{"id":76053,"date":"2014-08-27T16:38:23","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T20:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=76053"},"modified":"2014-08-28T00:10:25","modified_gmt":"2014-08-28T04:10:25","slug":"snow-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/snow-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Snow Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image\"<\/a>

Still from Snow White<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Disney\u2019s Snow White<\/em> is an animation classic, and a beautiful one. But if you\u2019re looking for something altogether weirder (albeit shorter) go back four years, and check out the Fleischer Studios\u2019s 1933 Snow White<\/em>. Technically, this is a Betty Boop short, and it\u2019s true that the iconic flapper does indeed play \u201cthe fairest in the land.\u201d But the cartoon is really a showcase for all kinds of wholly unrelated tricks.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s technically a \u201cFleischer Brothers\u201d production, in fact Max and Dave Fleischer didn\u2019t have much to do with Snow White<\/em>, which is considered the masterpiece of animator Roland Crandall. Apparently Crandall was given free rein on this short as a reward for all his work for the studio, and took full advantage. It\u2019s incredibly innovative, and seriously trippy. This isn\u2019t the only Fleischer Brothers cartoon to employ the voice talents of bandleader Cab Calloway, or even his rotoscoped moves (he also cameoed as the Old Man of the Mountain), but it\u2019s the best: as Koko the Clown, and then a ghost, Calloway does a haunting rendition of the \u201cSt. James Infirmary Blues,\u201d and then what might be the first recorded instance of the moonwalk. What does any of this have to do with the story of Snow White? Not all that much. But that\u2019s what Disney was for.<\/p>\n

(To see the full seven-minute version, click here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disney\u2019s Snow White is an animation classic, and a beautiful one. But if you\u2019re looking for something altogether weirder (albeit shorter) go back four years, and check out the Fleischer Studios\u2019s 1933 Snow White. Technically, this is a Betty Boop short, and it\u2019s true that the iconic flapper does indeed play \u201cthe fairest in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[2691,15115,2588,79,15117,2861,15116,8937,4304],"class_list":["post-76053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-animation","tag-betty-boop","tag-cartoon","tag-film","tag-fleischer-brothers","tag-history","tag-roland-crandall","tag-snow-white","tag-vintage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSnow Day<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on the 1933 version of \u201cSnow White.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/27\/snow-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Snow Day by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 27, 2014 \u2013 Disney\u2019s Snow White is an animation classic, and a beautiful one. 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