10 Fun Facts about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Your voice may crack when you try to sing
But you can't be good at everything — You’re Never To Old to Be Young (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
Here are 10 Fun Facts about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first feature-length animated movie in U.S. history. This actually caused the public to doubt Walt Disney and people widely believed he would not be successful. Instead, he started an entertainment trend that we still enjoy today!
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is based on the German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. You may or may not know that most original versions of fairy tales have pretty dark parts of them as they were often used to teach lessons and morals. In the Brothers Grimm version, the dwarfs have no names and the queen attempts to kill Snow White two times (with lace and a comb) before she offers her the poisoned apple.
25 songs were written for the movie but only 8 were used. One of those songs was "Music in Your Soup" which can still be found on some versions of the soundtrack and made it onto my Snow White Playlist which you can find here: www.wecanshowyoutheworld/blog/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-playlist . Another one of the songs is "You're Never Too Old to Be Young" which was the original song for where the current "Silly Song" is in the movie. While researching, I found this clip on YouTube which features Dick Van Dyke singing it with the dwarfs on the Golden Anniversary special for the film: Dick Van Dyke And The Seven Dwarfs - You're Never Too Old to Be Young Did you know this song plays in the queue for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom?
In 1939, Disney received a special Academy Award for the film—and seven smaller ones. Being that this film was the first full-length animated of it's kind and was certainly Oscar-worthy, it wasn't considered at that time due to being animated, so a special award was created. This award was presented by Shirley Temple to Walt. This statue, as well as Walt's other statues, are on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, California. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Honorary Academy Award® | The Walt Disney Family Museum
Walt Disney Studios in Burbank was built with the profits from the movie. Before this studio, they were in another studio on Hyperion Avenue. This is why you see the use of "Hyperion" pop up throughout Disney history, for example the Hyperion Theater in Disney's California Adventure and Hyperion Books. You are able to tour this Studio if you book the Southern California Tour from Adventures By Disney. If you'd like a free quote, you can fill out this link: Intake Form | Form Entry
The voice of Snow White, Adriana Caselotti, had a Wishing Well on her front lawn because she acknowledges how special it was to get to be a part of a project that is so special. I couldn’t find a photo, but I did find it shown on the first minute of this YouTube video: (114) Adriana Caselotti voice of Snow White - home tour - YouTube
The Prince is the movie does not have a name! He is known throughout the Disney fan community as “Prince Ferdinand” or “Prince Florian” and even “Prince Frederick”, but he is never credited with a name in the film or credits. It gets even more confusing for fans as in the ABC Show “Once Upon a Time”, he is known as Prince Charming (or Charming) and David. Legend has it that the name “Ferdinand” comes from Shirley Temple talking to Walt Disney at the 1938 Oscars but she may have been referring to “Ferdinand the Bull” and people got confused. I haven’t been able to locate any real source of where the name “Prince Florian” comes from, but general conscious is it stems from when Disney officially branded the “Disney Princess” brand. Further research shows that it stems from Disney France who as also has referred to the Prince has “Henry” (Henri) and Disney on Ice has used the name “Prince Florian” in marketing. There are reports of the Prince signing autographs in the Disney Parks as “Snow Prince”, but I can only find pictures of him signing “The Prince”.
A musical version of the movie was created in 1969 at the Muny and quickly went to Radio City Musical Hall. I remember seeing this on TV when I was young, I found a recording of it on YouTube: (114) Snow White Live On Stage | Radio City Music Hall | 1981 | Disney Live | New York City - YouTube It’s worth a scan-through especially to see what the adorable woodland creatures look like when they are human size not tiny and animated. Also, when Dopey appears on stage for Heigh-Ho, he looks like he’s straight out of a horror movie. I’m going to tell myself that that’s mostly due to the video quality, not that he looked that terrifying in person.
Snow White is 14 years old which makes her the youngest Disney Princess of the official Disney line up (as of 2025). While her age is not mentioned in the movie, it has been confirmed in various Disney sources, such as “The Art of Walt Disney” by Christopher Finch: The Art Of Walt Disney (1995 edition) : Christopher Finch : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. This does make sense for the timeline that the movie is set in, women married much younger than today’s societal norms.
There was once a prequel being planned titled “The Seven Dwarfs”. DisneyToon Studios was a segment of the company that was known for making the direct-to-video series that fans in the early 2000s are very familiar with like “Return of Jafar” and “Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas”. There were many attempts at this project, but the one that almost was how the dwarfs met, how they trapped the man in the Magic Mirror, and how the dwarfs met the Evil Queen. This is simplifying the plot in a sentence, but there are many more details and history here: Mike Disa and The Seven Dwarfs: How the Snow White prequel became a Dopey movie – Animated Views
Sources: https://www.eonline.com/news/901665/20-fun-facts-about-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-on-its-80th-anniversary, www.d23.com , www.reddit.com, 10 Things You Didn't Know About Disney's Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Mike Disa and The Seven Dwarfs: How the Snow White prequel became a Dopey movie – Animated Views
