Dumbo

Dumbo:
Release date(s): October 23, 1941
Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures
Studio: Walt Disney Productions
Running time: 64 minutes

Director: Ben Sharpsteen

Producer: Walt Disney

Writers: Otto Englander/Joe Grant/Dick Huemer

Based on Dumbo by Helen Aberson

Music: Frank Churchill/Oliver Wallace

Country: United States

Language: English

Background:

Dumbo is a 1941 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures in the Sonovox sound format.

Dumbo, the fourth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a novelty toy ("Roll-a-Book"). The main character is Jumbo Jr., a semi-anthropomorphic elephant who is cruelly nicknamed "Dumbo". He is ridiculed for his big ears, but in fact he is capable of flying by using his ears as wings. Throughout most of the film, his only true friend, aside from his mother, is the mouse, Timothy — a relationship parodying the stereotypical animosity between mice and elephants.

Dumbo was made to recoup the financial losses of Fantasia. It was a deliberate pursuit of simplicity and economy for the Disney studio, and at 64 minutes, it is one of Disney's shortest animated features.

Plot:

While circus animals are being transported, Mrs. Jumbo, one of the elephants, receives her baby from a stork. The baby elephant is quickly taunted by the other elephants because of his large ears, and they nickname him "Dumbo".

Once the circus is set up, Mrs. Jumbo loses her temper at a group of boys for making fun of her son, so she is locked up and deemed mad. Dumbo is shunned by the other elephants and with no mother to care for him, he is now alone. Timothy Q. Mouse, who feels sympathy for Dumbo and becomes determined to make him happy again, appoints himself as Dumbo's mentor and protector.

The circus director makes Dumbo the top of an elephant pyramid stunt, but Dumbo trips over his ears and misses his target, injuring the other elephants and bringing down the big top. Dumbo is made a clown as a result, and plays the main role in an act that involves him falling into a vat of pie filling. Despite his newfound popularity and fame, Dumbo hates this job and is now more miserable than ever. To cheer Dumbo up, Timothy takes him to visit his mother. On the way back Dumbo cries and then starts to hiccup, so Timothy takes him for a drink of water from a bucket which, unknown to them, has accidentally had a bottle of champagne knocked into it. As a result, Dumbo and Timothy both become drunk and see hallucinations of pink elephants.

The next morning, Dumbo and Timothy wake up in a tree. Timothy wonders how they got up in the tree, and concludes that Dumbo flew up there using his large ears as wings. With the help of a group of crows, Timothy is able to get Dumbo to fly again, using a psychological trick of a "magic feather" to boost his confidence.

Back at the circus, Dumbo must perform his stunt of jumping from a high building, this time from a much higher platform. On the way down, Dumbo loses the feather; Timothy quickly tells him that the feather was never magical, and that he is still able to fly. Dumbo is able to pull out of the dive and flies around the circus, finally striking back at his tormentors as the stunned audience looks on in amazement.

After this performance, Dumbo becomes a media sensation, Timothy becomes his manager, and Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo are given a private car on the circus train.

Voice Cast:

Dumbo: (Mute)

Edward Brophy: Timothy Q. Mouse

Verna Felton: Mrs. Jumbo, Dumbo's mother/Elephant Matriarch

Herman Bing: The Ringmaster

Margaret Wright: Casey Junior

Sterling Holloway: Mr. Stork

Cliff Edwards: Jim Crow

The Hall Johnson Choir: Crow Chorus

Noreen Gammill: Elephant Catty

Dorothy Scott: Elephant Giddy

Sarah Selby: Elephant Prissy

Malcolm Hutton:  Skinny

John McLeish:  The Narrator

Development:

Dumbo is based upon a children's story written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl that was prepared to demonstrate the prototype of a toy storytelling display device called Roll-A-Book, which was similar in principle to a panorama. It involved only eight drawings and just a few lines of text, and had Red Robin as Dumbo's ally instead of Timothy Mouse.

