Faces Behind The Film

The making of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs took over three years with a total cost of $1,488,422.74 (USD) in 1937. Here are a few of the people who created this animated classic.

  • Walt Disney (36) - Man with the vision.
  • Roy O. Disney (44) - The business mind.

Images via various sources; noted within blog posts. Copyright Disney.


The production involved 32 animators, 102 assistant animators, 167 in-betweeners, 20 layout artists, 25 water color background artists, 65 effects animators, and 158 female inkers and painters, plus voice actors, movement models, camera technicians and more!

Note 1: This list is incomplete but more names and photos will continue to be added.
Note 2: Ages listed in parentheses are from the time of the World Premiere, December 21, 1937.


Directors:
  • David Hand (37) - Supervising Director.



  • Ben Sharpsteen (42) - Sequence Director.
  • Bill Cottrell (31) - Sequence Director.

PHOTOS 1930


  • Wilfred Jackson (31) - Sequence Director.
  • Perce Pearce (38) - Sequence Director.

LEFT PHOTO 1930; RIGHT CIRCA 1950s

____


Music Team:
  • Frank Churchill (36) - Composer.
  • Larry Morey (32) - Song Lyricist + Sequence Director.



  • Leigh Harline (30) - Music Composer.
  • Paul Smith (31) - Music Composer.



____


Story:
  • Ted Sears (37) - Story department head.



  • Webb Smith (42) - Story department.
  • Otto Englander (31) - Story department.

PHOTOS 1931


  • Merrill De Maris (39) - Story department.
  • Earl Hurd (57) - Story department.

LEFT PHOTO 1941; RIGHT 1939

Not yet pictured:
  • Dorothy Ann Blank
  • Richard Creedon
  • Dick Rickard
____


Sketch Artists / Character Designers:

PHOTOS 1939





____


Animators:
  • Grim Natwick (47) - Snow White
  • Hamilton Luske (34) - Snow White



  • Art Babbitt (30) - Queen
  • Norm Ferguson (35) - Witch



  • Fred Moore (26) - Dwarfs.
  • Bill Tytla (33) - Dwarfs.



  • Shamus Culhane (29) - Marching Dwarfs.
  • Jack Campbell - Snow White.



____


The Nine Old Men:












____


Movement Models:



____


Voice Actors (English-Language Version):



  • Lucille La Verne (65) - Queen/Witch.



  • Pinto Colvig (45) - Grumpy/Sleepy.
  • Roy Atwell (59) - Doc.



  • Otis Harlan (71) - Happy.
  • Billy Gilbert (43) - Sneezy.
  • Scotty Mattraw (57) - Bashful.



  • Eddie Collins (54) - Dopey sounds (and movement model).
  • Moroni Olsen (48) - Magic Mirror.
  • Stuart Buchanan (43) - Huntsman. 



The list shouldn't stop here. Hundreds more were involved with the making of this film.

____


International Versions:

The Disney Studio originally created twelve versions of Snow White for distribution to the worldwide market. Film frames featuring English text--such as the opening storybook sequence or the dwarfs' names on their beds--were replaced with wording from the dubbed language. In some sequences, the lettering might simply have been removed altogether--as with Grumpy's name on Snow White's gooseberry pie or the word "vault" over the door at the diamond mine.

In addition to the English-language track, they also recorded dialog and song lyrics in Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, and Spanish. Supervision over these international dubs was charged to Roy Disney and Stuart Buchanan.

Most of the original tracks were re-recorded at least once and even twice more during the ensuing years of theatrical and home video re-releases. Add to this the dubs created in additional languages--Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese (to name just a few)--and the resulting number of voice actors involved becomes staggering.

Here is a very small sampling:

Be sure to check out the international voice actor index site, Charguigou, which includes a list for Snow White: 

Also see the excellent video by researcher Leonardo Forli comparing all of the original 13 voice actors who played Snow White in the different 1938 dubbings:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)