Walpurgis Night on Bald Mountain

Walpurgis Night, a pagan holiday of pre-Christian Europe, occurs on April 30th, the eve of May Day. It was widely believed that this auspicious eventide marked the time when the veil is the thinnest between the two worlds of the physical and that of the spirits.

The "death of winter" in central and northern European countries is celebrated in modern times with the singing of songs and the lighting of bonfires--bonfires that in ancient days were set to keep at bay the dead and troublesome spirits that came out to walk among the living. In German folklore, Walpurgisnacht was the night that witches would gather to hold their revelments with the gods and demons on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Hanz Mountains of north central Germany.

This scene is brought to dramatic life in the brilliant Night on Bald Mountain segment of Walt Disney's Fantasia. The demon Chernabog rises from the top of Bald Mountain and summons to him all manner of ghost, skeleton, witch, and goblin. The demonic dance continues through the night until the toll of a church bell signals the dawn of May Day and the end of the Walpurgis revelries.

Image copyright Disney

The Night on Bald Mountain segment is a showcase for animator Bill Tytla, who gave the demon Chernabog a power and intensity rarely seen in Disney films. Noted actor Béla Lugosi served as a live action model for Chernabog, and spent several days at the Disney studio, where he was filmed doing evil, demon-like poses for Tytla and his unit to use as a reference. Tytla later deemed this reference material unsuitable and had studio colleague Wilfred Jackson perform in front of the cameras for the reference footage.Source: Wikipedia

While Wilfred Jackson is quoted as saying that Tytla used Jackson's own reference material rather than Lugosi's for the Chernabog character, others argue that it appears that probably both sets of of reference material were utilized.

Images via Classic Disney Scares on the Classic Horrors Film Board. Copyright Universal and Disney.

The Night on Bald Mountain segment from Fantasia:

Video posted by hellrazor227.

Below, the London Symphony Orchestra records Modest Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain as part of the score for the World of Color show at DCA:

Copyright Disney.

Snow White Belfast Mural

Since the 1970's, nearly 2,000 murals have been painted in Northern Ireland--the vast majority of them promoting the polarized views of the two political sides, either republican (mostly Catholic) or loyalist (mostly Protestant). Yet not all the paintings focus on political or religious differences. Becoming increasingly popular are murals representing peace and tolerance, and a few avoid the political issues of Ireland entirely--hence we find Snow White.

 Image courtesy of Dr.Martin Urbanus; Used with permission.

Snow White mural on brick wall depicting the Wishing Well scene. Located on Roden Street in south Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Snow White / Star Wars Mashup

 Snow White n 7 Stormtroopers copyright Thumper-001. [CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

Another piece found on deviantArt, this one a Snow White/Star Wars mashup by Thumper-001.

Interesting details to note:

• Snow White is of course wearing Princess Leia's dress and hair buns, but she still has her red bow. 
• They're in the interrogation cell room, but Snow is sitting on a carved wooden chair from the dwarfs' cottage.
• The skull from the Evil Queen's dungeon sits next to the IT-O Interrogator droid employed by Darth Vader in his questioning of Leia.
• Imperial insignias adorn the hoods of the dwarfs who have all donned stormtrooper uniforms.
• And is that the apple on the back wall, a red Death Star, or a red planet?

Dream Portrait Series

Annie Leibovitz's Dream Portrait Series, a Disney advertisement campaign (for the Year of a Million Dreams) featuring celebrities as traditional Disney characters, first appeared with three images in January 2007. A second round featuring three more--including Rachel Weisz as Snow White--came out in October 2007. Four more were added January 2008 with one additional--Julianne Moore as the Little Mermaid--on April 25, 2008.

 Rachel Weisz as Snow White by Annie Leibovitz.

Julianne Moore as the Little Mermaid with Michael Phelps
by Annie Leibovitz. Images copyright Disney

Special thanks to the Disney Blog for the great original posts.

Um...Snow White Crocs?

The Snow White edition of the Crocs ©Disney Princesses Mary Jane Collection. As stated on the Crocs website, it's a magical shoe for your little one. Retail price $29.99 (US).

Snow White Silhouette Tee

Item #102357M

The Evil Queen keeps an eye on the young princess in this clever design by Disney Couture. The Silhouette Snow White Tee was sold online through Disney.com and at such stores a TrenD in Downtown Disney. Original price $39.95. No longer available.

Snow White Maquette

Maquette is French for scale model, and it usually refers to a small preliminary model which can be used as a reference for a sculpture, a building, or in our case, an animated character. Its purpose is to test the idea in 3D form, to work out the bugs before investing the time, money and effort necessary for producing the final product. And for the animator, the maquette helps with the visualization/creation process.

It was December 1935 when Marc Davis, one of the grand masters of Disney animation, took upon himself to sculpt this Snow White maquette. It is one of the first, if not the first, animation maquette ever made.

The modern-day maquette is an essential component in the filmmaking process for animated films as well as in live-action scenes requiring CGI. Gentle Giant Studios is one of the players in this field, having worked on such movies as Avatar, the Harry Potter franchise, and Ratatouille to name just a few.

Alice Davis, administrator of the Davis Family Trust, furnished the original Snow White maquette to Gentle Giant Studios for scanning reference in the creation of a 250 limited edition authorized reproduction of Marc Davis' classic work. The piece measures approx. 9" high.

