Fifty years ago, this year, the cinema shifted course, slightly perhaps, but nevertheless shifted, because the first American animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was produced in Hollywood, writes Robin Allan.
Not only was Snow White a product of the studio system itself but it would in turn influence that system and spread waves of influence outside the cinema generally, pouring over into popular musical form, literature, art and commerce.
The genesis of the film, the risks Disney took in making it, its technical innovation and its triumphant and immediate critical and popular success, is discussed elsewhere. My purpose here is to reassess the film and to examine the rich source of European and American influences upon it, and how it in turn came to influence the films that followed it. It is revived, on average, every seven years, and continues to attract cinema audiences of both adults and children. Snow White has never been shown on TV or given video release; how many films of this vintage can attract large box office attendances, or indeed are ever revived for the big screens of today?
[…]
