FEATURE CARTOON

Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 5

FEATURE CARTOON

'SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN / DWARFS 1 CONSIDERABLE SPECULATION AROUSED They tell me that the forthcoming release of our first feature-length production, ‘ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,’ is causing about as much curiosity and speculation within the picture industry as the advent of sound did a decade ago (writes Walt Disney). We are complimented by ithis, because it means that other, figure* in the industry feel, as we do, that ‘Snow White’ can be an important step forward jn the field of enterjtainment. Some' people wonder if we can hold our fans with an SOmin presentation as successfully as we have been able to do with our Bmin short subjects. .Others wonder if characters springing from artists’ brains can take over the feature-length production field as successfully as they have that of the short subjects. In my own mind I am positive that the answer to these questions is “ yes,” Not that I believe full-length animated pictures will elbow ■ regular feature movies out of the picture. That would Jbe silly. There is a field for both. I do believe, however, that.vehicks such as ‘ Snow White ’ can give the others healthy competition and will broaden .the vistas of the world’s entertainment. As to holding the interest of audiences for an hour, why not? 4 Snow White ’ has every element that makes for great entertainment. It has comedy, romance, pathos, excitement, and suspense, all paced, we hope, so that the audience will be completely interested throughout all seven reels. My staff and I would not have made. f Snow White ’ if we had not thought that our fans were ready for it. 1 The countless, letters we received asking us to branch _ out into longer vehicles, helped to influence us in this regard. As we see it, there are many reasons why the_future of the full-length animated picture is practically boundless. It has so few of the limitations surrounding the medium of the other type of motion picture.’ We can do so much with colour. All the limitations of human actors are entirely missing. Characters can be fanciful or not, according to our whims. Not only birds and animals, but even inanimate object* can behave just as we wish them, to behave. The fac* l that we are going to start in making a feature-length picture on the average of every year and a-half “does not mean that ( -we are going to .neglect our'short subjects. We will still make 18 a year; As far as I can see, there should never be any reason why we would stop_ making the short subjects.- But working with full-length productions gives us something to pioneer, and I am happy to say that practically all of my staff of young artists have the pioneering spirit and the vision which I feel is so necessary in our particular field to-day. Lovers of melody are due for a treat when they see 4 Snow White and the Seven, Dwarfs,’ for the Disney! version of the Grimm fairy tale contains eight tuneful songs and is backed by an outstanding musical score. Several beautiful ballads, due for nation-wide popularity after the release of the production at the beginning of the year, were written by the Disnev staff of musicians. These include 4 the Wishing Well Song,’ 4 One Song,’ and. 4 Someday My Prince Will Come.’ Snow White sings 4 The Wishing Well Song ’ and 4 Someday My Prince Will Come,’ while her handsome young Prince Charming-sings 4 One Song,’ which is his love song to her. The- titles of the others are 4 With a Smile and a Song.’ 4 Whistle While You Work,’ ‘Hi Ho,’ ‘The Washing Song,’ and ‘ Isn’t This a Silly Sang?’ The numbers will be published by Irving Berlin Incorporated, and will be' translated into French, Spanish, German, Italian, and the Scandinavian languages.