Classic 30s Movie: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”

May is Classic 30s Movie Month. Today’s guest post comes from Will King.

Movie Title: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Year: 1937

Writers: Story adaptation by Ted Sears, Richard Creedon, Otto Englander, Dick Rickard, Earl Hurd, Merrill De Maris, Dorothy Ann Blank, and Webb Smith. Based on the fairy tale by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

Lead Actors: Adriana Caselotti, Lucille La Verne, Pinto Colvig, Billy Gilbert, Roy Atwell, Otis Harlan.

Directors: Supervising director: David Hand; sequence directors: William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, and Ben Sharpsteen

Plot Summary: A vain queen becomes jealous of her step-daughter’s beauty and plots to have her killed, but the princess escapes to find refuge with a band of dwarfs in a nearby forest. When the queen discovers the princess is still alive, she tries to poison her. The queen is defeated, but the princess lives on under a spell of sleeping death until awakened by the kiss of a prince.

Why I Think This Is A Classic 30s Movie

The 1930s was a decade when much of what we take for granted in motion picture storytelling took hold. While the visual language of film had its roots in prior decades, synchronized sound only became commercially viable in 1927. The addition of sound changed the way stories were scripted, structured and presented.

Similarly, animation as a form of cinematic storytelling was not new. Animators such as Otto Messmer, Paul Terry, Dave and Max Fletcher, Windsor McKay and Walt Disney had been producing animated theatrical shorts for some time.

What changed with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the idea that animation could be the primary reason an audience went to the theater. Dubbed “Disney’s Folly” during production, the successful reception of Snow White by worldwide audiences cemented animation as a viable form of feature-length entertainment.

The success of Snow White had a profound effect on other major studios. Both The Wizard of Oz from MGM and Gulliver’s Travels from the Fleischer Studios were responses to the success of Snow White.

Additionally, Snow White brought about demand for the film soundtrack album. Snow White was the first film to release a soundtrack album for audiences to purchase, something film studios had not considered before.

My Favorite Moment In The Movie

As the dwarfs return home from their day’s work in their mine, they discover a light on in their cottage. They all panic and hide in the surrounding forest underbrush and exclaim in unison, “Jiminy Crickets!” This declaration would become the memorable name of a character in the studio’s next feature film, Pinocchio.

My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie

As the dwarfs discuss how to handle the cottage intruder, each of them is introduced through their speech mannerisms. Doc is particularly fun because he suffers from spoonerisms, which plague him throughout the story.

“Our house! The lit’s light…uh…the light’s lit!”

“Yes, we’ll squeak up…uh, sneak up. C’mon, hen…uh, men.”

Once they enter the house, Doc tells the rest: “Careful, men. Search every cook and nanny. Uh, hook and granny…uh, crooked fan — -uh, search everywhere.”

Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie

One of the most prominent voice actors of the era, Pinto Colvig, provides voices for three of the film’s characters: Sleepy, Grumpy, and Dopey (during the soap bubbles segment). Colvig is best remembered as the defining voice of Disney’s Goofy (1932–1964), along with Pluto and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Over at the competing Fleischer Studios Colvig voiced Gabby in the 1939 animated feature Gulliver’s Travels, and was the original voice of Bozo the Clown (on vinyl recordings before Bozo became an animated character). Colvig’s son, Vance Colvig Jr., would later become the real-life embodiment of Bozo the Clown on KTLA television in Los Angeles beginning in 1959.

Of note is the attention to detail given to the surrounding environment, particularly lighting and shadow effects. When Dopey goes to investigate the bedroom upstairs, he first thrusts his candlestick into the room through the barely-open door. Later, the entire group, lead by Doc, also timidly enter the upstairs bedroom, and Doc pushes a lantern into the room ahead of them. Both times, notice how the walls and the area behind the door sweep from shadow to light, and how the dwarfs’ bodies are given dimensionality by the interplay of light and shadow cast by Doc’s lantern. This level of detail would only continue for three more films (Pinocchio, Fantasia and Dumbo). By the time Bambi comes on the scene, environmental lighting animation either becomes highly simplified or disappears altogether.

A similar amount of attention to realistic detail was placed on other elements, as well. Fabric motions through air (the Queen’s cape, the folds and hemline of Snow White’s clothing, particularly during dancing), branch and leaf motions from wind in the forest, and the tail motions of the Prince’s horse are all painstakingly detailed.

As the Queen (in her old woman disguise) leaves her castle with the poison apple, a pair of vultures follow her, intimating the harm that threatens to come to Snow White. When the Queen is defeated and falls from the cliff, the vultures slowly descend into the chasm. No character makes any statement about fate or justice — -it is implied visually and left to the audience’s interpretation (an example of “show, don’t tell”).

An innovation of the time, the multi-plane animation camera allowed animators to give a sense of depth to scenes. There were two major designs: horizontal (used primarily at the Fleischer Studios), and vertical, pioneered at Disney. Snow White was the first use of a multi-plane camera in a feature animated film. After the Queen drinks the potion to change her appearance, the world seems to swirl around her (foreground elements moving one direction, background elements the other). This was achieved using the multi-plane camera.

The roster of contributing animators to this film reads like a Who’s Who of American animation. Some of the animators and the later films or characters they would be associated with include:

Shamus Culhane (Popeye, Woody Woodpecker)
Bill Keil (Yogi Bear, The Jetsons, The Flintstones)
Ollie Johnston (Pinocchio, Bambi, Mary Poppins)
Bill Tytla (Pinocchio, Dumbo, Fantasia)
Ward Kimball (Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan)
Art Babbitt (Alice in Wonderland, The Incredible Mr. Limpet)
Al Eugster (Popeye, Felix the Cat, Charlotte’s Web)
Milt Kahl (101 Dalmatians, Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book)
Eric Larson (The Aristocats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Robin Hood)
Dick Lundy (Scooby Doo, Josie and the Pussycats, Fritz the Cat)
George Rowley (Popeye, Bozo the Clown, Space Ghost)
Marvin Woodward (Lady and the Tramp, Crusader Rabbit, Mr. Magoo)
Hugh Fraser (Jonny Quest, Smurfs, Scooby Doo)
Amby Palinode (The Alvin Show, Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies, Coonskin)
Tony Rivera (Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Pink Panther)

Thanks, Will!

To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!

We already have a set of classic 40s movies, 5os movies, 60s Movies, 70s movies, 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 30s movies. And thanks to the GITS community, we’ve got at least 22 movies in the works and hopefully!

Those who I put in bold have already sent me their posts. If you haven’t sent yours to me, please do so as soon as you can!!!

All Quiet on the Western Front — Michael Waters
Bride of Frankenstein — Marija Nielsen
Bringing Up Baby — Melinda Mahaffey
Captain Blood — John Arends
City Girl — Adam Westbrook
Dracula — Sheila Seaclearr
Duck Soup — David Joyner
Gone With The Wind — Mark Twain
Gunga Din — Steve Huerta
It Happened One Night — Joni Brainerd
Make Way for Tomorrow — Susan W
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington — Amber Watt
Rebecca — Katha
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves — Will King
Sabotage — Jeff Xilon
Stagecoach — Thenewlight
The 39 Steps — Felicity Flesher
The Adventures of Robin Hood — Clay Mitchell
The Petrified Forest — supergloss
The Women — Liz Clarke
Topper — Wayne Kline
Trouble in Paradise — Vincenzo

I am still looking for volunteers. If there’s a 30s movie you’d like to write about, please post your suggestion in comments or contact me via email.