Why ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,’ Disney’s First Animated Film, Almost Didn’t Happen
Released on Dec. 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs wasn’t just groundbreaking. Walt Disney’s first full-length animated film took that ground and covered it in a forest filled with enchanted animals and wicked queens, marking an unprecedented achievement in animation that still provokes awe 87 years later. The film was a triumph for Disney, for animation, and for the motion picture industry as a whole.
The 83-minute wonder smashed the genre’s boundaries and set roots for the oft-maligned Disney to become the animation icon he is today. So it’s hard to believe that the hit almost never happened at all.
When Disney launched his plan to make a full-length animated film in the early 1930s, bemused skeptics labelled the project “Disney’s Folly.” At the time, animation — anchored by Disney’s Mickey Mouse — was strictly snack-sized: Short, funny and over before you could squawk, “Hot dog!” The notion of holding a movie audience’s attention through a feature-length cartoon seemed unlikely, if not impossible.
Disney was undeterred. He chose the Grimm Brothers fairytale for its touching story and potential for dazzling visuals. Then he brought aboard the best animators in the business, freeing them to develop new techniques, cameras that could create the illusion of depth and realism, and characters with movements and expressions just like real people. Over 750 artists completed more than 2 million sketches, and the final film included 250,000 animated images, hand-drawn on celluloid sheets that were placed over painted backgrounds.
Crabby instead of Grumpy? Dirty? Lazy? Flabby?
As for his characters, Disney knew the dwarfs would capture moviegoers’ collective imagination and funny bones, so he and his team put great focus on providing each with a distinct personality. And he let his own imagination run wild with potential names for the pint-sized guys, considering Blabby, Crabby, Flabby, Deefy, Dirty, Dumpy, Hotsy, Lazy, Nifty, Shifty, Thrifty and Weezy, before settling on the comparatively mundane Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy and Dopey for his iconic seven.
Disney/Everett Collection
Disney tapped sugary-voiced actress and singer Adriana Caselotti to play his raven-haired heroine, signing her to a contract unheard of in Hollywood before or since. Disney wanted Caselotti’s voice forever and only associated with Snow White, so her contract stipulated that she never play anyone else on film. Luckily for him, Caselotti believed wholeheartedly in the project, and even commissioned her future home to look like the dwarfs’ cottage.
To keep the film in moviegoers’ heads long after they left the theater, Disney collaborated with top composers on a soundtrack that would feature instant classics such as “Whistle While You Work,” “Someday My Prince Will Come” and “Heigh-Ho.” To seal the deal, it became the first movie soundtrack available for purchase.
Walt Disney’s dream came true when Snow White premiered in 1937
Everett Collection
Though Disney’s dream took four years and $1.5 million to make, its payoff proved as handsome as Prince Florian. Hollywood A-listers flocked to its Dec. 21, 1937, premiere, where, Snow White animator Ward Kimball noted, “I was sitting behind Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, and they were laughing like kids.”
Critics fell over themselves to praise the film, which became the highest grossing film ever, until it was blown from the position by Gone With the Wind a year later — but it still remained the highest-grossing animated film for a whopping 55 years.
In 1939, Disney received a special Academy Award for his achievement, plus seven smaller ones for the little stars who helped make it shine. And Snow White still stands as a sparkling reminder that, if you’re not afraid, all it takes is a big imagination, boundless perseverance, and an inky-haired girl named Snow to make history.
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August 2021
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