Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first film produced by the Walt Disney Productions which would later become the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Based on the Germanic fairytale originally published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, it was directed by William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen with David Hand serving as supervising director. It was released on the 21st of December, 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles, California and was the first full feature length animated film produced and released in the United States. It is not, however the first ever as that honor belongs to either Émile Reynaud’s Pauvre Pierrot (1892), Émile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie (1908), or J. Stuart Blackton’s Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906). There has been some debate between these three films due to each film's own animation techniques and what is or is not considered to be such. Pauvre Pierrot's because it was the first film to employ hand painted imagery, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, as it was animated via stop motion and Fantasmagorie as it is the only one to be truly hand drawn and animated by frame.
Walt E. Disney, having founded The Walt Disney Company in October 16, 1923 after his first studio, Laugh-O-Gram Studio went under, was no stranger to being a pioneer in the field of animation. He previously created history with his character of Mortimer "Mickey" Mouse, who debuted in the cartoon short co-directed with his partner Ub Iwerks. Steam Boat Willie. Steam Boat Willie was the first cartoon to not only feature synchronized audio, but to also have a fully post-produced soundtrack as well which made it the most popular cartoon of it's time. After producing several of the Micky Mouse and Silly Symphonies short subject cartoons, Disney intended on making history again by making a fully feature length, cel animated production.
Excited by this never before attempted endeavor, early in the year of 1934 Disney gathered his entire studio staff and reenacted what would later become the basis of the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Later that year in June Disney announced his project to the New York Times, and the Hollywood public at large would begin to refer to this grand project as "Disney's Folly." The Hollywood public at large did not believe in it, often citing inaccurate medical reasoning for people's eyes being able to withstand staring at a cartoon for such a length of time. The initial proposed budget of $250,000, which was roughly about 10 times the usual budget of one of the Mickey Mouse or Silly Symphonies shorts, was also lambasted, as creating such an expensive cartoon was unheard of. The film, however, overall would eventually cost Disney $1,488,422.74, making it one of the most expensive films of it's time. Adjusted for inflation, it would have costed $30,249,608.12 today in 2023, which is only a fraction of the cost of Disney's most recent release of Strange World's, which costed the company an estimated $130 million to $180 million.
During it's production Disney would mortgage his own home as well as take several loans from several different banks to cover the production costs, which made it one of the most financially risky films of it's time, thus perpetuating the disbelief in the film by Hollywood at large. The banks, however, were a little more confident. Joseph Rosenberg, an executive of Bank of America at the time, was screened a rough cut of the film during the latter end of production when Disney needed more money to finish the film. After viewing it, he said to Disney, “Walt, that thing is going to make a hatful of money,” and approved the final loan needed.
The initial story for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs began on On August 9, 1934 through a series of story meetings in which Disney suggested his staff see a variety of films, including obscure European expressionist films, for inspiration. Many of these films would later influence specific scenes or gags, such as Romeo and Juliet (1936) for the funeral scene or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) for the Evil Queen's transformation into the old witch. Staff writer Richard Creedon's initial story notes, later compiled and titled "Snow White Suggestions" would later be the basis of outlying the principle characters as well as principle "gags" and story elements. Overall, during the whole process Creedon as well as Ted Sears, Otto Englander, D*ck Rickard, Earl Hurd, Merrill De Maris, Dorothy Ann Blank and Webb Smith would all be credited as writing the final film. The story itself during that process though would change drastically from draft to draft as well as start the now Disney tradition of simplifying and removing darker elements from the original story in which it was being adapted from.
One of the first story treatments was a more comedic take on the original fairytale with initial storyboards and scripts featuring several jokes and endless series of visual gags. Several early drafts featured a plump, and cartoony version of the Evil Queen, who would animate dancing skeletons and fail her attempts on Snow White's life in comedic fashions. They would also feature a clown like Prince who would be captured by the Queen with an attempted forced marriage between the two. Initial drafts also followed the seven dwarfs, who at the time were all unnamed who also went through several characterization changes, as the main focus of the story. Eventually the story's was later shifted to the relationship of that of Snow White and her step-mother and started to become a more serious adaption due to Disney's own concerns that such a comedic approach wouldn't make for a plausible or worthwhile film.
