[Dixielandjazz] "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" at 70

[Bill Haesler]

Dear friends,
Not quite OKOM.
Or is it?
This one via the Australian dance Bands list.
Kind regards,
Bill.

> Snow White 70 Years Later
>
> Disney's first full-length cartoon is now seen as the cornerstone of
> the mighty House of Mouse
>
> by Bruce Kirkland
> Toronto Sun, December 23, 2007
>
> LOS ANGELES -- This weekend, the landmark Walt Disney film Snow White
> and the Seven Dwarfs celebrates its 70th anniversary.
>
> Dismissed as "Walt's Folly" by a cynical Hollywood during its three
> years of production -- especially when the budget soared tenfold from
> $150,000 to a then-staggering $1.5 million -- Hollywood's first
> feature-length cartoon is now acknowledged as Walt's masterpiece.
> This Technicolor triumph changed the history of Walt Disney Studios
> and, indeed, both the animation and movie industries.
>
> "It is the movie that started it all," John Lasseter, creative
> director of animation for both Disney and Pixar, tells Sun Media.
>
> "I chose my life's work because of the films of Walt Disney."
>
> Indeed, Lasseter learned his trade at Disney's animation school.
>
> "My teachers and mentors were the great Disney artists who invented
> this wonderful art form with Walt Disney. I didn't realize it at the
> time, but they were handing the torch to us. They knew we were the
> new generation. They were teaching us everything that they knew.
>
> "When I was coming back to Disney (after the Disney-Pixar merger),
> what was interesting to me is that there was a period of time when
> they thought: 'Oh, that is old. That is retro. We need to feel that
> we're new and we're looking forward.'
>
> "I've come back and said: 'Yes, but these are masterpieces. These are
> works of art.' This is something to celebrate!"
>
> Snow White, after three years in production, made its world premiere
> at the Carthay Circle in Los Angeles on Dec. 21, 1937. The first
> screening, in front of Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, John
> Barrymore, Judy Garland, Charles Laughton and other stars, was a
> teaser. The film opened wide in February 1938 and became, contrary to
> expectations, the year's biggest hit.
>
> The alternative is unthinkable: Disney would have been ruined.
>
> Disney himself once recalled: "You should have heard the howls of
> warning when we started making a full-length cartoon. It was
> prophesized that nobody would sit through such a thing. But there was
> only one way we could do it successfully, and that was to plunge
> ahead and go for broke -- shoot the works. There could be no
> compromising on money, talent or time -- and this at a time when the
> whole country was in the midst of a crippling depression."
>
> In the final sprint to the premiere, Disney got "a shocker" from his
> brother Roy Disney. They were broke. They needed another $250,000 to
> finish. The Disneys desperately screened "bits and pieces" for Joe
> Rosenberg of the Bank of America.
>
> "Well, as everyone knows," Disney said, "we got the loan, the picture
> did make money and, if it hadn't, there wouldn't be any Disney Studio
> today."
>
> Disney, a secret chain smoker, died of lung cancer and cardiac arrest
> on Dec. 15, 1966, just 10 days past his 65th birthday. He had arrived
> in Hollywood in 1923, first establishing himself with the Alice
> comedies, hybrid shorts that had a live-action girl in a cartoon
> world. When those petered out in 1927, Disney and his famous early
> collaborator Ub Iwerks created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a floppy-
> earned fool who might have become the definitive Disney character.
> Except that Disney lost copyright control.
>
> "He learned a valuable lesson about owning whatever he created from
> that day on," says Disney expert and film critic Leonard Maltin in
> the newly released DVD box set, Walt Disney Treasures: Oswald the
> Lucky Rabbit. The Disney corporation only regained control of the
> cartoons in February of this year when sports host Al Michaels
> was "traded" to NBC by Disney's ABC for the cartoon rights (which
> were under the umbrella of Universal, NBC's parent company).
>
> The loss of Oswald led directly to the creation of Mickey Mouse. But
> even those wildly successful cartoons from 1928 onward were not
> enough to permanently keep the studio going in the 1930s. Cartoons
