractive guy you don’t really know is better than getting murdered by your stepmother, right? The Prince was going to have more involvement in the story of the film according to early storyboards, by being captured by the Queen and having to escape from her prison. This idea was abandoned for some reason or another. This could’ve helped his character development so much more, because all we see of him is a brief clip of him singing at the start and then saving Snow White with a kiss at the end; it’s not much of a character arc. No name, no character arc. The poor prince. Who would’ve expected the “lead” male character to be so under-done? Harry Stockwell provided the voice of the Prince. After this voice role, he went on to perform as Curly, the lead role in Oklahoma!, on Broadway from 1943 to 1948. Harry Stockwell is the father of actors Dean and Guy Stockwell.
The Dwarfs were not as difficult to animate as the other characters, as they were based on caricatures instead of real-life humans. The complications came in ensuring that each of the seven had their own personalities and quirks, with these matching their names. The names of the dwarfs were not even settled until a year before the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with Dopey just being known as “Seventh” for a while. There were many other possible names for the dwarfs being tossed around including Dirty, Lazy, Wistful, Snoopy, Goopy, Dippy, and Chesty[4]. If you can remember all seven names that were decided upon, then it’s quite obvious to the viewer which dwarf is which.
Doc is the leader of the group, with his biggest quirk being the fact he consistently misspeaks and trips over his words. He is voiced by Roy Atwell, who was known for playing characters that stammer or mis-deliver their lines. Sneezy obviously sneezes a lot, so his voice actor was Billy Gilbert, who was known for his comic sneezing routines. Happy is the optimistic one, voiced by Otis Harlan, and Bashful is the shy one, voiced by Scotty Mattraw. Pinto Colvig, who was the original performer of Goofy and Pluto, voiced Sleepy and Grumpy. Dopey is the final and perhaps most memorable dwarf, despite the fact he never speaks. He’s the sweet but dim one, and the only dwarf without a beard. Eddie Collins provided the small amount of vocals that Dopey does have.
Although all the dwarfs do look similar, their heights and body shapes are slightly different based on their main characteristic, with Doc, for example, being slightly bigger to give him the gravitas of being the group’s leader. Dopey is slightly shorter than the others, and never walks in time with the rest of the dwarfs, which suggests that he is different to them. It was animator Frank Thomas’s idea to give Dopey a recurring hitch step to help him keep up with the others. Though Walt Disney loved this action, it irritated the other animators who thought they had finished their work on the character but then had to add in Thomas’s hitch step to any drawings of Dopey[5]!
MUSIC
Some of the songs from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs have become iconic over the decades since the movie’s release. How many of us haven’t whistled whilst we’ve worked, or heard “Heigh-Ho” playing somewhere? It’s been impossible to avoid these songs.
Walt Disney was a strong believer in letting the music move forward the story of his projects, with music being incorporated into many of the Silly Symphonies, so he knew how important this would be for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The magical score for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was composed by Frank Churchill, Paul Smith, and Leigh Harline. Smith had composed the scores for some of Disney’s nature documentaries The True-Life Adventures, as well as working on the scores for other Disney movies, such as Saludos Amigos (1942), The Three Caballeros (1944) and Cinderella (1950). Harline went on to compose the score and some of the songs for Pinocchio (1940) alongside Ned Washington, winning the Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for “When You Wish Upon a Star”. Harline left the Disney Studios in 1941.
The music for the songs was also composed by Frank Churchill, who had written the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” for The Three Little Pigs (1933) Silly Symphony short, and went on to write music for other Disney animated films, including Dumbo (1941), for which he won two Oscars, for the score and the song “Baby Mine”, and Bambi (1942). The lyrics were provided by Larry Morey, who collaborated with Churchill again for the Disney films The Reluctant Dragon (1941) and Bambi (1942).
25 songs were originally written for the film, with only eight being used. One song “Music in Your Soup” was cut from the film when its accompanying sequence was removed from the final edit. Another, “You’re Never Too Old to Be Young”, was simply replaced with “The Silly Song”. “The Silly Song” is that strange yodelling song that plays as Snow White and the dwarfs dance together one evening. I don’t mind it so much, although it does go on a bit and I would suspect it would get irritating very quickly if you listened to it on a loop! But it’s much better than the deleted song. Another song the dwarfs have is that very well-known song “Heigh-Ho”. It’s clearly very catchy because everyone at least knows the chorus if nothing else! It’s ok, but I don’t love it. Like the yodelling song, it’s quite samey.
