Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

In 2012 Disney will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Snow White movie, a beloved classic and an important milestone in film history. This book, created with the Walk Disney Family Foundation, run by Walt’s daughter, is a catalog of never-before-seen art and behind-the-scenes stories.

In 1933, Walt Disney was a rising star in the world of animation, just beginning to become a household name. Ambitious new ideas emerged from the Disney studio on a regular basis, and the film world waited eagerly to see what the creative young filmmaker would do next. The answer surprised them all: a full-length animated feature film, based on the traditional tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The production took three years and the talents of many of Hollywood’s top artists . . . and, of course, created one of the best-loved classics of all time. This book, based on a ground-breaking exhibition of both familiar and never-before-seen art from the Walt Disney Animation Research Library, walks the reader scene by scene through the movie, accompanying the art with behind-the-scenes stories about the film’s production.

The book features over 200 pieces of art, many reproduced from original concept sketches, background paintings, and production cels, as well as alternate character concepts, deleted scenes, and step-by-step process shots.

J.B. Kaufman is an author and film historian on the staff of the Walt Disney Family Foundation, and has published extensively on topics including Disney animation and American silent film. He is the author of South of the Border with Disney, and coauthor, with Russell Merritt, of Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney (winner of the Kraszna-Krausz Award and the Society for Animation Studies’ Norman McLaren-Evelyn Lambart Award, and chosen by The New York Times as a Notable Book of the Year), and Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies. He has also been a regular contributor to the Griffith Project at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, the distinguished annual silent-film festival in Pordenone, Italy, and speaks frequently on Disney, silent film history, and related topics.

The Walt Disney Family Museum was co-founded by Walt’s daughter, Diane Disney Miller, and grandson, Walter Miller. Located in San Francisco, the museum is dedicated to sharing and celebrating the life, work and legacy of Walt Disney through innovative exhibits and programs.