All language subtitles for How Disney Built America s01e02 Dawn of the Animated Blockbuster.eng

[train whistle blowing]

[pensive music]

- When Walt Disney
first left Kansas City

for Hollywood in 1923,

he was leaving behind failure.

He had tried to have his own

animation studio and
went bankrupt. [laughs]

[train whistle blowing]

- So, in that moment
of desperation,

he boards a train for California

with all of $40,
a single suitcase,

and a one way ticket.

[dramatic music]

- Walt is so poor that he
can barely afford food,

and, yet, he believes in
his future success so much

that he buys himself
a first-class ticket.

- [Attendant] Now
arriving, Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, next and last stop.

Los Angeles.

- You in the movie business?

I'm in film myself.

I'm headed to Hollywood.

- That's swell, kid.

You shoot that?

- Shot it and animated it.

It's a cartoon short.

I have a feeling it's
gonna be a real hit.

- [Attendant] Next and
last stop, Los Angeles.

- [Narrator] Walt
Disney will use cartoons

to launch a
revolutionary technology.

- I want the next Disney cartoon

to be in Technicolor.

- [Narrator] And then attempt
something even greater.

- There has to be a way you
can push the camera in.

- How?
- I don't know,

but we're gonna figure it out.

- [Adam] So many different
kinds of technology

were invented to support a
full-length animated feature.

- [Don] The multiplane camera,
storyboards, Technicolor,

it all comes together
to make Snow White.

- [Narrator] But
the story behind

the world's first
animated feature

is anything but a fairytale.

- If they cut us
off, neither of us

will be selling
anything in this town.

[suspenseful music]

- They were just
hemorrhaging money.

- People started to
call it Disney's Folly.

- [Narrator] This is
how a magic combination

of passion, brilliance,
and technology

creates a new billion
dollar business.

- Snow White.

- When you look
around the world now,

we're surrounded by
animated features.

This was the first one.

This was the creation of

a thing that impacts
media forever.

[dramatic music]

- But when Walt was traveling

from Kansas City to
Hollywood in 1923...

- A little advice.

If you're serious about
making movies in this town,

drop the cartoons.

- So, the best way
to motivate Walt

is to tell him that what he's
trying to do is impossible.

"You're telling me
animation can't be anything.

I'll show you what
animation is capable of."

[dramatic music]

- [Announcer] By 1932,

nearly one man out of
four was unemployed.

Working men spent their
days on park benches

and the government set
up public soup kitchens.

- The United States has suffered

three years of the
Great Depression,

each year worse than
the previous one.

- There were 9,000
banks that collapsed.

There were farms
that foreclosed.

Over two million Americans
lost their homes.

It was a time of broken
dreams and shattered lives.

- There's not a town of any size

that escapes the
Great Depression.

It impacts virtually every
aspect of American life,

except for, perhaps, the
motion picture industry.

[upbeat music]

- And the reason
for that is because

films are fairly inexpensive
and it is a meaningful escape.

You can get into
the world of fantasy

and forget about all your
problems for a little bit.

- [Narrator] By 1932, around
60 million Americans,

roughly half the
national population,

crowd into theaters across
the country every week.

[film projector clicking]

And now, going to the movies
is a better deal than ever.

- Movie theaters are starting
to do double features.

You buy one ticket

and you're gonna watch
two films back to back.

- And if there's gonna
be two main features,

where does that leave
the animated short?

- [Narrator] Seven
minute cartoon shorts

have been a staple of
pre-show entertainment

since the 1920s.

Now, they face the
chopping block.

- All these animation
studios are panicking.

The short is their only product.

[birds chirping]
[pensive music]

- [Narrator] And Walt Disney,

now at the peak of
the animation world,

thanks to Mickey Mouse, has
perhaps the most to lose.

- Walt Disney finds
himself in a very

interesting position
in the early 1930s.

Mickey Mouse is one of the
biggest stars in the world,

but he knows the
clock is ticking.

- So Walt has to figure out
a way to create animation

that can compete in the
age of the double feature,

and he realizes, "I need to
create something so unique,

so visually captivating,
so unmissable,

they wouldn't dream
of cutting it."

- Mr. Kalmus.

- Mr. Disney.

Mr. Disney.

- Call me Walt.

- [Narrator] Walt and
his older brother Roy

have run the Disney
Studio together

for nearly a decade.