Dumbo was first brought to the attention of Walt Disney in late 1939 by Disney's head of merchandise licensing Kay Kamen, who showed a prototype of the Roll-A-Book that included Dumbo. Disney immediately grasped its possibilities and heartwarming story and purchased the rights to it.

Originally it was intended to be a short film; however, Disney soon found that the only way to do justice to the book was to make it feature-length. At the time, the Disney Studio was in serious financial trouble due to the war in Europe, which caused Pinocchio and Fantasia to fail at the box office, so Dumbo was intended to be a low-budget feature designed to bring revenue to the studio. Storymen Dick Huemer and Joe Grant were the primary figures in developing the plot. They wrote the script in chapters, much like a book, an unusual way of writing a film script. Regardless of this, very little was changed from the original draft.

Casting:

None of the voice actors for Dumbo received screen credit, much like in Snow White and Pinocchio. Timothy Mouse was voiced by Edward Brophy, a character actor known for portraying gangsters. He has no other known animation voice credits. The pompous matriarch of the elephants was voiced by Verna Felton, who also played the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, and Flora of the Three Good Fairies in Sleeping Beauty. Other voice actors include the perennial Sterling Holloway in a cameo role as Mr. Stork, Cliff Edwards, better known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket, as Jim Crow, the leader of the crows, and John McLeish, best known for narrating the Goofy "How To" cartoons, providing the opening narration.

Animation:

When the film went into production in early 1941, supervising director Ben Sharpsteen was given orders to keep the film simple and inexpensive. As a result, Dumbo lacks the lavish detail of the previous three Disney animated features (Fantasia, Pinocchio, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs): character designs are simpler, background paintings are less detailed, and a number of held cels (or frames) were used in the character animation. Although the film is more "cartoony" than previous Disney films the animators brought elephants and other animals into the studio to study their movement.

Watercolor paint was used to render the backgrounds. Dumbo and Snow White are the only two classic Disney features to use the technique, which was regularly employed for the various Disney cartoon shorts. The other Disney features used oil paint and gouache. 2002's Lilo & Stitch, which drew influences from Dumbo, also made use of watercolor backgrounds.

Distribution:

Completed in fall 1941, Disney's distributor RKO Radio Pictures initially balked at the film's 64-minute length and wanted Disney to either make it longer, edit it down to a short subject length, or allow them to release it as a B-movie. Disney refused all three options, and RKO reluctantly issued Dumbo, unaltered, as an A-film.

Songs and Performers:

"Baby Mine" (Betty Noyes)

"Casey Junior" (The Sportsmen)

"Look Out for Mr. Stork" (The Sportsmen)

"Song of the Roustabouts" (The King's Men)

"The Clown Song" (A.K.A."We're gonna hit the big boss for a raise") (Billy Bletcher, Eddie Holden and Billy Sheets)

"Pink Elephants on Parade" (The Sportsmen) (preceded by two minutes of music on soundtrack version)

"When I See an Elephant Fly" (Cliff Edwards and the Hall Johnson Choir)

"When I See an Elephant Fly" (Reprise)

On Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic, "Pink Elephants on Parade" is included on the green disc, "Baby Mine" is on the purple disc, and "When I See an Elephant Fly" is on the orange disc. On Disney's Greatest Hits, "Pink Elephants on Parade" is on the red disc.

Awards and nominations:

Dumbo won the 1941 Academy Award for Original Music Score, awarded to musical directors Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace. Churchill and lyricist Ned Washington were also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song for "Baby Mine" (the song that plays during Dumbo's visit to his mother's cell), but did not win for this category. The film also won Best Animation Design at the 1947 Cannes Film Festival.

