Snow White and the Seven Cases (1937)
Here on our show, we never turn down an opportunity to talk about animation. We’ve covered the history of the medium, the Disney Exodus, the history of Studio Ghibli, Laika, Cartoon Saloon, Amblimation, and Blue Sky Studios. But today, we’re going back even further (not all the way to the beginning, but close).
In the mid-1930s, people generally didn’t take animation seriously. It was a funny little art form, populated with dancing cats and other animals that stretched and bounced in strange and funny ways. Animation was known to be gag after gag, shorts with little to no plot that could only entertain for a few minutes or so just before the “real” movie picture began. So, when Walt Disney announced that he was going to produce a full-length animated film, the rest of the film community was skeptical. Most audiences could barely sit through 5 minutes of singing pigs and cows, so how could these so-called cartoons keep anyone’s attention for more than an hour?
Walt Disney gathered his animators together and laid out the plan. He knew the story and the characters and even had ideas for the songs. Songs? Oh yes, SONGS. Not only would this project be the first American full-length animated feature film, but it would also be a musical. And as the doubters outside the studio began to refer to this ambitious project as “Disney’s Folly,” Disney’s animators enthusiastically jumped on board. They knew that if Walt thought it was possible, then they better find a way to make it happen.
The result was, of course, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; the film that launched countless others. Snow White is not only one of the most important animated films ever made, it’s one of the most important films in cinema history. It made an indelible mark on cinema, and set a standard for animation to which films today still aspire. So, as we continue on in August, get ready to sing, dance, and fall in love with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
SUMMARY
In a far-away kingdom, there lived a princess named Snow White and her step-mother, the queen. The queen was a vain woman and was terrified that one day another woman would surpass her in youth and beauty. That day came when the queen’s magic mirror alerted her that Snow White, her own stepdaughter, was now the fairest in the land. Determined to destroy Snow White, the Evil Queen exiled Snow White to the forest, sending a huntsman to finish her off. But after the huntsman failed the task, Snow White took shelter with seven men that lived in the forest and worked in the mines. Once the Evil Queen learned of Snow White’s survival, she disguised herself as an old hag and offered a poisoned apple to Snow White, causing her to fall into a death-like slumber that could only be broken by true love’s kiss.
DISNEY’S FOLLY
After serving the Red Cross as an ambulance driver in WWI, Walt Disney returned home and started working in the animation business. While living in Missouri, he founded his first studio, Laugh-O-Gram, where he recruited other animators and together they created reels to be shown in theaters. Disney was inspired by Paul Terry, an animator in New York that had created spoofs of Aesop’s Fables. Just before Laugh-O-Gram folded, Disney began working on a series of animated fairy tales, starting with Alice in Wonderland.
Disney and his animators, some of whom were still in high school, worked for 6 months to create their first short film. But, the company went bankrupt before it could be sold. It wasn’t until Disney moved to Los Angeles in 1923 that he found a buyer, and signed a contract to make six more shorts just like it. He and his brother Roy founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, drawing in other animators like Ub Iwerks, who would be a longtime collaborator and responsible for many of the iconic short films produced by Disney.
The Alice Comedies featured a live-action actress in an animated world. Although they told a classic story, they also featured current references and jokes, which made them stand out from other similar films.
Over the next few years, the Disney Brothers and their collaborators would produce cartoons for Universal Pictures. During this time, Disney famously lost the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. But, Disney and Ub Iwerks worked together to create a character that would surpass any other in popularity: Mickey Mouse. Disney registered this character with the U.S. Patent Office, and the company has owned the rights ever since.
In 1928, the studio released Steamboat Willie, the first short film featuring Mickey. It was also groundbreaking for its use of synchronized sound, which meant that the music and sound effects matched the action on the screen.
Audiences loved Mickey Mouse but still grew tired of the silly and repetitive nature of cartoons. No one ever thought that an audience would sit through an hour of animation without becoming bored and restless.
