| Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937 Film) |
Article Index for Snow White |
Website Links For Snow White |
Information AboutSnow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937 Film) |
|
name = Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' is a 1937 Animated Feature , the first produced by Walt Disney . Although it was not the first full-length animated feature to be produced (the 1917 Argentine 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 . The film premiered on December 21 , 1937 with a wide theatrical release 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 German 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 explores the story of a jealous and wicked queen's attempt to have her stepdaughter murdered, but she escapes and is given shelter by seven Dwarf s 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 (and the highest-grossing animated film) within the United States when adjusted for Inflation ." All-Time Box Office: Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation ". ''Box Office Mojo.'' Retrieved from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm on September 8, 2006. ''Snow White'' was one of only two animated films to rank in the American Film Institute 's List Of The 100 Greatest American Films Of All Time in 1997 (the other being '' Fantasia ''), ranking #49. It achieved a higher ranking (#34) in the list's 2007 Update , this time being the only traditionally animated film on the list. In 1989, ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." PLOT SUMMARY :''"Once upon a time there lived a lovely little princess named Snow White. Her vain and wicked stepmother the Queen feared that some day Snow White's beauty would surpass her own. So she dressed the little Princess in rags and forced her to work as a Scullery Maid." :''"Each day the vain Queen consulted her Magic Mirror, 'Magic Mirror on the Wall, Who is the fairest one of all?'" "…and as long as the Mirror answered, 'You are the fairest one of all,' Snow White was safe from the Queen's cruel jealousy." One day, however, the Magic Mirror informs the queen that Snow White, despite her rags, is now the fairest in the land. In addition, the queen observes the arrival of a prince, who serenades the young girl as she gathers water from a well to scrub the grounds. These events fuel the queen's jealousy, and she orders her huntsman to take Snow White into the woods and kill her. As proof, the queen requires the huntsman to bring back the dead girl's heart in a jeweled box. The kind-hearted huntsma cannot go through with the act, and urges Snow White to flee into the woods and never come back. The frightened princess finds herself lost in the woods, and terrified by luminous glowing eyes peering from within the trees and the brush. These turn out to be the eyes of friendly woodland creatures, who befriend Snow White and lead her to a cottage deep in the forest. Finding seven small chairs in the cottage's dining room, Snow White assumes the cottage is the home of seven children - "seven untidy children," she notes as she finds the cottage in disarray. The princess and the animals band together and clean the cottage, hoping that the good deed will convince the children to let Snow White stay with them. The woodland cottage belongs not to seven children but to seven adult dwarves who spend their days working in a nearby diamond mine. Upon returning home at the end of the working day, they are alarmed to find their cottage clean, and surmise that a monstrous intruder has invaded their home. The dwarves discover Snow White upstairs, asleep in their beds. The princess introduces herself, and the dwarves, save for one aptly named Grumpy, are pleased to welcome her as a house guest, particularly when they learn she can cook and has prepared dinner. They are less pleased, however, at Snow White's insistence that they wash up before eating, something they've never done and only do after much apprehension. Meanwhile, the huntsman has returned to the castle and delivered the Queen what she assumes to be Snow White's heart. However, the magic mirror informs the Queen that Snow White is in the care of the seven dwarves, and that the huntsman has actually given the Queen a pig's heart. The enraged Queen descends to a secret laboratory, where she practices witchcraft. Using her potions and spellbook, the Queen disguises herself as an ugly old hag and prepares a poisoned apple to place Snow White in an eternal state of repose called "the Sleeping Death." The next morning, the dwarves head out for the diamond mine, warning Snow White to beware the evil Queen. However, the Queen's disguise as the hag is so convincing that Snow White is neither alarmed nor alert when the hag arrives, disguised as an apple peddler, to the dwarves' cottage. The hag offers Snow White the poisoned apple, claiming it to be a magic wishing apple. Snow White's animal friends are not as easily convinced, and rush off to warn the dwarves. While they are gone, however, Snow White takes a bite out of the apple, and falls to the floor, seemingly dead. A storm starts up outside, as the ugly old hag cackles, "now I'll be fairest in the land!" The dwarves arrive, mounted on deer, just in time to catch the hag fleeing from the cottage. Jilted, the dwarves chase the hag through the raging storm, following her up the side of a mountain and trapping her at the edge of a jagged cliff. Desperate to rid herself of the dwarves, the hag attempts to push a boulder