My favourite of the dwarfs’ songs actually doesn’t really have a name, other than “Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum” or “The Dwarfs’ Washing Song”, which plays as they are washing up for dinner. It’s a very satisfying scene to watch, especially if you’re a germophobe, like me. It is literally just telling you how to wash your hands, but for some reason, I really like it.
For Snow White’s songs, obviously, she has a few. One of these is “With a Smile and a Song”, which Snow sings to the forest animals after she’s gotten over her scare in the forest. It’s very upbeat and positive, but if you’re not a fan of Snow White’s high-pitched voice, it’s not an easy song to love. She also sings “Whistle While You Work”, which is a satisfying scene to watch too, if you like to see rooms cleaned to perfection. It’s a bouncy sort of tune that is hard to ignore, even if you want to.
Snow White also gets a (sort of) duet with the Prince early on in the film, “I’m Wishing/One Song”. I like to imitate Snow White with the opening lines of “I’m Wishing” sometimes, because I actually quite like the song. It’s a romantic song and it keeps Snow’s spirits up whilst she’s being used as a slave. The Prince then comes in, before singing “One Song” to Snow after she runs away. It sounds like a classic romantic song from a musical of that era. Since I quite like that era of musicals, this is also a good song for me.
The final song to mention is “Someday My Prince Will Come”, with Snow White describing her earlier encounter with the Prince to the dwarfs, as she dreams of him coming back for her and taking her to her castle to live happily ever after. It’s a sweet dream to have, and one that could only happen in fairy tales, but it’s an iconic song from the film, so let’s not be too cynical about it. The song is reprised at the end of the film, with a chorus coming in to sing triumphantly about how all of Snow’s dreams have finally come true. The song has been covered by many artists since its release, including Barbra Streisand for the Platinum Edition of the DVD in 2001, singer Anastacia for the Disneymania CD (2002), as well as Disney Channel stars Ashley Tisdale and The Cheetah Girls for Disneymania 4 and 6, and Sonny with a Chance’s Tiffany Thornton performed it for the Diamond Edition DVD in 2009.
Interestingly, Disney was sued for this song. Owner of the copyright to the song “Old Eli”, Thornton Allen, claimed the same chorus was used in the Snow White song. Allen said he’d sent a copy of “Old Eli” to Disney in 1932. Allen didn’t have a copy of the letter to say the Studios had received it, but Disney did, though it had been sent to the New York office, not the Hollywood one. It contained a list of musical compositions Allen had sent and “Old Eli” was not listed. Frank Churchill, composer of “Someday My Prince Will Come” said he had never seen it, and there was no evidence to suggest he had. Deems Taylor, a famous composer at the time who would go on to be involved in Disney’s Fantasia (1940), was asked to testify as an expert witness. He noted some similarity in the notes, but stated that it was a common harmonic progression. He also said the rhythmic structure and chorus were very different. The judge for the case ruled against Allen, saying that although he could hear some similarity, there was no chance of mistaking one song for the other[6].
PRODUCTION
By the 1930s, Walt Disney had already made a series of animated/live-action shorts in the 1920s as part of his original Laugh-O-Gram Studio. These were called the Alice Comedies, that combined live-action acting with animated backgrounds. He was also known for being the creator of Mickey Mouse, with Steamboat Willie (1928) being one of the first fully synchronised sound cartoons. The Disney Studios then produced a series of musical shorts, the Silly Symphonies, some of which were ground-breaking for their use of Technicolor, with others spanning hit records, such as “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”.
But this wasn’t enough. Walt Disney had considered making a feature-length animated film in 1932. In May 1933, he thought he had the best idea of making a film of Alice in Wonderland, where Alice would be a live-action actress and Wonderland would have been animated. However, when Paramount released their own film version of Alice in Wonderland in December 1933, Walt decided against it. Briefly, he looked at doing something similar, a live-action/animated hybrid film, with the story of Rip van Winkle, but that idea was cancelled when the actor Walt had in mind to play the main role, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash.
By October 1934 though, after having already won four Academy Awards for his short cartoons by this point, Walt had decided to use the fairy tale of Snow White as the basis for a full-length animated film. Though Grimm’s fairy tale is said to be the inspiration for the story, in actual fact, Walt was more inspired by the 1916 silent movie Snow White, starring Marguerite Clark in the title role, that he had seen as a child[7]. One day, key artists at the Disney Studios were asked at the end of their working day to go away, have dinner, and then come back to the studios for a meeting. At this meeting, Walt proceeded to act out his entire plan and storyline for his version of an animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The animators were drawn in by Walt’s acting and enthusiasm, and loved the idea.