In 1929, composer Carl Stalling suggested that Disney produce cartoons that didn’t center on the action of one character, but instead on musical themes. These became known as Silly Symphonies, starting with The Skeleton Dance in 1929. These short films were the perfect practice for Disney’s animators as they prepared to eventually pull off the impossible: a full-length animated feature film.
One of the most famous Silly Symphonies was The Three Little Pigs. It was the first time that the public realized that animation could have a deeper meaning and impact. It came at the perfect time in 1933, when everyone was dealing with the prospect of Nazi invasion.
In 1934, Walt Disney already had four Oscars under his belt. He gathered his collaborators together for a special meeting, where he announced that he had decided to produce a full-length film. He laid out the story of Snow White, acting out the characters and giving them an idea of how the songs would sound. Although they knew it would be a huge challenge, the animators did not doubt that they could pull it off. Walt’s enthusiasm convinced any doubters in the room that anything was possible. So, the team began working on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
MAKING OF
When Walt Disney and his team decided to make a full-length animated film, they knew they had to choose the perfect story. Because cartoons were not taken seriously, there was a lot working against the production from the start. The story needed to be familiar, with a childlike appeal, and it also needed to draw in adult audiences. Walt Disney knew early on that Snow White would be the right choice.
Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was groundbreaking in many ways. However, the idea to make a film based on the story was not new, as there had been several previous Hollywood productions based on the source material. One of which premiered in 1916, and was one of the first feature films Walt Disney ever saw.
Snow White’s story is based, in part, on the Grimm fairytale that Walt’s mother would read to him as a child. But, the film changed much of the story.
The final script was influenced by a children’s play that also told the story of Snow White, though Disney discarded much of the moral storytelling.
In the beginning, Walt started with a small team of animators that he handled himself. He kept them close to his office. As they began storyboarding the film, they had one very important goal: to create a character that audiences would see as a real person, just in animation. At this point, most audiences saw animation as cartoons and nothing else–silly creatures and shapes with no humanity.
So the question was, how could they create real-world dangers like death and murder and have the audience take it seriously?
For example, they spent months planning the scene where the huntsman attempts to kill Snow White. They considered how long he should be on screen, how many cuts they wanted, when exactly he should drop the knife, and what causes his change of heart.
At one point during the storyboard process, they were planning the scene where Snow White falls through the forest. One of the animators called out in concern, wondering if the fall would kill her. It was then that they realized that they believed in Snow White and cared about her well-being.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was a European fairy tale, which meant that the animation needed to have a storybook quality. Art director Albert Herder and Walt Disney consulted experts on European illustration in order to develop a style that would emulate a picture book, but also have that signature look of Disney animation.
To save money during production, the team decided not to make multiple prints of animation, but instead project it onto the wall.
This way, they were sure that the animation was high-quality enough for the coloring process.
One-hundred and fifty artists traced the drawings onto cells. Disney chemists then custom-mixed the colors for the film. Fifteen hundred separate shades were used to color 1 million drawings.
In order to make Snow White look like a real woman, colorists used real rouge and other make-up on her face.
There were almost as many directors as there were the 7 dwarves! David Hand was the supervising director. Perce Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen, Larry Morey, Wilfred Jackson, and William Cottrell all directed individual sequences of the film.
During the production of Snow White, the multiplane camera became ready for use. Several scenes were scrapped and reshot using the camera.
A multiplane camera creates the illusion of depth in a 2D image. Different aspects of a scene were laid out on several different layers of glass. The camera was placed at the top, facing down at the images. The Animators could movie the different pieces of the scene separately and at different speeds, so the audience could feel like a real camera was moving through an actual landscape and not one that had been drawn
As production continued on Snow White, Disney’s animators were also producing Silly Symphony cartoons. These short films were a testing ground for ideas and techniques to be used in Snow White. For example, they experimented with dwarf and witch characters, perfected realistic portrayals of animals and nature, and attempted special effects. In The Old Mill, a Silly Symphony from 1937, animators also tested out the multi-plane camera.
