Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
- This article is about Walt Disney's 1937 film. For the Brothers Grimm fairy tale it is based upon, see Snow White.
| Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | |
|---|---|
| File:Snow-white-1937-poster.jpg | |
| Directed by | William Cottrell Wilfred Jackson Larry Morey Perce Pearce Ben Sharpsteen |
| Written by | Dorothy Ann Blank Richard Creedon Merrill De Maris Otto Englander Earl Hurd Dick Rickard Ted Sears Webb Smith Based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Starring | Adriana Caselotti Lucille La Verne Pinto Colvig Roy Atwell Billy Gilbert Scotty Mattraw Otis Harlan Harry Stockwell |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date | February 8 1938 |
Running time | 83 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,488,000 USD (est.) |
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first animated feature in the Disney animated features canon; the first animated feature in Technicolor. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions, premiered on December 21, 1937, and was originally released to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on February 8 1938. Based upon the fairy tale Snow White by the Brothers Grimm, the film's plot has a jealous and wicked queen attempt to have her stepdaughter murdered, but the girl escapes and is given shelter by seven dwarfs who live deep in a forest. Snow White was the first major animated feature made in the United States, the most successful motion picture released in 1938, and, adjusted for inflation, is the tenth highest-grossing film of all time.
Voice cast
Crew
The movie was adapted by 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. The film was supervised by David Hand, and directed by William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, and Ben Sharpsteen.
History
"Disney's Folly"
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 dwarfs, 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.
Critical and commercial success
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater on December 21, 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. RKO Radio Pictures put the film into general release on February 4 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 removed from that spot by Gone with the Wind in 1940.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full-length animated feature 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).
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 fiftieth anniversary reissue and a more comprehensive digital restoration was done for the 1993 reissue.
Snow White was first released on home video in 1994 (being the first in Disney's "Platinum Edition" series), and was released on DVD in 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.
Snow White theatrical release history
- December 21, 1937 (original release)
- February 22, 1944
- February 13, 1952
- February 7, 1958
- June 11, 1967
- December 20, 1975
- July 15, 1983
- July 17, 1987
- July 2, 1993
Songs
Songs in film
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
- "Whistle While You Work" - Snow White
- "Heigh-Ho" - The Dwarfs
- "The Washing Song" (AKA "Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum") - The Dwarfs
- "The Silly Song" (AKA "The Dwarfs' Yodel Song") - The Dwarfs
- "Someday My Prince Will Come" - Snow White
- "One Song (Reprise)" - The Prince and Chorus
- "Someday My Prince Will Come (Reprise)" - Chorus
Songs written for film but not used
- "Music in Your Soup" - The Dwarfs (Was used but was deleted from the film)
- "You're Never Too Old To Be Young" - The Dwarfs
Titles in different languages
- Bosnian: Snježana i Sedam Patuljaka
- Bulgarian: Снежанка и седемте джуджета
- Cantonese Chinese: 雪姑七友
- Catalan: Blanca Neus i els Set Nans
- Croatian: Snježana i Sedam Patuljaka
- Czech: Sněhurka a Sedm Trpaslíků
- Danish: Snehvide og de Syv Sma Dværge
- Dutch: Sneeuwwitje en de Zeven Dwergen
- 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
- Hebrew: שלגיה ושבעת הגמדים
- Hungarian: Hófehérke és a Hét Törpe
- Icelandic: Mjallhvít og Dvergarnir Sjö
- Italian: Biancaneve e i Sette Nani
- Japanese: 白雪姫 (Shirayuki Hime)
- Korean (South Korea): 백설공주와 일곱 난장이
- Latvian: Sniegbaltīte (Sniegbalteeta)
- Mandarin Chinese: 白雪公主
- Norwegian: Snehvit og de Syv Dverge (also Snehvit og de Syv Dverger / Dvergene)
- Polish: Królewna Sniezka i Siedmiu Krasnoludków
- Portuguese: Branca de Neve e os Sete Anões
- Russian: Белоснежка и семь гномов
- Serbian: Снежана и седам патуљака (Snežana i Sedam Patuljaka)
- Spanish: Blanca Nieves y los Siete Enanitos (Spain); Blanca Nieves y los Siete Enanos (Latin America)
- Swedish: Snövit och de Sju Dvärgarna
- Thai: สโนว์ไวท์ กับคนแคระทั้งเจ็ด
- Turkish: Pamuk Prenses ve Yedi Cüceler
- Welsh: Gywn Eirâ ac y Saith Bobl Bach (Shouldn't this be Eirâ Gwyn ac y Saith Bobl Bach?)