down the mountainside and onto them. However, a bolt of lightning strikes the edge of the cliff where the hag stands, casting her to fall into the chasm below as the boulder she had tried to push onto the dwarves rolls backwards to crush her. Despite having done away with the queen, the dwarves return to their cottage and find Snow White seemingly dead. They cannot bear to bury her, and instead build for her a glass coffin trimmed with gold in a clearing in the forest. The dwarves and the woodland creatures keep watch over Snow White through the autumn, winter, and spring. One day, the prince, who had been searching all over for the princess, learns of her plight and comes to visit the coffin. Captivated by her beauty, he approaches the coffin and kisses Snow White, restoring her to life with "love's first kiss," the only cure for the "sleeping death". The dwarves and animals all rejoice, and tearfully say good-bye to Snow White as she and the prince ride off into the sunset to his castle, where they live happily ever after. HISTORY introduces each of the Seven Dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 ''Snow White'' theatrical trailer.]] "Disney's Folly": production Development on ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' began in early 1934, and in June 1934, in the '' Mickey Mouse '' and '' Silly Symphonies '' series. Disney hoped to expand his studio's prestige and revenues by moving into features, and estimated that ''Snow White'' could be produced for a budget of $250,000 - ten times the budget of an average ''Silly Symphony''. 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 . 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, Jumpy, Shifty, and Snoopy were among those that were rejected (along with Scrappy, Cranky, Dirty, Awful, Silly, Daffy, Flabby, Jaunty, Biggo Ego, Chesty, Baldy, Gabby, Nifty, Sniffy, Burpy, Scaredy, Lazy, Puffy, Dizzy, Stuffy, Gassy, Tubby, Mr. Shy, Loser, Flaunty, Flasher, Horny, Hairy and Grabby) ''Walt Disney: The Biography'' by Neal Gabler, 2007. The songs in ''Snow White'' were composed by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey . Paul J. Smith , Leigh Harline and Churchill composed the incidental music score. Well-known songs from ''Snow White'' include "Heigh-Ho," "Some Day My Prince Will Come," and "Whistle While You Work." Because Disney did not have its own music publishing company at this time, the publishing rights for the music and songs were administered through the Bourne Co., which continues to hold these rights. 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. ''Snow White'' became the first American film to have a Soundtrack Album released in conjunction with the feature film. Prior to ''Snow White'', a movie soundtrack recording was unheard of and of little value to a movie studio. Critical and commercial success " sequence from ''Snow White'', animated by Shamus Culhane .]] Disney's wife, Lillian, told him: "No one's ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture."''Walt Disney: The Biography'' by Neal Gabler, 2007 ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater on December 21 st, 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. The '' New York Times '' said "Thank you very much, Mr. Disney." RKO Radio Pictures put the film into general release on February 4 th, 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 1939. Adjusted for inflation, and incorporating subsequent releases, the film still registers one of the top ten American film grosses of all time. ''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 child actress Shirley Temple . The film was also nominated for Best Musical Score . "Some Day My Prince Will Come" has become a Jazz Standard that has been performed by numerous artists, including Buddy Rich , Oscar Peterson , and Miles Davis . Noted filmmakers such as to produce its own fantasy film, '' The Wizard Of Oz ''. The 1943 '' Merrie Melodies '' short '' Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs '', directed by Bob Clampett , parodies ''Snow White'' by presenting the story with an all- Black cast singing a Jazz score. ''Snow White'' was such a success that the Disney studio would produce more animated films. Re-releases, home video, and related products ''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 theaters 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'' wouldn't be released on VHS until 1994, as the first video in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection .It was the last of the early Disney animated films to be released on home video.''Snow White'' was later released on DVD in October 2001, the first in Disney's Platinum Series Line Of Releases , and featured, across two discs, the digitally restored film, a making-of documentary narrated by Angela Lansbury , an audio commentary by John Canemaker and (via archived audio clips) Walt Disney , and many more special features. {Link without Title} A ''Snow White'' video game was released for the Game Boy Color system. Snow White makes an appearance in the popular Playstation 2 game '' Kingdom Hearts '' as one of the seven fabled Princesses Of Heart . 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 ''. Snow White's Scary Adventures is a popular theme park ride at Disneyland (an opening day attraction dating from 1955), Walt Disney World 's Magic Kingdom , Tokyo Disneyland , and Disneyland Paris . ''Snow White'' theatrical release history
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||