In order to make the characters’ movements seem as fluid and life-like as possible, the animators brought in several people to act as models.
They trained models to perform pantomime, having them create exaggerated movements for the animators to emulate.
They filmed hours of reference footage, including a 17-year-old girl in dancing school. They used rotoscoping to study and capture her movements.
It took a lot of work to find the right designs for each character.
The depiction of the human characters was the most difficult part of the character design. Animators struggled to create characters that looked like humans while maintaining a certain style. The prince was especially challenging. He was originally meant to be a major character, but almost all of his scenes were scrapped. He was even supposed to have an Erroll Flynn-Esque escape sequence after being trapped by the Evil Queen!
The early characters looked cartoonish like silly symphonies. Snow White was especially a problem. She looked like Betty Boop and Zazu Pitts.
Janet Gaynor, from the 1937 version of A Star is Born was an inspiration for Snow White’s mannerisms and vocal patterns.
Walt put his animators back in school. During the day they would animate, and at night they would go to live-drawing classes to examine and learn about drawing movement. He wanted the characters to all have their own personalities. The animators analyzed every nuance of human movement, and they loved it. Everyone was passionate about the work because it was so exciting and new.
Some characters were much more stylized, like the dwarves, while the Evil Queen was one of the most realistic-looking characters in the film.
The dwarves were meant to be the comic relief of the film. Animators were given a $5 bonus for coming up with a good physical joke to put in the movie. This equates to about $102 in 2022.
The original designs for the evil queen showed her to be frumpy and old. But suddenly, her designs changed and she became beautiful, yet cold. A movie came out around this time called, “She.” It featured a character that looks VERY similar to the evil queen, even though there’s no evidence that Disney used her likeness for this character.
Walt was ruthless about cutting fat from the movie; any scene or moment that didn’t add to the story of character development was cut. He did this pretty much right up until the release of the film.
MUSIC
Snow White relied heavily on its sound effects and music in order to tell a complete story. Jimmy MacDonald led the sound effects team as they used old techniques like an old wallet to simulate the sound of footsteps.
The songs for Snow White were written by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey, with Paul J. Smith and Leigh Harline composing the score.
Walt Disney was insistent that the quality of the music match that of the animation and that the songs be singable, have memorable lyrics, and use melodies that would resonate with audiences for years.
It’s clear that they succeeded, to the point where this was the first movie to release a vinyl album soundtrack for people to buy and listen to.
Snow White was an early film musical, and it was important that the songs didn’t take anything away from the story. As characters sang, Walt liked to cut to other characters and stories, so the film would not simply pause for a musical number.
The songs in the film all went through various changes in production. “Someday My Prince Will Come” was supposed to have a dream sequence, but Disney felt it was more important to show the dwarfs and their reactions to the story instead. The scene was scrapped for this reason, and also because the animators just could not figure out how to draw the prince.
The combination of animation, story-telling, songs, and musical score elevated Snow White beyond anything that had come before and proved that animation could not only work in the full-length format but could also be profitable. It would become the blueprint from which all future musical animated Disney movies would be based.
Starring
For the leading role, Disney wanted an actor that didn’t have a normal everyday voice. He had a little boy that would search for voices and bring them in. Walt didn’t want to see the person singing, so he had a speaker rigged up in his office. The people would audition into a microphone without knowing that Walt was listening. When they brought in a 14-year-old girl to sing, Walt thought she was perfect except for the fact that she sounded too mature. That happened to be Diana Durben who was actually about to become famous for her singing!
Eventually, Adriana Castleotti earned the role. She was 18 at the time and came from an opera family.
Castleotti didn’t act in many films, but you can hear her voice for a second in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz during the Tin Man’s song
The voice of the prince was Harry Stockwell, who is the father of Dean Stockwell.
Lucille Laverne played the evil queen and the hag, and they were worried her voice was too low. However, when asked about how she got the best cackle and voice for the hag she stated that she just took out her teeth! This was her final film.