Allegations of racial stereotyping:

Writer Richard Schickel charged that the crow characters in the film are African-American stereotypes in his 1968 book, The Disney Version. The leader crow, played by Cliff Edwards, was originally named "Jim Crow" for script purposes, and is listed as such in the credits. However, all of other crows are voiced by African-American actors, who were all members of the popular all-black Hall Johnson Choir. Despite suggestions by writers such as Schickel who have criticized the portrayal as racist, others reject these claims. Defenders note that the crows form the majority of the characters in the movie who are sympathetic to Dumbo's plight, that they are free spirits who bow to no one, and that they are intelligent characters aware of the power of self-confidence, unlike the Stepin Fetchit stereotype common in the previous decade. Furthermore, the crows' song "When I See An Elephant Fly", which uses intricate wordplay in the lyrics, is oriented more toward mocking Timothy Mouse than Dumbo's large ears.

Funny Tidbits You Didn’t Know:

 -- During the production of Dumbo, Herbert Sorrell leader of the Screen Cartoonists Guild, demanded Disney sign with his union. Disney declined saying that he would put it to a vote. Sorrel again demanded that Disney sign with his union, but Disney once again refused. On May 29, 1941, shortly after rough animation on Dumbo was complete, much of the Disney studio staff went on strike. A number of strikers are caricatured in the feature as clowns who go to "hit the big boss for a raise". The strike lasted five weeks, and ended the "family" atmosphere and camaraderie at the studio.

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Fantasia

Fantasia:

Release Date: 11/13/1940

Distributed by: Walt Disney Productions/RKO Radio Productions

Studio: Walt Disney Productions

Running Time: 125 minutes

Director: Multiple Directors Per Segment

Producer: Walt Disney

Historical Significance: 

-first animated movie to combine music and animation, originally an experimental film

-third to be produced by Walt Disney

-third in the Walt Disney Animated Classics canon

Background:
Fantasia, a Disney animated feature-length "concert" film milestone, is an experimental film integrating eight magnificent classical musical compositions with enchanting, exhilarating, and imaginative, artistically-choreographed animation. The conceptual framework of the individual pieces embraces such areas as prehistoric times, the four seasons, nature, hell and heaven, the themes of light vs. darkness and chaos vs. order, dancing animals, classical mythology, and legend.

Program:

Introduction - Live-action photography of members of the orchestra gathering and tuning their instruments. Deems Taylor joins the orchestra to introduce the film's program.
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor – Live-action shots of the orchestra illuminated in blue and gold, backed by superimposed shadows. The number segues into abstract animated patterns, lines, shapes and cloud formations.
Nutcracker Suite – A selection of pieces from the ballet depicts the changing of the seasons from summer to autumn to winter, with no plot. A variety of dances are presented with fairies, fish, flowers, mushrooms, and leaves, including "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy," "Chinese Dance," "Dance of the Flutes," "Arabian Dance," "Russian Dance" and "Waltz of the Flowers."
The Sorcerer's Apprentice – Based on Goethe's 1797 poem Der Zauberlehrling. Mickey Mouse, an apprentice of the Sorcerer, Yen Sid, attempts some of his master's magic tricks before knowing how to control them.
The Rite of Spring – A visual history of the earth's beginnings is depicted to selected sections of the ballet, from the planet's formation to the first living creatures, followed by the reign and extinction of the dinosaurs.
Intermission - The musicians depart and the Fantasia title card is revealed. After the intermission there is a brief jam session of jazz music led by the clarinet player as the orchestra members return.
Meet the Soundtrack – A humorously stylized demonstration of how sound is rendered on film. The animated soundtrack, initially a straight white line, changes into different shapes and colors based on the sounds played.
The Pastoral Symphony – A mythical ancient Greek world of centaurs, cupids, fauns and other figures from classical mythology. A gathering for a festival to honor Bacchus, the god of wine, is interrupted by Zeus who creates a storm and throws lightning bolts at the attendees.
Dance of the Hours – A comic ballet featuring Madame Upanova and her ostriches (Morning); Hyacinth Hippo and her servants (Afternoon); Elephanchine and her bubble-blowing elephant troupe (Evening); and Ben Ali Gator and his troop of alligators (Night). The finale sees all the characters dancing together until the palace collapses.
Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria – At midnight the devil Chernabog summons evil spirits and restless souls from their graves. The spirits dance and fly through the air until driven back by the sound of an Angelus bell as night fades into dawn. A chorus is heard singing Ave Maria as a line of robed monks is depicted walking with lighted torches through a forest and into the ruins of a cathedral.

