Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the 1812 German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, it is the first animated feature film produced in the United States and the first cel animated feature film.[3] The production was supervised by David Hand, and the film's sequences were directed by Perce Pearce, William Cottrell, Larry Morey, Wilfred Jackson, and Ben Sharpsteen.
For the Disney franchise, see Snow White (franchise).Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Supervising Director
Sequence Directors- Perce Pearce
- William Cottrell
- Larry Morey
- Wilfred Jackson
- Ben Sharpsteen
- Ted Sears
- Richard Creedon
- Otto Englander
- Dick Rickard
- Earl Hurd
- Merrill De Maris
- Dorothy Ann Blank
- Webb Smith
"Snow White"
by the Brothers Grimm
- December 21, 1937 (Carthay Circle Theatre)
- February 4, 1938 (United States)
83 minutes
United States
English
$1.5 million[1]
$418 million[2]
Snow White premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on December 21, 1937. Despite initial doubts from the film industry, it was a critical and commercial success, with international earnings of more than $8 million during its initial release against a $1.5 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1937, and briefly held the record of highest-grossing sound film. It was also the highest-grossing animated film for 55 years. The popularity of the film has led to its being re-released theatrically many times, until its home video release in the 1990s. Adjusted for inflation, it is one of the top-ten performers at the North American box office and is still the highest-grossing animated film. Worldwide, its inflation-adjusted earnings top the animation list.[4]
Snow White was nominated for Best Musical Score at the Academy Awards in 1938, and the next year, producer Walt Disney was awarded an honorary Oscar for the film. This award was unique, consisting of one normal-sized, plus seven miniature Oscar statuettes. They were presented to Disney by Shirley Temple.[5]
In 1989, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the National Film Registry.[6] The American Film Institute ranked it among the 100 greatest American films, and also named the film as the greatest American animated film of all time in 2008. Disney's take on the fairy tale has had a significant cultural effect, resulting in popular theme park attractions, a video game, a Broadway musical, and an upcoming live-action film.
Plot
Having lost both of her parents at a young age, Snow White is a princess living with her wicked and cold-hearted stepmother, the Queen. Fearing that Snow White's beauty will outshine her own, the Queen forces her to work as a scullery maid and asks her Magic Mirror daily "who is the fairest one of all." For years, the mirror always answers that the Queen is, pleasing her.
One day, Snow White meets and falls in love with a prince who overhears her singing. On that same day, the Magic Mirror informs the Queen that Snow White is now the fairest in all of the land. Angered, the Queen orders her Huntsman to take Snow White into the forest, kill her, and bring back her heart in a jeweled box as proof. The Huntsman cannot bring himself to kill Snow White and reveals to her the Queen's plot. He then urges her to flee into the woods and never return.
Lost and frightened, Snow White is befriended by woodland animals 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 orphaned children. With the animals' help, she proceeds to clean the place and cook a meal. Snow White soon learns that the cottage is the home of seven dwarfs named Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey, who work in a nearby mine. Returning home, they are alarmed to find their cottage clean, and suspect that an intruder has invaded their home. Snow White introduces herself, and the dwarfs welcome her after she offers to clean and cook for them. Snow White keeps house for the dwarfs while they mine for jewels during the day; and at night, they all sing, play music, and dance.
Back at the castle, the Magic Mirror reveals that Snow White is still living, and with the dwarfs. Enraged that the Huntsman tricked her, the Queen creates a poisoned apple that will put whoever eats it into a death-like sleep. She learns the curse can be broken by "love's first kiss," but is certain Snow White will be buried alive before this can happen. Using a potion to disguise herself as an old hag, the Queen goes to the cottage while the dwarfs are away. The animals see through the disguise, but are unable to warn Snow White; they rush off to find the dwarfs. The Queen fools Snow White into biting into the apple, and she falls into a death-like slumber.
The dwarfs return with the animals as the Queen leaves the cottage, and give chase, trapping her on a cliff. She tries to roll a boulder onto them, but lightning strikes the cliff before she can do so, causing her to fall and get crushed to death by the boulder. In their cottage, the dwarfs find Snow White asleep by the poison. Unwilling to bury her in the ground, they instead place her in a glass coffin in the forest. Together with the animals, they keep watch over her.
The following spring, the prince learns of Snow White's eternal sleep and visits the coffin. Saddened by her apparent death, he kisses her, which breaks the spell and awakens her. The dwarfs and animals all rejoice as the prince takes Snow White to his castle.
Production
Development
Walt Disney considered making his first feature-length film as early as in 1933,[16] when his animation studio specialized in producing innovative animated short films, such as the Silly Symphonies series.[17] Although they were popular with the audience, Disney believed that the shorts did not bring enough profit for the further growth of the studio;[18] he also saw the full-length film as a way to expand his "storytelling possibilities",[17] allowing for elaborate plots and character development.[19] By late March 1933,[20] he was approached by Mary Pickford (co-founder of United Artists that was distributing Disney's works at the time) with a proposal for a feature-length animated/live-action version of Lewis Carroll's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865);[16] however, the project was soon scrapped when Paramount Pictures began production of their own film version.[21] Disney then considered using the same concept for a film adaptation of Washington Irving's short story "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) starring Will Rogers,[22] but it did not work out either due to Paramount, which held the rights to the story, refusing to give permission.[23]
After the successful release of the Silly Symphony short Three Little Pigs in May 1933,[16] Disney was strengthened in his decision to make a feature film[24] and began introducing the idea to his staff through a "slow infiltration" – telling everyone about it individually during casual conversations.[16] He also entered into negotiations with Merian C. Cooper to produce a full-length animated version of Victor Herbert's operetta Babes in Toyland (1903) in Technicolor;[25] the project was offered to RKO Radio Pictures, which owned the rights to the play, but RKO executives rejected it.[26][a] In July 1933, Disney first revealed his plans on making a feature film to The Film Daily (although he had not yet managed to find a response from the United Artists executives),[27] and around the same time,[28] he was approached with an offer for an animated version of Felix Salten's novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods (1923) in alliance with Sidney Franklin,[29] who had acquired the rights earlier that year.[30] However, Disney rejected the idea, feeling that his studio was not ready for the technical challenges that Bambi would have presented.[28][b] Homer's poems Iliad and Odyssey, as well as Jonathan Swift's book Gulliver's Travels (1726), were also suggested to Disney at the time.[29]
Streaming audio