Snow White Collector Note: The Marc Davis Snow White maquette reproduction is currently being offered on ebay for around $70(US).

1955 McCall's Spread - Snow White Ride

January 1955, the grand opening of Walt Disney's Disneyland is only a few months away. In anticipation, McCall's magazine featured full color concept art from the park including a spread of the Snow White's Adventures ride.

Image courtesy of Vintage Disneyland Tickets

See more from this issue of McCall's at the Vintage Disneyland Tickets blog.

Traci Hines Sings Snow White

Videos posted by TraciJHines

 Traci not only sings the part, she looks it. And not just as Snow White...

Learn more at True Enchantment Entertainment and TraciHines.com.

Kandee Johnson Sings Snow White

Video posted by thekandeejohnsonshow

Enchanted Background

Check out the wonderful post by Rob Richards over at Animated Backgrounds. The artwork featured is from the film Enchanted and includes the well known storybook opening. It was just one of the hundreds of references made in this 2007 film to older classic Disney movies.

 Image via Animated Backgrounds. Copyright Walt Disney Pictures.

Out of the film's 107 minutes of running time, ten of the approximately 13 minutes of animation are at the beginning of the film. [Director Kevin] Lima tried to "cram every single piece of Disney iconic imagery" that he could into the first ten minutes, which were done in traditional cel animation as a tribute to past Disney fairy tale films such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  Source: Wikipedia

All comparison images via IMDB. Copyright Walt Disney Pictures.

Video posted by unitdirtdiver

Video posted by theCombuster

Video posted by Tennor1

Giselle's Dress. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

 Poster via cinematical.com. Copyright Walt Disney Pictures.

And read a post over at my Tarazod Films blog on the Enchanted title sequence at the end of the film.

Tinker Bell Tee

Tinker Bell with dreads? My wife's cute Tink shirt.

Snow White / Magritte Mashup

René Magritte. Image via Masters of Photography. Copyright Lothar Wolleh, 1967.

 
In the surrealist work of Belgian painter René Magritte, our perceptions of reality are often challenged. His 1964 Son of Man painting featured a man in a suit and bowler hat with a green apple covering the face. This image was used prominently in the 1999 art heist film The Thomas Crown Affair.

Son of Man copyright René Magritte; oil painting 1964.

Image copyright Brian Cook

Recently, freelance illustrator Brian Cook took the Son of Man to a new dimension with this Snow White/Magritte mashup. "I've always been a big fan of classic cartoons and art history. Hence, this idea seemed like a good one."

Image copyright Brian Cook via Threadless

If you want to see how Brian's Snow White image progressed from sketch to finish, visit his threadless page.

Gothic Snow White

Creative Commons image courtesy of skullyan

From skullyan's deviantArt page, this is certainly a different take on Snow White. While probably not something Walt Disney would have approved of in his day, it is fun to have a look at the interpretations other artists have had on the first Disney princess.

Snow White Pressed Pennies - Retired

Pressed (or elongated) coins--particularly pennies--have been an inexpensive form of souvenir for Disney Park visitors since the coin machines first started appearing in 1987.

A pressed coin is created when a coin is squeezed between two rollers, one of which has an engraving on it's surface. Approximately, 2500 pounds of pressure is put on the coin as it is flattened. These pressed coin machines feature designs containing Disney characters, theme parks, attractions and special events. Each machine contains either one, three or four different designs.  Source: presscoins.com

In the late 1980's there were only a few Disney press machines and only at Disneyland in Anaheim. In 1992 (or 1994 depending on who you talk to), the first penny machine appeared at Walt Disney World in Orlando followed in 1996 at Tokyo Disneyland, 2005 Hong Kong Disneyland and 2006 Disneyland Paris. Machine and die images copyrighted pressedpennies.

Read a recent post on the Disneyland coin machines by Michelle Harker from the Disney Parks blog.


And now, here's a few of the Snow White pennies that have been retired and are no longer available at the parks:





Three Disneyland coins...

Horizontal SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS 1937 - 50TH ANNIVERSARY -1987. This die was made by Frank Brazzell (small initials "FB" on coin). Coins were used/issued/sold by Ewell Gunther in stamp and coin sets that were made in low numbers for collectors. Coins were probably not Disney ordered, authorized or sanctioned...

Set of 9 Disneyland coins includes Snow White, the Old Witch and the Dwarfs. Hand engraved by Jimmy Vargas, Master Engraver at Eurolink. All retired between 1999 and 2004. Six seen below..

Below Left: Snow White coin from the In Character Costume Shop at Disney's Hollywood Studio. Right: Snow White coin from the Game Point Arcade at All-Star Sports Resort...

Below Left: Wicked Witch coin retired November 1996. Machine was located in the lobby of the Country Bear Jamboree, Critter Country, Disneyland. Right: Evil Queen, Disneyland. Introduced March 2003, retired March 2004...

From 1987, 50th Anniversary of the Snow White Premiere; Used in collector issue PNC (Philatelic Numismatic Combinations. A combination of stamp and coin, generally on a First Day of Issue cachet (envelope) for either coin or stamp)...

Doc, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey, all introduced July 2004, retired May 2005. Grumpy, Bashful, Snow White on stage February 2004 to May 2005. All were located at some point in the Main Street Penny Arcade, Disneyland...

Info and images via these great elongated coin sites: parkpennies.com, pressedpennies.com, presscoins.com and disney.satarma.com.