Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Art and Creation of Walt Disney’s Classic Animated Film, by J. B. Kaufman.  Foreword by Diane Disney Miller.

San Francisco, Weldon Owen, October 2012, hardcover $35.00 (256 pages).

This book and The Fairest One of All: The Making of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, also by J. B. Kaufman, are companion volumes published to commemorate the 75^th anniversary of the premiere of the first Hollywood animated theatrical feature in December 1937.  Both are indispensable for Disney and animation fans alike. The Fairest One of All: The Making of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is indispensable also for those interested in the history of cinema in general, for those interested in pre-Disney stage and cinematic productions of the Snow White folk tale, and for those interested in the history of the Disney studio from the late 1920s to the present.

 

This volume, a massive hardcover 10.7” x 9.8” and weighing almost 3 ½ pounds, just concentrates on the making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, from 1934 to 1937; an expansion of the similar section in The Fairest One of All.  It is based on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Classic”, an exhibition of art from the Walt Disney Family Museum, the Walt Disney Animation Research Library, and art borrowed from several private collectors, from November 15, 2012 to April 14, 2013 at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.  It presents “over 200 pieces of art, including original concept sketches, background paintings, and production cels, as well as alternate character concepts, deleted scenes, and step-by-step process shots.” (jacket text)  It is essentially the catalogue of the exhibition.