On the great path of life, we are faced with a series of crossroads. These forks in the road actually come in the form of decisions we are forced to make when confronted with choices.
It’s the direction we take when faced with these crossroads that can shape our destiny.
In the early 1930s, Walt Disney and his animation studio was at a crossroads. After years of producing successful movie cartoon shorts, known as Silly Symphonies, he was confronted with an important, career-altering decision: Continue churning out these cute, but not very creatively or financially rewarding shorts, or raise the bar and do something that had never been done before — a full-length, animated feature movie.
Disney, standing at what could be considered the most pivotal moment in his career, opted for the latter choice. And so, the idea of creating "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" took root.
But cultivating that idea and bringing it to fruition was a marathon-like, exhausting journey for Disney and his staff. It would take months to develop a storyline and even longer for his animators to hand-draw the two million individual cells needed to complete the never-done-before task.
The challenge of creating a full-length animated movie which would hold audiences’ attention for more than 80 minutes — as opposed to a short subject, which lasted barely eight minutes — meant taking risks.
And it meant developing a film technique which would be a quantum leap for the animation process. That technique was the creation of the multiplane camera.
Prior to "Snow White," all animated films were flat, stiff two-dimensional creations with no depth. The action moved, but only from side to side.
The development of the multiplane camera enabled Disney’s artists to add more-realistic form, substance and movement to each scene.
The multiplane camera system was similar to a baker’s rack, in that it was tall — about 12 feet — with a series of shelves which enabled the artists to add layers to a scene.
The camera was located at the top of the rack and was pointed downward, with usually four layers of paintings positioned on the shelves.
The bottom layer was the farthest point of the shot — say a forest off in the distance. Each subsequent layer added a three-dimensional quality to the frame — from the forest to a hut to a stream to finally a close-up of a main character.
The effect was that of a camera showing very believable live action — with movement not only side to side, but front to back as well.
To viewers used to looking at flat drawings with little depth, it was a stunning advancement ... truly bringing realistic motion to heretofore simple cartoons.
The multiplane camera radically changed how animated films were crafted, similar to the way Pixar took animation into the 21st century with the development of computer animation technology.
Clearly, Disney had taken the correct path when he was faced with that creative crossroads back in the 1930s. "Disney’s Folly," as many naysayers had called the film prior to its release, became a veritable diamond mine, grossing the unheard-of sum of $8 million dollars worldwide.
And as a result, the multiplane camera became a mainstay in the world of animation for decades.
The cornerstone of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" — as with everything Disney gets involved in — is the story.
Those first movie-goers at the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles in 1937 who were expecting to see nothing more than an expanded cartoon were stunned by both the new technology and the heart-wrenching storyline. Many, in fact, left the theater still wiping tears from their eyes.
A new generation of ‘Snow White’ and ‘Star Wars’ fans
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" has proven to be an endearing Disney classic, a film that has withstood the test of time and has touched many new generations.
That fact is fully evident in my daughter and son-in-law’s house, where our soon-to-be 2-year-old granddaughter Abigail has fallen head over heels in love with Snow White and, as she calls them, "the seven men with hats."
Abigail’s grandma, a long-time "Snow White" fan herself, couldn’t be happier.
Abigail watches the movie two, often three times a day. And she loves singing along with all those great songs.
Which is not to be confused with her cousin Ryan, who at the advanced age of 21 months may be the youngest and most knowledgeable "Star Wars" fan in this or any other galaxy.
He, too, watches "Star Wars" almost non-stop on his parents’ TV and can recite the names of dozens of characters from all six movies.
During a visit to Hollywood Studios this past August, Ryan was wide-eyed when he approached the new Star Tours attraction.
Although he was too young to ride, he did manage to convince his elders to buy him a collection of "Star Wars" figures as a souvenir.
As the group walked away from the attraction, an impatient Ryan ripped open the toy and proceeded to start playing with them on the ground, oblivious to the hundreds of people walking by.
Clearly, The Force was with him.