Thursday, October 30, 2014

Disney History Lesson: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Welcome back my fellow Disney fan girls and fan guys! Today's Disney history lesson will be on the world renowned Disney classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs! Let's take a closer a look at this beautiful story in the wonderful world of Disney.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs first premiered in Hollywood on December 21st 1937 but was not available in theaters until February 4th 1938. It was the first full length animated feature film ever made and the first movie to have released a soundtrack album.  Walt Disney claimed that he came up with the idea of creating an animated version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when he watched a silent film version of the tale as a 15 year old in his hometown, Kansas City.

There was much contradiction about the making of this movie because it was being created during the Great Depression and many of Walt Disney's coworkers, friends, family members, and even his wife tried to dissuade him from continuing the production. They believed that people were struggling and were more focused on improving their lives than they were about sitting in the movies and watching a cartoon fantasy about dwarfs. The Hollywood Film Industry even went as far as calling Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Walt Disney's Folly" because of how much they believed it would be a failure. But they were proven wrong.

Walt Disney put his life and career on the line when he invested $1.5 million dollars into the production of the movie but it was all worth it because the movie made a grand total of $8 million dollars. The profit of the movie helped Walt Disney build Disney Studios in Burbank, California. No other film had made that much money up until that point.

Snow White was voiced by Adriana Caselotti and was portrayed as being a 14 year old which makes her the youngest of all the Disney Princesses. Walt Disney wanted to keep the voice of Snow White special so he had Adriana Caselotti sign a very strict contract saying that she would never be allowed to perform on stage, radio, or film again in order to preserve her voice only for Snow White's character even though she was a classically trained singer. She only "appeared" once more in the entertainment industry when she had an unaccredited speaking part in The Wizard of Oz (1939). In the scene where the Tin Man sings "If I Only Had a Heart" she is the voice in the background that says "Wherefore art thou Romeo?".

The Prince was voiced by Harry Stockwell. He is believed to be portrayed as an 18 year old but this is a commonly disputed fact as none of the Disney Prince's have official ages. When the movie was first released the prince was unnamed and was just referred to as The Prince but once the Disney Princess Franchise was established in January of the year 2000 he was given the name Prince Florian.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was originally a German fairy tale known throughout Europe by word of mouth. It was officially published by The Brothers Grimm (Wilhem and Jacob Grimm) in 1812. The story was named Sneewittchen (meaning Snow White in German)  and was Tale 53 in the book Grimms' Fairy Tales. The original story is known to be somewhat more gruesome. Click here to read about the the plot differences in the movie and in the original story.

The movie is said to take place in the fictional land of Far Far Away where time doesn't exist but the original story takes place in Germany during the 1500's.

Click Here if you want to read the original Snow White published by The Brothers Grimm
Click Here if you want to view a full list of cast members from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

If you have not seen this film yet I highly recommend that you do especially because it was voted #1 on the American Film Institutes List of the top 10 greatest films in the genre "animation" in June of the year 2008.

Well that's all for this Disney History Lesson! Join me next time as we uncover the historic wonders of Disney.


Sources (various facts and pictures)-
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/disney-releases-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Disney History Lesson: The Little Mermaid

Welcome Disney enthusiasts! If you're like me and you are absolutely in love with cartoons then this is the place for you! Even if you aren't that into animation this is still a great opportunity to expand your knowledge about Disney and one of its all time greatest movies...The Little Mermaid! Let's get started!

The Little Mermaid was released on November 17, 1989 and became an immediate box office success. The film made $211,343,479 and is considered to be the start of the "Disney Renaissance and Golden Age". This is because it revived Disney's popularity in the movie industry and presented characters that had a lot of personality whereas before characters were somewhat dull and one dimensional (i.e.- Snow White).

Ariel was voiced by Jodi Benson and was portrayed as being a 16 year old. Ariel's physical features and personality was mostly modeled after Alyssa Milano who played Samantha Micelli on the ABC series "Who's The Boss?" (1984-1992). It is also believed that Sherri Lynn Stoner, who was an actress and a writer, inspired some of Ariel's physical attributes as well. The movement of Ariel's hair was modeled after footage of Sally Kristen Ride in space. Sally Kristen Ride was astronaut and physicist who worked for NASA at the time.

Eric was voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes and was portrayed as being an 18 year old. Eric's physical features and personality were modeled after Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise (1977-1984), and Mel Gibson. It is rumored that he was named in honor of Eric Larson who was one of Disney's leading animators during this time period but died a year before The Little Mermaid was released. It is also rumored that Eric was named after Edvard Eriksen who created a sculpture of Ariel in Copenhagen, Denmark. Eric is the only Disney Prince who doesn't sing.

The movies plot was adapted from the story Den Lille Havfrue (meaning "the little mermaid" in Danish) which was written by Hans Christian Anderson in 1837. The book and the movie have many similar points but have incredibly different endings. Click here to find out more about the differing story lines.

Since Hans Christian Anderson was Danish it is believed that the story was set in the Baltic Sea (while Ariel was a mermaid) and Denmark between 1650-1700. But the animated film is believed to be set in the Caribbean Sea (while Ariel was a mermaid) and Puerto Rico between 1890-1900.

If you haven't watched The Little Mermaid yet then make sure to check it out on Netflix. If you don't have Netflix then the next showing of The Little Mermaid on TV will be on ABC Family on Tuesday, December 9th at 6pm.

If you want to read the original Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson then click here.
If you want a to read the full list of cast members in The Little Mermaid click here

That's all for today's Disney History Lesson! Keep a lookout for the next one!


Sources (various facts and pictures)-
http://animatedfilmreviews.filminspector.com/p/the-golden-age-snow-white-pinochio.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/Movie_poster_the_little_mermaid.jpg