Now, Walt seeks out a
radical new technology

that almost every major studio
in Hollywood has rejected.

- As you know, it has been
impossible to make movies

that capture the full
color spectrum until now.

We call it Technicolor.

- You're telling me this camera
can capture the entire rainbow?

- Every color,
bright as real life.

[dramatic music]

- How does it work?

- The world of film in the 1930s

was mostly a black
and white world.

This was due to
technological limitations.

Film could only pick up

whether something
was light or dark.

So light colors turned to white.

Dark colors turned to black.

- In the early 1930s,
the Technicolor company

comes up with
three-strip Technicolor.

The light is broken into
red, green, and blue.

Each of these is recorded
on a separate piece of film,

and if you can get
three primary colors,

you can match any color
that the human eye can see.

- But Technicolor
costs too much money.

- So at this point,
all the big studios

are sticking with
black and white.

- Walt, a word?

[tense music]

We can't afford this.

This camera will triple our
lab costs, and for what?

Nobody's gonna pay us even a
penny more for a color cartoon.

- There might not have
been a bigger difference

between brothers when it
comes to Walt and Roy.

Roy had an acumen for money.

- And to Roy, the
sensible thinker,

the idea of rocking
the boat and taking

a massive risk in a
different direction,

just wasn't a sound
business sense.

But Walt was the dreamer.

[dramatic music]

- Mr. Kalmus,

I want the next Disney
cartoon to be in Technicolor.

[Mr. Kalmus chuckles]

Show me how it works again.

[tense music]

- Walt was relentless.

Once he had that
vision in his head,

there was no stopping him.

He was a train, he was
a train with no brakes.

- So they were working
on a short film

called Flowers and Trees next,

and they were midway
through in black and white

when Walt asked them
to redo it in color.

- He's just gonna throw
it out and start over.

And everybody's worried, like,

"Oh, my god, how much
is this gonna cost?"

- [Narrator] But
before the short

can be filmed in
three-strip Technicolor,

it needs to be painted in color.

- The animators draw
the character on paper.

Then that's given to the
ink and paint department.

- And the inkers would
take each drawing

and trace it with ink
on a sheet of celluloid,

and they would pass
that to the painters

to paint the celluloid sheets.

- The ink and paint department
was filled with women,

because the thought was
that they had the ability

to do the intricate
detail work in coloring

in the animation cells.

- Hazel Sewell was Walt
Disney's sister-in-law,

and she takes over
ink and paint,

becoming one of the first women

to oversee a major
department in Hollywood.

Now, Hazel and her
team had to figure out

how they were gonna
apply all this color

for the Technicolor process.

- But they only
have black, white,

and gray paint to work with.

- So Hazel had to go down
to the local hardware store

and find color
paints off the shelf,

formulated for painting
furniture or the side of a barn.

- But they'll find out they
couldn't just use that,

because it's too streaky,

and it takes too long to dry,

and it cracks very easily.

- Hazel, how we making out?

Tried everything?

- Nothing's working.

[gentle music]

Roy wants me to talk
you out of this.

- [scoffs] I know he does.

If we can't find the
color paint to do the job,

I guess we'll just have
to make some ourselves.

- All right, Walt,

but if we pull this off,
we're expecting a raise.

[inspiring music]

- So Walt experiments with
this Technicolor technology.

They are forging into
new territory here.

- So it is women chemists
mixing together these paints

in order to make them function
in terms of an animated film.

Really, coming up with a whole

rainbow of colors that
never existed before.

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] On July 30, 1932,

Americans are finally able
to see a motion picture

in full color for the
first time in history.

[gentle orchestral music]

- Flowers and Trees is not just
the first full color cartoon,

it's the first full
color film, period.

We are seven years
before The Wizard of Oz.

I mean, suddenly
everybody's waking up

to the fact that color
is where it's at.

- Technicolor changed the game.

I would've loved to
actually be there

at that time to see and
hear people's reactions

as they're coming out
of the movie theater.

Like, their minds had
to have been blown.

- So Flowers and
Trees is a big hit,

but Walt is not really
satisfied with that,

because in a film industry
dominated by big studios,

cartoon shorts are still
kind of seen as second tier.

- Short films are the appetizer

before the main
attraction, if you will.

They weren't the meal itself.

