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After watching the brilliant music video composed entirely of sounds from Snow White I started doing some reading up on the original film.
It turns out that when it was released in 1937, it was a bold and highly groundbreaking film. Only 23 years earlier, audiences were being thrilled with crude animation like Gertie the Dinosaur. So when Disney announced that they were going to create a feature-length animated film, people in Hollywood (and within Disney itself) predicted Disney's financial ruin. Walt Disney had to re-mortgage his own house to get the necessary funds to get the movie produced. It was the first feature-length animated film in the US, and the first feature-length animated film to use color. The production of the film involved epic technical and organizational complexity, and the creative hurdles involved led to the creation of what is now seen as the Disney formula. At the time people had seen nothing like it.
The parallels with Pixar and Toy Story are remarkable -- Pixar was another small company that took a huge risk to produce the first computer animated film, and in the process reinvented the art of visual storytelling.
In any case, Snow White forever changed the world of animation, and Disney enjoyed a long creative golden age in which audiences awaited each new film with the same energy they await Pixar films today.
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On a vaguely related note, animation in the 1920s and 1930s often was very surrealistic. See Minnie the Moocher, an early music video, which gets mind-blowingly bizarre around 5:00.
Shortly after Snow White came out, another studio released a parody called Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarves, a very racist short that Warner Brothers probably would like to pretend never happened. If you can deal with the wall-to-wall racism it's fascinating to watch as it gives a sense for society at the time. Also interesting (and full of racist caricatures) was Tin Pan Alley Cats, which featured many performers in the LA jazz scene at the time.
It turns out that when it was released in 1937, it was a bold and highly groundbreaking film. Only 23 years earlier, audiences were being thrilled with crude animation like Gertie the Dinosaur. So when Disney announced that they were going to create a feature-length animated film, people in Hollywood (and within Disney itself) predicted Disney's financial ruin. Walt Disney had to re-mortgage his own house to get the necessary funds to get the movie produced. It was the first feature-length animated film in the US, and the first feature-length animated film to use color. The production of the film involved epic technical and organizational complexity, and the creative hurdles involved led to the creation of what is now seen as the Disney formula. At the time people had seen nothing like it.
The parallels with Pixar and Toy Story are remarkable -- Pixar was another small company that took a huge risk to produce the first computer animated film, and in the process reinvented the art of visual storytelling.
In any case, Snow White forever changed the world of animation, and Disney enjoyed a long creative golden age in which audiences awaited each new film with the same energy they await Pixar films today.
---
On a vaguely related note, animation in the 1920s and 1930s often was very surrealistic. See Minnie the Moocher, an early music video, which gets mind-blowingly bizarre around 5:00.
Shortly after Snow White came out, another studio released a parody called Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarves, a very racist short that Warner Brothers probably would like to pretend never happened. If you can deal with the wall-to-wall racism it's fascinating to watch as it gives a sense for society at the time. Also interesting (and full of racist caricatures) was Tin Pan Alley Cats, which featured many performers in the LA jazz scene at the time.