The titular dwarfs went through several changes during the preproduction and story process. During the initial writing processes it was suggested that the previously unnamed dwarfs would receive their own distinct personalities and names as neither was given in the original Grimm tale. There were nearly fifty possible names suggested during the development meetings, including but not limited to Deafy, Dizzey, Hickey, Wheezy, Baldy, Gabby, Nifty, Sniffy, Swift, Lazy, Puffy, Stuffy, Tubby, Shorty, and Burpy. Eventually, during all the story meetings, the names and personalities of Doc, Grumpy, Bashful, Sleepy, and Happy were finalized and developed with the final two being named Jumpy and "Seventh." The latter two would eventually become Sneezy and Dopey, respectively, during the end of the story development process.
Several story elements of the original Grimm fairytale were altered. Some of the major changes include Snow White's initial prologue providing her childhood of abuse by her step-mother, as well as her mother's death after the princess' birth, in which she pricks her finger on a needle to wish her daughter to grow up to be beautiful with skin as white as snow, lips as red as rubies, and hair as black as ebony. This would later explain why she is the "fairest in the land." Snow White's age in the original tale is defined as being of seven years old. The Disney film would later change this to fourteen as it was felt that she would be more relatable.
The Queen's attempted cannibalism was also dropped from the adaption, as she eats the heart of the boar in the original tale, which she is told to be Snow Whites, brought to her by her Huntsman as well as the lungs and liver. The attempts on Snow White's life were also altered, as in the original story it is initially a poisoned bodice and a poisoned comb offered to Snow White before the poisoned apple. All of which were thwarted by the dwarfs who came home and to Snow White's rescue just in time, aside from the final attempt with the positioned apple. The only reason the final attempt was successful was because a piece of the poisoned apple would lodge itself in Snow White's throat before the dwarfs could reach her in time.
The original ending is also drastically changed for many obvious reasons. The Prince who would later wake the sleeping Snow White had never met her prior, in the original tale. He instead randomly finds the glass cased coffin in the woods that was fashioned by the dwarfs and offers them whatever they want for the dead girl. After this, while his servants are moving the coffin the apple comes dislodged and she wakes. He immediately declares his love for the seven year old Snow White, and proposes to her. Her step-mother is then later invited to the wedding, in which she is forced to wear iron slippers fresh from the fire and then forced to dance until she drops dead.
Once the main story was settled, Disney would gather his lead animators and directors and start production on the film. This film would establish Disney's core animators, Les Clark, Marc Davis, Oliver "Ollie" Johnston, Frank Thomas, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimble, Eric Larson, John Lounsbery and Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman who would all later come to be known as the Nine Old Men. Unlike modern Disney animated productions, each animator was in charge of animated sequences instead of specific characters. Each was assigned these different scenes based on their animation strengths. Disney also encouraged his animators to contribute to the overall story by offering five dollars, or the equivalent of over 101 dollars in 2023, for every "gag" that would make it into the final film.
During the animation, Arthur "Art" Babbitt one of Disney's animators at the time, began to hold "classes," starting with roughly seven other animators in his home in the Hollywood Hills. He would hire a model and they would all draw and sketch the model in attempts to hone their still to animate human anatomy, as it was a concern that the animators could not realistically animate the human form. The weekly held classes would grow and would later come to be known by Disney himself and he would offer Babbitt studio space, supplies and to hire the models himself. Babbitt continued to lead the classes until Don Graham, an instructor at the Chouinard Institute was hired to take lead. These classes, though described as "a brutal battle" between the animators, proved to be beneficial as many of the inhouse animators had no formal training, and may of whom were newspaper cartoonists prior.
Live action footage of actors portraying Snow White, the Prince and the Evil Queen were also shot as reference for the actors to animate the characters in a realistic manner. Though it was preferred not to, some scenes, however, with the Prince and Snow White together was animated using the process of rotoscope. This process is where the scene is animated with the footage of the actors being traced over to follow the actor's movements as apposed to it being freely drawn and animated.