Disney really wants
to be the main event,

and he wants animation
to really be elevated

to the level of the
main attraction.

- Walt thought of
that man on the train.

- If you're serious about
making movies in this town,

drop the cartoons.

- [Jim] Walt never forgot that
man for looking down on him

because he was in animation.

[pensive music]

- It motivated him.

He wanted to make
animation great.

He wanted to make
it an art form.

- Walt Disney could've
continued making those shorts.

They were still
bringing money in,

still hugely popular,

but he realizes if he
is ever going to get

the respect that he
believes he deserves,

he has to do something big,

something unprecedented,

and dangerous, and risky.

This could be groundbreaking,

or it could be the
end of Walt Disney.

- [Narrator] After
revolutionizing cinema

with color, Walt Disney embarks
on an even bolder idea:

the first animated feature film.

But the stories Walt wants
to put on the silver screen

have lost popularity
in Hollywood.

- At that time, Paramount
released an all-star

live action version of
Alice In Wonderland,

but it was a giant
flop. [laughs]

- Lewis Carroll's written this
beautiful fantastical tale,

but the limitations of the
technology of the time

make it look super duper creepy.

- And the film bombed.

This seemed to turn Hollywood
against stories of fantasy.

- But Walt Disney
realizes that the problem

is not telling fantasy tales.

It's trying to tell
a fantastical tale

using live action.

- And I think
Disney figured out,

watching what
Paramount was doing,

that the venue for this type of
fantasy should be animation.

- And he saw the potential
in animated feature films,

and that they can hold up
against live action films.

- [Narrator] Walt believes
animated features are the future

if he can find the right story.

- Walt is a poorly educated,

not very worldly individual.

I mean, he did go to
France after World War I,

but that's pretty much it.

Yet, he drew on his
rich imaginative life

as the source of
all of his work.

[ethereal music]

- Walt was a teenager

delivering issues of
the Kansas City Star,

and one weekend, there
was a free screening

of the movie Snow White
and The Seven Dwarfs,

a silent film, just
for paper boys.

And Walt was mesmerized,

and he just never forgot that
feeling of wonder and comfort.

That stayed with him forever.

[ethereal music]

- Americans love fairytales.

If you went to the typical
middle-class household

to the bookshelf, you would
find Grimm's fairytales.

Many of them in
the public domain.

And so Walt is gonna turn
to fairytales as a way

to make that transition
into animated feature film.

- Snow White just felt right.

It was this wonderful
fantasy world

with these fantasy characters,

with magic and intrigue.

And what better way
to tell that story

than presenting it in full
color as a feature length film?

[tense music]

- Walt said, "We're not
out to make a great film.

We're out to make
the greatest film."

His goals were that
lofty and that high.

- But in the 1930s,
the idea of making

a feature length
animated film is insane.

It was unprecedented as an idea.

[suspenseful music]

- People didn't think that
a feature length cartoon

would go anywhere,
would make any money.

- People thought,
it's gonna be boring,

or get this, it's going
to be bad for you.

There were worries that
people would feel nauseated

from looking at an hour and
a half of cartoon characters.

- Not even Walt Disney

understands how this
is gonna happen.

There are so many challenges:

manpower, technology, marketing.

This is a mountain that's
never been climbed before.

- [Narrator] Walt
hands his best artists

the project's first
critical task:

designing his leading lady.

[pensive music]

- Walt hired Grim Natwick,

famous for having designed
Betty Boop, a very big star.

And so when the Disney artists
were trying to figure out

what Snow White was
going to look like,

Grim Natwick offered
some designs.

- This is too Betty Boop.

Her head's gigantic.

We're not making a cartoon here.

This is a feature film.

You got to have
believable characters

that audiences will
take seriously.

Our princess needs to
look like a real girl.

- [Adam] He is asking
more from the medium

than the medium can
actually provide.

- Walt realized that to
do an animated feature,

the first thing you're
gonna have to do

is more realistic characters,

and you're gonna have to do
more dramatic characters.

It can't just be comedy.

It has to have some
sentimental moments.

People thought like, "Well,
Disney can make people laugh,

"=but can they make people cry?"

- He does a short film
called The Goddess of Spring.

- So, The Goddess
of Spring short

was an attempt by Walt
to solve the puzzle

for realistic human characters.

- And it doesn't seem to work.