Animation Style and Production:

     From November 1938 to October 1939, artist Oskar Fischinger worked on the film's first segment, the Toccata and Fugue. He was a pioneer in producing abstract animation set to music, but Disney felt his designs were too abstract for a mass audience. Fischinger left the studio in apparent disgust and despair, as he was not used to working in a group and with little control. An Arabian dancer was brought into the studios to study the movements for the goldfish in Arab Dance.
     To obtain ideas for The Rite of Spring, animators studied comets and nebulae at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California and drew portraits of prehistoric animals at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. A herd of iguanas and a baby alligator were brought into the studios for observation. In December 1939, Stravinsky visited the studios to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice, hear Stokowski's arrangement of The Rite of Spring and view the sketches, storyboards and models for the segment. For inspiration on the routines in Dance of the Hours, animators studied real life ballet performers including Marge Champion and Irina Baronova.
     Béla Lugosi, most known for his role in Dracula, was brought in to provide reference poses for Chernabog. As animator Bill Tytla disliked the results, he used colleague Wilfred Jackson to pose shirtless which gave him the images he needed. The Ave Maria sequence was completed and spliced into the film just four hours before its premiere. Over 1,000 artists and technicians were used in the making of Fantasia, which features more than 500 characters.

     This Disney production was an ambitious experiment to try to popularize classical music, especially by accompanying it with animation. Originally, the film was to consist of only The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment, but it was expanded to include the full anthology of shorts. And it was slightly controversial for its depiction of bare-breasted centaurettes in the Pastoral Symphony segment and other stereotypical racial depictions. [Adhering to the Hays Production Code and its strict rules, the figures were garlanded with flower bras for cover-up after swimming topless (still uncensored) in a waterfall and pond (seen from a distance). Also, in later releases of the film, in the Pastoral Symphony segment (again), two black Nubian/zebra centaurs who attend the Bacchus celebration were edited out, along with a female pickaninny centaurette with braided hair named Sunflower who shines the hoof of a white female centaurette. The black centaurette was first abruptly cut from the film and as technology improved, the scene was edited or 'resized' by zooming in on the frames with the character in them so that she was not seen in the shot.]
     Other segments, such as Ride Of The Valkyries, Swan of Tuonela, and Flight of the Bumblebee were storyboarded but never fully animated, and thus were never put into production for inclusion in future Fantasia-style releases.

Awards and Nominations:
     At the 14th Academy Awards in 1942, Disney called Fantasia a mistake. "We all make mistakes. Fantasia was one but it was an honest mistake. I shall now rededicate myself to my old ideals"
     Fantasia ranked fifth at the 1940 National Board of Review Awards in the Top Ten Films category. Disney and Stokowski won a Special Award for the film at the 1940 New York Film Critics Circle Awards. Fantasia was the subject of two Academy Honorary Awards on February 26, 1942 — one for Disney, William Garity, John N. A. Hawkins and the RCA Manufacturing Company for their "outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures through the production of Fantasia," and the other to Stokowski "and his associates for their unique achievement in the creation of a new form of visualized music in Walt Disney's production Fantasia, thereby widening the scope of the motion picture as entertainment and as an art form."
     In 1990, Fantasia was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."The film is featured in three lists that rank the greatest American films as determined by the American Film Institute.

