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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. Although it was not the first full-length animated feature to be produced (the 1917 Argentinian film El Apóstol holds that distinction, and there are seven other earlier ones), it was the first animated feature to become widely successful within the English-speaking world and the first to be filmed in Technicolor.
Snow White was produced by Walt Disney Productions, premiered on December 21, 1937, and released generally to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on February 8, 1938. The film 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 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.
The plot of the film involves a jealous and wicked queen's attempt to have her stepdaughter murdered, but she escapes and is given shelter by seven dwarfs who live deep in a forest. Snow White was the most successful motion picture released in 1938, and is the tenth highest-grossing film of all time within the United States when adjusted for inflation .
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Key characters
Snow White - Snow White was the daughter of a great king who died when she was very young. Her wicked stepmother forced her to work as a scullery maid in the castle. After she is forced to run away from the Wicked Queen, she takes refuge in a small cottage in the woods where she befriends the Seven Dwarfs. She rides away with the Prince after he awakens her from her sleep.
The Queen/Witch - The Queen is the stepmother of Snow White. Once her magic mirror tells her that Snow White is fairer than she, she immediately enlists her huntsman to kill her in the woods. After she discovers that Snow White did not die, she disguises herself into an old hag and uses a poisoned apple in order to "kill" Snow White. The Seven Dwarfs manage to corner her on a cliff, where she falls to her death after lightning causes the cliffside to collapse.
Doc - Considered the leader of the Seven Dwarfs, Doc is presumably the oldest. He wears glasses and often mixes up his words. His job in the Dwarfs' Mine is to check the authenticity of the many gems.
Grumpy - Grumpy is grumpy as his name suggests. He has the biggest nose of the seven and he automatically disapproves of Snow White for the mere fact that she is a woman. However, though initially too proud to show it, deep down he cares perhaps the most for her safety. He repeatedly warns her of the Wicked Queen and rushes to her aid upon hearing she is in danger.
Happy - Happy is the joyous dwarf. He is the fattest of the seven and is always laughing.
Sneezy - Sneezy sneezes almost all the time. He has the shortest beard of the seven (besides the beardless Dopey). The cause of his sneezes is an allergy to flowers.
Bashful - Bashful is the shyest of the dwarfs. Whenever he begins to feel shy, his entire face turns bright red. He frequently annoys Grumpy.
Sleepy - Sleepy is always tired with heavy eyelids. His job at the mine is to haul all the diamonds and rubies by cart to Doc for inspection. He also has the longest beard of the seven. Usually he's pestered by a fly.
Dopey - Dopey is the youngest dwarf, and therefore has no beard at all. He is a mute, or at least the dwarfs don't know if he can talk since "he ain't never tried before." His job at the mine is to clean up all the unusable jewels and lock up the vault. He is always seen last in line whenever the dwarfs walk to and from work. Although he is scared at times, he can also be very brave especially when Snow White is in danger.
The Prince - The Prince first sees Snow White while she is singing at her wishing well. He immediately falls in love with her and her voice. He does not appear again until after Snow White has fallen into her enchanted sleep due to the poisoned apple. He wakes her with love's first kiss and rides happily ever after with her to his castle in the clouds.
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"Disneys Folly"
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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 whopping 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 dwarves, 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. Snow White is also looked upon as a triumph of storytelling skill in animation.
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Critical and commercial success
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater on December 21st, 1937 to a widely receptive audience (many of whom were the same naysayers who dubbed the film "Disney's Folly"), who gave the film a standing ovation at its completion. Shortly thereafter, Walt Disney and his magical dwarfs appeared on the cover of Time magazine. RKO Radio Pictures put the film into general release on February 4th, 1938, and it went on to become a major box-office success, making more money than any other motion picture in 1938. In fact, 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 1940.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full-length animated feature film made in English and 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 Shirley Temple.
The movie was also nominated for Best Music, Score. Well-known songs from the film include: "Heigh-Ho", "Some Day My Prince Will Come", and "Whistle While You Work", written by Frank Churchill (also writer of the songs for Bambi, 1942).
It has been said that, in the wake of Snow Whites success, cinema owners began to demand, "We want more dwarfs!" Surely enough, the Disney studio would go on to produce more animated films - a tradition that still continues today.
