While Walt Disney was leading the animation business during the early 1930's, he knew the success wouldn't last long as he kept testing new things to do with the medium.

As it was evolving, the shorts were starting to become more expensive and less profitable. So like some had done before him, the only way to survive Hollywood at that point was to make the transition from shorts to feature films.

I saw the handwriting on the wall. My costs kept going up and up, but the short subject was just filler on any program, and so I felt I had to diversify my business. You could only get so much out of a short subject. If we were going to get anywhere, we had to get beyond the short subject. I knew that if I could crack the feature field, I could really do things.

- Walt Disney

The reason why he went with the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale as his story for the movie was because he was inspired when he saw the 1916 silent film adaptation by J. Searle Dawley back when he was 15 in Kansas City.

Starlight: Wow, very interesting what can happen to a teen.

Fluttershy: We can all be inspired at such a young age.

While it may not have been the first animated feature in history as there have been a few that proceeded it like 1926's The Adventures of Prince Achmed and 1930's Le Roman de Renard (The Tale of the Fox), It is marked as the first animated feature ever to use Cels as its medium.

But in early 20th Century America, the idea of a feature length cartoon was unheard of, or even one that would last longer than ten minutes!

When word first came out about Walt's plans for an animated movie, it was met with complete ridicule from both the press and the film industry as they infamously referred to it as "Disney's Folly".

But even with all the doubts surrounding him, it didn't even put a dent on Walt's determination. He knew that he was going to make something amazing and was willing to risk everything to prove it, and you'll see a little later that this is not an exaggeration.

Starlight: Well, this should be interesting.

Pinkie: Oh totally!

One of Walt's biggest goals with the picture was to have the audience believe in the characters. What I mean is that even if what the audience would see is nothing but drawings of cartoons, the mission was to have the viewers connect with the characters emotionally as if they were real people to care about.

Sure cartoons can make people laugh, but can a cartoon make people feel scared, fall in love, or even something that was once considered impossible, could a cartoon make people cry?

Pinkie: That really is a good challenge.

The film originally had a more comedic edge with all of it's characters. But Walt wanted it to be more than just funny. It's that sense of realism that Walt wanted to achieve for the movie and it's what he wanted to make as his next innovation in animation: Realism.

If a character is going to feel real, then they would have to look real too. The transition from animating Mickey Mouse cartoons to realistic people was proven to be a tough task for the artists. But Walt still tried his best to get his animators in the best shape they could be to make this movie.

Starlight: That's very encouraging of him.

Fluttershy: A wonderful boss.

As it was such a huge project, the company managed to hire hundreds of more artists to work for Disney, and it was a great time to get them too since this was made during The Great Depression where everyone was looking for a job.

Pinkie: Oh for sure.

To have them set up to the Disney standards, Walt built an entire art school within the studio in 1932 inspired by a group of artists led by Art Babbitt where they went and took their own courses after work.

Starlight: Fascinating!

In order to achieve the major technicalities to animate the film, several Silly Symphony cartoons were made to test effects, colors and especially movements to see if they could do it right for Snow White. One was the 1937 cartoon The Old Mill in which the team tested out their new machine called the Multiplane Camera which held several pieces of artwork and moved the camera to make the animated shot look like it's moving in a 3 dimensional environment:

Fluttershy, Pinkie & Starlight: Ooooooooh!

But the big one to experiment was to animate characters realistically. To test if they could animate a real innocent and beautiful girl, Disney created the 1934 short The Goddess of Spring:

As you might tell from watching the short, they had a long way to go.

Starlight: Yeah, I can definitely see that.

It wasn't until the studio hired animator Grim Natwick (who is credited as the man that drew Betty Boop as we know her today) where he captured the perfect design of Snow White Walt was looking for.

From there, the realism of the young princess and Queen Grimhilde finally began to take shape. But not all efforts came out successful.

Originally, Prince Florian was supposed to have a bigger role where he would've been trapped by Grimhilde and would escape to rescue Snow White.

However, due to the artists still having a hard time animating real male humans, his role was heavily scaled back.

But this is not to say that everything in the movie had to be real. The overall style of the film with the painted backgrounds is reminiscent of pictures in those old European story books.

In the original Brothers Grimm version, The Queen ordered her Huntsman to kill Snow White and bring back her liver and lungs as proof that she was dead. The Queen then cooked, salted and ate them thinking they were Snow White's unaware they came from a wild boar.

