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Some animators were opposed to the name Dopey, claiming that it was too modern a word to use in a timeless fairy tale. Walt Disney made the argument that William Shakespeare used the word in one of his plays. This managed to convince everyone, although any reference to the term "dopey" is yet to be found in any of Shakespeare's work. Although Shakespeare does use the term "foolish" in Twelfth Night, as well as "zed"; (for z, meaning dumbest of the dumb); these could have all been alternative names for Dopey since they were found in Shakespeare. "Half-wit", "Dunce" and "Jester" were all similar terms that were commonly used at the time, they could have been Dopey's name also. The original names of the Dwarfs, before Disney renamed them, were Snick, Glick, Blick, Flick, Plick, Whick and Quee.
At a recording session, Lucille La Verne, the voice of the Wicked Queen, was told by Walt Disney's animators that they needed an older, raspier version of the Queen's voice for the Old Witch. La Verne stepped out of the recording booth, returned a few minutes later, and gave a perfect "Old Hag's voice" that stunned the animators. When asked how she did it, she replied, "Oh, I just took my teeth out."
Walt Disney wanted to keep Snow White's voice as a special one-time sound, and held Adriana Caselotti to a very strict contract. Except for a tiny bit part in The Wizard of Oz (1939), she never had a real singing part in a movie again, though she was a classically trained singer.
Disney Studios in Burbank was built with the profits from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
The Special Academy Award given to the picture consisted of one standard Oscar statuette and seven miniature statuettes on a stepped base.
Animator Shamus Culhane recalled drawing the Dwarfs' march home in the "Heigh Ho" scene as one of the toughest assignments of his career. Although six of the Dwarfs were marching at the same tempo, he had to give each his own body language suited to the character; and he had to map each individual walk with a blue pencil and ruler because of the unusual angles and perspectives used in the sequence. Then there was Dopey, bringing up the rear, hopping out of step with the others but who still had to be smoothly integrated into the action. Describing the sheer amount of painstaking hand-drawn labor this involved, Culhane said, "I worked six months on that goddamned thing, and it doesn't last a minute onscreen."
Roy O. Disney created the sound of the floor creaking with Dopey's slow footsteps by slowly bending an empty leather wallet back and forth.
Fifty ideas for the dwarfs' names and personalities were listed in the film's proposal; the list included all of the names finally included except Dopey and Doc (Dopey being the last to be developed). Some of the dwarfs were: Awful ("He steals and drinks and is very dirty"), Biggy-Wiggy or Biggo-Ego, Blabby, Deefy, Dirty, Gabby, Gaspy, Gloomy, Hoppy-Jumpy, Hotsy, Jaunty, Nifty, and Shifty. Sneezy was a last-minute replacement for Deefy. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz once wrote that he had heard that another name considered for a dwarf was "Snoopy" and that he was relieved that it had not been chosen as it would have probably prevented him from giving that name to his famous cartoon beagle.
Was the first of many Walt Disney films to have its premiere engagement at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. At the end of the film's initial engagement there, all the velvet seat upholstery had to be replaced. It seems that young children were so frightened by the sequence of Snow White lost in the forest that they wet their pants, and consequently the seats, at each and every showing of the film.
To keep the animators' minds working, Walt Disney instituted his "Five Dollars a Gag" policy. One notable example of this policy is when Ward Kimball suggested that the dwarfs' noses should pop one by one over the foot boards while they were peeking at Snow White.
When the movie was released, it was generally accepted that the correct plural form of "dwarf" was "dwarfs". J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" (published a year earlier) and later "Lord of the Rings" gradually popularized the uncommon variant "dwarves", so that the dwarfs in this movie are today often erroneously referred to as "dwarves" and the title even given as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves".
HIDDEN MICKEY: Formed by three stones on the wall behind the Queen as she strides down to the basement to perform her spell.
When comedian Billy Gilbert found out that one of the dwarfs' names was Sneezy he called up Walt Disney and gave him his famous sneezing gag and got the part.
The film was also going to include all three of the Queen's assassination attempts (poison comb, bodice suffocation and the poison apple) but eventually streamlined it to just the apple instead. Up until very late in production, just the bodice was cut, with the comb remaining.
Ward Kimball nearly quit after his two main sequences (the dwarfs eating soup and building a bed for Snow White, respectively) were cut. Walt Disney convinced him to stay by giving him the character of Jiminy Cricket in the next feature, Pinocchio (1940).
Convinced that it would fail, the Hollywood film industry labeled the film "Walt Disney's Folly".