Funny Tidbits You Didn't Know:

- The idea behind Fantasia came out of a chance meeting between Walt Disney and conductor Leopold Stokowski, who suggested to Walt that he produce a feature that would match animated sequences to classical music.
- Composer Igor Stravinsky, whose composition provided the inspiration for the musical segment, "Rite of Spring," was the only living composer whose work was used in Fantasia.
- In the Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence, the name of the sorcerer is Yen Sid, which is Disney, spelled backwards.

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Pinocchio

Pinocchio

Release Date: 2/7/1940

Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures

Studio: Walt Disney Productions

Running Time: 88 minutes

Directors: Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Norman Ferguson, 

T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts

Producer: Walt Disney

Country: United States

Language: English

Historical Significance: 

-Second film by Walt Disney Studios

-Groundbreaking advancements in effect animation

Background:

     Production on Pinocchio started in the middle of 1937, during the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Pinocchio was intended to be the studio's third film, after Bambi. However, Bambi proved to be a challenging film to adapt, so Pinocchio was moved ahead in production while Bambi was put on hold.

     The plan for the original film was considerably different from what was released. Numerous characters and plot points, many of which came from the original novel, were used in early drafts. Producer Walt Disney was displeased with the work that was being done and called a halt to the project midway into production so that the concept could be rethought and the characters redesigned.

Plot Summary:

The plot of the film involves an old wood-carver named Geppetto who carves a wooden puppet named Pinocchio being brought to life by a blue fairy, who tells him he can become a real boy if he proves himself "brave, truthful, and unselfish". Thus begin the puppet's adventures to become a real boy, which involve many encounters with a host of unsavory characters.

Voice Cast:

Pinocchio: Dickie Jones

Jiminy Cricket: Cliff Edwards

Mister Geppetto: Christian Rub

Figaro and Cleo (Mute)

John Worthington Foulfellow: Walter Catlett

Gideon (Mute) Originally Mel Blanc, but he provides the sound of Gideon's hiccups 

Stromboli: Charles Judels

The Blue Fairy: Evelyn Venable

The Coachman: Charles Judels

Lampwick: Frankie Darro

Monstro (Mute)

Alexander: Dickie Jones

Animation Style and Production:

     Originally, Pinocchio was to be depicted as a Charlie McCarthy-esque wise guy, equally as rambunctious and sarcastic as the puppet in the original novel. He looked exactly like a real wooden puppet with, among other things, a long pointed nose, a peaked cap, and bare wooden hands. But Walt found that no one could really sympathize with such a character and so the designer Milt Kahl had to redesign the puppet as much as possible. Eventually, they revised the puppet to make him look more like a real boy, with, among other things, a button nose, a child's Tyrolean hat, and standard cartoon character 4-fingered (or 3 and a thumb) hands with Mickey Mouse-type gloves on them. Milt quoted, "I do not think of him as a puppet, I think of him as a little boy". The only parts of him that still looked more or less like a puppet were his arms and legs. In this film, he is still led astray by deceiving characters, but gradually learns bit by bit, and even exhibits his good heart when he is offered to go to Pleasure Island by saying he needs to go home two times, before Honest John and Gideon pick him up themselves and carry him away.

     Additionally, it was at this stage that the character of the cricket was expanded. Jiminy Cricket became central to the story. Originally the cricket was not even in the film. Once added, he was depicted as an actual (that is, less anthropomorphized) cricket with toothed legs and waving antennae. But again Walt wanted something more likable, so Ward Kimball conjured up "a little man with no ears. That was the only thing about him that was like an insect."

     In order for the animators to see how a character looks in three-dimensions, clay models of the characters, known as maquettes were built during the production of the film. The artists also built working models of Geppetto's cuckoo clocks, as well as Stromboli's gypsy wagon and The Coachman's carriage. However since it is difficult to animate a realistic moving vehicle, the wagons were filmed on a miniature set using stop motion. After the carriages were filmed the staff would create photostats (pictures of every frame of the animation), then "ink and paint" the photostats onto animation cels and overlay the cels with those of the characters on the rostrum camera.