Fluttershy: Oh... my...

Pinkie: *feels sick to her stomach* Excuse me, I need some air! *rushes off and returns a few moments later* Ok, I'm good now.

For Walt, the Liver and Lungs bit was too much. So for his telling of the story, he had the Huntsman return with a heart in a box.

"The heart of a pig! Then I've been tricked!"

The only characters who were an exception to the rule of realism were the Dwarfs. As they are the comic reliefs of the picture, they were allowed to be more animated and characitured while encouraging the animators to find a good gag with either them or Snow White's animal friends with a system called 'Five Bucks A Gag'. Got a good joke that made it in the movie? You get 5 bucks. Pretty self explanatory there.

Pinkie: Wow! I'd be very rich with all the gags I would come up with!

While the artist were more comfortable with animating the Dwarfs, that did not mean they didn't come with a big challenge.

For many years during production, Walt and his team had a very hard time trying to name the Dwarfs. In total, there are around fifty names that were considered for them.

Some of these names include... Awful, Baldy, Blabby, Burpy, Crabby, Cranky, Deafy, Dirty, Dizzy, Flabby, Gabby, Goopy, Helpful, Hickey, Hoppy, Hungry, Jumpy, Lazy, Nifty, Puffy, Shorty, Sneezy-Wheezy, Shifty, Sniffy, Snoopy, Soulful, Stuffy, Swift, Tearful, Thrifty, Tubby, Weepy, Wheezy, Wistful and Biggo-Ego.

Pinkie: Wow, that's a lot of names they considered.

Starlight: No kidding.

Believe me girls, that's not even all of them.

But in less than a year before the film's release, their names and personalities that would distinguish each of them were finally settled with Doc, Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, Sleepy, and Dopey.

There was even a musical number where the Dwarfs were eating a bowl of soup.

But it was left out because Walt felt it slowed the story down.

Pinkie: That's too bad, it sounded very catchy.

Bill Cottrell and Joe Grant were in charge of the recording session of the voice of the Witch. At first, they felt that Lucille La Verne's voice was too smooth for the character.

Asking herself to be excused, La Verne left the room; upon returning a few moments later, her voice was exactly what Cottrell and Grant wanted. When asked how she had achieved this, La Verne admitted that she had removed her false teeth.

Grant noticed La Verne's changing attitude and posture when voicing the Queen and Witch, and sketched those poses down for animation reference.

Starlight: Ugh! I'm still trying to get that image out of my head. *shutters*

In the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale, the Poisoned Apple was the Queen's third attempt to get rid of Snow White forever. The first attempt was as a peddler woman selling corset laces, Snow White tried them on, but the Witch tied them so tight that Snow White nearly suffocated. The second attempt was combing Snow White's hair, with the comb turning out to be poisonous.

Walt knew the three attempts to kill Snow White would feel repetitive in a movie. So he took out the death by comb and the death by laces and stuck with the death by apple.

But despite all the creative challenges, despite the lengths to achieve realism, and despite the time it took to define the characters, there was one obstacle that was the hardest for Walt to overcome: Money!

Pinkie: Money got in the way?!

That is correct Pinkie.

The movie took so much time and resource that it ended up sucking all the money that was left in the studio. The Disney Brothers even went as far as convincing an Executive at the Bank of America by showing an unfinished version of the film, but even that wasn't enough to cover the budget.

As much as his wife Lillian and his brother (and financer of the Company) Roy tried to tell him to stop, Walt even went as far as going into his own fortune and mortgage his own home!

What was originally thought to have cost $250,000 to make, the movie's budget ended up becoming nearly $1.5 Million!

Starlight: Yikes!

Fluttershy: Oh... My...

Pinkie: *gasps* That sounds like so much at the time!

It does doesn't it?

At that point, it wasn't just the money that was at risk, Walt put his company, his livelihood, and his life's work on the line.

After around 4 years of production, the moment finally came on December 21st 1937 where the movie premiered at The Carthay Circle Theatre.
It was a sold out event and some of the biggest stars in Hollywood at the time were all there to witness Disney's first movie. It was one of the most stressful moments of Walt and his crew's lives.

Once the film was over, Disney's Folly... became Disney's Phenomenon!