The original design for Snow White was done by the artists behind Betty Boop giving her pouting red lips, long eyelashes, and a glimpse of her ankles causing her to look more like a 'flapper' than a demure princess. Walt Disney threw this out as he wanted Snow White to be wholesome, innocent and clothed in a peasant style dress rather than being sexy. The original 12 inch x 10 inch artwork was kept by one of the animators and held by his family until it was put up for auction in august 2014 when it was expected to make £15,000 but was sold for £2,793.
The trees that grab Snow White's dress were based on unique Garry Oak trees, found on Southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Walt Disney had toured through this area and noted their eerie, twisting shapes.
Scenes planned, but never fully animated:
- The queen holds the prince in the dungeon and uses her magic to make skeletons dance for his amusement.
- Fantasy sequence accompanying "Some Day My Prince Will Come" in which Snow White imagines herself dancing with her prince in the clouds beneath a sea of stars
- Dwarfs building Snow White a bed with help from woodland creatures (can be seen during the "Disney's Golden Anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" special).
- The song "Music in Your Soup" where the dwarfs sing about the soup that Snow White had just made them (can be seen during the "Disney's Golden Anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" special; the song can be heard on the soundtrack).
- A musical number, "You're Never Too Old to Be Young", featuring the dwarfs. It was pre-recorded, but never animated (can be heard on the soundtrack as a demo).
Publicity material relates that production employed 32 animators, 102 assistants, 167 "in-betweeners", 20 layout artists, 25 artists doing water color backgrounds, 65 effects animators, and 158 female inkers and painters. 2,000,000 illustrations were made using 1500 shades of paint.
This was the first film to ever have a soundtrack recording album released for it. Because Walt Disney Pictures 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 all of the other films, except this one. Prior to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), a movie soundtrack recording was unheard of and with little value to a movie studio.
Deanna Durbin auditioned for the voice of Snow White, but was not chosen because Walt Disney felt her voice was too mature. She was 14 at the time.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history. Based on a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, it was the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full color, and the first to be produced by Walt Disney Productions.
Held the title of highest grossing film ever for exactly one year, after which it was knocked out of the top spot by Gone with the Wind (1939).
The film was finally released on video in 1994, after several years of the studio resisting any notion of the idea. According to former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, the reason why the studio ultimately released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) on video was because the film was about to enter the public domain in Italy and would be prone to being pirated. Ultimately, Disney had their copyright on the movie extended.
In the dwarves' home, almost every wooden surface has an animal carved into it. Even the edge of each stair-step is the face of an owl. Only the door to the bedroom looks to have smiling human-shaped creatures on it.
The Prince was originally a much more prominent character, but the difficulty found in animating him convincingly forced the animators to reduce his part significantly.
The film's initial budget of $250,000 was 10 times the average budget for one of the studio's Silly Symphonies shorts. As it transpired, the final budget was in excess of $1.4 million, a huge amount for any film at the time.
It took animator Wolfgang Reitherman nine tries to get the animation of the Slave in the Magic Mirror just right. He achieved it by folding the paper in half, drawing one half of the face, then turning the paper over and tracing the other half. He was then dismayed when his hard work was obscured by fire, smoke and distortion glass for the film.
The first full-length animated feature film to come out of the United States. (The first ever were El apóstol (1917) and Sin dejar rastros (1918) by Quirino Cristiani but both films are considered lost. The oldest full-length animated feature film that can still be seen today is The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), which clocks in at 65 minutes, and was animated entirely in silhouette.)
When the Dwarfs bathe, Dopey swallows a bar of soap. A sequence showing how they got the soap back out of him was filmed as a pencil test but was not included in the film. It was later shown on the The Magical World of Disney (1954) TV show along with pencil test segment for the song "The Music In Your Soup".
Walt Disney came up with the idea for the film when he was only 15, working as a newsboy in Kansas City. He saw a major presentation of a silent film version of Snow White (1916) starring Marguerite Clark. The screening was held at the city's Convention Hall in February 1917, and the film was projected onto a four-sided screen using four separate projectors. The movie made a tremendous impression on the young viewer because he was sitting where he could see two sides of the screen at once, and they were not quite in sync.
The British Board of Film Censors (now, the British Board of Film Classification) gave the film an A-certificate upon its original release. This resulted in a nationwide controversy as to whether the enchanted forest and the witch were too frightening for younger audiences. Nevertheless, most local authorities simply overrode the censor's decision and gave the film a U-certificate.
As it's widely known, every country where the movie has been translated has its own set of seven names for the Dwarfs, including Germany, home of the original fairy tale. However, in the original tale (by brothers Jacob Grimm & Wilhelm Grimm) the dwarfs have no individual names at all.
