70 Years of "Snow White" and Animated American Movies

Cafe Society
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Today’s new Walt Disney feature National Treasure: Book of Secrets, opens with a new cartoon starring Goofy, a coincidentially fitting way to pay tribute to the anniversary of a project many thought goofy, but ended up starting a revolution.

Although animated films of a larger length than a traditional short were done in Europe and South America as early as 1917, it was on this date in 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles that Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the first American animated feature film, was premiered. Although Walt and his teams had many successes in short films with Mickey Mouse, the Silly Symphonies, and others, at the time, it was unsure if audiences would tolerate a cartoon that was longer than seven minutes. Many mockingly referred to the project as “Disney’s Folly,” and were certain it would fail. But Walt himself- whom it is believed came up with most of the story progression on his own- was not fazed. It ended up becoming a success for the studio, and for better or for worse, animated movies became a true American art form. For the achievement of the first American animated feature, Walt was given an honorary Academy Award- one regular-sized Oscar and seven little ones.

Probably the most memorable aspect given to the story of Snow White by the Disney Studio was the characterizations of the dwarves themselves, each one given a unique personality characterized by their name: Doc (the leader), Dopey, Sleepy, Sneezy, Happy, Bashful, and Grumpy. However, in some alternate universe, perhaps audiences relate to Deafy, Biggo Ego, Snoopy, Dirty, Burpy, Awful, and Sleazy- or any other of a multitude of combinations of rejected dwarf names.

Although mainly Disney was the only studio attempting major animated film releases for many years, starting around the mid-1980s, animated films by other studios became more common, and the advent of computer animation has led to many animated features from studios both big and small. Like it or hate it, Snow White led to a unique cinematic art form that, like it or hate it, has stuck with us all these years. And for that, it deserves to be celebrated.

(Some info in this post taken from Wikipedia and Jerry Beck’s Animated Movie Guide

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[Bolding mine.]

That qualifier is an important distinction, and the only one whereby Disney had any claims.

Eleven years earlier the brilliant feature-length animated film The Adventures of Prince Achmed, directed by Lotte Reiniger (a woman, no less) premiered in Paris.

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Which is why I specifically used the word “American.” I was aware of Prince Achmed, and found out that there are South American animated movies dating back to at least 1917.

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So what? This doesn’t nullify nor clarify anything in the OP.

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Dwarfs. Not Dwarves.

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Well… While PRINCE ACHMED is certainly technically an animated feature length movie, there’s a huge gap between that and SNOW WHITE. ACHMED is moving silhouettes, cut-outs. It’s watchable for the innovation, but not for plot, and frankly I found the animated silhouettes got boring after about 45 minutes. Disney’s achievement is stunning in comparison.

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Then–Snow White.
Now–Kim Possible.

Look at the vast, yawning gulf between the way women were seen then & now. It’s really striking.

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Is the new Goofy cartoon a traditional Disney animation or one of their new CGI abominations? Not that I have anything against Pixar. I loved Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. But those are all original characters and plots. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy should be in 2-D, dammit! I know they use computers for traditional cel animation now, I have nothing against that, as long as it looks like a normal cel cartoon. But Mickey and his friends look terrible in CGI.

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Yes, it was Tolkien (post-Snow White) who popularized “dwarves” as the plural for “dwarf.”

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Shouldn’t it be “dwarrows”?

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It’s a 2-D cartoon, and it’s getting very good reviews- much better than the film it’s attached to. According to Wikipedia, it was drawn on Wacom tablets into computers rather than on paper.

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Another illustration of the subjectivity of CS topics: I prefer *Prince Achmed *over Snow White by several orders of magnitude. In addition to which, the technical skill required to create and animate the silhouettes is at least equal to that required for Disney’s cel technique. *PA *is, aesthetically, a greater achievement, and the insipid characterizations of the Disney still make me cringe while the Reiniger is, IMHO, far more artistically mature storytelling. YMMV, of course.

Add to that that it premiered a full eleven years earlier, and you see why it sticks in my craw whenever I see Snow White afforded any kind of credit for being first or best in anything besides the jingoistic qualifications offered in the OP.

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Achmed* may or may not be a better movie, but does anyone who’s not a film buff remember it? Even in Germany? Snow White is more remembered and had a much larger impact so it’s worthy of any attention it gets on its birthday.