During the ink and coloring process, it was proving to be a difficult task of realistically coloring Snow White and the Evil Queen's faces. Helen Ogger, who was one of the "ink and paint girls" as well as a animator discovered a method using a small piece of cotton wrapped around a tipple pencil to paint each individual cel. It was a time consuming process that was used on a lesser scale in the future Disney productions of Pinocchio and Fantasia until Ogger left the studio, as no one else had the skills required to do it.
During the transition of the dwarfs becoming not the main focus of the film, several planned gag sequences were cut. Some of these sequences were already partially animated before their removal from the film. There was a scene in which the dwarfs build a bed as a gift to Snow White, as well as another scene where the dwarfs sing and drink soup that she prepared for them. Both scenes were to be animated by Kimbal, one of the aforementioned lead animators, which prompted him to almost walk from the film and the Disney Animation Studio entirely. Disney was able to persuade and retain Kimbal by promoting him to supervising animator of Jiminy Cricket in the next planned feature, Pinocchio, which later released in 1940.
Though no one animator was truly in charge of a single character, Grim Natwick who was hired during this time, was tasked almost exclusively to animate Snow White. Natwick had previously designed Betty Boop for Fletcher studios and had already proven himself as a capable animator of the female form. Snow White's original depiction was very much so a caricature of the female form and heavily resembled elements of Natwick's Betty Boop. However, as the film's style became more serious, she too became more realistic. One of her earlier conceptual designs had her as a blonde instead of her signature brunette hair.
Marge Champion portrayed Snow White's live action reference model and would later go on to perform for other live-action reference footage reference for other subsequent Disney films. During her filming, Champion was originally made to wear a football helmet under direction of Hamilton Luske to make her head appear larger for the animators to reference. This lasted all but five minutes as she found the helmet to be to difficult to perform with. Snow White has since gone on to be reimagined and used in various other Disney related projects including the ABC series Once Upon a Time, and Disney's original film series, Decedents.
Adriana Caselotti was cast as the voice of Snow White, and was a relative unknown and did not have many credits to her name before or after. She was the first female voiceover artist to be inducted as a Disney Legend in 1994. Snow White would later be voiced by several other actresses in other Disney projects. These actresses include Jane Powell, Ilene Woods (who also voiced Cinderella), Dorothy Warenskjold, June Foray (who also voiced Lucifer in Cinderella), Mary Kay Bergman, Carolyn Gardner, Melissa Disney, Katie Von Til, and most recently by Pamela Ribon in Ralph Breaks the Internet. There was some controversy in this, however. Although Caselotti was the go-to voice for Disney until her death in 1997, she would often be replaced by one of the other previously mentioned actresses for a variety of reasons. One of which was Bergman, who was hired in 1990 by Disney to voice Snow White when Caselotti was unavailable, was unaware she was unofficially replacing Caselotti. This remained unknown until Caselotti heard the voice of Bergman coming from Snow White during an award for best animated short subject after having previously recording the exact same lines for this presentation. This caused the Disney company many complaints, to which Jeffrey Katzenberg had to apologize publicly to Caselotti, and Berman was not allowed to publicly or professionally claim voicing Snow White until after Caselotti's death.
The design of the Evil Queen was inspired by several different women from contemporary films. One example is Helen Gahagan from the 1935 film She, as well as Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and Gale Sondergaard. It is also thought that a statue of Uta von Ballenstedt outside the Naumburg Cathedral may have influenced her costume designs as there are many striking similarities. Lucille La Verne was cast as the Evil Queen/Old Hag in an uncredited role for her final film performance before her passing in 1937. The Evil Queen and her alter ego of the Hag has since been voiced by Eleanor Audley, June Foray Janet Waldo, Eda Reiss Merin, Louise Chamis, Susanne Blakeslee (Who has voiced other Disney villainesses), and most recently by Tress MacNeille as the Old Hag for The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse. The Queen's name according to original scripts was Grimhilde. It is, however, never mentioned in the film or any subsequent media as all later depictions would only refer to her as "The Evil Queen."
