Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

(1937)

Walt’s wife, Lillian, said: “No one’s ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture.” His brother, Roy, was against it. And like every other time I’m aware of that people told Walt he was crazy, they were wrong. He thought he could make it for a quarter of a million, and it ended up costing six times that. He mortgaged his own house. But it made more money than any picture until Gone With the Wind (and at much cheaper ticket prices), and is on almost every Top 100 there is, where it is often the only animated film on the list. Sergei Eisenstein said it was the greatest picture of all time. Eisenstein! I can think of only three movies that truly revolutionized cinema: The Birth of a Nation (which was offensive), The Jazz Singer (which was awful), and this one, which is a masterpiece, and endures.
Random thoughts: The names of the dwarfs seem inevitable today, but they considered almost 50 of them, including Jumpy, Deafy, Dizzey, Hickey, Wheezy, Baldy, Gabby, Nifty, Sniffy, Swift, Lazy, Puffy, Stuffy, Tubby, Shorty and Burpy. Names that weren’t considered: Farty, Swishy (the gay dwarf), Boopsie (the girl dwarf), Flopsy, Mopsy, Snotty, Tubby, and George W.
It probably couldn’t be made today. Dopey is obviously retarded. Making fun of the developmentally disabled is a no-no.
Why do Snow White and the Queen have 8 fingers and two thumbs, while all the dwarfs have only 6 fingers? Are they a separate species?
Adrianna Casellotti’s supersonic soprano singing of Snow White’s songs was very much of its time, and is by far the worst thing in watching this movie today. When she warbles “And the birds will siiiiiiiing!” be sure to put the dog out and protect all your crystal and crockery.