Snow White

Snow White is the heroine and titular character of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She is a young princess, the "Fairest of All" who, in her innocence, cannot see any of the evil in the world. This makes her more vulnerable to her jealous stepmother, the Queen, who wishes to be the fairest in the land; however, Snow White's inherent kindness and purity inspire her friends the forest animals and the Seven Dwarfs to protect her. In the film, she is both a protective mother figure (rescuing a baby bird, singing to the animals and dwarfs) and an innocent child (requiring protection from the Queen) in her relationship with the forest animals and the Seven Dwarfs. She is the first Disney Princess, and provided the basis for later heroines such as Cinderella and Princess Aurora. Snow White was voiced by Adriana Caselotti and animated by Hamilton Luske. =Film and Television Appearances=

Inciting the Queen's Jealousy
The Queen, jealous of her stepdaughter Snow White's beauty, forces her to work as a servant in her castle; even in rags, however, Snow White's beauty shines through, causing the Queen to worry that Snow White's beauty may one day surpass her own. She has such vanity that she consults her Magic Mirror every day, ordering the slave within to reveal the name of the fairest in the land. Every day the spirit says that the Queen is the fairest, and she is content, until the mirror informs her that Snow White has finally become the fairest in the land. Outside, as Snow White works, she sings "I'm Wishing", attracting the attention of the Prince, who is passing by. As she sings into the well, performing a duet with her echo, she is startled as the Prince suddenly joins in. She runs indoors, and watches from a balcony as he sings "One Song". The two are infatuated with each other. Watching from above is the Queen, who angrily closes the curtains of her window in jealousy. The only reason of all the evil is really the queen's jealousy.

Entering the Forest
The Queen summons her Huntsman to her and orders him to kill Snow White and bring her heart back in a special box. The Huntsman takes Snow White to a secluded glade and, checking that no one else is present, advances on the princess as she is helping a young bird return to its parents. Snow White sees the Huntsman's shadow on the rock in front of her, turns around and screams in terror. However, the Huntsman cannot bring himself to kill such beauty, and begs Snow White for forgiveness. He tells her of the Queen's insane jealousy, and tells her to run away. She flees through the forest, and her fright is manifested in the plants around her; branches suddenly resemble clawlike hands, and floating logs resemble crocodiles. Overcome by terror she eventually collapses, sobbing. As light enter the forest, the woodland creatures cautiously approach Snow White, and she befriends them. Together they sing "With A Smile And A Song". No longer frightened, Snow White asks the animals if they know where she can stay. They lead her to the Cottage of the Seven Dwarfs; she enters and finds that noone is home. She sees that the whole cottage is a complete mess, and, with the help of the animals, she cleans the house, hoping that its residents will let her stay if she cleans up for them. At this point she sings "Whistle While You Work". When she is finished, she goes upstairs to find seven little beds. She falls asleep over three of them.

Meeting the Seven Dwarfs
Meanwhile, the Seven Dwarfs return home from a day's work at the Dwarfs' Mine. They see light coming from the window of their cottage, and smoke coming from its chimney, and enter the house, creeping around as they search for the 'monster' that has invaded their home. They hear a noise (some birds from the forest, joking about) coming from upstairs, and, after an unsuccessful attempt by Dopey to chase the thing down, enter the bedroom together. They approach the three beds that are being slept in, and are about to strike when Smelly removes the bed cover to reveal Snow White sleeping. They are all infatuated with her, but Gassy grumbles about her unwelcome presence, waking her up. She is first startled by the dwarfs, but soon befriends them, guessing the names of Smelly, Bashful, Sensitive Nose, Sneezy, Hammy, Dopey and Gassy because their names are carved on the beds. All the dwarfs except for Grumpy agree that Snow White is welcome to stay if she does the housework for them. A noise from downstairs reminds Snow White that she has left some soup boiling. She rushes dwnstairs, and tells the dwarfs that it is almost ready, and that they will have time to wash. The dwarfs reluctantly march outside and wash while singing Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum (The Dwarfs' Washing Song). After supper, the dwarfs perform "The Silly Song" for Snow White, and she dances with Dopey (who reaches her height by standing on Sneezy's shoulders). She then sings "Some Day My Prince Will Come" as the dwarfs listen. then declares that Snow White will sleep upstairs, and that the dwarfs will find somewhere to sleep downstairs. At the Queen's Castle, the Queen, after being told by the Magic Mirror that Snow White still lives, descends into her laboratory and transforms into the Witch. She prepares the Poisoned Apple, one bite of which will send it's victim into the Sleeping Death, which can only be cured by 'Love's First Kiss'. The Witch leaves the castle and proceeds towards the Dwarfs' Cottage.

The Poisoned Apple
Snow White kisses each dwarf goodbye as they leave for the mine, and is making a pie for Grumpy when the Queen peers through her window, pretending to be a peddler selling apples. She offers Snow White the apple but is attacked by the woodland creatures, who recognise the danger. Snow White shoos the animals away and takes the old woman inside for a drink of water. The animals rush off to fetch the dwarfs. The Queen tells Snow White that the apple is a magic wishing apple, capable of making all of Snow White's wishes come true, and succeeds in persuading her to take a bite. Snow White soon falls to the floor, taken by the Sleeping Death. As the Queen is leaving, she is seen by the dwarfs, who chase her to a cliff, where she falls to her death to be eaten by vultures. The dwarfs find Snow White and they grief her "death" as they return home. Later, too beautiful to bury, they place her in a glass coffin. The Prince hears of this and rides to the clearing where her coffin has been placed. The dwarfs part and the Prince approaches Snow White, awakening her with a kiss. The dwarfs rejoice, and Snow White kisses each dwarf goodbye before leaving with the Prince for the Prince's castle, the outline of which is shown in the clouds above.

