Exiled into the dangerous forest by her wicked stepmother, a princess is rescued by seven dwarf miners who make her part of their household.
Directed by
- David Hand (supervising)
- William Cottrell
- Wilfred Jackson
- Larry Morey
- Perce Pearce
- Ben Sharpsteen
Produced by
Walt Disney
Written by
- Ted Sears
- Richard Creedon
- Otto Englander
- Dick Rickard
- Earl Hurd
- Merrill De Maris
- Dorothy Ann Blank
- Webb Smith
Based on
Snow White
by The Brothers Grimm
Starring
- Adriana Caselotti
- Lucille La Verne
- Harry Stockwell
- Roy Atwell
- Pinto Colvig
- Otis Harlan
- Scotty Mattraw
- Billy Gilbert
- Eddie Collins
- Moroni Olsen
- Stuart Buchanan
Music by
- Frank Churchill
- Paul Smith
- Leigh Harline
Production
company
Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by
RKO Radio Pictures
Release date
December 21, 1937 (Carthay Circle Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, premiere)
Running time
83 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$1.49 million
Box office
$418 million
Plot
Snow White is a lonely princess living with her stepmother, a vain Queen. The Queen worries that Snow White will be more beautiful than her, so she forces Snow White to work as a scullery maid and asks her Magic Mirror daily "who is the fairest one of all." For years the mirror always answers that the Queen is, pleasing her.
One day, the Magic Mirror informs the Queen that Snow White is now "the fairest" in the land; on that same day, Snow White meets and falls in love with a prince who overhears her singing. The jealous Queen orders her Huntsman to take Snow White into the forest and kill her. She further demands that the huntsman return with Snow White's heart in a jeweled box as proof of the deed. However, the Huntsman cannot bring himself to kill Snow White. He tearfully begs for her forgiveness, revealing the Queen wants her dead and urging her to flee into the woods and never look back.
Lost and frightened, the princess is befriended by woodland creatures who lead her to a cottage deep in the woods. Finding seven small chairs in the cottage's dining room, Snow White assumes the cottage is the untidy home of seven orphaned children. Actually, the cottage belongs to seven adult dwarfs named Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey, who work in a nearby mine. Returning home, they are alarmed to find their cottage clean, and suspect that an intruder has invaded their home. The dwarfs find Snow White upstairs, asleep across three of their beds. Snow White awakes to find the dwarfs at her bedside and introduces herself, and all of the dwarfs eventually welcome her into their home after she offers to clean and cook for them. Snow White keeps house for the dwarfs while they mine for jewels during the day, and at night they all sing, play music, and dance.
Meanwhile, the Queen discovers Snow White is alive when the mirror again answers that Snow White is the fairest in the land, and tells her that the heart in the box is that of a pig. Using a potion to disguise herself as an old hag, the Queen creates a poisoned apple that will put whoever eats it into the "Sleeping Death". She learns the curse can be broken by "love's first kiss," but is certain Snow White will be buried alive before this can happen. The Queen goes to the cottage while the dwarfs are away, but the animals attack her, then rush off to find the dwarfs. Faking heart trouble, the Queen tricks Snow White into bringing her into the cottage to rest. The Queen fools Snow White into biting into the poisoned apple under the pretense that it is a magic apple that grants wishes. As Snow White falls asleep, the Queen proclaims that she is now the fairest of the land. The dwarfs return with the animals as the Queen leaves the cottage, and give chase, trapping her on a cliff. She tries to roll a boulder onto them, but lightning strikes the cliff before she can do so, causing her to fall to her death.
The dwarfs return to their cottage and find Snow White seemingly dead, being kept in a deathlike slumber by the poison. Unwilling to bury her out of sight in the ground, they instead place her in a glass coffin trimmed with gold in a clearing in the forest. Together with the woodland creatures, they keep see over her. A year later, the prince learns of her eternal sleep and visits her coffin. Saddened by her apparent death, he kisses her, which breaks the spell and awakens her. The dwarfs and animals all rejoice as the Prince takes Snow White to his castle.