We have human forms
in this cartoon

that come off a little weird.

Walt realizes, we
need to up our game.

[suspenseful music]

- Snow White has to
look like a real person.

It can't just look
like some character.

So the first thing he had to
do was plus up his animators,

and so he sent them
all back to school.

- He brought art
instructors over

from Chouinard Art Institute
to retrain his artists.

- They're gonna bring
in actors and actresses

and actually act out Snow White.

- And you can see the nuances

of how Snow White
moves or gestures.

All of that was from an actress,

and that was one of the ways

that Walt drew people
into his characters.

Their reactions were so real.

- And it became
this integral part

of how to solve the puzzle
for realistic animation.

- This was truly revolutionary,

and Walt did it first.

- At that time there
were no art schools

that were teaching animation,

because animation wasn't at all

considered to be art,
with a capital A.

- Walt begins the very first

animation training
programs ever to achieve

what he's aiming for with
feature length animation.

- [Adam] Nothing like
this had ever been done,

so it's an extremely
labor intensive,

time consuming, and
very expensive process.

- [Narrator] The
ambitious animated feature

consumes more and
more resources.

- He had to throw
everything he had at it,

and they were just
hemorrhaging money.

- The only thing that
was bringing money in

were the shorts,

but Mickey Mouse ain't the
only game in town anymore.

- Everybody's getting
into the animation game.

Because of the success of
Mickey and Flowers and Trees,

Warner Brothers
starts their studios.

- I'll sh-show you,

you f-four-legged,
p-piece of hamburger!

- The Warner characters
had come on very strong.

- They created edgier
characters, like Porky Pig,

that could be a little
bit more satirical

or get into more mischief.

- You're j-j-just a crook!

- They're the ones starting
to get the attention,

and starting to edge Mickey
away from his position

as king of the hill
of the cartoon world.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile,
with Waltz's focus

increasingly consumed
by his animated feature,

Roy is tasked with
finding the means

to cover the project's
growing costs.

- Remember, we were still

in the middle of the
Great Depression.

There wasn't a lot of loose
cash to be thrown around.

Walt needed his brother Roy
as his business partner.

[tense music]

- [Narrator] Roy estimates
Snow White will cost $250,000,

nearly 12 times the budget
for a standard cartoon short.

- Roy believed in
his brother's vision,

but knew it was risky

and knew it was up to
him to get the money.

[tense music]

- They will end up finding

a lifeline in the form
of Bank of America.

Or maybe, to put a
finer point on it,

Bank of America's going
to agree to hear them out.

[tense music]

- Stop it, Walt, you're
making me nervous.

- I should be at
the studio, Roy,

not waiting to grovel
for some bankers.

- Follow my lead.

Let me do most of the talking.

For God's sakes, don't
mention the art classes.

- Gentlemen, thanks for waiting.

We're ready for you now.

- Remember, we don't
have to do this.

We can just walk away.

We've never asked
for this much before.

We'll have to
mortgage everything,

including the mouse.

Are you sure you
wanna take this step?

- If they take this
bank loan right now,

they risk losing their studio.

They risk losing all of the
characters that they've created.

This is the point of no return.

- Walt was putting
everything on the line

with this one production.

- Come on, Roy, they're waiting.

[intense music]

- Walt Disney gets
an idea in his head

and he's not going
to stop until he sees

that through to fruition,
regardless of cost.

Walt believes, "I'll get
the film in on time.

I'll get the film in
on or under budget."

[suspenseful music]

And none of that happens.

- [Reporter] In the
world's film capital

is the studio that
stands as a monument

to the great genius
of Walt Disney.

He has built an enterprise

that employs 700 skilled

and highly-specialized
artistic workers.

- [Narrator] The Disney
Studio is undergoing

explosive growth, thanks
to an enormous bank loan

that has Walt up to
his neck in debt.

Now, Walt's epic hiring
spree has made his feature

the largest collaborative
art project in history.

- He basically takes his studio

and turns it into an incubator

for the best talent.

It's kind of like Silicon
Valley ahead of its time,

and he pushes these
artists to make something

that the world's
never seen before.

- [Narrator] Walt's
insistence on innovation

creates a new challenge for
which his army of artists

has already been
working on a solution.

[birds chirping]
[pensive music]

- There's no way to
rehearse an animated feature

to find out if it
all holds together.