"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60-minute radio adaptation of the movie on December 26, 1938 with many of the Walt Disney voice artists reprising their film roles.
For the scene where the dwarfs are sent off to wash, animator Frank Thomas had Dopey do a hitch step to catch up to the others, as suggested in the storyboard. Walt Disney liked it so much he had the step added to other scenes - much to the chagrin of the other animators, who blamed Thomas for the extra work they had to do.
When Walt Disney picked up his honorary Oscar statuettes for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), he told the Academy Award audience about Pinocchio (1940) which was still in production, holding their attention for a full 25 minutes.
To avoid depicting the Seven Dwarfs killing Queen Grimhilde, the film depicts her death as caused by a random lightning bolt.
Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora can communicate with animals. Also all three of these classic princesses wore peasant clothes at the beginning of her film.
There is a popular theory from Disney fans that the skeleton seen being mocked by the Queen was the Prince. Plus many Disney fans believe Snow White technically died and the final scene where Snow White and the Prince arrive at the Prince's castle was really them reunited in the afterlife especially how the peach colored clouds supposedly represents heaven.
Marge Champion served as a movement model for Snow White; some of this animation was later reworked for Maid Marian in Disney's Robin Hood (1973) and for Duchess in Disney's The Aristocats (1970).
'Jiminy Crickets' is mentioned twice by the dwarfs. It's an old expression usually used to express surprise.
Storyboards for a sequel to this movie were discovered in the Disney Company vault titled "Snow White Returns". Upon examining the length of the script and storyboards, it seemed like it was meant to be a short film than a full length movie. It was also meant to include revised versions of the "Soup" & "Bed Bulding" scenes that were excluded from the movie itself. The real reason for why this sequel never went further than preproduction is anyone's guess. It's unknown if Walt Disney really wanted this to be made in the first place. The whole storyboard to this unmade short is viewable on the Snow White Blu-ray.
There are only 11 human characters in the film - Snow White, the Dwarfs, the Queen, the Prince, and the Huntsman. Of these, the Prince is the only one never named.
When the movie was played at Radio City Music Hall on its first release, the theater managers had to replace the music played when Snow White runs into the forest, because they were nervous that the kids would be too scared upon hearing it.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) became the first release in Disney's new Platinum Edition DVD series, hitting stores on October 5, 2001. On its first day, more than 1 million copies were sold.
The opening credits feature an acknowledgment virtually unique in Hollywood features of the 1930s: "My sincere appreciation to the members of my staff whose loyalty and creative endeavor made possible this production. - Walt Disney". "Snow White", America's first animated feature, was the biggest gamble of Disney's career and its fortunes would either make or break the studio. Disney employees worked countless hours of uncompensated overtime to see it through. Industry skeptics called it "Disney's Folly" but instead it became one of the biggest box office hits before World War II. Ironically, in a January 1938 interview, Disney lamented that he and his staff had learned so much from making "Snow White" that "I wish I could yank it back and do it all over again."
The film came third in the UK's Ultimate Film, in which films were placed in order of how many seats they sold at cinemas.
Sergei M. Eisenstein, director of Battleship Potemkin (1925), called it the "greatest film ever made."
No rotoscoping was used for the depiction of Queen Grimhilde, as the animators preferred drawing the Queen over Snow White and devoted more attention to her depiction. The animators found that she "was more real and complex as a woman, more erotic, and driven to desperate acts by her magic mirror." Particulat attention was payed to her "lovely cruel mouth and eyes", and to her graceful movements.
[June 2008] Ranked #1 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Animation".
At the beginning of the movie when the evil queen is walking toward her mirror you see that the surrounding symbols around the mirror are actually all the different horoscope symbols.
One of only two personally produced Walt Disney feature-length animated films not to carry the screen credit "Walt Disney Presents". Instead, the first credit reads "A Walt Disney Feature Production" (since it was Disney's first feature-length film). The other personally-produced Disney film not to say "Walt Disney Presents" was Fantasia (1940), which, in its roadshow release, contained no written credits at all except for the intermission card, and in its general release, contained only the title "Fantasia" in its opening credits.
Dancer Marge Champion, whose movements as a dancer were rotoscoped to be used as guide for Snow White, married and divorced one of the Disney animators on the film, Art Babbitt. She later married, danced and acted on film and stage with famed choreographer and director Gower Champion.
According to the audio commentary on the 2009 Diamond Edition Blu ray/DVD, Snow White's quote to the doves of "Want to know a secret? Promise not to tell?" would later be used in the Beatles' 1963 song "Do You Want to Know a Secret".
The movie was to start with scenes involving Snow White's mother, but they had to be cut to avoid the wrath of the censor.
