Disney’s ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’: First full-length animated film got released on this day in history

On this day, December 21, in 1937, Disney’s ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ was released. It was the first full-length animated film. It is considered the legend and mother of animated films. It laid the foundation for animated films later. Still, animated films follow the same concept introduced by ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’ Even after 85 years, this film has the power to captivate the audience. David Hand was the supervision director of this Disney production. It was adapted from a German fairy tale by Brother Grimm. Grimm also worked as the writer of this film, along with seven other directors.

Making a full-length animated film and creating believable movements of the characters was not easy. Artists used models as references to depict the movements of the characters. Marge Champion was the model employed by Disney. Most parts of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ was based upon the dances and movements created by Marge Champion. She joined Disney at 14 and continued to work for most of her life. She even worked as a model for Blue Fairy in ‘Pinocchio.’ Marge lived for 101 years and passed away in October 2020.




Adriana Caselotti gave the voice-over for Snow White’s character in the film. Her career at Disney was not that long. She was not given credit in the original release of the film. Lucille La Verne gave the voice to the Queen character. She later worked in many stage shows and animated series.

Walt Disney received an honorary Oscar for this masterpiece in 1939. Along with the one actual full-size Oscar, seven miniatures were also given to Walt Disney by Shirley Temple. The film was also nominated for the best music score. The film first premiered at Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. The film became a massive box-office success. It remained the highest-grossing film of all time for the next three years. It earned $3.5 million only in the US and Canada. Adjusted for inflation, ‘Snow White and Seven Dwarfs’ earned $418 million in today’s money.

FAQs-

1. What is the running time of ‘Snow White and Seven Dwarfs’?
   It has a running time of 83 minutes.
2. What was the budget for ‘Snow White and Seven Dwarfs’?
   In today’s terms, its budget was $1.49 million.