It's not like live action.

So they need a system
to review this work

before you're gonna actually
animate these scenes.

- So they come up
with an alternative,

which ends up really becoming
an industry standard,

and that's called storyboarding.

- In order to make this
film the way he wants it,

Walt Disney has to create
technology that doesn't exist

and try new techniques that
have never been used before.

That's kind of crazy,

but no matter what it takes,

he wants to see
his vision through.

- Storyboarding allows
Walt Disney to visualize

any sequence, shot by shot.

It's really groundbreaking.

- The major blockbusters of
today all rely on storyboards,

and it's hard to
believe that storyboards

were used for the first
time ever by Walt Disney.

- Can we give the
forest more depth?

It's so flat, it
looks like a drawing.

- It is a drawing.

- That's fine for an eight
minute short, not a feature.

[pensive music]

There has to be a way you
can push the camera in.

- Walt has it in his
mind that Snow White

is going to rival live
action filmmaking.

He wants to get effects,
like a camera push-in,

that you would get
with live action.

- But you couldn't do that
in 2D animation at the time,

because the thing
that live action gets

that's hard to do in
animation is depth.

- There has to be a way
to envelop the audience

in this world to feel
the trees around you.

- How?

- I don't know.

But we're gonna figure it out.

- Walt really wants to depict

a three dimensional
world in cartoons,

and so he has to
literally create

the technology to do that.

[determinant music]

- Instead of a background being
painted on one single plane,

you had multiple glass panels,

so that you could get
an effective background,

mid-ground, and foreground
all layered with depth.

- But what about when
you travel forward?

How do we go inside a storybook?

Was the question Walt
wanted to answer.

- If you're walking down
a country road at night,

the moon stays at the
same place in the sky.

Well, when you're
animating on a 2D surface,

as you move the camera
closer to the image,

the moon gets bigger.

It's not working the way
that our eyes see naturally.

- Well, any progress?

It's better.

I like the depth we're getting.

But what about the movement?

If we wanna grab
people's attention,

we have to move
through the space.

- We tried it.

The minute you move
in with the camera,

the effect is ruined.

Take a look.

[gentle music]

- The closer you get to the
object you're zooming into,

the bigger everything
else appears,

the bigger the moon appears,
and it just kind of looks

like you're zooming
into a painting.

- What if the
camera doesn't move?

What if the camera
stays stationary?

Why don't we move the
cell layers like this?

[pensive music]

- That looks pretty good,

but we'd have to shoot
it frame by frame.

- This could cost
a lot of money.

- The only thing I
want you worrying about

is how to crack this.

[tense music]

Let Roy worry about the money.

- You got it, Walt.

- Walt Disney pushes
the boundaries

of art and technology,

because Snow White had to
look completely different

than anything anybody
had ever seen before.

In order to do that,
they had to create

an entirely new
camera apparatus,

a whole new technology.

- [Narrator] But as Walt
moves film innovation forward,

production drags on
with no end in sight.

[suspenseful music]

- If you were doing
a live action film,

it'd take you maybe
from story idea

to final edit and premiere,
maybe about six months.

Animation is a very
different process.

Live action is like a sprint.

Animation is more
like a marathon.

- Three years into
the production,

they barely had a
single scene animated,

and in a third of that time,

they literally built the
Empire State building.

You could've built three
Empire State buildings

in the amount of time it
took to get to this point

of Snow White's animation.

[pensive music]

- Roy ends up having to increase
the budget several times over,

and so many of the trade
papers in Hollywood

would eventually call
it Walt Disney's Folly.

- What's your point, Roy?

- That we've been throwing
money at Snow White

for three years and have
nothing to show for it.

The whole town is
talking about us.

- Let them talk.

I don't care.

You shouldn't either.

If you can't handle
the pressure,

maybe you should go back
to selling vacuum cleaners.

- It is not just me you
need to worry about.

I imagine the bank
has seen this too.

If they cut us off,

neither of us be will be
selling anything in this town.

- The fact of the matter was,

Disney wasn't making
a lot of money.

Bank of America was
keeping him afloat.

[tense music]

- He's making a movie that has
to break box office records

in order to justify
these expenses.

He is digging a hole he
may never crawl out of.

