Walt realized that for winning the hearts and minds of his audience to sympathize with his heroine a fairly realistic human design and movement was absolutely necessary – not to mention for the credibility of the Prince, the Evil Queen and the Huntsman as well. As Schickel remarks,
…the fantastic is always more acceptable to plain people – and sometimes to sophisticates – when it is rendered in the most realistic possible style.[1]
Disney started experimenting with the possibilities for Snow White’s design and movement long in advance of production on his first feature. A Silly Symphony short The Goddess of Spring (1934) attempted to get it right, but was woefully unconvincing: the poor title character Persephone still sported those rubbery elbow-less arms of a Minnie Mouse! So in November 1935 Walt gave Persephone’s animator Ham Luske (1903-1968) another opportunity to succeed and assigned him to design and animate Snow White. To assist him and to design the prince as well he hired competitor Max Fleischer’s Betty Boop animator Grim Natwick (1890-1990). After two months’ trial-and-error the two artists came up with a much more appealing look for Disney’s heroine. Her appearance bears very minor resemblance to Betty Boop – especially the lack of detail in her jet black hair when compared with the curlicues so pleasant in Sleeping Beauty’s coiffure many years later. The women of the Ink and Paint Department – sometimes referred to as “The Nunnery” – somewhat remedied her plain flat coif:
…they tried adding a wisp of dry brush in a lighter gray to soften the edge of her hair. It helped immensely, so they proceeded to add it to every cell all through the picture, with no indications from the animators, and nothing to guide them but their own sense of what looked right. This had to be done on top of the cells, and the only way to be sure the effect was working from one to the next was by flipping the whole sheet of celluloid heavy with paint. It was tiring and risked cracking the paint, but there was no other way.[2]
These ladies of the Ink and Paint Department were called upon also to remedy Snow White’s too-pale complexion: they rouged her cheeks. Not with real rouge as “legend” had it, but with…
…a transparent red dye. Snow White’s cels were inked and painted in the usual way– ink lines on the front surface, colors on the back – after which the red dye was carefully applied to the front surface. As it was absorbed into the celluloid, the red tint blended with Snow White’s existing flesh tone to produce a lovely, natural glow.[3]
Snow White (Copyright The Walt Disney Company)
Once an appealing appearance was determined, the next task was to invest that design with personality. In Disney’s own words:
“…our most important aim is to develop definite personalities in our cartoon characters. Until a character becomes a personality, it cannot be believed – and belief is what I’m after.”[4]
"I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether we be six or sixty. Call the child innocence. The worst of us is not without innocence, although buried deeply it might be. In my work I try to reach and speak to that innocence, showing it the fun and joy of living; showing it that laughter is healthy; showing it that the human species, although happily ridiculous at times, is still reaching for the stars."