Though designing the dwarfs was relatively easy for the animators, as thy were given much more freedom than with the human characters, they found it hard to realistically animated them alongside their realistic counterparts. Perce Pierce, one of the storymen, was one of the more active members in their development. Armatures were constructed for each of the Seven dwarfs to give reference for the animators. Animator Vladimir Tytla suggested that the dwarfs should swing their hips while the moved, while animator Fred Moore suggested that they should move quicker than their Human compatriots to keep up with their movements. Maquettes and armature statues were constructed as reference material for each dwarfs to ensure consistency between all the animators.
Doc was not originally slated in the 1935 story outlines, but would be added later as the dwarfs themselves were finalized. Disney himself said that Doc's flustered personality should be such that he never quite knew where he is without one of his fellow dwarfs reminding him. Radio Comedian Roy Atwell, who used stammering in his act as well as specializing in mix-up language was cast as the original voice for Doc. He has since been voiced by Stan Freberg, Pinto Colvig, Jim Cummings, André Sogliuzzo, and Bill Farmer. Colvig, who voiced Doc in 1941's 7 Wise Dwarfs, an educational short produced by Disney to lean about war bonds during WWII, was originally cast in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as Grumpy, Sleepy and the hiccupping Dopey. Grumpy has subsequently been voiced by Hal Smith, Corey Burton and Maurice LaMarche. Sleepy has also been voiced by Smith, Farmer and Stephen Stanton.
Otis Harlan was originally cast to voice the dwarf Happy. Happy, ironically was originally going to be depicted as a comically tragic character in some earlier drafts before being developed into his now well known happy-go-lucky personality. Happy has since been voiced by Freberg, Kevin Schon, Stephen Stanton, and Kevin Michael Richardson. Scotty Mattraw was originally cast to voice Bashful and has since been voiced by Freberg, Jeff Bennett, Billy West, Paul Rudish and Tony Galla. Sneezy was originally voiced by Billy Gilbert with additional voice work by Jimmy MacDonald. Later he would be voiced in other projects by Freberg, Will Ryan, Bob Joles and Scott Menville.
Until very late in the stages of pre-production, Dopey was just called "the Seventh," and unlike the other dwarfs, his personality was not finalized until very late in production. His movements were inspired by comedian Eddie Collins, who himself was filmed performing actions as reference material for the character. Mel Blac was originally cast to voice Dopey until it was decided he would be mute to not overload the audience with characters. Though mute, MacDonald would provide some voice work. Dopey would later be voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, Russi Taylor, Frank Welker and Andrew Laing in various later Disney projects.
The Prince was found to be the most difficult to animate of all the characters in the film. Due to this, his role in the film was severely cut, only appearing in two scenes to bookend the film. In earlier drafts, the Prince was meant to be locked in the dungeons and would attempt to escape from the Queen's castle in a similar style of Errol Flynn with woodland creatures guiding his horse to Snow White in the end. All of this was abandoned when Snow White and the Evil Queen's relationship took to the story's main focus. In the comic adaptation released to promote the film would later include these scenes, as well as the Queen telling him she will win his affections. Another sequence dropped form it's original conception was during the "Someday My Prince Will Come" depicted Snow White and the Prince dancing in clouds among star-like creatures. This idea would later be re-conceptualized and repurposed for Sleeping Beauty. Henry Stockwell was cast to voice him in the film. Jerry Hitman, James Arnold Taylor and Michel Musso would later voice him in subsequent projects.
Wollie Reitherman was tasked with animated the sequences with the Mirror, which he found to be quite difficult, as he preferred expressively comedic characters such as Goofy. Ritherman animated the mirror nine separate times before he and Disney were satisfied with the finish product. To achieve the Mirror's animation Ritherman would only animate half of the mirror's face, then flip the image and trace it on another sheet of paper to achieve the symmetrical look. This effort to keep the face completely symmetrical is almost lost on film due to the smoke and other additional effects placed upon the mirror. The mirror was voiced originally by Moroni Olsen with subsequent voice work done by John Hiestand, Charles Hall, Tony Jay, Patrick Stewart and Corey Burton.