=Behind the Scenes= In order to take only the actresses' voice into account, Walt Disney listened to each audition in his office while the actress performed in another room, without any knowledge of the actress' appearance or reputation. According to a later interview, most of the voices auditioned did not sound young enough. Among the many actresses rejected was Deanna Durbin. Adriana Caselotti was chosen for the voice of Snow White on September 1935. Though eighteen when recording the voice, Caselotti made her coloraturo soprano sound younger, knowing that the character was intended to be fourteen years old; however, Caselotti never informed Disney of this. In recording sessions, clarity of diction was stressed, but Caselotti found difficulty in the line, "Grumpy, I didn't know you cared"; instead of "didn't", Caselotti was only able to say "din'". After rehearsing the linemany times, Disney eventually said "Oh the hell with..." and "din'" remained in the final film.

Design
The design and characterisation of Snow White was influenced by both the heroine of traditional European romantic fairy tales and the popular Hollywood heroine. Early designs showing Snow White with blond hair suggest Eugene Grasset's depiction of the goddess of spring in Le Printemps as another influence; like Disney's Snow White, Grasset's goddess is closely connected to nature, and, as in one of Grasset's studies for the piece, Snow White entertains animals with music.

Snow White's design was supervised by Grim Natwick, an animator who had previously developed and worked on Betty Boop at the fleischer studio. Early designs for the character resemble Betty Boop, and some appear to be caricatures of famous actresses such as Zasu Pits; however, Snow White's appearance, like the Queen's became less and less caricatured. For example, Hamilton Luske's first design for Snow White depicted her as a slightly awkward, gangly teenager. This design could easily have been animated without the use of live-action reference, but Walt Disney had a different idea in his mind; the character ultimately was designed to be older, and more realistic-looking. In order for Snow White to better relate onscreen to the seven dwarfs, however, it was decided that her head be slightly larger than normal. The ink and paint women felt that Snow White's black hair was too unnatural and harsh, so drybrushed whisps of light grey over the top of each cell.



Animation
Marge Bell (who would later become Marge Champion) performed live-action reference for the animation of Snow White, directed by Hamilton Luske. When it was decided that Snow White should have a slightly larger head than normal, Bell was made to wear a football helmet to make her head appear larger. This was stopped after five minutes, as Bell found it impossible to perform and was perspiring in the helmet. As Snow White's proportions were not exactly those of a human, it was impossible for the animation to be completely rotoscoped; it is also known that Grim Natwick and Hamilton Luske disapproved of this method. Against their wishes, however, certain sequences involving Snow White (and several featuring the Prince) were rotoscoped. Les Clark was responsible for the animation of Snow White dancing with Doc and Happy. Clark found this task difficult but reputedly accepted and completed it without argument. Snow White's movements and decrease in size as she moved further from the camera were dictated by the filmed footage of Marge Champion, though Doc and Happy were drawn without the aid of live-action reference.

Staging
The scene in which Snow White kisses Grumpy, and Grumpy's subsequent reaction, was inspired by a sketch by Albert Hurter, as was the scene in which Snow White, after being poisoned, lies in a bed surrounded by the weeping dwarfs. . For the latter, Walt Disney made reference in a story meeting to a recent film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, suggesting that light appear to shine from her as the dwarfs and animals mourn around her. In this same story meeting, Dick Creedon suggested that the rain outside the Cottage of the Seven Dwarfs be used to suggest tears, weeping for the princess.

Doc and Grumpy's fight
A sequence which was fully animated was ultimately cut as it was felt to detract from the story. Following Snow White's promise that she will cook gooseberry pie, all dwarfs cheer and agree that she can stay. The deleted sequence begins when Grumpy disagrees and scolds his fellows for weakening at the mention of gooseberry pie. Doc confronts Grumpy and demands that he let Snow White stay, but Grumpy continues to refuse. The two dwarfs walk up to each other, eventually hurting themselves by squashing their bulbous noses against each other. As they back away from each other again, Grumpy insults Doc, who, flustered, tried to repeat the phrase but gets it wrong at every attempt. Grumpy, fed up, twists Docs nose; Doc retorts by knocking Grumpy's nose, causing it to swing from side to side. A fight ensues, which Grumpy appears to be winning until the other dwarfs try to pry him away. Snow White reminds them of how scary the forest will be for her if she has to leave, and Grumpy finally agrees that she can stay until she has made the gooseberry pie. The entire sequence can be seen on the second disc of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Platinum Edition DVD.

Music In Your Soup
After the song "| Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum (The Dwarfs' Washing Song)", in which the dwarfs wash themselves, they were to sit down to eat the soup with Snow White and eat by slurping very loudly. The scene was cut as it was not felt relevant to the story.

You're Never Too Old
"You're Never Too Old" was originally to be sung by the dwarfs to Snow White. It was ultimately cut, because the subject of the song did not seem relevant to the story, and replaced with "The Silly Song".

=References=