[pensive music]

- [Narrator] Although he
risks losing everything,

Walt Disney pours a fortune
into an innovative camera

unlike anything the
world has ever seen,

that will take animation
to the next dimension.

- Since this new camera
used many planes,

we called it the
multi-plane camera.

- The camera points down

and you have different layers of
backgrounds painted on glass.

You have people
calculating how much

to move each of
those panes of glass,

creating the illusion
that you're traveling

into a storybook page with
the illusion of depth.

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] Walt's
colossal new camera

is about 12 feet high

and requires a dedicated
team of operators.

- The multiplane camera is
like going from Atari to Xbox.

You're creating a three
dimensional view way before CGI.

That's how insane this idea is.

It's huge.

- So we are pulled
into the frightening

areas of the forest when
Snow White gets lost.

We feel the depth of her fear

through the depth of the camera

and the darkness of the palette.

It's almost otherworldly.

[dramatic piano music]

- [Narrator] But
before any of these

extraordinary scenes
can be completed,

the studio must account
for using Walt's new camera

which costs tens of
thousands of dollars

to film even a single sequence.

[tense music]

- Walt Disney was
definitely a perfectionist.

He always wanted
bigger and better,

and cost be damned.

- There you are.

- You've gotta see what
this camera could do, Roy.

It's worth its weight in gold.

- Well, Bank of
America just called.

They wanna know when
they can see the movie.

- We'll save them front
row seats at the premier.

- No, Walt, they
wanna see it now.

They're coming to
the studio this week.

[Roy sighs]

[tense music]

- In September 1937,

the Disneys basically
ran out of money.

So when Roy went to
the Bank of America

and said, "We need more money,"

they said, "Okay, at this point,

we have to see what
you're working on."

- Walt Disney is really on the
brink of financial collapse,

so it's a very critical moment.

- Walt was a nervous
wreck showing this

unfinished film to
an audience of one,

Joe Rosenberg, their banker.

- It's not really animated,

it's pencil drawings,
there's no sound.

It's rough.

- There are whole sequences

where Walt is still
providing narration,

and saying, "Well, this is
what's going to go in here."

- But they absolutely need him
to believe in this project,

if there's going
to be a project.

[suspenseful music]

- Joe Rosenberg,
he is watching it,

apparently, just stone faced.

Not a laugh, nothing.

- Rosenberg never says a word.

Can you imagine?

This guy is the money.

This guy is the bank,

and he seems to have hated it.

And so Walt thinks
they have blown it.

Their studio is kaput.

[dramatic music]

- Mr. Rosenberg, it's
just a pencil test.

The finished film will be
world's better, please.

[tense music]

- That film is going to
make a hat full of money.

- You won't regret
this, Mr. Rosenberg.

Just one more year.

- Have the film
ready by Christmas.

No more delays.

[tense music]

- That gives us
about three months.

How much is left to animate?

- Nearly all of it.

[Roy sighs]

[tense music]

- 125, check.

- [Narrator] The entire
workforce at the Disney Studio

races around the clock
to complete Snow White

by a looming,
pre-Christmas deadline.

- It was all hands on
deck to make this thing.

These animators are
working literally 24/7.

I mean, like, I can't
even imagine what

the energy must have
been like in that space.

[dramatic music]

- The studio was risking it all.

They knew they had to just pull

everything together
to make this happen,

or everyone, including
Walt, would be out of a job.

- We broke a background.

- What?

- I dropped it loading
it into the multiplane.

It shattered all over the floor.

- Dammit, we don't
have time for this.

- Sorry, Hazel.
- [Hazel] Which one?

- [Worker] A foreground
plane for the castle.

- We'll make a new one
as fast as we can.

[tense music]

Go shoot another scene
until I finish this.

- Yes, ma'am.

- [Narrator] With the
completion of Snow White

coming down to the wire,

Walt makes an
impossible decision.

- Disney makes the risky choice

to pull everyone from the shorts

to get Snow White finished.

- Remember, all of the
Looney Tune characters,

like Porky Pig, are now
gobbling up market share.

The only thing that was
profitable at Disney Studios

at the time, were the
Mickey Mouse shorts,

and he decides to shut it down.

He is gonna put
everybody on Snow White.

- That's how desperate he is to
get this thing done on time.

- [Narrator] As the
film nears completion,

Walt holds a rough
screening for his staff

and learns what his own
artists really think.

