Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Project Documentary Script

Leila MillsCTVU 105

The 90th year anniversary bonus feature for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs mimics the opening credits of the original film. A fade in from black reveals the large white story book of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on a table covered in blue satin next to a golden candle stick. With the beginning of the overture of the film, composed by Frank Churchill, playing in the background, the words “Bonus Feature” will swipe across at the bottom of the book title from left to right with the sound of tinker bell like chimes.

As the book begins to open a cross fade into the first page will occur. The first page begins the plot of the bonus feature with the tale of Roy and Walt Disney. The book will slowly open and with it the voice of the narrator will begin the story. The narration, which is never seen, begins and the music fades slightly.

Narrator: Once upon a time there lived a great man named Walt Disney. He was a producer, animator, inventor, voice actor, and a dreamer who had the drive to work for perfection.

As the next page turns a number of Walt Disney’s animated success (specifically before Snow White) including the old fashioned Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Rabbit, various characters from the Silly Symphonies, and characters from Flowers and Trees run towards the camera, laughing and cheering, as the view dives deep into the book, past the characters providing the illusion of going back in time.

As the narrator speaks the overture of Snow White which has been playing quietly in the background this whole will increase in volume slightly and start to rewind quickly to increase the illusion of going back in time, the tune will morph into a old fashioned tune that was popular at the time and continue to play, almost unnoticeably behind the narrator.

Narrator: But before he was a worldwide success and a household name he was simply Walter Elias Disney. Born on December 5th, 1901 to Elias and Flora Disney he would be the fourth and final son before his little sister Ruth was born.

The end of the traveling back through pictures stops on a picture of Walter with his younger sister standing on their porch in Chicago. As the narrator speaks a slow zoom will commence that focuses on the young Walt Disney (right).

Narrator: Though he was born in Chicago Illinois, and his father Elias Disney moved the family around the Midwest frequently, the majority of his childhood memories were made in the small town of Marceline, Missouri. A town born around a rail road stop on the Santa Fe line, Marceline was an adventure for the young Walt Disney.

Cutting from the image of Walt as a child, images of Marceline will roll, starting with what was Main Street in the early 1900s. A zoomed close up will follow down the street before fading into the image of the

railroad station

Narrator: His family moved onto a five acre farm that was a dream to a young city boy. When he wasn’t working on the farm with his family or in school Walt spent his free time watching the trains go by, exploring new places, and revealing in the joys of nature. It was also in Marceline that Disney discovered his passion of art.

Fading from the image of the railroad station the next image of Walt’s farm home will start with a close zoom on the porch that backs out to reveal the whole house.

Narrator: The Disneys would leave Marceline for Kansas City in 1910 when Walt was nine years old but the whimisical atmosphere of what he considered his hometown would never leave his imagination and would eventually influence the design of Main Street USA in the Disney theme parks.

The original image of Marceline’s main street will cut in but slowly fade into the image of Disney’s Main Street USA. This will be done to show the similarities of the two locations and how the overall structure influnced Walt Disney.

Narrator: Kansas City would also have an impact on Walt’s future in several ways. Elias Disney was a stern hard working man who was always trying to secure his fortune. When he moved his family to Kansas City he did so partially because he “purchased the franchise on a newspaper delivery round” (Bailey, 1982).

Cut to image of Walt’s parents. Slow zoom into the stern expression of his father until the narrator starts to comment on the newspaper stories. Then cut to the image of the young Walt Disney. A slow zoom out to contrast the viewing of his father’s image.

Every morning as early as 3:30 for six years Walt and his brothers carried the task of delivering newpapers to around 650 subscribers. In later years during an interview Walt would credit the paper route for forging his character and giving him an apperciation of his spare time. It was also in Kansas City that Walt would be exposed to a story that would greatly affect his future success. In 1917 when he was 15 years old Walt saw a film version of the play Snow White starring Marguerite Clark in the Kansas City Convention Hall.

Starting with the left side of the image, zoom slowly across from left to right taking in the scope of the building until the fast forward.

Narrator: The story would have a lasting impact on Walt as it would be his choice to make history with his own adaptation of Snow White when he embarked on the endevor of creating the first ever American feature length animation film.

Fast Forward back in time with the animation of a timeline the camera will pull away from the Kansas City Convention Center and rush past images of Walt and his accomplishments in the same way that the beginning of the script did.

Narrator: Fast forward to the early 1930s. Walt Disney had served during World War I by driving amublances in France, he returned to America and had an equal amount of failures and successes when it came to his artistic career, and had the ultimate success when he started his own company with his brother Roy; The Disney Bros Cartoon Studio.

The fast forwarding timeline will stop on an image of an older Walt Disney. The image will be tightly zoomed on his face, pulling out gradually to show the Disney Bros Studio behind him, Roy, and Ub.

Narrator: When Walt Disney first announced he wanted to take on the project of an animated feature film there were hesitations all around. Would an audience sit through a feature length cartoon? Would the studio have enough money and staff to support the project? Walt was bold and confident enough to find out.

Insert animation of Mickey halting to a stop as the hesitations are mentioned for the film of Snow White. Cut to the image of Walt drawing Mickey, slow zoom from top to bottom that zooms in more to Mickey’s face.

