Metrograph

Walter Elias Disney had taken risks in his professional life before, some of them quite substantive, but never, before or after, would he put all his chips on the table in the way that he did with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It would be the first feature-length cel animation film, and every penny Disney had—and quite a few he’d begged or borrowed—were sunk into it. It required years of labor by a dedicated pool of artisans to complete and, had it been upon its release anything other than a massive cultural phenomenon, it would have sunk Walt Disney Productions. The end result, however, was a consummate Technicolor charmer whose every stained glass-vivid frame shows the tremulous, loving touch of the men and women who’d painstakingly brought it to life. The exuberant, long sustained opening note of the Dwarfs’ “Heigh-Ho” encapsulates the spirit of the thing: a celebration of the pleasure of work; the pride taken in a job not just well done, but done better than anyone else could do it.

Distributor: Walt Disney Studios/20th Century