For the first time, Walt Disney's greatest gamble (and triumph), "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," is being issued on video cassette. The official release date is Friday, Oct. 28, but many retail outlets will be offering it over the counter Tuesday, priced at $26.99 (with rebates and discounts plentiful) on the Walt Disney Home Video label.
As this month began, Disney's "Aladdin," with nearly 24 million units sold, was the champion of video cassette sales. "Jurassic Park" is expected to challenge that mark, and its initial sales have set records. But "Snow White," presold for nearly 60 years and a unique generational favorite, just may hit a sales mark of 25 million."We've worked hard and spent a lot of money - and by this time, we're all a little tired of it." The father of Mickey Mouse now had another memorable offspring, Snow White, and Walt Disney sighed those words in 1937, shortly after completion of what he considered "an experiment."
It was an effort that nearly wiped Disney and his studio right off the Hollywood scene. Budgeted at $250,000, a king's ransom in those Great Depression days, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" ended up costing $1,480,000, more than the annual budgets of many nations of the era.
Disney, with bank loans piled atop bank loans, tottered on the brink of bankruptcy. What would public reaction be to his feature-length animated cartoon version of the familiar fairy tale? Punsters had a field day: "Disney outlook Grimm," said one headline, a reference to the story's source.
The movie's world premiere was held Dec. 21, 1937. Public and critical reaction was like an early Christmas gift to Disney (and a belated birthday gift - he was born Dec. 5, 1901): "Snow White" plainly would quickly erase the deep red from his studio ledgers.
Disney's "experiment" had its national release on Feb. 4, 1938. Despite legends that its early reception was less than enthusiastic, it was an immediate enormous hit. At the end of 1938, Disney announced that "Snow White" had earned $4.2 million in the United States and Canada alone. (It must be remembered that those were 1938 dollars and that $2.5 million was its break-even figure.)
That initial release ultimately grossed $8 million, a record held until it was finally topped by "Gone With the Wind." And that happened only after "GWTW," initially released in 1939, was well into its run - in early 1941.
"Snow White" became a cash cow for Disney Studios: It was re-released every five or six years (to delight a new flock of youngsters, the studio explained), and it was a strategy that worked. In 1983, for example, in its sixth reissue to theaters, "Snow White" grossed $14 million. It has been released theatrically nine times, with a global gross of $1 billion.
The first feature-length animated cartoon in screen history was a learning experience for Disney and his crew, and a textbook example for later animators.
The project was begun in 1934. During the nearly four years that followed, the story was expanded and polished. While Snow White was lovely and often exciting as a damsel in distress, Disney knew he had to inject plenty of juvenile appeal. The happy solution: seven truly funny personalities for the seven dwarfs.
At the other end of the emotional spectrum, Disney showed incredible daring. He went for totally evil characterizations with situations rooted in genuine horror. (England initially banned "Snow White" for anyone under the age of 12.)
Still, there were limits. The film originally showed Snow White's mother dying in childbirth. Stills from this sequence were printed in Look magazine's preview of the movie, and the sequence was shown in all the books, comic books, comic strips and similar material that came out in advance of the premiere.
Fortunately, the scene was cut from the final version. Other completed (and expensive) scenes also were tossed out by Disney - a sequence where the dwarfs eat their soup, and another where they build a large, ornate bed for Snow White. Disney felt the sequences slowed the lively pace he wanted to maintain, wasting not a minute.
Film analysts have noted that skilled pacing: Virtually every scene in the movie is interrupted by crosscutting to simultaneous action elsewhere.
As the premiere neared, Hollywood predicted "Disney's doom." Animated shorts, it was noted, didn't make much money, and how could Disney, without a star, and with a mere fairy tale for his material, hold audience interest through seven reels?
Disney plowed on - through 2 million drawings and sketches, with 250,000 of them photographed for the animation process.
Voices were cast as if Disney were making "GWTW." He rejected popular singer Deanna Durbin for the voice of Snow White: "Too mature." Instead, he selected a young girl named Adriana Caselotti. Comedian Billy Gilbert, famed for his sneezing routines, was the immediate pick for Sneezy.
In the original story drafts, the dwarf called Dopey was to be a silly, mindless chatterbox. Then, someone - perhaps thinking of Harpo Marx - suggested he be a mute, totally silent. In one of the movie's charming moments, Snow White asks one of the dwarfs if Dopey can talk and is told: "He don't know - he never tried!"
Disney's genius bore sweet fruit. "Snow White" was promptly sound-tracked into eight languages, became one of filmdom's earliest global hits, and it left audiences everywhere in the world enthralled.
Now, this towering achievement is coming soon to a living room near you - probably your own.