A SILLY SONG (AND DANCE!)
The yodeling intro precedes the song proper. Happy sings the first verse of clever meaningless lyrics followed by a group chorus during which he tap-dances (though silently). The chorus is a model of self-deprecation:
“Ho-hum, the tune is dumb; the words don’t mean a thing.
“Isn’t this a silly song for anyone to sing!”
Grumpy pumps out an organ repeat of this tune over which Dopey very skillfully lays a percussion solo, the drumsticks passing through his loose-fitting tunic’s sleeves – in, left; out, right – to strike various drums, the final one into his hand after tapping the cymbal. Grumpy then vamps for the second verse.
Urged forth by Happy and Sneezy, Bashful tries to overcome his stagefright but dissolves into a spasm of embarrassment, biting his forefinger. Unamused Grumpy vamps again, but again Bashful is overcome by his shyness, this time hiding his blushing face by pulling his beard up over it. Losing his patience, Grumpy pounds out a full loud chord, blasting open all the organ’s decorative stops at once. This finally goads Bashful into singing his verse at the end of which he again hides his reddening face in his beard. During the repeat of the chorus, Dopey stands in front of Snow White tapping the rhythm on his hand-held cymbal, which the princess kicks to sound the final beat. Dopey then puts the cymbal on his head and looking like a stereotypical “coolie” Chinaman he rolls both his eyes as he dances off left. Happy re-takes center stage for his crack at yodeling. Snow White herself joins in, singing a high-pitched pedal-point. The focus shifts from her quickly to Sleepy, who has been idly tooting on a reed-instrument shaped like a fish. He pauses to yawn and stretch, during which his ever-present pesky fly – buzzing in harmony with the princess’ sustained pitch – circumnavigates the entire interior of his mouth, emerges unfazed and gets swatted at by the dwarf.
Doc offers his hand to Snow White, who rises off her chair and chain dances with him then with Bashful then with Sneezy then with Doc again. This animation of the princess was the very first attempt by Marc Davis (1913-2000), who later became a revered Disney artist.
Looking at his first animation, it is astonishing to see how elegantly Snow White moves as she dances in the dwarfs’ cottage. The main motion was based on live-action reference, but the overlapping action of her hair and dress needed to be enhanced and broadened in order to look natural in animation.[1]
Dopey sits in the midst of his drum set marking time till Sleepy’s pet fly lands on his right ear. Using his drumstick for a swatter, Dopey goes after the pesky insect, the dwarf’s wild flailing “accidentally” producing a percussion cadenza as he lands blows on the drums, cowbells and cymbals that surround him until he gives up, exhausted and panting.
The evasive fly now alights on Sleepy’s nose. As the drowsy dwarf raises his arm to swat it, Dopey slips his cymbal into Sleepy’s hand and he smashes the instrument into his face which vibrates visibly. In the middle of the room Snow White continues dancing unpartnered as Happy and Doc dosey-do around her. Now Grumpy gets a little screen time as sitting before the organ he pumps away at its bellows alternately with his right then left glutei maximi. Several of the organ’s stops get stuck open, blurting out a loud discord. Grumpy slaps them all shut then plays an arpeggio to test them all, low to high, the final piccolo pitch chirped out by a mechanical bluebird fledgling that hatches out of a wooden egg.
Bashful now takes a turn on the dancefloor with Snow White. An assortment of paired animals over at the window – racoons, squirrels, rabbits on the ledge, deer outside with birds perched in antlers – bounce in rhythm.
Meantime in a dark recess Dopey and Sneezy conspire to provide Snow White with a dance partner more appropriate to her height. Dopey struggles to get a secure footing standing on Sneezy’s shoulders and suppresses an imminent sneeze by slipping one of his shoes under the other dwarf’s nose. He then wraps a long coat secured by buttons down its front around them both. Thus disguised, Dopey snaps his fingers and waggles his tongue as Sneezy below him – his ears pinning open a portal between buttons in the coat front so he can navigate – carries the two of them over to the dancefloor. Disney staff assigned a special name to this dwarf combo: “Dozey”.[2]
In bowing before Snow White to offer his hand, Dozey gets a bit top heavy but Sneezy prevents catastrophe by reaching behind under the hem of the coat and pulling Dopey back upright on his shoulders.
Snow White takes her new partner’s hand and the two of them dance back and forth across the floor as Sneezy below does his best to match the princess’ fancy footwork with his own. Doc demonstrates some fancy fingerwork on the strings of his duckette. Sneezy experiences difficulty keeping up as Dozey circumnavigates around the princess so Dopey pulls up on the coat to boost him forward.
There follows a fast-paced montage showing the dancers, the dwarfs playing their assorted instruments and clapping, Grumpy on the organ, the organ’s pipes, Dopey swaggering and snapping his fingers, Snow White clapping, Sneezy actually clicking his heels in the air – all contributing to an escalating atmosphere of joyousness until finally the sound of another imminent sneeze comes from within Dozey. Dopey peeks into the front of the coat and sure enough Sneezy is snuffling inside. Snow White covers her ears as dwarfs scramble for safety behind the organ and elsewhere. The animals jump out the window. In a final desperate measure to stop the sneeze, Dopey shoves a finger under his own nose. The coat balloons out with the violence of Sneezy’s exhalation inside and Dopey gets shot out its collar like a rocket, his blastoff accompanied by a sharp gunshot sound. The coat settles down gently over Sneezy who smiles innocently. Snow White collapses into a chair, her laughter mingling with that of the dwarfs. Dopey safely straddling a beam above, wiggles his ears and swings his feet, then slides down a post to the floor. The animals peek in again at the window. Snow White declares “That was fun!” – as indeed it was!
The truly amazing aspect of this motion-busy sequence – even aside from its sheer infectious merriment – is summarized by J.B. Kaufman in his magnificent book The Fairest One of All as “something seemingly impossible”:
…Snow White and the dwarfs, in terms of design, look and move like members of entirely different species. It’s a tribute to the Disney animators that they can believably depict both Snow White and the dwarfs inhabiting the same space, even without any direct contact between them… In this sequence, however, she does more than make contact – she joins hands with the dwarfs and dances with them – and the effect is not only believable, but completely natural… It’s anything but realistic, and yet Snow White and the dwarfs exist in a reality of their own that defies disbelief.[3]
[1] Deja, Andreas: The Nine Old Men, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 2016, p. 337.
[2] Kaufman, J.B.: op. cit., loc. cit.
[3] Kaufman, J.B.: op.cit., p.185.