The audience at the premiere jumped to their feet for a standing ovation after they laughed and cried with the film. Even right at that moment, they knew what they just witnessed was a monumental moment in Cinema History, and it even got Walt on the cover of Time Magazine.

As the film later had a public release on February 4th 1938, it was beloved by both critics and audiences and broke some major box office records by earning a total of more than $7.8 Million making it the highest grossing sound film of all time!... until the release of Gone with the Wind.

But the revenue did not just come from the movie itself. Snow White was also credited to be the first movie to have merchandise released on the same day as the film and even put out the first feature film soundtrack on phonographic records.

The success of the film was even taken note in Hollywood where MGM was inspired to pursue their own family friendly fantasy film that would eventually become the 1939 classic: The Wizard of Oz.

The movie was also recognized at the Academy Awards where it was nominated for Best Original Score.

But the big win was an honorary award as a significant screen innovation which had charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field.

Presented by Shirley Temple, the award was a unique Oscar that had one normal sized statue and seven little ones.

Pinkie: Awwww, isn't that cute?

Starlight: It sure is, Pinkie.

Fluttershy: Certainly adorable!

"Isn't it bright and shiny?!"

"Oh, it's beautiful."

"Aren't you proud of it, Mr.Disney?"

"I'm so proud, I think I'll bust!"

"*giggles*"

The movie was Disney's first to be re-released when it came back to the big screen in 1944 and started a new tradition of re-releasing their animated films periodically until it ended when home media became popular in the 1990's. With the combined total of all the re-releases, the film made a lifetime gross of $418 Million.

The film would go on to inspire some rides like Snow White's Scary Adventures across several Disney Parks

, and The Seven Dwarfs' Mine Train at Walt Disney World and Shanghai Disneyland , a reimagining animated series on Disney XD called The 7D that lasted 2 seasons from 2014 to 2016 , and an official stage musical in 1969 by Jay Blackton, Joe Cook and the movie's lyricist, Larry Morey, that even performed at The Radio City Music Hall from 1979 to 1980 with over 100 performances.

The cultural significance of Snow White was so big that the Library of Congress officially selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1989 and the American Film Institute placed it on several of their top lists, Including No.49 of their Top 100 Movies List and No.34 on their updated 10th Anniversary List, No.19 on their Top 100 Songs with "Someday My Prince Will Come", No. 10 on their Top 100 Villains with The Queen, and at No.1 of their Top 10 Animated Films.

While it may often be referred to as the greatest animated feature of all time, a more suited title was also given to highlight how it initiated Disney's Legacy as "The One That Started It All".

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Fun and educational

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Goes to show how much Walt tried to get this off the ground.

Walt Disney had it right when he wanted this feature to be the best as possible. Any 'average' artist can develop a cartoon, whether as a short or a feature, where it can make people laugh (MOST cartoons can do that). But sometimes, if you really want to feel an emotion for the character or if you want it to be easier to relate to their own plight, their range in emotion has to widen. You have to give an audience something to fear, to cry about, or to be made at for whatever reason. And if Walt hadn't taken those steps to make it this movie into more than what audiences initially expected, we wouldn't have the Disney we'd have today.

True, many other features that came after have tried to imitate or replicate the success of this movie and not just Disney. But no feature has ever been ever to 'duplicate' it to the point where it's just as good as the original (If not 'better') and while there have been TONS of amazing Disney features to follow after this, they find 'Snow White' to be their biggest competitor to go up against. Say what you will about Snow White, as she's mostly the 'damsel in distress' needed to be saved by the Prince in the end, but at least she's that damsel we 'do' feel for her, when she's motherly to the Dwarves who sheltered her or her dreams of meeting the man of her dreams and to live a happier life from her cruel stepmother. In a way, we've all been 'Snow White' in some form (Not just women), and we all have dreams and ambitions of our own... It's just a matter of how we in turn want our dreams to come to pass.

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But to think people called it Disney's folly

They judged the movie before they even saw it in theaters. So nowadays, that's not 'Disney's' folly... It's 'their' folly.

I got a feeling the acrapped scenes with Florian inspired Starlight's role for the fic.

I should hope so. It was the easiest way to expand Florian's character by having Starlight Glimmer in his place.

Hopefully, we'll give Starlight a more 'prominent' role during future events of the Disney Chronicles.