     Pinocchio is a ground breaking achievement in effects animation. Effects animators animate everything that is not the characters or the background. This includes smoke from cigars, shadows, magic, rain, and the ocean - none of which had been attempted to an extreme level of realism until this film. Pinocchio remains to this day the standard film for effects animation.

Awards and Nominations:

    Pinocchio won two Academy Awards, one for Best Original Score and one for Best Original Song for the song "When You Wish upon a Star".

Music:

     The songs in Pinocchio were composed by Leigh Harline and Lyrics by Ned Washington. Leigh Harline and Paul J. Smith composed the incidental music score.

"When You Wish upon a Star" - Jiminy Cricket, Chorus

"Little Wooden Head" - Geppetto

"Give a Little Whistle" - Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio

"Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life for Me)" - J. Worthington Foulfellow

"I've Got No Strings" - Pinocchio

"Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life for Me) (reprise)" - J. Worthington Foulfellow

"When You Wish upon a Star (reprise)" - Jiminy Cricket, Chorus

     The album was described as being "recorded from the original soundtrack of the Walt Disney Production Pinocchio". According to Walt Disney Records, "this is the first time the phrase 'original soundtrack' was used to refer to a commercially available movie recording."

     The original version of "When You Wish upon a Star" was sung by Cliff Edwards in the character of Jiminy Cricket and is heard over the opening credits and again in the final scene of the film. The song has since become the theme song to The Walt Disney Company.

Funny Tidbits You Didn't Know:

- Mel Blanc (most famous for voicing many of the characters in Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons), was hired to perform the voice of Gideon the Cat, who was Foulfellow the Fox's sidekick. However, it was eventually decided for Gideon to be mute (just like Dopey, whose whimsical, Harpo Marx-style persona made him one of Snow White's most comic and popular characters). All of Blanc's recorded dialogue in this film was subsequently deleted, save for a solitary hiccup, which was heard three times in the film.

- Pinocchio was a success in the United States alone, however it had poor box office results internationally. The film budget was a total of almost $2.3 million and Disney recouped only a little more than half of the film's cost. This was due to the fact that the film's release in Europe and Asia was delayed because of World War II and its immediate aftermath, which hindered its financial success initially.

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Release Date: 12/21/1937
Distributed by: RKO Radio Productions
Studio: Walt Disney Productions
Running Time: 83 minutes
Supervising Director: David Hand
Producer: Walt Disney

Historical Significance: 
-first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history
-first animated feature film produced in America
-first produced in full color
-first to be produced by Walt Disney
-first in the Walt Disney Animated Classics canon

Background:

     Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first full-length animated feature in color and with sound, one of Disney's greatest films, and a pioneering classic tale in film history. It was financed due in part to the success of Disney's earlier animated short, The Three Little Pigs (1933). Although dubbed "Disney's Folly" during the three-four year production of the musical animation, Disney realized that he had to expand and alter the format of cartoons.
     It was the first commercially successful film of its kind and a technically brilliant, innovative example of Disney animation. It was the first film with an official soundtrack and the first film to release a motion picture soundtrack album. The story was adapted from the original Brothers Grimms' Fairy Tales, but in a bowdlerized or sanitized version, without overt sexual references or violent content.

Plot Summary:
     The story is a familiar one: raised by a wicked and vain Queen, beautiful Snow White is taken into the forest to be murdered. However, the Huntsman cannot commit the horrible deed, so she flees and finds refuge in the home of seven diamond-mining dwarfs, each with a unique characteristic. When the Queen discovers that Snow White is still alive, she transforms herself into an old hag and brings a poisonous apple to the young girl. A kiss from Prince Charming rouses Snow White from her deep slumber.