- Look at this.

A comment card from the
staff screening this morning.

We showed the whole picture.

- Walt gets a note from
one of the studio hands,

that says, "Walt..."

- "Stick to shorts."

- Which really hit
a nerve for Walt.

Like, really,
really hit a nerve.

- He's right, Roy.

It's all that rushing.

At the end of the film,
the prince shimmies

when he kneels down
to the glass coffin.

It's shoddy work.

- In the rush to finish the
film in the last three months,

there's what's called
the prince shimmy.

Near the end of the film,

when the prince comes
to see Snow White,

he wobbles a little
bit on the screen.

- And Walt really
wanted to change that,

and said he wanted to fix it.

- Walt was never
one to just be like,

"Yeah, that's good enough."

He was a problem solver.

- Okay, Walt, how
much to fix it?

- Not much.

Maybe 300,000.

[dramatic music]

- Walt Disney is
a perfectionist,

but his brother
Roy knows they have

already leveraged every
single penny they have.

And the deadline for Snow
White is approaching.

- But Walt wants Snow
White to be perfect.

I mean, that's the kind of
odds he's playing here.

[suspenseful music]

[pensive music]

- [Narrator] The Disney
Studio has weeks left

to finish the world's
first animated feature.

But an imperfection
has Walt considering

a drastic solution.

- Okay, Walt, how
much to fix it?

- Not much.

Maybe 300,000.

- It's a huge gamble,

because Walt was staring
at the possible scenario

that he's not able
to finish this film,

and there's no
game plan for that.

And Roy was worried
about whether or not

he could pull this off.

- It's not just
fixing the animation.

We have to shoot it all again
and who knows what else.

[dramatic music]

This is serious stuff, Roy.

That's just one error.

Who knows how many I've missed?

I need more time and
money to get it right.

- We're completely out of both.

The film gets delivered in
a few weeks no matter what.

- Roy was always
the voice of reason,

and usually Walt
would override him,

and say, "Well, I don't care."

And this was one of the few
times where Walt acquiesced.

- I'm sorry, Walt.

The prince will shimmy.

[Walt sighs]

[bright music]
- [Reporter] December 21, 1937,

all of Hollywood turned
out for the world premier

of Walt Disney's $1.5 million

feature length
animated fairytale,

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

- Snow White had a full
red carpet treatment.

It was this beautiful
thing, everyone came out.

- Shirley Temple was there,

Douglas Fairbanks,
Marlene Dietrich.

Roy and Lillian showed up,
all dressed to the nines.

[projector clicking]
[ethereal music]

- Walt, you're missing
your own movie.

- Lilly, I've seen it plenty.

- It's wild when you
realize how much risk

really went into Snow White.

If they fail, they
lose the studio.

They lose all the characters
that they've created.

This film is going
to make or break,

not just Disney Studios,
not just Walt Disney,

but the legacy of
Disney as a whole.

[pensive music]

- I'll be damned.

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard

are tearing up down there.

- Because it's beautiful, Walt.

- Walt had created
such a connection,

such a sense of
realness and humanity

in these characters
in Snow White,

that the audience
started to cry.

Walt, he had made
animation real.

[dramatic music]

- And then when the film ended,

it was like a
thunderous applause.

Like, people stood and cheered.

[audience cheering]

- [Narrator] Snow White
earns a record setting

$8 million for the studio,

about 185 million today.

- Snow White was not
just a popular cartoon.

Snow White was the number
one feature film of all time.

It was just raking in millions
and millions of dollars.

[camera bulb firing]

- Everyone told him
that it wouldn't work.

That it was a crazy idea.

So it was incredibly
vindicating for him.

[cameras flashing]

- Walt really proved
there was a audience

who wanted animated
feature length films

and it changed the
industry forever.

- [Tom] It was the success
of Snow White that created

the most lucrative part of
what Hollywood is today.

The animation industry has
just transcended Hollywood

and it really is
born with Snow White.

- Most people have been
exposed to animated features

for so long that it is hard to
imagine a world without them.

It's a multi-billion
dollar industry now.

But none of this would
exist if Walt Disney

hadn't pushed the
boundaries of the medium.

The combination of imagination,
technology, talent,

and artistic inspiration
that produced Snow White,

did nothing less than
change filmmaking forever.

[dramatic music]

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