Today in History: Disney releases Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
In June 2008, more than 70 years after its US release, the American Film Institute chose Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as the No 1 animated film of all time.
“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.
Walt Disney’s 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, wouldn’t 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 21 December 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 film “even surpassed our high expectations. In Dwarf Dopey, Disney has created one of the greatest comedians of all time”.
The movie’s innovative use of story, colour, animation, sound, direction and background, among other elements, later inspired directors like Federico Fellini and Orson Welles. Disney won an honorary Academy Award for his pioneering achievement, while the music for the film, featuring Snow White’s famous ballad, Some Day My Prince Will Come and other songs by Frank Churchill, Larry Morey, Paul J Smith and Leigh Harline, were also nominated for an Oscar.
The studio re-released Snow White for the first time in 1944, during World War II; thereafter, it was released repeatedly every decade or so, a pattern that became a tradition for Disney’s 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 its listing among “America’s 10 Greatest Films in 10 Classic Genres.”
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