Stuart Buchanan was cast to voice the Huntsman. Marion Darlington and Purv Pullen were cast to provide the whistles of the birds. Last but not least, Jimmy MacDonald provided any of the additional voice work, including the yodeling in "The Silly Song."
Frank Churchill and Larry Morey composed all the musical numbers as well as much of the score of the film with Paul J. Smith and Leigh Harline composing some of the incidental music score tracks. The Disney Company at the time did not have it's own in house music publishing company, so the score and soundtrack was published through Bourne Co. Music Publishers. Bourne Co. would go on to publish many of the subsequent Disney film soundtracks and scores putting them in ownership of the distribution rights. Bourne Co. would eventually sell back the publishing rights to all Disney films they produced except Snow White. To this day they still retain the publishing rights to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The album Songs from Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (with the Same Characters and Sound Effects as in the Film of That Title) was released in January of 1938 and was the first commercially issued soundtrack album. It has since been remastered and re-released several times after with the most recently being released in 2006 featuring 26 score and musical tracks. It has yet to receive a Legacy Collection remaster release, more than likely due to the fact that the publishing rights are still being owned by another company. The original album also released two songs not originally in the film, "Music in Your Soup," meant to accompany the aforementioned removed soup eating scene and "You're Never Too Old to Be Young," which was replaced by "The Silly Song" in the final film. A collection of three single albums were produced featuring the tiles "With a Smile and a Song," "Dig-a-Dig Dig/Heigh Ho," "I'm Wishing/One Song," "Whistle While You Work," "Dwarfs' Yodel Song," and "Some Day My Prince Will Come." Each single became a top 10 hit in February 1938 following their release.
The single "Some Day My Prince Will Come" has since become considered a standard of jazz missions after it's release. It has been covered and performed by many well known artists including Buddy Rich, Oliver Jones, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Melody Gardot, Barbra Streisand, Anastacia, Ashley Tisdale, Drew Seeley, The Cheetah Girls and Tiffany Thorton. It also been the titular song for albums by Miles Davis (1961), Wynton Kelly (1961), and Alexis Cole (2009). It has been ranked as the 19th greatest film song of all time by the American Film Institute .
When the film finally premiered, it was met with a standing ovation as well as high critical and commercial praise. After it's initial premier it was released by RKO Radio Productions to the general public on February 4, 1938. It earned $4.2 million upon it's initial release and became the most successful film of all time until Gone with the Wind in 1939. It then released internationally in September of 1938, earning an additional reported $7,846,000 by the end of it's original theatrical run. There had since been several theatrical re-releases of the film, as was the industry practice at the time, in 1944, 1952, 1958, 1967, 1975, 1983, 1987 and finally in 1993. These re-releases have earned a lifetime gross of $418 million adjusted for inflation, which making it one of the top 10 highest grossing films of all time, and the highest grossing animated film of all time.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was nominated for Best Original Score at the 10th Annual Academy Awards, but lost to One Hundred Men and a Girl produced by Universal Studios. The following year at the 11th Annual Academy Awards Walt Disney was given an Academy Honorary Award for "significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field." The award itself is a uniquely designed full-sized Oscar statue followed by seven smaller replica Oscars and was presented to Walt Disney by Sherly Temple. The American Film Institute has named it the number one animated film of all time, and the number 49th (later updated to 34th for their anniversary listing) greatest film of all time. Snow White herself has also been inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987 on the 50th anniversary of the film's release. She is the first fictional female character to receive this honor, and the third fictional character overall, only behind Mickey Mouse and Buggs Bunny, respectively.
