Snow White was the daughter of a great king whose wife died when the daughter was very young. Her wicked stepmother forced her to work as a scullery maid in the castle. Despite this, she retains a cheerful but naive demeanor. Virginia Davis, who starred in Disney's "Alice" series, was considered for the role of Snow White, but was rejected. Deanna Durbin was also considered, but was rejected because her voice was "too mature" for the role

No matter what anyone says, Grumpy is against it. This know-it-all naysayer has the disposition of an old boot: tough, craggy, and resistant to anything.

During the party sequence, Grumpy plays an elaborately carved pipe organ designed to look like a row of totem poles. To achieve the organ's deep tonal quality, the soundmen blew into bottles partially filled with water. Unfortunately, the ingenious solution created as many problems as it solved: As the recording sessions went on, slight temperature changes and natural evaporation kept altering the pitch of the bottles' notes.

 

Sleepy sneaks in his Z's anytime and anywhere he can, but none of the other dwarfs ever complains. Maybe that's because he works just as hard in their diamond mine as the others, albeit in a more relaxed fashion. In fact, he's so relaxed, and yawns so widely, that the resident housefly keeps buzzing into his mouth in hopes of finding a nice warm home. But even on the perpetual verge of a nap, Sleepy turns out to be twice as observant as his fellows when it most matters. Strangely goaded and prodded by the forest animals outside their mine, none of the dwarfs can figure out what's going on until Sleepy yawns, "Maybe the old Queen's got Snow White." Thanks to Sleepy, the dwarfs are soon off to the rescue.

    The first feature-length animated film in

history, "Snow White" is a testimony to Walt's deep commitment to taking whatever

 existed and making it better. When he first proposed creating a cartoon that would run for more than just a few minutes, critics and nay-sayers abounded. "It'll blind the audience," said some. "Nobody will watch a cartoon that's so long," said others. They dubbed it Disney's Folly. But Walt persisted, risking the financial future of his studio on the project. And of course the success was complete. "Snow White" premiered on December 21, 1937, and provided a financial bonanza for the Disney organization. It was originally budgeted for $250,000, wound up costing $1.75 million, and brought in about $4.2 million in its first release. Perhaps more important, it proved that animation could be used not just to amuse but to provoke a far wider range of emotions. Viewers witnessing the "death" scene of Snow White -- shown above -- were moved to tears.

 

Without Happy around, Grumpy might not be quite as grumpy. For Happy's just too infernally cheerful about everything. When the dwarfs think there's a monster hidden under the blankets, Happy cheerily asks, "Which end do we kill?" And when the "monster" turns out to be a slumbering Snow White, Happy's even happier. But not even he can find any joy in his life after Snow White's bitten into the Witch's apple and fallen into a sleeping death. With any luck he'll get to live up to his name again someday .

Dubbed "Dopey" by his brothers, this loose-limbed dwarf has never spoken a word; as Happy explains to Snow White, "He never tried." But Dopey isn't really dopey, he's just childlike. Dopey's a genius at fun and games. He just doesn't mind looking silly along the way. So what if he wiggles his ears and shuffles his feet to his own skippity-skip beat? He's simply being himself, and that's pretty smart.

If the Seven Dwarfs have a leader, it has to be Doc. When there's an important decision to be made, Doc is usually the one to make it. After returning to the cottage to find it mysteriously tidied up, he nervously demands: "Search every cook an' nanny, uh, hook an' granny, uh, crooked fan -- uh, search everywhere." Doc's mind often works faster than his mouth when he's excited, but his judgment always sound. Doc takes it upon himself to convince his fellows that the hardships they must endure in allowing Snow White to stay are worth it -- even that strange custom of washing up. And only he knows how to get that "old warthog" Grumpy into the wash trough.

 

More than shy, Bashful's a hopeless sentimentalist. When the dwarfs return to find their cottage mysteriously tidied up, he's even sentimental about his newly cleaned cup, lamenting that "the sugar's gone" as if he'd lost a dear friend. While everyone's suspicious upon finding Snow White asleep across their beds, Bashful's the first one to see her for who she really is, observing, "She's beautiful, like an angel." Indeed, Bashful can't help but blush, twist his beard into knots, and bat his eyelashes whenever Snow White's around. And when the dwarfs ask her to tell them a story, Bashful, of course, requests "a love story." To his delight, that's exactly what they get.

 

No, Sneezy doesn't sneeze all the time ... just at the worst of times, like when the dwarfs have returned from the diamond mine to search for the mysterious "cleaning monster" in their midst. After a particularly violent sneeze, which sends them tumbling in its wake, he protests,"I couldn't help it ... when you gotta go, you gotta ... I-I-I, i-i-i-it's comin'." So his pals quickly jump him and tie his nose in a knot. Instead of getting angry, poor Sneezy's grateful. He's just as annoyed by his condition as the other dwarfs. But when all is said and done, his fellows are quick and happy to lend him a sneeze-stifling hand. It's all part of being a dwarf. Just keep Sneezy away from the goldenrod.