RECEPTION
The movie was initially budgeted at $250,000, but due to various delays, it grew to $1.5 million. Disney even had to mortgage his home to finance the production. The studio worked around the clock and they were out of money. They had all their money wrapped up in Snow White.
Joe Rosenburg, who was Bank of America’s lender to the film industry in general, said, “it’s gonna be a smash hit. What do you need?”
It’s important to note that when Walt Disney first announced that he was making a full-length “cartoon,” many people laughed at him. They jokingly called the movie “Disney’s Folly.” In fact, many came to the premiere just to witness his failure.
Snow White premiered on December 21, 1937. The film received a standing ovation from the audience. Six days later, Walt Disney and the seven dwarfs appeared on the cover of Time magazine. It was a major box-office success, earning upwards of $7.8 million in the United States and Canada during its initial release, becoming the most successful sound film of all time for two years. Six months after the film’s release, the studio was able to pay back all its debts and begin funding more projects.
The film was also a massive critical success, with many reviewers calling it a genuine work of art, recommended for both children and adults. Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times felt that "Mr. Disney and his technical crew have outdone themselves. The picture more than matches expectations. It is a classic, as importantly cinematically as The Birth of a Nation or the birth of Mickey Mouse. Nothing quite like it has been done before, and already we have gone impolite enough to clamor for an encore."
The film was nominated for Best Musical Score. It was also added to the United States National Film Registry in 1989 and is ranked in the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films
In 1994, the film was released for the first time on home video as the first release in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. By 1995, the film had sold 24 million home video units and grossed $430 million.
Snow White was so beloved that it eventually caused Disney some trouble. After several years, he ended up hating the movie because every time he made another film, people would compare it to Snow White and tell him that it wasn’t as good.
FUN FACTS
This was the first movie that had merchandise ready to buy the day the movie was released.
At the 11th Academy Awards, the film won an Academy Honorary Award for Walt Disney for significant screen innovation. Disney received a full-size Oscar statuette and seven miniature ones, presented to him by the 10-year-old child actress Shirley Temple.
There were many names considered for the dwarves during production, including Blabby, Busy, Crabby, Daffy, Deefy, Dirty, Dumpy, Flabby, Gabby, Gaspy, Gloomy, Hotsy, Lazy, Nifty, Scrappy, Shifty, Snoopy, Stubby, Thrifty and Weezy.
They were worried that the word Dopey was too modern. But it turned out that Shakespeare used the word. Dopey didn’t talk, not because he couldn’t, but because they couldn’t find the right voice actor for him. The official canon is that he just simply never tried to speak, so he didn’t.
The movie was deemed too scary for children in England so children under 16 had to be accompanied by an adult.
Adriana Caselotti, who played Snow White, ended up building a home that was inspired by the cottage in the film, complete with a wishing well out front!
Originally there were twenty five songs written for this movie, and only eight were used.
At the time, Disney was not able to publish their own music and so publishing rights went to Borne Co. Music Publishers. Nowadays, Disney does publish their own music and has re-acquired the rights to many of their films, except for Snow White.
CONCLUSION
Snow White in the Seven Dwarves started out as an experiment and ended up as a phenomenon. There isn’t an animated film today that doesn’t owe some gratitude to this classic as it blazed the trail for animated motion pictures yet to come.
Before Snow White, no one believed animation to be a legitimate filmmaking medium. Back then, people showed up in waves to laugh at the concept of watching a cartoon for more than an hour. But, even they were pleasantly surprised. Many would say that audiences still have difficulty considering animation to be a medium and not a genre of film meant for children. Even though the fight for animation to be taken as seriously is still ongoing, if it weren’t for this film, we wouldn’t even be having that conversation today.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is a remarkable gem of classical animation. And even if you don’t believe it to be the fairest of all Disney films, it certainly is the most influential.
SOURCES:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/walt-disney-company-founded
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs DVD commentary and making-of documentary