But when the press got wind of the fact Walt Disney was trying to make a full-length animated feature film, they all thought he was crazy, with the film being given the nickname “Disney’s Folly”. The film industry felt that no-one would be able to sit through a cartoon for 90 minutes. Cartoons were too brightly coloured, too packed with sight gags and unrealistic movements to satisfy a regular film audience. Walt didn’t let the nay-sayers put him off though; he knew better. He knew they could make their Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs a full story with humour, but also emotion and realism. He was aware that full-length feature films were more likely to make money than an animated short, and wanted to expand the animation medium beyond “silly cartoons” and push its use as a storytelling artform.
Walt Disney wanted to ensure that his animators were ready for this new challenge, so he invested money in art classes, so that the animators could study their art form further in the evenings and at weekends. They needed to properly analyse human movements for this story. Their previous cartoons had never needed to do this as they were not meant to be realistic to life. The Silly Symphonies were still being created during production on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs so they could use those short cartoons as a way of experimenting with special effects and human animation.
Since Snow White is a typical European fairy tale, Walt Disney wanted the film to look visually like a European storybook, so the best way to do that was to look to some European artists and their concept artwork. Two of these were Albert Hurter and Gustaf Tenggren. Hurter’s work was quite gothic and decorative in nature. His concept work of the forest scene, with the scary trees, as well as his poses for the crying dwarfs as they mourn Snow White’s death inspired the final scenes. Tenggren made inspirational sketches of the backgrounds, like the cottage, forest, and the castle. He was an illustrator and watercolourists, so he had a firm basis in what illustrations for European children’s book looked like. Tenggren went on to be a key artist for the settings of Pinocchio (1940)[8].
Live-action models were also used to act out some of the planned movements for the characters, so that the animators could use those as a guide. Marge Champion was the live-action model for Snow White, with actor Don Brodie dressing up in a cape and walking up tall scaffolding to give the reference material for the Witch’s demise.
By late 1936, the first drawings were sent to the Ink and Paint Department. Colour tests were run to decide on the best colours for the film, with Snow White’s dress colours not being finalised until just a few months before the release of the film. The multiplane camera that was being developed to provide tracking shots and a sense of depth was not even ready at the start of production, so some scenes had to be rushed through the process, meaning this innovative idea was not even used in the way it was meant to be. The multiplane camera would really be used to its full effect in Disney’s next film, Pinocchio (1940). The technique had originally been tested on the Silly Symphony The Old Mill (1937).
By the summer of 1937, the Disney Studios had run out of money, and didn’t have enough to finish the film. They had already spent around $1 million, and estimated they needed about $500,000 more. A banker was invited to the Studios to see a test screening of what Disney had so far on the film. The banker barely reacted at all to the screening, with this making Walt and his brother, Roy, nervous that the bank would not allow any further investment, however, the banker said he was sure the film would make them a lot of money, and gave them the amount needed to complete the film.
This didn’t mean that all sequences could stay in the film though, with many sequences edited. These include Snow White’s run through the forest, the Queen at her cauldron, and the dwarfs march home being shortened. A fight between Grumpy and Doc was cut, with a whole scene of the dwarfs eating soup, that animator Ward Kimball had spent ages working on, also being removed from the final edit. To make up for Kimball’s disappointment, it is said that Walt assigned Kimball to animate the character of Jiminy Cricket for their upcoming film, Pinocchio (1940)[9].
Although it was a lot of work, with many of the employees at the Studios working overtime without pay to complete the project, they were enthusiastic to work on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, believing this would be a moment in film-making history.
RECEPTION
After all that work, Walt Disney was determined to give Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs a proper Hollywood-style premiere, to showcase the animated masterpiece in the same way as the live-action films of the day.
The premiere was set for 21st December 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, with the whole film only being completed around the 1st December. Many celebrities attempted the event, including Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, and Marlene Dietrich. Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Donald Duck were also in attendance, along with Adriana Caselotti and Harry Stockwell, the voice actors of Snow White and the Prince, who sang some of the numbers from the film before the showing. Those two actually were not even given tickets to the premiere and snuck up to the balcony to see themselves in the movie! The dwarfs were also there, along with a set-up of the dwarfs’ cottage, and an exhibit showing some of the artwork from the film[10].
