but WHY did disney make snow white in the first place?? || DISNEY VIDEO ESSAY

[Music] snow white and the seven dwarves was disney's first feature-length film and a catalyst for the now iconic disney princess franchise if you're anything like me you don't know a lot about snow white she was never my favorite disney princess i can't really quilt any lines from the film and i haven't rewatched it constantly like i have with my notable favorites to be honest i've always found snow white a little bit boring several remakes and renditions have managed to hold my attention but they typically stray far far away from the original a few weeks back i did a video on the development of disney's original mulan and found out that mulan was essentially the snow eye of the florida studio but in order to fully contextualize that information i needed to understand the impact of snow white so today we will not only be looking at the development of the film but also the impact it had on the disney brand [Music] prior to the creation of snow white disney mainly focused on shorts that revolved around the original character mickey mouse those were preceded by a series that featured a little girl stuck in an animated world disney was viewed as innovative and artistic which only led me to question the 180 degree turn from an original character to a storybook character like snow white and from shorter pieces to more long-form content apparently despite his four academy awards he realized that a feature film could be incredibly lucrative and would place his studio on the map from what i understand snow white was walt disney's passion project he apparently said that we had decided there was only one way we could successfully do snow white and that was to go for broke shoot the works there could be no compromise on money talent or time and believe me he took his time the film took in total three years to make and was truly innovative for its time disney originally faced quite a bit of opposition when it came to snow white several people including his wife doubted that audiences would sit through an hour or so of animation while it's gold to keep the audience's attention was to create a complete fantasy world and what better way to do that than to bring a famous fairy tale to life [Music] one factor that drew the staff to the film was all of the opportunities that the seven dwarfs presented they initially had 50 possible names and they only got weirder as i went down the list they included shorty lazy burpee baldy nifty wheezy hickey swift and for some reason gabby at this point i could add any adjectives to the list and it would fit right in so here's a list i compiled of fake names they also seem to have fun with the queen's character specifically planning out all the different ways that she could plot against snow white as well as the extent of her powers and apparently the original idea for the film was to make it as comedic as possible walt disney allegedly gave five dollars to every person who could come up with a funny gag however i don't really remember snow white as being that funny of a story especially compared to disney's current repertoire and that's due to the fact that walt eventually decided to turn the tone of the film around because he felt like the comedic nature of their outline took away from the plausibility of the film but if you think about it nothing is plausible about magic mirrors and true love's kisses walt also realized that he wanted the staff to focus more on developing the queen and snow white as well as establishing their relationship i hike he wished they kept some of their plans pertaining to the prince some of the original ideas included trapping him in some sort of dungeon that was filling with water and being saved by snow white's beloved woodland animals this was ultimately cut out because of two possible reasons either to reduce the run time or because animators weren't comfortable experienced or skilled enough to pull it off i couldn't help but feel disappointed that these ideas didn't make it to the screen because i feel like it would have made him more memorable and solidified his character or his feelings for snow white because i honestly have no memory of him [Music] i think one of the most interesting concepts i came about while researching this film is the character design and conceptualization the costumes have clear influences from scandinavian color schemes like rich blues and yellows and the silhouettes are clearly influenced by fashion during the 20s and 30s interestingly enough snow white's now iconic dress went through quite an evolution if we take a look at these early sketches they look very different than the original form of the dress animators used a technique called rotoscoping which is when they use live action film to help them navigate the mammoth task of frame by frame hand-drawn animation in the rotoscoping footage i could find we can see aspects of the iconic dress such as the puffed sleeves and high collar however most sources say the dress was originally a pale yellow with a deep blue cloak but i found one source that claimed the dress used in early camera tests was actually pink yeah that was my reaction to thank god they eventually landed on the dress we love and knew today [Music] another character with an interesting design is the evil queen she's mainly credited to joe grant and he decided to make her angular to juxtapose the softness of snow white in my personal opinion the queen's design is one of the most influential aspects of the film her silhouette clearly influenced the design elements of maleficent and jafar and her color scheme which consists of deep jewel and berry tones are present in many villains such as ursula mother gothel and dr facilier [Music] in all honesty i tend to lump the original trio of princesses in the same basket because they pretty much all have the same qualities to me although i will admit that i favor cinderella they represent the ideal attributes of women at that time although i used to view that as a bad thing and in some ways it can be i've learned to see it in a positive light just as much strength can be found in femininity as there is in masculinity i think the newer version of these princesses are positive role models that preach things like kindness and caring for others which are great attributes snow white also influenced disney's habit of making all of their disney princess films musicals because of the astounding success of the soundtrack walt disney wanted to incorporate music into the film that was meaningful and relevant to the scenes and characters which i think is what informed the success of the music the songs are also a great way to make particular scenes and turning points memorable for example bippity boppity boo or i'll make a man out of you i immediately associate each song with specific scenes [Music] in hindsight it's no surprise that snow white was such a hit in 1937 many of the initial skeptical critics of the film were amazed when it was released it was praised for the realistic animation and its stellar soundtrack fun fact it was actually the first movie to have a soundtrack which is absolutely wackadoodle but i guess they had to start somewhere the film went on to win an honorary oscar as well as seven miniatures and has a lasting mark on not only the disney brand but also pop culture thank you for listening to me ramble about an 83 year old film leave any questions critiques and feedback in the comments and i'll see you next time

Channel: up close by ilhaan

Views: 16,779

Keywords: snow white video essay, why did disney make, snow white vs evil queen, up close by ilhaan, disney princess, disney movies, snow white, but why did, disney costume design, snow white dress design, snow white reception, disney video essay, snow white analysis essays, disney princess analysis, snow white development, disney character development, evil queen impact, snow white evil queen, disney movie video essay, Disney in the 1930s, disney princess feminist analysis

Id: awseFWl67eg

Length: 9min 12sec (552 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 23 2020