Disney releases Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
See for yourself what the genius of Walt Disney has created in his first full length feature production proclaimed the original trailer for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs released on this day in 1938.Based on the famous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm Snow White opened with the Wicked Queen asking her magic mirror the question Who is the fairest one of all The mirror gives its fateful answer Snow White the queens young stepdaughter.Ordered by the queen to kill the young princess a sympathetic woodsman instead urges Snow White to hide in the forest there she encounters a host of friendly animals who lead her to a cottage inhabited by the Seven Dwarfs Sleepy Dopey Doc Sneezy Grumpy Bashful and Happy.Eventually in the classic happy ending viewers would come to expect as a Disney trademark love conquers all as the dwarfs defeat the villainous queen and Snow White finds love with a handsome prince.Walt Disneys decision to make Snow White which was the first animated feature to be produced in English and in Technicolor flew in the face of the popular wisdom at the time.
Naysayers including his wife Lillian warned him that audiences especially adults wouldnt sit through a feature-length cartoon fantasy about dwarfs.But Disney put his future on the line borrowing most of the 1.5 million that he used to make the film.Snow White premiered in Hollywood on December 21 1937 earning a standing ovation from the star-studded crowd.
When it was released to the public the following February the film quickly grossed 8 million a staggering sum during the Great Depression and the most made by any film up to that time.Critics were virtually unanimous in their admiration for Snow White.Charlie Chaplin who attended the Hollywood premiere told the Los Angeles Times that the filmeven surpassed our high expectations.In Dwarf Dopey Disney has created one of the greatest comedians of all time.
The movies innovative use of story color animation sound direction and background among other elements later inspired directors like Federico Fellini and Orson Welles.In fact Welles Citizen Kane features an opening shot of a castle at night with one lighted window that is strikingly similar to the first shot of the Wicked Queens castle in Snow White.Disney won an honorary Academy Award for his pioneering achievement while the music for the film featuring Snow Whites famous ballad Some Day My Prince Will Come and other songs by Frank Churchill Larry Morey Paul J.Smith and Leigh Harline was also nominated for an Oscar.
The studio re-released Snow White for the first time in1944 during World War II thereafter it was released repeatedly every decade or so a pattern that became a tradition for Disneys animated films.For its 50th anniversary in 1987 Snow White was restored but cropped into a wide-screen format a choice that irked some critics.Disney released a more complete digital restoration of the film in 1993.
Its power continues to endure In June 2008 more than 60 years after its U.S.release the American Film Institute chose Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as the No.1 animated film of all time in its listing of Americas 10 Greatest Films in 10 Classic Genres.
