Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the “one that started it all.” While the company was started with a mouse, the Walt Disney Company’s animation building is held up by the carvings of the seven dwarfs for a reason. While it is by no means the highest-grossing movie of all time, it will forever be remembered. It revolutionized the movie-making industry as we know it and will always be remembered for breaking down barriers in animation.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Development
The story goes that Walt Disney acted out the entire plot of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for his animators late one night, around three hours. This ended in him announcing the project. They were captivated. Walt always had a way of getting people on board with an idea. However, not everyone was convinced. Many in the media called the movie “Disney’s Follie,” and even his wife Lilly thought this was a fool’s errand.
Cartoons weren’t seen as a serious medium. It was the prequel to the “real” film. Many believed that no one would sit through a full-length animated movie. One critic of the project said,
“It was OK, six-seven minutes, like the shorts, but an hour and a half, no way! Big reason was that you run out of funny things to do, you had to have a laugh-a-minute. And the bright colors would hurt your eyes, everybody would get up and walk out”
However, Walt Disney knew that if storytelling was at the center of the movie, people would be captivated. It took him time to land on a story for his first animated feature film.
Why Snow White?
Walt Disney didn’t immediately pick Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. For a while, he considered Homer’s Odyssey or Iliad and the 1726 classic Gulliver’s Travel. However, he settled on the classic Brothers Grimm tale. A 1916 silent film on the story was shown to Disney as a child. He already had plans to make a Sill Symphony of Snow White but felt it was worthy of a feature film.
Walt Disney started talking about the project publicly in 1934 to the New York Times. When he talked about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in an interview, he put the budget at $250,000 which was a huge amount at the time. While the famed business mogul knew a lot, he missed the mark on how much it would cost to make history.
Massive Cost
In total, the movie had a tab of $1,488,422.74, which translates to 32,511,700.60 in modern dollars. He had to take a $250,000 loan from Bank of America late in the process to finish the film. The story goes that to convince bank president Joseph Rosenberg to give him the loan; he showed him and the board a rough cut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. After that, Rosenberg said, “Walt, that thing is going to make a hatful of money,” and the loan was approved.
Animation took time. Each frame had to be hand drawn at the time which was labor intensive. For a three to five minute cartoon, that was fine but a full-length feature film was seen as impossible. Walt saw it as a new frontier and he would soon be proven right.
Theatrical Release
The theatrical release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a smash hit. It premiered in Los Angeles, California on December 21, 1937. The star-studded audience gave it a standing ovation. Three weeks later, it was shown in Miami and on February 4th of the following year, RKO Radio Pictures put the film as a general release. While the film was popular in domestic markets, the international release was even bigger.
In London and Sydney, Australia, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ran for nearly three months in theaters. Audiences could not get enough of the lovable characters and quality animation. After the international run was over, the movie had made RKO about $380,000 at the time. Due to many re-releases, this film is still one of the highest grossing of all-time when inflation is factored in.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Cast
- Adriana Caselotti as Snow White
- Lucille La Verne as the Queen/Old Hag
- Roy Atwell as Doc
- Pinto Colvig as Grumpy & Sleepy
- Otis Harlan as Happy
- Scotty Mattraw as Bashful
- Billy Gilbert as Sneezy
- Eddie Collins as Dopey
- Harry Stockwell as the Prince
- Moroni Olsen as the Magic Mirror
- Stuart Buchanan as the Huntsman
The hunt for the voice of Snow White was a rigorous process. Over 150 actors and singers were auditioned but Adriana Caselotti, the first actress who auditioned, was chosen for the role. Walt Disney was asked why he chose Caselotti and revealed his reasoning.
I wanted to get a voice for Snow White that would be kind of away from every day. You know kind of off in another world. And I was hunting for a certain quality voice. So I had a boy searching for voices. He went everywhere. I wanted someone who could sing, too, because I was going to use a lot of songs. So he kept bringing these people in … So one day he came in with a voice. I listened to it.
I said “That’s perfect.” I said “She sounds to me like a 14-year-old girl.” And he said “Well, she’s 18. You know?” But that was it. It was a little girl called Adriana Caselotti and she came from an opera family … She could do all this beautiful birdlike stuff. So I signed her.
Lucille La Verne wasn’t a slam dunk for the role in the eyes of many. Her evil queen voice was considered good, as many liked its regal nature. Many didn’t like her old hag voice, but they came to a compromise where she could play the character as long as she removed her false teeth.
Pinto Colvig was already a staple in the company, having voiced Pluto and Goofy in many cartoons. He continued to voice those characters through 1965. Billy Gilbert had one of the most famous sneezes in Hollywood at the time and was a perfect fit for the role. These voice actors are the ones who bring the characters in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to life.
Best Scenes & Characters
The Evil Queen’s monologue as she transforms into the old hag is criminally underrated. No one talks about how good this scene is, especially considering she is the only human on screen. The scenes flow perfectly together. She begins concocting the brew to change her appearance. After she transforms, the cackle of the old hag chills you to the bone.
Then she goes to work on the poison apple. The skull that forms when the apple is pulled out of the cauldron is a legendary touch. Throughout the scene, she toys with the raven inhabiting her cellar, culminating in her abruptly turning to it with the apple and saying, “Here, have a bite!” It’s a truly great ten minutes of film, and La Verne nailed the scene.
Outside of the Evil Queen/old hag, each of the dwarfs stands out as each exhibits their personality in the limited screen time they have. Dopey and Grumpy are the most prevalent, but every one of them feels like a unique character. Given the limited screen time some of them have, it is an impressive feat. This is something that Disney has excelled at for years. They connect us with a character with only 15 minutes or less of screen time.
Awards And Nominations
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs does not have many awards to its name. However, over the years, it has received recognition for its historical significance. Here is a list of the awards the film has won.
- 1938: Venice Film Festival: Grand Biennale Art Trophy to Walt Disney
- 1939: 11th Academy Awards: Honorary Award: “For Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field.” The award included seven miniature Oscar statues.
- 1987: Motion Picture Screen Cartoonist Award: Special Award To Walt Disney, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the movie. Award was given posthumously.
- 1989: National Film Preservation Board: Induction into the National Film Registry
Legacy
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has a unique legacy. We can point out franchises that are important to the Walt Disney Company, but this one ushered in a new era of animation as a whole. We don’t have any full-length animated movies without this one. Furthermore, animation as a medium has found huge success on television. Shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Batman The Animated Series flex the muscles of what animation can do.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is approaching its 100th anniversary. The Walt Disney Company will no doubt roll out the red carpet. This film set the stage for years of movies to come. Love it or hate it, this movie will hold a special place in the history of Disney and the film industry as a whole.
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