Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Based on a tale by the Brothers Grimm and spawning countless parodies, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Disney’s first animated feature-length film, as well as the first full length animated movie in American film history.


Snow White is a young woman raised by her vain and wicked stepmother the Queen. The jealous Queen feared that young Snow White’s beauty would some day surpass her own, so she dressed the Princess in rags and forced her to work as a Scullery Maid.

One morning while singing at the well, The young Snow White meets a handsome Prince, who immediately falls in love with the lovely Snow White and her beautiful singing voice. Startled and embarrassed, Snow White runs into the castle and hides, leaving the solitary Prince to pine wistfully over her.

Back in her chamber and desiring constant reassurance, the vain Queen consulted her magic mirror every morning, asking: Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” And the mirror’s response was always: “You are the fairest one of all.” However, one morning, The Queen is furious when the mirror, who cannot lie, informs her that despite her rags, Snow White the fairest in the land. Her worst nightmare has come true, and she summons the Huntsman to take Snow White deep into the forest and kill the young Princess, handing him a small box in which to place her heart as proof that he had carried out her barbaric order. Reluctantly, the Huntsman agrees, and the next day, he escorts Snow White into the forest to pick wildflowers.

The huntsman is just about to deliver the killing blow with his knife when the young girl turns around and screams. Unable to carry out this grisly deed, he begs Snow White for forgiveness and explains the Queen’s plan, telling her she must run and hide, never to return. Immediately, Snow White runs deep into the forest, and in her terrified state, every rock, tree and fallen log seems to be a malicious monster grabbing at her clothes and tripping her feet. A thousand eyes appear to glare at her from the inky blackness surrounding her, and in her panic, she collapses to the ground, exhausted.


When she awakes, it is dawn, and she realizes that the frightening creatures surrounding her are actually small woodland creatures, which she immediately befriends, singing a song as her spirits lighten. She asks the animals if they know of a place that she might stay, and they excitedly lead her to a quaint little Tudor cottage in a glen. After peering through the window, Snow White knocks at the front door. Realizing that nobody is home, she enters the little cottage. Upon seeing the tiny tables and chairs, she assumes that the cottage’s occupants must be children, and messy ones, judging from the untidy appearance of the place. Snow White decides that the children must be orphans, and gets to the task of cleaning-up the cottage with the help of her new animal friends, hoping that upon their return, the children might let her stay with them.

Meanwhile, the Seven Dwarfs are busy at work in their shimmering diamond mine, finishing-up for the day. They pack-up, and head home, marching in single file and singing: “Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, it’s home from work we go!” Having finished straightening-up, Snow White heads upstairs, and sees seven tiny beds with names carved into each of the little headboards: Doc, Happy, Sneezy, Dopey, Grumpy, Bashful, and Sleepy. Feeling exhausted, Snow White lays across three of the beds and falls asleep, along with her new animal friends.

In the distance, the sound of the Seven Dwarfs singing is growing louder and closer, startling the animals. The Seven Dwarfs arrive back at the cottage, and immediately become suspicious and frightened when they see that someone has cleaned, and started a pot of soup over the fire. Cautiously ascending the stairs, they see a sleeping form beneath the sheets. Pulling the sheet aside and expecting the worst, they see that is is a beautiful young girl. Snow white awakes, startled to see that instead of children, the inhabitants of the cottage are little men. After a proper introduction, Snow White explains her predicament, and after a brief argument amongst themselves, the Dwarfs unanimously decide to let her stay when she announces that she will “wash and sew and sweep and cook.” Snow White then insists that the Dwarfs wash-up for supper. They reluctantly agree, scrubbing-off outside, with the stalwart Grumpy stubbornly resisting until forced into the water by the other Dwarfs.

Meanwhile, back at the castle, the evil Queen Summons the magic mirror again, asking the same question she asked every day. To her surprise, the mirror tells her that Snow White is the fairest of them all, and tells her that the princess is in the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs. The mirror further explains that it is not young Snow White’s heart in the box returned to her by the Huntsman, but the heart of a pig. Furious, the angry Queen rushes down the winding staircase to her laboratory, and concocts a magic potion for a Peddler’s Disguise, Transforming the beautiful Queen into an old hag. She then magically creates a poisoned apple, intending to trick Snow White into eating it, causing her to fall into the Sleeping Death. Only love’s first kiss can reverse the spell.

Her transformation into a withered hag complete, the Queen climbs into a canoe and pushes off down a subterranean waterway to the Dwarfs’ cottage. The next morning, while the Dwarfs are away, the old hag arrives at the cottage while Snow White is baking, enticing her to take a bite of the poisoned apple. Fooled by the Queen’s disguise and seeing only an old peddler, Snow White takes a bite and falls to the floor in the Sleeping Death that only the kiss of love can break.

Having been alerted by a frantic army of woodland creatures and realizing that something is wrong, the Seven Dwarfs rush back to the cottage, but they are too late. They immediately pursue the old hag, chasing her through the woods and up into the mountains as a terrible storm begins. The hag is cornered on a rocky crag, and she falls to her death as a lightening bolt shatters her footing. Lazy vultures slowly spiral down after the hag.

Victorious but saddened by the apparent death of Snow White, the Dwarfs build a glass and gold coffin for her, keeping eternal vigil at her side. After a year, the Prince comes by, having heard tales of the beautiful maiden who slept in a glass coffin. Seeing that it is the same girl he fell in love with at the castle, he gently kisses her lips farewell, and Snow White awakens to the cheers of the Dwarfs. She says goodbye to the Dwarfs, kissing each of them before riding off with her Prince, disappearing into the sunset to live happily ever after.

Mockingly referred to as “Disney’s Folly” by the Hollywood movie industry, Walt Disney had a difficult time getting his film produced. Originally estimating that the film could be made for $250,000, which was nearly ten times what the average “Silly Symphony” cost to produce, Disney eventually had to mortgage his home to finance the film. In the end, the movie was completed with a final cost of just over $1.5 million, and took 3 years to produce. The fantastic animation in the film was the result of techniques developed and/or perfected by Disney animators, including realistic human movement, fabulous character differentiation and special effects such as fog, rain, sparkles, and lightening, as well as the use of the multiplane camera, used to depict realistic 3-dimensional space. This classic Disney production was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1989.