The Seven Dwarfs would later appear in a educational short film, The Winged Scourge (1943).
In the original outline for the film, Queen Grimhilde was depicted as wanting to marry the teenage prince herself. Her murderous rage was caused by his rejection of her marriage proposal, and there were scenes revealing that she has killed other princes who crossed her path. These plot lines were eventually rejected.
While trying to settle on a characterization Queen Grimhilde, Walt Disney started envisioning her as a mixture of Lady Macbeth and the Big Bad Wolf. He wanted her to be beautiful, but (in his words) her "beauty is sinister, mature, plenty of curves - she becomes ugly and menacing when scheming."
During the production phase of the film, Grim Natwick and Norm Ferguson were tasked with refining the design and overall visual appearance of Queen Grimhilde and Snow White. For the Queen, they studied the faces of several beauties of the era. Among the ones cited as visual inspiration in various sources were Gale Sondergaard (1899-1985), Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992), Joan Crawford (c. 1904-1977), and Greta Garbo (1905-1990). For the queen's clothes, they mostly used a preserved Medieval statue of Uta von Ballenstedt (c. 1000 -1046), a German aristocrat most famous for her striking visual depiction in the Naumburg Cathedral.
According to BoxOfficeMojo.cm, if adjusted for inflation, it is the 10th highest grossing film of all time in the US, and the highest among films not nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
For Queen Grimhilde's other form as an old hag, the animators had to create new body language and facial expressions. Designer Joe Grant used Lucille La Verne's body language as a visual reference. He claimed that he also took inspiration for her design from one of his female neighbors.
The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list.
Queen Grimhilde was the first major character to ever die in a Disney film, and the screenwriters struggled with how to depict her death. They rejected the death scene in the original story outright, as the original story had Snow White killing her stepmother by using torture. They felt that it would ruin Snow White's image as a good girl.
The Evil Queen character is pictured on one of ten USA nondenominated commemorative postage stamps celebrating "Disney Villains", issued as a pane of 20 stamps on 15 July 2017. The set was issued in a single sheet of 20 stamps. The price of each stamp on day of issue was 49¢. The other villains depicted in this issue are: Honest John (Pinocchio (1940)), Lady Tremaine (Cinderella (1950)), the Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland (1951)), Captain Hook (Peter Pan (1953)), Maleficient (Sleeping Beauty (1959)), Cruella De Ville (One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)), Ursula (The Little Mermaid (1989)), Gaston (Beauty and the Beast (1991)), and Scar (The Lion King (1994)).
"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 30-minute radio adaptation of the Walt Disney version on April 24, 1944 with Billy Gilbert reprising his film role.
Queen Grimhilde's main goal is to remain the fairest woman in the land, and not be replaced by a younger beauty. In the course of the desperate pursuit of this goal, Grimhilde transforms herself into an old and ugly woman, destroying her own beauty rather than that of Snow White.
When the dwarfs first encounter an intruder (ie, Snow White) in their cottage, they hide in the forest and proclaim "Jiminy Crickets!" This of course was one of the main characters in Walt Disney's second full length animated feature, Pinocchio (1940).
Throughout the film. the Queen is clad mostly in black and other "negative" dark colors, providing a visual contrast to Snow White's bright colorful wardrobe. While the Queen covers her hair under a hood for most of the film, her hair is depicted as a "shiny black" when it is removed. She actually shares Snow White's hair color.
Snow White does not once interact with the Prince. This makes her the only Disney Princess who does not talk to her love interest.
Frieda van Hessen, the Dutch singing voice of Snow White, was forced into hiding during WW2, and survived the Holocaust. She wrote a book about her life "Life in the Shadow of the Swastika".
Sterling Holloway, who later appeared in many Walt Disney films, was considered for the role of Sleepy.
Spoonerizing comedian Joe Twerp was earlier considered for the role of Doc, according to the DVD supplementary material. The part went to Roy Atwell instead, but Twerp did perform as the voice of Doc on the radio.
In trying to design Queen Grimhilde's castle, the animators took inspiration by the Alcázar of Segovia, a distinctive castle-palace in Spain.
In the film Snow White is seen wearing tan tights instead of showing her bare legs. In the Disney books Snow White does not wear tights.
The Queen is supposed to be Germanic in origin, but the book of spells she is reading is written in the Italian language.
The film was a particular favorite of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
Walt Disney was inspired to make this the first feature film for the studio based on remembering how he felt when he saw a silent short film version of Snow White when he was young. He wanted to give other children and audiences in general the same sense of wonder.
Despite his name, Sneezy only sneezes four times throughout the movie. (not counting the two that are stifled)
The running gag of Sleepy being bothered by a fly was originally going to culminate in Sleepy trapping the fly in Snow White's now-empty coffin.
