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I am in Pittsburgh for my son's wedding, staying in a place with Disney+. In the past few years, I have read a few books about Walt Disney and the company, as well as listened to the long Acquired podcast about the company - I recommend it - and its sub-thread content about how Walt basically bet the company on Snow White.

What a risk he took, as this was the first full-length animated feature. Doubters were everywhere, when cartoons were short and driven by gags. What's impressive watching the movie is the incredible visuals. The detail, the color, and its general richness. Done by hand. No bland Fred Flintstone or George Jetson backgrounds. So many beautiful water colors, fully realized.

The movie still needed its share of gags, mostly provided by the dwarfs. No way could this have been a straight serious story. After all, the primary audience was children, with a secondary goal of adults, mostly parents. Kind of like Mary Poppins, I suppose. I thought it was great as a kid, and adults could appreciate the underlying theme about the relationship of a father to his children, and Mary's moving on when her task was done.

Only two humans had to be rendered with normal faces: Snow White and the Prince. You immediately notice they struggled some with that, and remember even in Toy Story I, the animators skipped trying to do adult human faces. It's very hard. "Uncanny valley" and all that.

The dwarfs as caricatures, and the Queen's special look, and then her transformation into the ugly witch skipped the problem, and the animators could use their full talents rendering them with expressive emotions. And you'll probably notice the realistic body movements of people. I'm sure that took a lot of work to appear fluid.

Anyway, no wonder people were shocked in 1937 when this came out. Would my granddaughters be interested in this old movie? Probably not, compared to modern 3D-ish animation, and not much actually happens as far as story. They probably wouldn't be that amused by the antics of the "little men" (as Disney called them) and the animals, except maybe when the action really picks up when the Queen / witch arrives with her poisoned apple. That part of the movie is relatively intense.

The "someday my prince will come" idea doesn't go over well these days, and we know that changing that is one reason the stupid and unnecessary live action Snow White took on water. Eff that. Make your own movie with different characters.

If you are interested in the history of Disneyland and how Disney and his team pulled it off, consider the book "Disney's Land."