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Rare Snow White Art Joins New Toy Story Zoetrope in California Adventure Exhibit

Unique celebrations of two motion picture icons will be on view beginning Saturday (Nov. 17), exclusively at the Disney Animation attraction in Disney's California Adventure park at the Disneyland Resort.

The Walt Disney Animation Research Library has spent more than seven months creating âThe Fairest One of All," a stunning and rare collection of more than 120 pieces of concept art, story sketches, animation drawings, backgrounds and cels created during the development and production of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. Disney recently acquired many of the pieces from a private collection, including several that have never been publicly displayed.

âThe Fairest One of All" exhibition includes a never-before-seen collection of priceless art used in the creation of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS created by such Disney animation legends as Joe Grant, Eric Larson, Art Babbitt and Milt Kahl. Among the rare items presented in the exhibition are visualizations of such early concepts as a panther companion for the story's Evil Queen, redheaded and blond versions of Snow White, various story gags not used in the film, and depictions of the Queen based on actresses Joan Crawford and Katharine Hepburn.

The TOY STORY Zoetrope is unique in its own way as a 21st century variation on the Victorian novelty device. Originally created for the â20 Years of Pixar Production Art Show" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Zoetrope creates the illusion of movement by presenting a rapidly changing sequence of images -- actual three-dimensional models -- of characters from both TOY STORY films: Woody, Buzz Lightyear, cowgirl Jessie, horse Bullseye and even the little green Aliens. The figures are mounted on a spinning disk and lit with a strobe which creates a sense of continuous motion, as if the characters have actually come to life before your eyes.

Both âThe Fairest One of All" exhibition and the TOY STORY Zoetrope can be found in the Disney Animation pavilion, located in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area of Disney's California Adventure park. The Fairest One of All" exhibition will take over the Courtyard Gallery entrance hall of the Disney Animation pavilion and the TOY STORY Zoetrope can be found in an adjoining gallery.

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, celebrating the 70th anniversary of its original 1937 release, was Walt Disney's first feature-length animated film and earned him a special Academy Award: one full-size Oscar and seven little ones. TOY STORY, produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures in 1995, was the first feature-length computer-animated film and won an Academy Special Achievement Award for its director, John Lasseter, now chief creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. Separated by nearly 60 years of animation history, SNOW WHITE and TOY STORY are the only two animated features on the most recent American Film Institute list of the top 100 films of all time.

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Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.