Newly Recovered Priceless Art From ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’Joins Amazing Three-Dimensional ‘Toy Story’ Zoetrope at the Disneyland Resort
ANAHEIM, Calif. (November 7, 2007) – Unique celebrations of two motion picture icons will be on view beginning Saturday, Nov. 17, exclusively at the Disney Animation attraction in Disney’s California Adventure park at the Disneyland Resort.
The Walt Disney Animation Research Library has spent more than seven months creating “The Fairest One of All,” a stunning and rare collection of more than 120 pieces of concept art, story sketches, animation drawings, backgrounds and cels created during the development and production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney recently acquired many of the pieces from a private collection including several that have never been publicly displayed. The exhibition, which provides an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look into the creation of this motion picture classic, will take over the Courtyard Gallery entrance hall of the Disney Animation pavilion at Disney’s California Adventure. Meanwhile, in an adjoining gallery, visitors can explore the principles of animation itself as they marvel at the new Toy Story Zoetrope, an amazing three-dimensional 21st century variation on the Victorian novelty device which presented early “moving pictures.”
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, celebrating the 70th Anniversary of its original 1937 release, was Walt Disney’s first feature-length animated film and earned him a special Academy Award: one full-size Oscar and seven little ones. Toy Story, produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures in 1995, was the first feature-length computer-animated film and won an Academy Special Achievement Award for its director, John Lasseter, now Chief Creative Officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. Separated by nearly 60 years of animation history, Snow White and Toy Story are the only two animated motion pictures on the most recent American Film Institute list of the top 100 films of all time, and they represent a continuing legacy of animation excellence at The Walt Disney Company.
“The Fairest One of All” exhibition includes a never-before-seen collection of priceless art used in the creation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs created by such Disney animation “legends” as Joe Grant, Eric Larson, Art Babbitt and Milt Kahl. Among the rare items presented in the exhibition are visualizations of such early concepts as a panther companion for the story’s Evil Queen, redheaded and blonde versions of Snow White, various story gags not used in the film, and depictions of the Queen based on actresses Joan Crawford and Katharine Hepburn.
The Toy Story Zoetrope is unique in its own way. Originally created for the “20 Years of Pixar Production Art Show” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Zoetrope creates the illusion of movement by presenting a rapidly changing sequence of images – actual three-dimensional models – of characters from both Toy Story films: Woody, Buzz Lightyear, cowgirl Jessie, horse Bullseye and even the little green Aliens. The figures are mounted on a spinning disk and lit with a strobe which creates a sense of continuous motion, as if the characters have actually come to life before your eyes.
Both “The Fairest One of All” exhibition and the Toy Story Zoetrope can be found, beginning Nov. 17, in the Disney Animation pavilion, located in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area of Disney’s California Adventure park. Admission to Disney Animation is free with general admission to Disney’s California Adventure.