Walt Disney and the rest of the Studios’ employees were nervous about the reaction to the film, but they didn’t need to be concerned. The audience at the premiere was completely taken in by the pure drama and emotion of the film, with some even crying at the end. It was immediately clear that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was not “Disney’s Folly” at all, but “Disney’s Triumph”. It had a captivating story, expressive characters, charming music, and was artistically innovative and impressive.
It was popular at the time of its release, immediately becoming one of the most important movies ever made, and being seen as a milestone in movie-making history. Walt Disney was later awarded with an honorary Oscar at the 1939 Academy Awards ceremony. It was presented to him by Shirley Temple, and consisted of one large statuette, with seven mini ones alongside it, to represent the seven dwarfs. It was not only a popular movie in its “home country”, but became a worldwide hit, being dubbed into more than 20 languages, having its own soundtrack released, and having its own line of merchandise. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs supposedly inspired MGM to make The Wizard of Oz as Walt Disney’s film had shown how adaptations of children’s stories could be widely successful. It changed the movie industry forever and was an inspiration to so many movie makers. It was a dream come true for Walt Disney.
The final box-office result for the original run of Snow White was $8.5 million, making it the highest-grossing Hollywood film at the time. In 1939, Gone with the Wind would knock Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs off that top spot[11]! But it didn’t stop there, because Snow White has been re-released numerous times in theatres, with the first of these re-releases being in 1944, and continuing throughout the next four decades. The instant success of it set a trend for Disney to continue with theatrical re-releases. In 1993, the movie was digitally restored and re-released again. It was also released on home video in the 1990s, with DVD and Blu-Ray releases following suit in the 2000s and 2010s[12].
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs even inspired children’s playhouses. Judge Alfred K. Nippert built a “Snow White House” playhouse for his nieces in 1938 on the estate he inherited from his father-in-law, James N. Gamble of Procter and Gamble, in Volusia County, Florida. It was completed in March 1938 and Walt Disney reportedly visited the house. He loved the attention to detail and gifted Nippert eight life-sized dolls of Snow White and each of the dwarfs[13]. Walt Disney also built his children their own Snow White-inspired playhouse, with a replica dwarfs’ cottage being constructed by studio carpenters in the backyard of their home as a Christmas present to his daughters, Diane and Sharon[14].
LEGACY
Because Snow White was the very first Disney princess, and since the film was the very first Disney Animated Classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was always going to be quite prominent at the Disney Parks, especially since the movie was released in 1937, almost twenty years prior to Disneyland’s opening date in 1955, meaning there was plenty of time to think of ways of including this movie in upcoming attractions. However, it is worth noting that in recent years, and with their numerous company acquisitions, Disney now have access to many more modern, strong female characters, so it seems that Snow White and her Prince are slowly becoming less and less frequent as these newer characters come in to the fold.
But there are still plenty of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs references at the parks currently. Clips and music from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are included within many of the Disney Parks’ nighttime and fireworks shows, such as Momentous at Hong Kong Disneyland, Happily Ever After at Walt Disney World, the Harmony in Color parade at Tokyo Disneyland, and of course, Fantasmic! at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, where the Evil Queen features as the leader of the Disney Villains revolution. The characters are also likely to appear in parades, with the Evil Queen frequently appearing in Halloween-themed ones. A Snow White makeover package is also available at the Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutiques that exist at the Disney Parks around the world.
Four of the six Disney Parks have, or had, a dark ride going through the events of the movie, with all four of them being opening day attractions. It took guests through the story of the film in minecart shaped ride vehicles. At Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, this ride was called Snow White’s Adventures from 1971 to 1994. Instead of having the guests watch the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs play out in front of them, the guests were meant to feel like they were Snow White, so Snow herself made no appearance in the ride. This was also the case at Disneyland. However, when it was deemed to be too scary to have riders feel like the Evil Queen was after them, and that their ride vehicle was going to be crushed by a falling rock, Snow White was then added to the ride, and the attraction name was changed to Snow White’s Scary Adventures. I always found this attraction scary as a child, but I do scare easily. Anyone who has been on the Snow White themed dark rides at the Disney Parks will know just how horrible the Evil Queen’s transformation scene is, where she spins round quickly to face the cars as they pass her – the stuff of nightmares. The ride then continued to run at Walt Disney World until 2012, when it was closed to make way for Princess Fairytale Hall, a permanent meet-and-greet location in Fantasyland.