Due to the Disney Company's initial strict policies on theatrical and home releases following the invention of VHS and Betamax in the 1970s, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was originally one of the Disney films considered to never be released for home viewing, thus leading to the creation of "The Disney Vault." As time went on and home releases were beginning to be considered more profitable than theatrical re-releases. It was finally released for home viewing on October 28, 1994 on VHS and Laserdisc kicking off the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. This release has since reported selling over 25.1 million copies and over $430 million in sales. It would once again be released October 9, 2001 on DVD and for the last time on VHS, once again as the flagship release for the Platinum Collection. It released for the first time on Blu-ray and for a final time on DVD in October 6, 2009, once again starting a new collection of home releases, The Diamond Edition series. It has most recently once again being the flagship release for the Signature collection of Blu-ray disc and digital copies on February 2, 2016. Due to the subsequent home re-releases, and continues to be one of the highest grossing films for the Disney Company to date.
The film had also been adapted for a Broadway style musical in 1969 by Joe Cook with additional original songs written by Jay Blackton and Cooke who both also worked on the original film's music. The musical originally opened at The Muny in St. Louis, Missouri and was repeated there again in 1972. It would be later revived for Radio City Music Hall on October 18, 1979. It closed after 38 performances for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. It would later go on tour from January 11, 1980 until March 9, 1980 with a total of 106 performances during it's tour. A VHS and Betamax recording of the musical was released in 1981.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has become one of the most recognizable and merchandisable Disney properties. It's characters and logo has since been seen on a variety of products including dolls, collectable figures, board games, apparel and more earning well over $100s of millions for the company. A Game Boy Color video game adaption was released in 2001, and Snow White appeared in Kingdom Hearts for the PlayStation 2. The Dwarf Woodlands also appeared in the PSP spinoff title Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.
Since the opening of Disneyland, Snow White has had a presence in some form in every Disney Park constructed to date. Additionally Snow White and all seven dwarfs have been staples as walk around characters since opening day. The costumes originally used for opening day were repurposed costumes once used for Ice Capade performances to cut costs of building completely new costumes. These costumes were hastily brought in and were worse for wear, falling apart and looking quite nightmarish in some cases. Thankfully appearances since used newer and original costumes being updated every few years to keep up with the ever changing technologies and costume designs. It is also notable that some of the dwarf's costume colors represented by the walk around characters do not reflect their film accurate characters. This was done to provide the characters with some diversity in coloring so that they did not appear flatly colored against each other.
Snow White and Her Adventures was one of the original dark rides in Fantasyland open when Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, designed by Claude Coats and Ken Anderson both of whom were part of the film's original design team. The original ride featured ride vehicles appearing as hand-carved benches designed to look like the dwarfs' furniture. These would later be replaced in the 60's to the four person carts that they are today. Unlike the other dark rides operating at Disneyland during the opening days, the ride did not feature nearly as many elements from the film for the rider to experience. Many complaints were filed as many guests were confused why Snow White did not appear in her own ride. It was never stated, but implied like many of the dark rides that first opened with Disneyland, that the rider was meant to take on the role of the protagonist. There were also complaints about how scary the ride was for younger children. This eventually prompted minor fixes, such as the inclusion of a Snow White figure as well as some of the scarier elements toned down.
The ride would stay that way until 1983 until the Fantasyland portion of the Disney Land Park was shut down for renovation. It was then renamed as "Snow White's Scary Adventure" to emphasize the scarier elements that still resided within the ride. The ride now offered a narrative with many new show scenes from the film as well as many newer figures of the film's characters and a lighter tone breaking up some of the more scarier elements from the previous incarnation. It would be once again updated in 2021 and renamed to "Snow White's Enchanted Wish," once again toning down the scarier elements, and giving a more satisfying ending to the ride's narrative and offering a more balanced experience with updated figures and show scenes. Some version of this ride has been present in nearly every Disney Park in some capacity. The Magic Kingdom's version, however, has been closed and demolished in favor of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train rollercoaster in it's reconstructed Fantasyland.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is one of the few earlier Disney Princess films not to have a sequel or a prequel film dedicated to it. A computer-animated prequel produced by DisneyToon Studios simply called The Seven Dwarfs was once in production. It was originally pitched by Director Mike Disa and screenwriter Evan Spiliotopoulos about the origins of how all the dwarfs meet. It was also to show how the Evil Queen took the throne, with Dopey witnessing the Good King's death, thus resulting in his loss of voice. John Lasseter would cancel the project after becoming the new Chief Creative Officer when Disney officially purchased Pixar in 2006.