Walt Disney paid the animators on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs $5 for any gag that made it into the final version of the movie.
The design of the character Queen Grimhilde is credited to Walt Disney and Joe Grant, while the one responsible for animating the character was Art Babbit.
Susanna Foster and Betty Jaynes auditioned for the voice of Snow White.
This film was selected into the National Film Registry in 1989 (the first year of inductions) for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The only Disney animated feature film until The Sword in the Stone (1963) to be released in December and the only one until Fantasia 2000 (1999) to be released on December 17th.
It is very possible Dopey is actually 'adopted' in the film. The other dwarfs are noticeably much older than Dopey and he is also implied to be much younger than Snow White. So it is most likely Dopey is either from another clan of dwarfs or he could possibly be a young child that looks like a dwarf. As a matter of fact it is likely Dopey is the youngest character in the film.
Dopey was initially considered for "Fantasia" as the apprentice in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". When Snow White wants to inspect his hands, his sleeves are too long and cover them. This visual detail was used for Mickey Mouse in "Fantasia". Another hint is that, when Dopey presents his hands, eight notes are played quickly by the woodwinds. These notes are almost identical to a portion of a phrase in the music of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".
In the original fairy tale transcribed in German by Wilhelm Grimm and Jakob Grimm, the seven characters who were represented by dwarfs in the film were originally monks. It is believed that this change was made to avoid offending either German-speaking or non-Christian movie-goers, neither of which demographic was viewed, at the time, as being able to identify with Christian monks.
The hand-drawn animation that makes up the film would be the dominant form of animation at Walt Disney Animation Studios for every film of theirs from 1937 to 2004, with the only two exceptions being The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Dinosaur (2000) respectively.
The only full-length Disney animated film until The Black Cauldron (1985) to have completed scenes cut prior to release.
A live model was used for animators to help them give Snow White a more realistic look. This worked so well that live models were brought in for animated features from then on. Many even were given costumes and acted out scenes to help with the drawing process.
This film and Star Wars IV A New Hope which was released nearly 40 years later were both thought to be a flop but ironically both films did well in the box office and each became considered the biggest success of Walt Disney and George Lucas respectively. Both films also won Oscars as well.
Even though Snow White is the youngest Disney Princess she is actually the oldest in the Disney franchise by film as she was the original Disney Princess with Cinderella and Aurora not making their debuts until the 1950s.
Queen Grimhildre wears a purple gown and black cloak in her regular form. Following her transformation, she starts using a black robe instead.
In the films 1992 UK re release in Cinemas the film was distributed by Warner Bros. However future from the mid 90s would be fully released through Disney, or its subsidiary company Buena Vista Home Entertainment.
The musical elements that make up the film would eventually become the dominant tradition at Walt Disney Animation Studios for every film of theirs from 1937 to 1998, with only 6 exceptions being Bambi (1942), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Rescuers (1977), The Black Cauldron (1985), The Great Mouse Detective (1986), and The Rescuers Down Under (1990).
The first ever Disney animated feature film, which is as per usual where the score has been done by a recurring composer, in fact Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, and Paul J. Smith became as such starting with this film, later in the future Oliver Wallace and Edward H. Plumb both did so starting with Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942) respectively, Charles Wolcott and Eliot Daniel did the same thing starting with films that were released during the Wartime Era, George Bruns and Buddy Baker also did so starting with Sleeping Beauty (1959) and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) respectively, then Alan Menken and Danny Elfman became recurring composers starting with The Little Mermaid (1989) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) respectively, then Mark Mancina, James Newton Howard, John Debney, and Alan Silvestri did so starting with Tarzan (1999), Dinosaur (2000), The Emperor's New Groove (2000), and Lilo & Stitch (2002) respectively, even Henry Jackman and Christophe Beck did this starting with Winnie the Pooh (2011) and the first two Frozen films respectively, and Alexandre Desplat would eventually become one starting with undisclosed features in the 2020s.
Filmation produced 2 animated sequels; Snow White's Christmas, where she's a blonde and she encounters 7 friendly giants (as opposed to Dwarves), and Happily Ever After, which has the Wicked Queen's brother Lord Maliss kidnap Prince Charming, and this time Snow White has to be the hero and save him; this time with 7 female dwarfs, (one of them played by Joan Rivers!!!)
Grimhilde is from Norse mythology. She was competing for Siegfried's affections with Brunhilde in the Poems of the Elder Edda and Volsung Saga stories.
Before the evil queen even transformed herself into the old hag peddler woman, she does not once interact with Snow White in her true form.
