Who were the actresses that inspired Snow White’s look?

In 1937, Disney released its first animation in the feature film format: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. The plot was inspired by a fairy tale published by Brothers Grimm in 1812, however the appearance of the first princess of Mickey’s house ended up being influenced by some popular Hollywood actresses of the 1930s.

As found by the ScreenRant portal, at that time, it was extremely common for animators to be inspired by real people to create their characters, using people to base themselves on their physical appearances, or simply to better understand the movement of the body and make the production as realistic as possible. possible, according to the technology existing at that time.

Inspired by Snow White

In this way, the first Disney princess had four great inspirations for her creation: the actresses Jean Harlow, Marlene Dietrich It is Claudette Colbertand the dancer Marge Champion.

Harlowas much as she was known for playing “bad girls”, ended up being responsible for inspiring two extremely striking characteristics of Snow White: the thin eyebrow and the curly hair, while the animators based it on Dietrich to develop the princess’ makeup, which features purple eyeshadow, rosy cheeks, and bright red lipstick. Already colbertwho was one of the highest paid actresses of the 1930s, inspired the round face, large eyes and small mouth.

As stated in the book “Disney Princess: Beyond the Tiara”, by Emily Zemleractress and dancer Marge Champion was the person chosen by Disney to inspire the movement of Snow White, where the animators needed to accurately draw all the steps taken by the woman in a fluid and playful way.

In the end, despite many people’s doubts, the film turned out to be a huge success – in addition to becoming one of the most important in the history of cinema.

Disable VerificationPremium Suggestions