A different prequel cartoon focusing on the titular dwarfs, The 7D, did however, get produced and premiered on Disney XD in 2014. It lasted for 2 seasons with 44 episodes containing two story segments each and focused on a re-imagined version of the seven dwarfs and their adventures prior to the film's events. The show starred a variety of well known voice actors, most of whom previously worked for Disney in one project or another as well as celebrity guest voices for various minor or reoccurring characters. It aired during the Disney Junior block of programming and later aired on the Disney Junior channel itself in 2015.
In October of 2016, a live-action adaptation was announced, following suite with the other classic Walt Disney Animation films being adapted similarly. Erin Cressida Wilson wrote the initial script with Greta Gerwig doing the rewrites. Mark Webb has taken the to the director's seat with Benj Pasek and Justin Paul writing new songs for this new film. Filming was originally meant to take place during 2020, but due to the outbreak of COVID-19 the production was pushed back. June 22, 2021 Rachel Zegler's casting as Snow White was announced with Gal Gadot's casting as the Evil Queen finalized November of that same year. Andrew Burnap was then later announced as being cast as new character Jonothan in January of 2022. Martin Klebba was also cast as Grumpy with Dujonna Grit in an unnamed role. The film has not even come out and already sparked controversy. Peter Dinklage criticized Disney for the continue use of dwarfs in light of the celebration of casting a Latina actress as Snow White. In response to his comments, Disney stated they wish to avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film and removed the dwarfs form the film entirely, changing them now to "unspecified magical beings." The upcoming film has now been retitled to just simply "Snow White." It is unknown if Klebba and Dujonna are still attached to the film as of writing this. Aside from the other principle cast, the only other listed performers are background dancers.
Overall, in my opinion, while one of the most important animated features ever produced, I personally find many of the film's elements outdated and uneventful. The story to me has always felt very bare boned, and Snow White unremarkable and boring as well as and especially so the Prince. With that being said, however, the music I have always found very entertaining and a signature of classical Disney musicals. Saying that though I will once again admit that I find some of the tracks to be rather forgettable as I am often surprised as to how many musical numbers there actually are. I only ever remember three, which is nearly half of what are actually in the film. "Some Day My Prince Will Come," and "High-ho" will always remain iconic Disney tunes and some of the greatest Disney songs, in my opinion.
The dwarfs are the most entertaining aspect of the film. Their segments are the most visually appealing and the virtually the only entertaining parts of the film. I feel as though they truly could have starred in their own spinoff cartoon segments much in the vein of the Silly Symphonies or "Starring Micky" cartoons of the era. Though I have not seen the re-imagined spinoff, I don't feel they could have done the original character's justice as those characters are iconic as is. Part of me is curious as where the canceled computer-animated project could have gone, though I am skeptical I would be satisfied with those depiction either. Dopey has been a personal favorite of mine for many years. His physical comedy has always been a particular draw for me as I had always found myself attracted to sillier and zany comedic relief type characters.
The Evil Queen is absolutely iconic. Nothing much beyond that needs to be said. Her very existence has spawned an entire film archetype that is still being emulated and explored in film today. I was never much a fan of the villains when I was a child, but as I have grown older I have come to appreciate the villains, especially in Disney films, exceptionally so. The way she relishes in her evil is so entertaining and the way she commands each scene is an absolute delight. I know I just said previously that the only the scenes containing the dwarfs are the only visually stunning, I take that back. The Queen's transformation into her disguise as the Old Hag is incredibly animated and a visual feat within itself. While not one of my more favorited Disney Villains, she does remain to be one of the major draws to this film.
Though this one remains quite low on my Disney Animated tier list, I do find it is a worthwhile watch for any film buff and especially so for an animation enthusiast as it is one of those films that completely broke the mold and changed the way people looked at film.