However, the ride does still run at Disneyland, as it has since July 1955, under the name Snow White’s Enchanted Wish. This was not the original name, however, which was actually Snow White and her Adventures, before being refurbished in 1983 to make it less scary, and renamed to Snow White’s Scary Adventures[15]. The attraction was most recently refurbished and updated in 2021, with new effects and a new “Happily Ever After” finale scene added to it. There is an interesting point to mention about the outside of the show building – if you look up at the window long enough, you may see the Evil Queen watching you… Also at Disneyland, you’ll find a miniature scene showing the Seven Dwarfs’ cottage on the Storybook Land Canal Boats attraction, as well as on the Casey Jr. Circus Train which oversees the boat ride. At Disney California Adventure Park, you can even eat at the Carthay Circle Restaurant, a fine dining experience residing inside a reproduction of the actual Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, where the premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs took place all those years ago in 1937.
At Tokyo Disneyland, you’ll find their version of the Snow White attraction, Snow White’s Adventures, which opened with the park in April 1983. Also, at the Fantasy Springs Hotel, the area is themed to iconic Disney movies, such as Sleeping Beauty (1959), Tangled (2010), and obviously, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Disneyland Paris also has a Snow White ride, opening with the park in April 1992 and is similar to Tokyo’s version of the ride. It is named Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains, the French title for the film. I have been on this version too, and I remember it being much scarier than Disney World’s one; I’m still haunted by visions of skeletons being thrust from the side of the room right at the ride vehicles. There is also La Chaumière des Sept Nains shop in Fantasyland, themed to the Seven Dwarfs’ cottage. Much like Disneyland’s ride, there is also a miniature scene of the cottage on Le Pays des Contes de Fées, Disneyland Paris’ version of the Storybook Land Canal Boats.
At Magic Kingdom and Shanghai Disneyland, both parks have a family-friendly rollercoaster attraction, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. The coasters aren’t too wild and crazy; the ride vehicles swing from side-to-side, but the track is not too fast or twisty. There is also a nice section of the ride where you go through the dwarfs whilst they are working in the mines and can hear them singing “Heigh Ho”. Magic Kingdom’s ride then ends past the Dwarfs’ cottage, with Snow White inside and the Witch knocking at the door with her apples. Shanghai’s ride ends with the cottage in the distance and a well closer to the vehicles, where two raccoons are playing around. This is a fun ride, at least I know Magic Kingdom’s is; I haven’t been to Shanghai. Even my mum, who dislikes most rollercoasters, loves this attraction. Near Shanghai’s Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, you can visit the Mountainside Treasures shop. Also at Shanghai Disneyland is the Once Upon a Time Adventure attraction. It is a walkthrough attraction within Shanghai’s Enchanted Storybook Castle, telling the story of the film via screen projections, special effects, and designed sets.
Sadly, Hong Kong Disneyland does not currently have a Snow White dark ride, or a Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. However, as part of the walkthrough experience Fairy Tale Forest you’ll see areas themed to some of Disney’s best fairy-tale movies, with one of these being Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
In terms of meet-and-greet locations, Snow White seems to be quite frequently seen at all six Disney Parks. At Walt Disney World, she has a permanent meet-and-greet location at the Germany Pavilion in Epcot. The dwarfs occasionally have a meet-and-greet location at Special Events such as Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, but not always. They are very popular when they do appear. The Evil Queen is likely to be spotted at Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. At the Wilderness Lodge Resort, if you dine at Story Book Dining at Artist Point, a Snow White-themed character dinner, you will see Snow White, Grumpy, Dopey, and the Evil Queen.
At the other five parks, though there are not permanent meet-and-greet locations, you will likely find Snow White, and sometimes the Prince, visiting guests around the castles and Fantasyland areas. Disneyland’s Fantasy Faire location and Disneyland Paris’ Princess Pavilion spot are good areas to see Snow White also. She is likely to be a part of any Princess character dining experience, such as Cinderella’s Royal Table at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, or Auberge de Cendrillon at Disneyland Paris. The Evil Queen, sometimes appearing as the Old Hag, is likely to be available for meet-and-greets at the Disney Halloween events, but she is sometimes seen randomly in the Fantasyland areas, especially at Disneyland, where they seem to have much more frequent, rare, and casual character interactions. Unfair…Anaheim is just so much further away than Orlando…
Finally, Snow White Grotto, a wishing well with statuettes of Snow White and the seven dwarfs standing on top and along the waterfall, is an attraction at Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland, located to the side of their respective castles.