> were increasingly seen as "fillers," and exhibitors would not pay
> enough to justify production. That inspired Disney to risk everything
> to make Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as Hollywood's first feature-
> length cartoon.
>
> "We think of Walt Disney in classical terms so often, and rightly
> so," documentary filmmaker Bruce Reitherman tells Sun Media. "But
> it's easy to forget that Snow White was a radical, rebellious
> departure from anything that had ever come before. It so embodies
> Walt's courage and his willingness to explore and to do thing that
> are risky and new. You have to remember that he was willing to bet
> the farm on ideas that had never been tried before."
>
> As a child, Reitherman knew Disney and voiced both Pooh and Mowgli
> for Disney animations. He is also the son of Wolfgang (Woolie)
> Reitherman, one of the famous "Nine Old Men" of Disney animating
> lore. Reitherman senior was an animator on Snow White and later
> helmed the animation team when Disney died, pushing through The
> Jungle Book and helping make it a huge hit in 1967.
>
> "A lot of those guys were powerful personalities," the younger
> Reitherman says. "You get that many highly charged molecules in one
> room together, they want to push away.
>
> "To keep them together in the same place and time under trying
> circumstances -- sometimes just finding the money to pay for them --
> is a Walt Disney miracle. Part of it was just the power of Walt
> Disney's personality."
>
> To mark the 70th anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a
> special exhibition is coming to Disneyland in nearby Anaheim. The
> animation building at California Adventure is undergoing a temporary
> makeover.
>
> "We're converting that to a museum and we will be showing some of the
> original artwork for Snow White there and celebrating its history,"
> Lasseter says. "I'm a big historical nut about animation. People will
> love it."
>
> Lasseter was inspired by the company's recent purchase of a
> significant collection of 500-plus pieces of artwork and other
> artifacts related to Snow White. It was the largest such collection
> in private hands and the pieces will eventually join the already
> massive archives at Disney's Animation Research Library in
> Glendale. "It is important to keep art alive and keep it visible,"
> Disney archivist and researcher Doug Engalla says. "It is also a way
> of preserving studio history."
>
> His co-worker, researcher Fox Carney, says that preserving and
> showing off the classic artwork -- in person at Disneyland or on DVDs
> as bonus materials -- is crucial for future generations of animators.
>
> "It is not just a record keeping of the past, but it is also a
> guidepost or a clarion call for the future," Carney says.
> ____________________________________________
>
> Snow White Fast Facts
>
> - Snow White was in production from 1934-37.
>
> - Staff peaked at 750 artists, including 32 animators.
>
> - More than one million drawings were done; 250,000 are in the final
> film.
>
> - Disney chemists mixed 1,500 colours to find the right paint shades.
>
> - The score is played by an 80-member orchestra.
>
> - Walt turned 36 just before Snow White was released.
>
> - On Feb. 23, 1939, Walt earned an honourary Oscar for his pioneering
> efforts on Snow White. Nine-year-old Shirley Temple presented the
> award. As a special treat, the Academy gave Disney one full-sized
> Oscar with seven dwarf miniatures.
>
> - Prince Charming was voiced by actor Harry Stockwell, father of Dean.
>
> - Snow White was voiced by Adriana Caselotti, daughter of an L.A.
> vocal coach and one of 150 young women Disney auditioned. Among
> others, Caselotti beat out future star Deanna Durbin.
>
> - The dwarfs were not named originally by the Brothers Grimm. An old
> stage play called them Flick, Glick, Blick, Snick, Plick, Whick and
> Queen.
>
> - Walt rejected dwarf names such as Gabby, Jumpy, Sniffy, Puffy,
> Lazy, Stubby, Nifty, Wheezy and Deafy.
>
> - Two animated scenes were cut at the last minute, one in which the
> dwarfs eat soup together, another in which they make Snow White's bed.
>
> - The success of Snow White led to Pinnochio (1940), Fantasia (1940),
> Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942) but an animators strike in 1941 and
> WWII slowed production of any more animated features until Cinderella
> (1950).
>
> --- End forwarded message ---