USA,
1937, 83 min
Shown in 1965 / 2007
CREDITS
- dir
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David Hand
- prod
-
Walt Disney
- scr
-
Jacob Grimm (uncredited), Wilhelm Grimm (uncredited), Ted Sears
- cam
-
Maxwell Morgan
- mus
-
Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, Paul Smith
- cast
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Roy Atwell (voice, uncredited), Stuart Buchanan (voice, uncredited), Adriana Caselotti (voice, uncredited), Eddie Collins (voice, uncredited), Pinto Colvig (voice, uncredited), Billy Gilbert (voice, uncredited), Otis Harlan (voice, uncredited), Lucille La Verne (voice, uncredited)
- source
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The Walt Disney Studios, 500 S. Buena Vista Street, Burbank, CA 91521
-
COMMENTS
Part of the Masterpieces of the Cinema of Fantasy series in 1965; Walt Disney appeared in person to discuss the making of the film. Diane Disney Miller, daughter of Walt, introduced the 2007 screening.
OTHER
A rare revival of the great animated classic that remains a historical landmark in the translation of fantasy and the materials of fairy tales into cinematic form. The artistry of the drawings and a splendidly interwoven musical score have endeared this film to a generation of moviegoers, and its continued immortality is insured.
—Albert Johnson, 1965
Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, Walt Disney’s animation masterpiece—the studio’s first and perhaps finest feature-length film—endures as a lustrous fairy tale in which that famous “mirror, mirror on the wall” still reflects startlingly adult truths and psychologically loaded metaphors amid childlike enchantment and magical musical numbers. Widely referred to as “Disney’s folly” during production, the budget of which eventually skyrocketed to a then unheard-of $1.5 million, Walt’s ambitious, painstakingly hand-drawn, whimsical yet threatening tale of infanticide and wish-fulfillment was released in 1937 to worldwide acclaim. Sergei Eisenstein called it the greatest film ever made, and subsequent generations have similarly embraced this timeless classic. While younger viewers remain enraptured by the dark yet “happily ever after” story of a charming princess rescued from the clutches of her evil stepmother by a septet of small-statured, adjective-named forest dwellers and a handsome if rather bland prince, adults returning to the film for the first time in years or decades might be shocked by its subtexts. No doubt many a doctoral thesis has been written on the film’s twisted familial betrayals, complicated gender politics and thinly veiled critiques of impossible beauty standards and rampant capitalism (heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to work we go, indeed). And what are the relationships among Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sneezy, Bashful, Sleepy and Dopey (Blabby, Jumpy and Shifty didn’t make it past the script’s first draft) if not codependent? Rife with symbolism as potent as the poisoned apple that nearly does in lily-white Snow, resplendently animated and buoyed by superb songs (“Whistle While You Work,” “Some Day My Prince Will Come”), Disney’s Technicolor triumph fully deserves this anniversary celebration, its first SFIFF screening since 1965, when Disney himself appeared to talk about the making of the film. A sparkling new print has been struck specially for SFIFF50, making this even more of a special event for families. Recommended for ages seven and up.
—Steven Jenkins, 2007
FACTOID #177
In 2000 animator Faith Hubley was the recipient of the Persistence of Vision Award. One year later, her daughter Emily appeared at the Festival with her bandmates, Yo La Tengo, to perform a score accompanying the silent underwater films of Jean Painlevé.
