Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, American animated musical film, released in 1937, that established Walt Disney as one of the world’s most innovative and creative moviemakers. Along with Pinocchio (1940), it is widely considered to be Disney’s greatest film achievement.
Loosely based on the famous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, the plot is set into motion when a vain, wicked queen consults her magical mirror and learns that her beautiful stepdaughter, Snow White, is now the “fairest in the land.” Instantly resentful, the queen enlists a woodsman to murder Snow White, but he cannot commit the act and exhorts the young girl to escape. In the forest Snow White discovers a cottage inhabited by seven eccentric dwarfs, who warmly welcome her into their home after she offers to cook and clean for them. The queen eventually learns of Snow White’s whereabouts and, disguising herself as an old hag, fatally poisons her stepdaughter with a tainted apple. The heartbroken dwarfs stand guard over the girl’s body until a handsome prince restores her to life with a kiss.
Walt Disney was already a respected name in the film business when he undertook his biggest gamble to date: to produce the first full-length animated feature film from an American studio. Disney had been determined to bring the legend of Snow White to the screen ever since he saw a silent-film version of the famed fable in 1917. Literally hundreds of technicians laboured on the expensive production to the extent that it became known as “Disney’s Folly.” Upon its release, however, the film was an immediate box-office sensation and earned praise from no less than the groundbreaking Russian director Sergey Eisenstein, who called it the greatest movie ever made. In 1939 the film was honoured with a special Academy Award, recognizing it as a “significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture.” Indeed, the superb animation, voiceover work, and production values set the standard for all future Disney animated films. Furthermore, this version of the classic tale—which provided names for the dwarfs and introduced other key components to the story—has now virtually superseded all others in the popular imagination.
Production notes and credits
- Studio: RKO Radio Pictures
- Directors: David Hand (supervising director); Perce Pearce, Larry Morey, William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, and Ben Sharpsteen (sequence directors)
- Producer: Walt Disney
- Writers: Ted Sears, Richard Creedon, Otto Englander, Dick Rickard, Earl Hurd, Merrill De Maris, Dorothy Ann Blank, and Webb Smith
- Music: Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, and Paul Smith
- Running time: 83 minutes
Cast
- Adriana Caselotti (Snow White)
- Lucille La Verne (Queen/Witch)
- Roy Atwell (Doc)
- Eddie Collins (Dopey)
- Pinto Colvig (Sleepy/Grumpy)
- Billy Gilbert (Sneezy)
- Scotty Mattraw (Bashful)
- Otis Harlan (Happy)
- Harry Stockwell (Prince)
Academy Award nominations
- Score