The First Animated Feature Film Released (1937)

Hello there. My name is Walt Disney, and you might know a cheerful little mouse I created named Mickey. I’ve always loved drawing and telling stories through cartoons. For years, my studio and I made short cartoons that would play before the main movie at the theater. But I had a dream that was much, much bigger. I wanted to create a movie that was all animation, from beginning to end. Back then, in the 1930s, nobody had ever done that before. When I told the important people in Hollywood my idea, they thought I was crazy. They shook their heads and said, 'Walt, no one will sit in a theater for an hour and a half to watch a cartoon.'. They even came up with a nickname for my secret project: 'Disney’s Folly.' A folly is a silly, foolish idea. They truly believed the movie would fail and that I was wasting all my time and money on a fairytale. But I believed in it. I had a story I loved, about a beautiful princess named Snow White, her seven little friends, and a wicked queen. I knew their story could touch people's hearts if we could just bring it to life on the big screen.

My studio became a beehive of activity. It was loud, exciting, and filled with the smell of paint and pencil shavings. To make this dream happen, I needed a team of hundreds of talented artists working together day and night. It took so much more than just a pencil and paper. For every single second you see on the screen, my artists had to draw 24 separate pictures by hand. That’s over a million drawings for the whole movie. Each drawing was then carefully traced onto a clear sheet of plastic we called a 'cel.' After that, another team of artists would flip the cel over and paint the colors on the back. We wanted the movie to feel different and more real than any cartoon before it. So, my team and I invented something special called the Multiplane Camera. It was a giant machine, as tall as a room, that could shoot through several layers of painted glass and cels at once. By moving the layers at different speeds, it made the forest look deep and magical, as if you could walk right into it. It was our secret weapon for making the world of Snow White feel alive. We also spent hours making sure each of the Seven Dwarfs had his own unique personality. Grumpy had to be perfectly grumpy, Dopey had to be lovable and silly, and so on. We wanted you to feel like you knew each one of them. And what’s a good story without music? My composers wrote unforgettable songs that I hoped people would be humming for years, like the cheerful working song, 'Heigh-Ho.' Every single detail was crafted with love and care.

Finally, the big night arrived: December 21st, 1937. We held the premiere at the beautiful Carthay Circle Theatre in Hollywood. All the famous movie stars were there, dressed in their finest clothes. I stood at the back of the theater, and my heart was pounding like a drum. After three long years of hard work, we were about to find out if 'Disney’s Folly' was a dream come true or a complete disaster. As the movie started, the theater grew quiet. Then, I heard it. First, a small chuckle when Dopey acted silly. Soon, big laughs filled the room. The audience gasped when Snow White ran through the scary, dark forest. I even saw people wiping tears from their eyes when they thought the princess was gone forever. They weren't just watching a cartoon; they were living the story with her. When the movie ended, there was silence for just a moment. My stomach dropped. And then, the entire audience jumped to their feet. The sound of their applause was like thunder. They were cheering and clapping for our movie. In that moment, I knew we had done it. We had created real movie magic. That night taught me a very important lesson: never let anyone tell you that your dream is a 'folly.' If you can dream it, and you're willing to work hard with a great team, you can make the impossible possible.