The technical advancements of Pinocchio might not have been achieved had “Disney’s Folly” halted Disney’s animation plans. © Disney Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.

These developments would have resulted in less critical attention and a cultural mentality that the animated film could never aspire to an art. Not only would Disney have been financially unable to produce Fantasia, the ne plus ultra of animation's attempt at "high art," it is likely the project would never have been given a second thought at all.

This possibility would not be unrealistic; it should be recalled that prior to the early 1970s there was no serious historical study of the animated short. The first historians were basically cultists. In the hands of independents, animation could have gained recognition as an avant-garde novelty, but the distribution of independent shorts would have been sorely lacking. Animation may have ended up seeing its greatest service in advertising, especially after the theatrical short died out in the mid-1950s.

Might animation have been better or worse off if Snow White (and by extension the direction taken by Disney animation) had stalled out? The answer truly depends on two factors: what might have risen or continued to develop as an alternative and how audiences would have reacted to it. Since the possibilities are as diverse as individual animators or audience members, that will forever be a matter of guesswork. Some may have produced or welcomed increasing surrealism or abstraction, some wilder humor, some a more mature, aesthetic approach. In time, another studio or consortium of artists might have attempted a full-length feature or an experimental film lasting between 75 and 90 minutes.

The only conjecture that can be made with any amount of certainty is that the art form would have survived in a rich multiplicity of styles. The success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs certainly did influence the development of American animation to a degree, but had the film failed or been unproduceable, animation would not have been devastated.

Animation was well on its way to becoming an established cinematic variant even before Disney had a studio and "Disney animation" was only one evolutionary branch in the medium's development. Artistic evolution would still have taken its course (even at Disney) and simply produced new species, some vibrant and some less so. 2D animation, for example, is unjustly on the verge of disappearing from every major animation studio in favor of CGI, proving this point emphatically. Technology, tastes and economics will continue to influence animated films: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had to negotiate all three. The film's ability to do so successfully allowed its studio to help shape the future of American animation and introduce a set of standards that defined the medium to the general audience and most critics.

Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman is a longtime student and fan of animation. He lives in Anderson, Indiana.