Cut to the image of Walt drawing Mickey Mouse as the narrator begins the tale of Snow White. When the reference to Steamboat Willie is mentioned, narrator will pause to allow for the clip to play. Clip will ultimately play for a full 15 seconds, showing the scene where Mickey is whistling and steering the board, but the narrator will continue on with their dialouge after the first 10 seconds.

Narrator: He had already completed many successful first such as Steamboat Willie, which was the first animated cartoon with sound. He also made history when he closed an exclusive two year deal with The Technicolor Organization which allowed him to create the first animated three strip cartoons in color. With a growing record of success such as this a full length animated feature was the next adventure waiting to happen.

Cut to the movie poster of Flowers and Trees when discussing the first technicolor cartoon. The camera will scan up and down the picture, taking in the variety of colors presented.

Narrator: When Walt declared he wanted to do an animated feature length cartoon he was presented many options by his colleagues. Stories such as Alice in Wonderland, Bambi: A Life in the Woods, Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey, Gulliver’s Travels. Walt had found his perfect story and it was none of the above.

Cut to the voice over of an actor that is supposes to be Walt Disney. “I thought it was the perfect story. It had the sympathetic dwarfs, you see? It had the heavy. It had the prince and the girl. The romance. I just thought it was a perfect story.” As the quote is being read, let the words flow across the bottom of the image of Walt and the Dwarf figurines.

Narrator: In later years an even deeper meaning came to this film choice. Walt commented, “Snow White had nearly all the narrative features-the tyrannical parent, the sentence of drudgery, the promise of a childhood utopia-and incorporated nearly all the major themes of his young life, primarily the need to conquer the previous generation to stake one’s claim on maturity, the rewards of hard work, the dangers of trust, and perhaps above all, the escape into fantasy as a remedy for inhospitable reality.”(Gabler, 2007) As the next quote is played fade into the new image of Walt Disney and zoom across the bottom of the screen to capture the images of the dwarfs. Make the way up to Walt Disney’s face and then zoom out to capture the whole image.

Narrator: Now that the story was chosen it was time to get to work. The process of adapting the story into feature length cartoon material, hiring all the animators, using the right equipment, creating the personalities of animated figures, finding the voices to fit the characters, and so much more was an enormous task that everyone involved in the project was aware of. The amount of work and how much it would cost earned the project of Snow White the nickname as “Disney’s Folly”.

Cut to image of smiling Walt Disney as the tasks are listed that have the potential to stop the production. This image will show the contrast between the media’s critiques and Walt’s sureness in the success of his project and himself.

Narrator: The impact of Snow White would be felt immediately among the Walt Disney Studios as nearly 750 new employees were hired for the production of the film. The process starts with the writers, animators, and gagmen.

Show clip How Walt Disney Cartoons are Made from 1:30 to 1:50. The audio of the clip would not be heard but the visual will be shown as the narrator talks.

Narrator: Gags were very important to the process and Walt encouraged all of his staff to help in the process by offering five dollars for every good gag that was included in the final process of the film. A new technology of a three hole punch seed was created for Snow White rather than using the old two hole punch seed. As the animators tackled over half a million drawings for the film the three whole punch seed was better for holding the drawings to the animator’s board.

Cut to How Walt Disney Cartoons are Made from 1:55 to 2:14 for the director section, same as before, no audio but visual for all of these clips. Then show 2:14 to 2:30 to continue on in the process.

Narrator: The director would take the sketches, ideas, and gags produced, refine them and then send them back to the animators. Here we have early sketches of the evil queen and snow white. From there the animators would clarify and perfect their drawings before sending them off to the camera department.

Images of early sketches of Snow White, the Queen, and the Prince will appear for about five seconds and then fade into the next set of sketches which shows a story board of the chase between the dwarfs and the evil queen. A slow zoom from the top left hand corner will continue down to the bottom right hand corner to get a full scope of the images.

Narrator: Another obstacle that was soon resolved through the technology used on Snow White was the amount of realism that Walt wanted in the film. Ken Anderson, an art director from the picture remembers “That Walt was impatient with the restrictions of the cartoon. He strived for more and more realism, more naturalism in the features. He was always aiming at exceeding the limitations of the medium.” The multiplane camera was one of the ways to break the limitations of naturalism. It was first used in the Disney cartoon The Old Mill which was released the same year.

“Imagine a series of four or five identical rectangular frames, each holding painted pane of glass, positioned in the form of a long box, with spaces in between to create depth. Each pane (or glass plate) has a painted aspect of a scene or animated figures set up in a series of planes, rather like a toy theatre with stage set. The panes are rigged to move in any direction on the lateral place, the camera is likewise capable for infinite adjustment.” (Bailey, 1982)

Narrator: The use of this technology created a new depth of cartoon that was never seen before and would eventually win Disney an Academy Award.