Voice Cast:
Snow White: Adriana Caselotti
Queen: Lucille La Verne
Magic Mirror: Moroni Olsen
Doc: Roy Atwell
Happy: Otis Harlan
Bashful: Scotty Mattraw
Sneezy: Billy Gilbert
Sleepy: Pinto Colvig
Grumpy: Pinto Colvig
Dopey (mute)
Prince Charming: Harry Stockwell
Huntsman: Stuart Buchanan

Animation Style and Production:
The risk-taking film made use of the multi-plane camera, the first used in Disney's own animated, Oscar-winning Silly Symphonies short, The Old Mill (1937), to create an illusion of depth. It introduced human characters (the jealous Queen, the Huntsman, the Prince, and Snow White herself) modeled on live actors, and used larger painted cels and drawing boards. It took almost four years and an astronomical (at the time) $1.7 million to create, and was released for its premiere during the Christmas season of 1937.

Awards and Nominations:
Its single nomination was for Best Score. For the film's remarkable achievement, Walt Disney was awarded with an Honorary Oscar - the film was "recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon."

Differences from Fairy Tale:
                  Though Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is similar to the fairy tale version, there are several differences. In the fairy tale, Snow White's mother wishes for a child with "lips as red as blood, hair as dark as the window frame, and skin as white as snow." This does not occur in the film, as Disney's Snow White is shown with only her stepmother, the Queen, and there is no scene of her biological mother.
                  In the fairy tale, Snow White accepts three gifts from the witch (a girdle, a poisoned comb, and the apple), but is rescued from the first two gifts by the dwarfs. When she is offered the apple, she is unwilling to eat it and only accepts after the witch takes a bite of the apple that is not poisoned. However, in the film, Snow White only accepts one gift (the apple) from the witch after she helps the witch inside the dwarfs' house (some of the woodland birds attacked the witch as a warning, which was misinterpreted by Snow White). She bites the apple after being told that the apple is magical and that one bite will make all of her dreams come true (namely marrying the Prince).
                  In the fairy tale, Snow White is not awakened by the prince's kiss. Instead, the prince buys the coffin and Snow White's body from the dwarfs and has it carried with him towards his castle. During the journey, a piece of apple in Snow White's throat becomes dislodged and she awakens.
                  Lastly, in the fairy tale, Snow White faces her stepmother one final time after eating the poisoned apple. The stepmother attends the wedding of Snow White and the prince, but she is stopped from causing further harm by being forced to wear hot iron shoes to her death. In the film, the stepmother (as the witch) is chased up to the top of a mountain by the dwarfs after giving Snow White the poisoned apple: when she tries to dislodge a boulder onto the dwarfs to kill them, lightning strikes the edge she is standing on and she falls to her death, along with the boulder falling and presumably crushing her.

Music:
     The songs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were composed by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey. Paul J. Smith and Leigh Harline composed the incidental music score. Well-known songs from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs include "Heigh-Ho," "Some Day My Prince Will Come," and "Whistle While You Work." Because Disney did not have its own music publishing company at this time, the publishing rights for the music and songs were administered through the Bourne Co., which continues to hold these rights. In later years, the studio was able to acquire back the rights to the music from many of the other films, but not Snow White. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became the first American film to have a soundtrack album released in conjunction with the feature film. Prior to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a movie soundtrack recording was unheard of and of little value to a movie studio.

Funny Tidbits You Didn't Know:

-The dwarfs names were chosen from a pool of about fifty potentials, some of which included Jumpy, Deafy, Dizzey, Hickey, Wheezy, Baldy, Gabby, Nifty, Sniffy, Swift, Lazy, Puffy, Stuffy, Tubby, Shorty and Burpy.

-The famous forest scene was one of the scariest scenes ever created by Disney. When the movie was released back in 1937, children were afraid to watch this scene because of the scary eyes that appear towards the end, and because it all seems real. That's why in England, the film got a G-Rating, but it said that younger children should be accompanied by an adult due to some intense and scary scenes.

Movie Links:
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