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Re-releases and home video
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 theatres in 1952, 1958, 1967, 1975, 1983, 1987, and 1993. The film was restored for its 1987 50th anniversary reissue and a more comprehensive digital restoration was done for the 1993 reissue.
Snow White was first released on VHS in 1994, being the last of the early Disney animated films to be released on home video. The film was released later on DVD in October 2001. The Snow White DVD was the first in Disney's Platinum Series line of releases, and featured, across two discs, the digitally restored film, a making-of documentary 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 re-released again as a Platinum Edition in October 2008.
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Snow White theatrical release history
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United States releases
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Worldwide debuts
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Songs in film
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The songs in Snow White were composed by Frank Churchill and Leigh Harline. Paul J. Smith composed the incidental music score.
"I'm Wishing/One Song" - Snow White, The Prince
"With a Smile and a Song" - Snow White
"The Washing Song" (AKA "Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum") - The Dwarfs
"The Silly Song" (AKA "The Dwarfs' Yodel Song") - The Dwarfs
"One Song (Reprise)" - The Prince and Chorus
"Someday My Prince Will Come (Reprise)" - Chorus
Songs written for 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").
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Cast and crew
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Voice cast
All of the voice actors for the film were uncredited.
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Supervising animators
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Animators
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Trivia
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. Blabby, Shifty, and Snoopy were among those that were rejected.
The movie's title uses the word "dwarfs" which was the traditional plural of "dwarf". The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, published the same year Snow White was released, introduced the spelling "dwarves". Both plural forms have been used interchangeably since then.
Upon seeing the film, Russian director Sergei Eisenstein called it the greatest ever made.
The film was also an unwitting inspiration which led to another beloved fantasy film, MGM Studio's The Wizard of Oz. Louis B. Mayer, the production manager of Oz, and Walt Disney were rivals; and Mayer was determined to come up with a film that would equal the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was a runaway smash and became the most successful film of all time in a matter of months. Coincidentally, Adriana Caselotti, who provided the voice of Snow White, sings the line "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" in the Tin Woodman's musical number "If I Only Had A Heart."
Because Disney did not have its own music publishing company when the earlier animated films were produced, all the rights to publish the music and songs from this film are actually still controlled by the Bourne Co. 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. Prior to Snow White, a movie soundtrack recording was unheard of and of little value to a movie studio.
While recording the voice of the Queen as the Witch, Walt Disney was not happy with the voice Lucille 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.
As of 2006, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is one of three Disney full-length animated classics that still have never been shown complete on television. The others are Fantasia, and Song of the South.
The writers who developed the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of Fantasia originally suggested that the title character be Dopey, but Walt Disney decided instead to use Mickey Mouse.
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Titles in different languages
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Bosnian: Snjeguljica i sedam patuljaka
Catalan: Blanca Neus i els set nans
Czech: Sněhurka a sedm trpaslíků
Danish: Snehvide og de syv små dværge
Dutch: Sneeuwwitje en de zeven dwergen
Estonian: Lumivalgeke ja seitse pöialpoissi
Finnish: Lumikki ja seitsemän kääpiötä
French: Blanche-neige et les sept nains
German: Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge
Greek: Η Χιονάτη και οι Επτά Νάνοι
Japanese: 白雪姫 (Shirayuki Hime; "Princess Snow White")
Latvian: Sniegbaltīte (Sniegbalteeta)
Norwegian: Snehvit og de syv dverge (also Snehvit og de Syv Dverger/Dvergene)
Persian: Sefid Barfi va Haft Kootooleh - سفید برفی و هفت کوتوله
Polish: Królewna Śnieżka i siedmiu krasnoludków
Romanian: Alba ca zǎpada şi cei şapte pitici
Serbian: Снежана и седам патуљака (Snežana i sedam patuljaka)
Slovak: Snehulienka a sedem trpaslíkov
Swedish: Snövit och de sju dvärgarna
Thai: สโนว์ไวท์ กับคนแคระทั้งเจ็ด
Turkish: Pamuk Prenses ve yedi cüceler
Welsh: Eirâ Gwyn ar saith bobl bach
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See also
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Notes
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