Posted on December 21, 2015
A classic tale of love found, lost, and found again...
Of evil-queen-turns-witch...
Of true love's kiss and happily ever after!Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is one of the first and best of its kind. As a matter of fact, it is THE first full-length cel animated film, and Walt Disney's first full-length film.
It's been awarded and applauded, lauded and loved, re-released and reimagined and spun off into theme park rides, games, a video game, and a Broadway musical.
And it just happens to have been one of my daughter's very favorite things in the whole world, for a few months.
Snow White premiered on this date in 1937.
Did you know...?
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| These are some early ideas for the characters. |
Until Snow White, animated films had been short, and everyone tried to talk Disney out of creating Snow White. Even Disney and Disney! Walt Disney wanted to make the film, but his brother Roy Disney and Walt's wife Lillian Disney tried to convince Walt not to go through with the project. Hollywood types shrugged off “Disney's Folly,” and Walt even had to mortgage his house in order to finish the movie.
The movie cost an enormous amount – 1.5 million dollars!
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| Disney received his special Academy Award from popular child actor Shirley Temple. |
But when the movie premiered, it received a standing ovation from a crowd of stars. Reviewers raved about it, called it art, and recommended it for adults as well as children. The film earned a special Academy Award, and it quickly grossed eight million dollars – an enormous, record-breaking amount at the time!
Over the years, Snow White has made $185 million in theaters alone. When you adjust for inflation, it is the tenth highest-grossing movie of all time!
Of course, way, way, way more money has been made with the video and all the merchandise—the dolls, games, books and coloring books, lunch boxes, Halloween costumes, sheets, figurines, and so much more!
Fun stuff...
- Which of these Snow White characters can you map onto other Disney animated movies?
A princess (or would-be princess)
A handsome (but boring?) prince (or other leading man)
Absent parent(s)
A jealous stepmother (or other jealous female villain)
A comic relief animal (or two or five or...)
Comic relief sidekick(s)
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| "Frozen" is the latest monster hit from Disney! |
Fifty-three feature-length animated movies later, Disney and its subsidiary studios have created a whole lot of masterpieces. Still, to some extent they all owe a huge debt to that first big gamble: Snow White!
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