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Friday, May 18, 2018

Original Production Animation Drawing of Happy from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," 1937


Original production animation drawing of Happy from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," 1937, Walt Disney Studios; Red, blue, and graphite pencils on peg hole paper; Numbered 216 lower right; Stamped production numbers lower left; Size - Happy: 5 x 3 1/4", Sheet 10 x 12"; Unframed.


Development on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs began in early 1934, and by June Walt Disney announced to The New York Times the production of his first feature, to be released under Walt Disney Productions.  Before Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Disney studio had been primarily involved in the production of animated short subjects in the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies series.  However, Disney hoped to expand his studio's prestige and revenues by moving into features, and he estimated that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs could be produced for a budget of $250,000 (this was ten times the budget of an average Silly Symphony).

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was to be the first full-length cel animated feature in motion picture history, and as such Walt Disney had to fight to get the film produced. Both his brother and business partner Roy Disney, as well as his wife Lillian attempted to talk him out of it.  The Hollywood movie industry mockingly referred to the film, while is was in production, as "Disney's Folly."  Disney ended up having to mortgage his house to help finance the film's production, which would eventually ran up to a total cost of $1,488,422.74; an absolutely massive sum for a feature film in 1937!

Although the initial concept designing of the dwarfs was relatively easy for the Walt Disney animation department, the actual animating of them proved to be difficult. The animators, already finding human figures difficult to animate, now had to animate dwarfed human figures. The great Disney animator Vladimir Tytla noted that the dwarfs should walk with a swing to their hips, and Fred Moore commented that they had to move a little more quickly in order to keep up with the other human characters.

Happy is bubbly, bright, very friendly, and the most cheerful of all the dwarfs. His gleeful attitude prompts him to laugh often, and he is a singer, yodeler, and musician. Happy is plump and although six of the dwarfs have eyebrows that were modeled after Walt Disney’s; Happy has eyebrows that are white and bushy. Various Walt Disney artists were involved in the animation of Happy throughout the film including: Vladimir Tytl, Fred Moore, Shamus Culhane, and Les Clark. The former vaudevillian comedic actor Otis Harlan provided the voice of Happy.


Close up of the original production animation drawing of Happy.


Close up of the production number.


Close up of the production numbers stamp.

This is an absolutely wonderful original production animation drawing of Happy. The drawing is from the scene when Snow White tells the Dwarfs her story, about how she escaped from the Evil Queen. Grumpy states that the Queen can make herself invisible and might be the room "right now!" Both Happy and Dopey are startled by the possibility and Dopey lifts Happy's beard to check underneath. Happy "klonks" Dopey on the head for his ridiculous action. This is a very nice image of Happy with both eyes and mouth open. A great addition to any vintage Walt Disney animation art collection!

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