But how wrong they were. And what a different place the world would have been had Disney not persevered with his vision. Had it not been for this film, we would probably never have had any more Disney feature films, not just the animated classics, but no live action features, and certainly no theme parks. In fact, one even wonders if we would have any animated features had this film not been the enormous success it was.
I'm sure everyone knows the story by now; this film is over eighty years old.
Snow White (Adriana Caselotti) is the beautiful princess who longs for a handsome prince to take her away from her life as it is. In fact, she has met the prince (Harry Stockwell), but she hasn't seen him for some time.
Her stepmother, the Queen (Lucille La Verne), has a Magic Mirror whom she asks the same question to every single day: "Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?" And every day the Mirror (Moroni Olsen) gives her the same answer: "You, my Queen."
Until one day, the Mirror tells the Queen there is one fairer than her: the beautiful young maiden Snow White.
Furious, the Queen tells her huntsman (Stuart Buchanan) to take Snow White into the forest, and kill her, bringing back her heart as proof of the terrible deed.
But the huntsman, unable to follow through with the plan, lets Snow White go, and takes a pig's heart back to the Queen.
Snow White runs deeper into the forest, stumbling on a small cottage, inhabited by seven little men, the Dwarfs - Doc (Roy Atwell), Happy (Otis Harlan), Bashful (Scotty Mattraw), Sleepy (Pinto Colvig), Sneezy (Billy Gilbert), Grumpy (also Pinto Colvig), and - perhaps everyone's favourite - Dopey.
However, it isn't long before the Queen hears that Snow White still lives, and must come up with a new plan to do away with her once and for all.
I've already mentioned what an amazing achievement this film was for the world of animation at the time. Bear in mind of course that the entire film is animated by hand; computer animation was still a long way off back in 1937, of course. Also remember that there was no other animated feature film in existence at the time, so everything that makes this film what it is was completely new and revolutionary to audiences.
The notion of complete, fully-rounded characters with individual personalities was even a new concept in animation. But the scriptwriters have done a fantastic job with their character and story development. In particular, the dwarfs are all individuals with their own unique histories and personalities, which allows for a longer story form than had been previously witnessed.
What really makes this film incredible is the use of the score. The three composers - Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline and Paul J. Smith - all worked hand-in-hand with the director (David Hand) and the lead animators, painstakingly timing every individual sequence and - in some cases - having the writers rewrite particular sequences to fit the music they were writing. The end result is a wonder to behold: a score that is so strongly linked to the action on screen, and the momentum and emotion of the story, that is almost without equal in films before or since.
The voice cast are all fabulous. In particular, all the dwarfs are so well-suited as a group, and despite the fact their dialogue would have been recorded separately, they work so well as an ensemble. This is a testament both to the performers themselves and to the sequence directors, fine-tuning each performance so that every character balanced well together in the final mix.
Considering how long this film has been around for, it is surprising to see that it still holds up as one of the most incredible animated films in history, still thrilling audiences - both young and old - to this day.
8 out of 10.
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