Fifty ideas for the dwarfs' names and personalities were listed in the film's proposal; the list included all of the names finally included except Dopey and Doc (Dopey being the last to be developed). Some of the dwarfs were: Awful ("He steals and drinks and is very dirty"), Biggy-Wiggy or Biggo-Ego, Blabby, Deefy, Dirty, Gabby, Gaspy, Gloomy, Hoppy-Jumpy, Hotsy, Jaunty, Nifty, and Shifty. Sneezy was a last-minute replacement for Deefy.
For the scene where the dwarfs are sent off to wash, animator Frank Thomas had Dopey do a hitch step to catch up to the others, as suggested in the storyboard. Walt Disney liked it so much he had the step added to other scenes - much to the chagrin of the other animators, who blamed Thomas for the extra work they had to do.
Held the title of highest grossing film ever for exactly one year, after which it was knocked out of the top spot by Gone with the Wind.
In the original fairy tale, the Queen dies when she is forced to dance in burning metal shoes.
It took animator Wolfgang Reitherman nine tries to get the animation of the Slave in the Magic Mirror just right. He achieved it by folding the paper in half, drawing one half of the face, then turning the paper over and tracing the other half. He was then dismayed when his hard work was obscured by fire, smoke and distortion glass for the film.
June 2008 Ranked #1 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Animation".
Of the film's human characters, the Prince is the only one never named.
One of only two personally produced Walt Disney feature-length animated films not to carry the screen credit "Walt Disney Presents". Instead, the first credit reads "A Walt Disney Feature Production" (since it was Disney's first feature-length film). The other personally-produced Disney film not to say "Walt Disney Presents" was "Fantasia", which, in its roadshow release, contained no written credits at all except for the intermission card, and in its general release, contained only the title "Fantasia" in its opening credits.
One of the first films to have related merchandise available at the time of premiere.
Publicity material relates that production employed 32 animators, 102 assistant, 167 "in-betweeners", 20 layout artists, 25 artists doing water color backgrounds, 65 effects animators, and 158 female inkers and painters. 2,000,000 illustrations were made using 1500 shades of paint.
Scenes planned, but never fully animated:
- The queen holds the prince in the dungeon and uses her magic to make skeletons dance for his amusement.
- Fantasy sequence accompanying "Some Day My Prince Will Come" in which Snow White imagines herself dancing with her prince in the clouds beneath a sea of stars
- Dwarfs building Snow White a bed with help from woodland creatures.
- The song "Music in Your Soup" where the dwarfs sing about the soup that Snow White had just made them.
- A musical number, "You're Never Too Old to Be Young", featuring the dwarfs. It was pre-recorded, but never animated.
Some animators were opposed to the name Dopey, claiming that it was too modern a word to use in a timeless fairy tale. Walt Disney made the argument that William Shakespeare used the word in one of his plays. This managed to convince everyone, although any reference to the term "dopey" is yet to be found in any of Shakespeare's work.
Spoonerizing comedian Joe Twerp was earlier considered for the role of Doc, according to the DVD supplementary material. The part went to Roy Atwell instead, but Twerp did perform as the voice of Doc on the radio.
Storyboards for a sequel to this movie were discovered in the Disney Company vault titled "Snow White Returns". Upon examining the length of the script and storyboards it seem like it was meant to be a short film than a full length movie. It was also meant to include revised versions of the "Soup" & "Bed Bulding" scenes that were excluded from the movie itself. The real reason for why this sequel never went further than preproduction is anyone's guess. It's unknown if Walt Disney really wanted this to be made in the first place. The whole storyboard to this unmade short is viewable on the Snow White Blu-ray.
The "special" Academy Award granted to the picture consisted of one regular sized award and seven smaller sized awards.
The British Board of Film Censors (now, the British Board of Film Classification) gave the film an A-certificate upon its original release. This resulted in a nationwide controversy as to whether the enchanted forest and the witch were too frightening for younger audiences. Nevertheless, most local authorities simply overrode the censor's decision and gave the film a U-certificate.
The film came third in the UK's Ultimate Film, in which films were placed in order of how many seats they sold at cinemas
The film was a particular favorite of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
The first animated feature in adjusted dollars.
The first animated feature to be selected for the National Film Registry.