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. Among them, "Awful", "Hoppy", "Weepy", "Dirty", "Cranky", "Hungry", "Sneezy-Wheezy", "Lazy", "Snoopy", "Goopy", "Wistful", "Soulful", "Gabby-Blabby", "Crabby", "Flabby", "Helpful", "Tearful", "Deafy", "Thrifty", "Shifty", "Nifty" and "Biggo-Ego".
- About 3 in every 100 people can remember all the Dwarfs' names at one time.
- Snow White is the oldest surviving traditonal animated feature and the first movie that follows the present rule of minimum length of an animated feature, which is at least 70 minutes in running time.
- Snow White and her dwarf friends made a silhouetted cameo appearance in the 2004 direct-to-video animated film The Lion King 1½. They can be seen at the near end, walking to their seats in the theater. They also appear as regular guest stars on Disney's House of Mouse.
- The movie's title uses the word "dwarfs" which was the traditional plural of "dwarf". The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, published in three volumes from July 29, 1954 to October 20, 1955, instead popularized the spelling "dwarves". Both plural forms have been used interchangeably since then.
- The Danish names of the Dwarfs are: Brille (Doc), Dumpe (Dopey), Flovmand (Bashful), Gnavpot (Grumpy), Lystig (Happy), Prosit (Sneezy) and Søvnig (Sleepy).
- The Finnish names of the Dwarfs are: Jörö (Grumpy), Lystikäs (Happy), Nuhanenä (Sneezy), Ujo (Bashful), Unelias (Sleepy), Viisas (Doc) and Vilkas (Dopey).
- The French names of the Dwarfs are: Atchoum (Sneezy), Dormeur (Sleepy), Grincheux (Grumpy), Joyeux (Happy), Prof (Doc), Simplet (Dopey) and Timide (Bashful).
- The German names of the Dwarfs are: Brummbär (Grumpy), Chef (Doc), Happy (Happy), Hatschi (Sneezy), Pimpel (Bashful), Schlafmütz (Sleepy) and Seppl (Dopey).
- The Hungarian names of the Dwarfs are: Hapci (Sneezy), Kuka (Dopey), Morgó (Grumpy), Szende (Bashful), Szundi (Sleepy), Tudor (Doc) and Vidor (Happy).
- The Italian names of the Dwarfs are: Brontolo (Grumpy), Cucciolo (Dopey), Dotto (Doc), Eolo (Sneezy), Gongolo (Happy), Mammolo (Bashful) and Pisolo (Sleepy).
- The Norwegian names of the Dwarfes are: Brille(Doc), Sinnataggen(Grumpy), Lystig(Happy), Søvnig(Sleepy), Blygen(Bashful), Prosit(Sneezy) and Minsten(Dopey)
- The Portuguese names of the Dwarfs are: Atchim (Sneezy), Dengoso (Bashful), Dunga (Dopey), Feliz (Happy), Mestre (Doc), Soneca (Sleepy) and Zangado (Grumpy).
- The Spanish names of the Dwarfs are: Alergico (Sneezy), Dormilón (Sleepy), Feliz (Happy), Gruñón (Grumpy), Mudito (Dopey), Romántico (Bashful) and Sabio (Doc).
- The Swedish names of the Dwarfs are: Butter (Grumpy), Blyger (Bashful), Glader (Happy), Kloker (Doc), Prosit (Sneezy), Toker (Dopey) and Trötter (Sleepy).
- A version with live actors based on the film, titled Snow White: The Fairest of Them All and starring Kristin Kreuk, was made in 2002 as a TV movie as part of The Wonderful World of Disney on ABC.
- Upon seeing the film, Russian director Sergei Eisenstein called it the greatest ever made.
- The song "Someday My Prince Will Come" has become a jazz standard that has been performed by numerous artists, including Buddy Rich, Oscar Peterson, and Miles Davis.
- In the Square Enix game Kingdom Hearts, Snow White is one of the fabled Princesses of Heart.
- The movie was parodied in the highly controversial 1943 Looney Tunes short Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs. In this version, the music is based on jazz themes and the cast was entirely black, which contributed to its criticism for racist and stereotypical themes.
- 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.
- Whilst recording the voice of the Wicked Queen in Hag like form, 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. She smiled at him. She had removed her false teeth!
External link
