Studio: Walt Disney Productions
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Produced by: Walt Disney
Short Synopsis
Snow White, an orphaned princess, is forced by her vain stepmother, the Queen, to work as a scullery maid. When the Queen's Magic Mirror declares Snow White the fairest in the land, the Queen orders her huntsman to take the girl into the forest and kill her. He cannot do it, and tells her to run. Lost and terrified in the dark woods, Snow White is befriended by the animals, who lead her to a cottage belonging to seven dwarfs who work in a diamond mine. She cleans the house, and the dwarfs, Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy and Dopey, return to find her and let her stay. The Queen learns from the mirror that Snow White lives, transforms herself into an old peddler woman, and brings her a poisoned apple. Snow White bites it and falls into a sleeping death. The dwarfs chase the witch up a cliff, where lightning strikes and she falls to her death. They lay Snow White in a glass coffin in the forest and keep watch, until the Prince who heard her singing at the start comes and kisses her, breaking the spell.
Why It Matters
- Watch the Queen's transformation into the witch and Snow White's flight through the forest, where the trees turn into grasping, staring shapes. Disney's animators gave each of the seven dwarfs a distinct personality, and Bill Tytla's Grumpy and the silent, eager Dopey are acting performances, not just gags.
- It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in English and in Technicolor, and the first animated feature from an American studio. The industry predicted failure, but it earned more than $8 million worldwide on first release and became the highest-grossing sound film to that date, and it established the animated feature as Disney's core business. Walt Disney received an honorary Academy Award, one full-size statuette and seven miniature ones, and the film was among the first 25 added to the National Film Registry in 1989.
Notes and Trivia
- It premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles; the industry had nicknamed it "Disney's Folly" while it was being made.
- See also: The Goddess of Spring (1934), a practice run for its human animation; Snow-White (1933).