Moving on to the screen, Snow White the fairy tale has been adapted numerous times by many different film studios. Some of these include the live-action movies 20th Century Fox’s Mirror Mirror (2012) and Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), with both putting a darker, more modern spin on the classic tale. ABC series Once Upon a Time (2011-18) also chose to twist the story of Snow White with its retelling of the fairy tale, with Ginnifer Goodwin cast as Snow White, and Lana Parrilla as the fabulously cruel Evil Queen. These characters, including Josh Dallas as Prince Charming, and Jennifer Morrison as Emma, Snow and Charming’s daughter, drive the first six seasons of storylines.
However, Disney themselves will be releasing their own live-action version, Snow White, in 2025; it was meant to be released in 2024, but was delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike of 2023. Many Disney fans are not too happy about this upcoming movie, as lead actress Rachel Zegler has caused some upset with a few of her comments around the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. By stating that her Snow White will be much more modern and not dreaming about love or needing rescuing by a prince, Zegler inadvertently offended some of Disney’s most loyal fans, leading many to claim that they will boycott the film. These comments also led to a rumour that the role of Snow White was to be recast; it was not true. I didn’t agree or like what Zegler said about the original Snow White, however, I think the furore that surrounded this incident was over-the-top and uncalled for. Another controversy surrounding the film is over Disney’s handling of the seven dwarfs. They originally reassured people that these would actually now be “magical creatures” to avoid reinforcing negative stereotypes, however, an image from the movie has since been released and does not appear to show these characters being sensitively addressed[16]. We’ll have to wait and see.
On a lighter note, it is possible that the world could have seen a short animated sequel to Snow White a few years after its release. A folder of story sketches was found in Disney’s Animation Research Library, which seemed to suggest that a sequel named Snow White Returns had been in the works, and would have used two sequences that were originally meant to be included in the full film, however were cut. The story would have seen the dwarfs getting ready for their annual visit from Snow White, with them wanting to make a bed for her as a present. On returning home from their bed building, they would have found Snow in their cottage making soup. After slurping their soup down, despite Snow trying to get them to eat like gentlemen, the dwarfs would’ve gone to present the bed to Snow. Except they try to lift the bed and it won’t move, since one of the carved bedposts was not sawn off the tree. As Snow waits ages for the dwarfs to return, she falls asleep. The dwarfs find Snow asleep and decide to wait until the morning to give her the present. They instead jump into the bed and fall asleep themselves[17].
FINAL THOUGHTS
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will always be remembered for being a ground-breaking piece of movie history. It paved the way for other movies of this kind to come out of the Disney Studios to be loved by millions for years to come. It truly is a very special movie.
In all honesty, it doesn’t really matter what anyone’s opinion of Snow White is, because it was the movie that sprung Walt Disney and his animators into the spotlight.
Personal opinions aren’t what’s important here. The fact is Snow White launched a legacy and a revival in cinema. Its history speaks for itself, and it will be treasured forever.
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Dan Peeke, ‘Snow White And The Seven Dwarves: 10 Differences Between The Book And The Film’, ScreenRant.com, 16th March 2020.
[2] Credit: Disney, Still the Fairest of Them All: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2001).
[3] Credit: Disney, “Hyperion Studios Tour”, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Disney+ (2009).
[4] Credit: Disney, “Disney’s First Feature: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Disney+ (2016).
[5] Credit: Disney, Still the Fairest of Them All: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2001).
[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Some Day My Lawsuit Will Come’, CartoonResearch.com, 30th September 2022.
[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015). ‘Introduction’, pp. xi-xiii.
[8] Credit: Disney, “Disney’s First Feature: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Disney+ (2016).
[9] Credit: Disney, Still the Fairest of Them All: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2001).
[10] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt: Volume 1 (2012),’Snow White Christmas Premiere’, pp. 83-92.
[11] Credit: Disney, Still the Fairest of Them All: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2001).
[12] Credit: Disney, Disney Through the Decades (2009).
[13] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Snow White, Off the Beaten Path’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.
[14] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 7: Christmas Edition (2018), ‘The Snow White Christmas Cottage’, pp. 21-22.
[15] Credit: Werner Weiss, ‘Snow White’s Scary Adventures: Florida Edition’, Yesterland.com, 12th April 2024.
[16] Credit: Nikolas Lanum, ‘‘No longer 1937’: Resurfaced video of ‘Snow White’ actress Rachel Zegler continues controversy’, NYPost.com, 25th July 2023.
[17] Credit: Disney, “Snow White Returns”, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Diamond Edition DVD (2009).
The Disney Purist 