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N0KFQ > TODAY 04.02.16 16:43l 73 Lines 3575 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Feb 4
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Sent: 160204/1536Z 83790@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1938
Disney releases Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
"See for yourself what the genius of Walt Disney has created in
his first full length feature production," proclaimed the
original trailer for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released on
this day in 1938.
Based on the famous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, Snow White
opened with the Wicked Queen asking her magic mirror the question
"Who is the fairest one of all?" The mirror gives its fateful
answer: Snow White, the queen's young stepdaughter. Ordered by
the queen to kill the young princess, a sympathetic woodsman
instead urges Snow White to hide in the forest; there she
encounters a host of friendly animals, who lead her to a cottage
inhabited by the Seven Dwarfs: Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Sneezy,
Grumpy, Bashful and Happy. Eventually, in the classic happy
ending viewers would come to expect as a Disney trademark, love
conquers all as the dwarfs defeat the villainous queen and Snow
White finds love with a handsome prince.
Walt Disney's decision to make Snow White, which was the first
animated feature to be produced in English and in Technicolor,
flew in the face of the popular wisdom at the time. Naysayers,
including his wife Lillian, warned him that audiences, especially
adults, wouldn't sit through a feature-length cartoon fantasy
about dwarfs. But Disney put his future on the line, borrowing
most of the $1.5 million that he used to make the film. Snow
White premiered in Hollywood on December 21, 1937, earning a
standing ovation from the star-studded crowd. When it was
released to the public the following February, the film quickly
grossed $8 million, a staggering sum during the Great Depression
and the most made by any film up to that time.
Critics were virtually unanimous in their admiration for Snow
White. Charlie Chaplin, who attended the Hollywood premiere, told
the Los Angeles Times that the film "even surpassed our high
expectations. In Dwarf Dopey, Disney has created one of the
greatest comedians of all time." The movie's innovative use of
story, color, animation, sound, direction and background, among
other elements, later inspired directors like Federico Fellini
and Orson Welles. In fact, Welles' Citizen Kane features an
opening shot of a castle at night with one lighted window that is
strikingly similar to the first shot of the Wicked Queen's castle
in Snow White.
Disney won an honorary Academy Award for his pioneering
achievement, while the music for the film, featuring Snow White's
famous ballad, "Some Day My Prince Will Come" and other songs by
Frank Churchill, Larry Morey, Paul J. Smith and Leigh Harline,
was also nominated for an Oscar. The studio re-released Snow
White for the first time in 1944, during World War II;
thereafter, it was released repeatedly every decade or so, a
pattern that became a tradition for Disney's animated films. For
its 50th anniversary in 1987, Snow White was restored, but
cropped into a wide-screen format, a choice that irked some
critics. Disney released a more complete digital restoration of
the film in 1993. Its power continues to endure: In June 2008,
more than 60 years after its U.S. release, the American Film
Institute chose Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as the No. 1
animated film of all time in its listing of "America's 10
Greatest Films in 10 Classic Genres."
**Sysop note: I was eight years old, living in El Paso Texas, when
this movie was released. My Mother took me to see it. Great experience.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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