As the narrator speaks the image of the multiplane camera will start with a slow zoom from top to bottom. Emphasis will be placed on Walt at the end of the zoom shot as he follows the whole process of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Another way the animators of Snow White brought a sense of realness to the film was by Marge Champion. Only 13 at the time she became the live action model for Snow White. She recalls;

“Because cartoon characters have a large head in proportion to their bodies, they had this football helmet with a couple of holes punctured into it and her black hair painted on it for me to wear. By noon, I was practically fainting under those lights with this helmet on and it also inhibited my movement a great deal. So they finally took that off and just put a ribbon around my hair.” (Champion, 2009)

Without knowing it Marge would also have an impact of the image of Snow White. "When they first showed me the storyboards, Snow White looked a little more like Betty Boop – little tiny waist and big round eyes with eyelashes. And, by the time they started drawing me, the eyes had become almond-shaped. The hair was not my color, because I was sort of ash-blonde – but everything else, the nose and particularly the waistline, is

like me. She was a much more real human character when they finished than she was originally imagined.”(Champion, 2009)

As Margaret recalls her experience her image will appear and the camera will follow from the bottom up to her smiling face before zooming out slowly to show the full image of her dancing in her costume.

Narrator: The next part of this process includes inking and adding the color. A building dedicated completely to the color, ink, and paint girls was built so they could constantly work on their assigned task. With over 1500 shades of color created for the world of Snow White that had to be exactly placed on over half a million pictures it was no wonder the production process didn’t take longer than three years.

Cut to How Walt Disney Cartoons are Made from 3:25 to 4:15 for the director section, same as before, no audio but visual for all of these clips, the narrator will be speaking as these clips are playing.

Narrator: Living in the new decade of sound Walt Disney knew the importance of sound effects and composition. With the help of his sound effects men they worked through the process of picking key elemental noises that fits the gags and suit the fantasy world of cartoon but would also be just real enough to keep the audience engaged. Composers Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, and Paul Smith were tasked with the same mission but on a level that contributed to the heightened emotion of the characters.

Cut to How Walt Disney Cartoons are Made from 4:51 to 5:38 for the director section, same as before, no audio but visual for all of these clips, the narrator will be speaking as these clips are playing.

Narrator: Finding voice actors to fit the characters of the film was one of the final obstacles the Walt Disney staff faced. Each character wasn’t just a drawing on a page to Walt. Each one need to have personalities, background stories, their own mannerisms and ways of acting that were

influenced by circumstances the audience would ever know. When casting the dwarfs the actors personalities matched slightly with the dwarf they were playing.

Cut to image of the dwarfs. Close up on Doc’s figure and expression, following with Grumpy, and each dwarf in order. This image is to get a sense of their personality to emphasis the point Walt Disney was making about their characters.

Narrator: Finding the voice of Snow White was a bigger task. Hundreds of girls were auditioned for the part. Her voice couldn’t been too womanly or too kidish. The role was giving to the casting director’s daughter, Adriana Caselotti when she auditioned for the role. Walt was in a separate room listening in on her audition and as soon as he heard her voice he knew she was the Snow White he was looking for.

Cut to the image of Snow White, slow zoom into her face until Adriana Caselotti is mentioned. Then quick fade into Adriana as the narrator tells how she got the part. Narrator: When Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was finally complete it had cost Walt Disney Studios 1.5 million dollars. The total process took five years and the success of the film would rely solely on the audience’s reaction to the one hour and 23 minute film.

Cut to an image of the original movie poster. Starting from the bottom up, zooming quickly over the animals, dwarfs, and then Snow White.

Narrator: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered on December 21, 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theatre in the Los Angeles, California to an audience of Hollywood’s biggest stars at the time. By the end of the film the same critics that had nicknamed the film Disney’s Folly were on their feet giving the movie a standing ovation. The rest of the world reacted in the same way. In one year Snow White paid for the bill Disney had rung up by grossing eight million dollars!

Play clip of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Movie Premiere 1937”. No audio except for the narrator.

Narrator: Walt Disney won an academy award on behalf of the film in 1939 for its “significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture” (Britannica Inc., 2011). It was a unique award, presented by Shirley Temple, which had one statuette with seven smaller ones to follow!

Cut to image of Walt Disney and Shirley Temple, the camera will start with a close up from Shirley Temple, move up to Walt Disney, and then zoom out to view the whole image. Fade into the single image of the award.

Narrator: The great success of Snow White surpassed all expectations and contributed to the recognition of the name Walt Disney. In later years directors such as Federico Fellini and Orson Welles were inspired by the “movie’s innovative use of story, color, animation, sound, direction and background, among other elements” (History Channel, 2011).

Cut to the scene in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when Snow White wakes up, the prince twirls her around and the dwarfs celebrate. This final scene will play as the background music of the original film picks up again and continues until the very end of the documentary script.

Narrator: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs would also start the tradition of Disney re-releasing its classics every seven years, when the film was rereleased in 1944. To this day Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is still relevant to today’s culture as it impacts new generations and introduces them to the magic and wonder that is Walt Disney.

A fade in, three second pause, and fade out of every DVD cover will flash to show the multiple releases that Disney has produced on this now classic film.

After the last image of the DVD cover, the final scene of Snow White will play as Snow White and the Prince go over the hill and look off into the clouds to see the coming kingdom. From this final scene, fade out to the end.