Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs 1937

Practically nobody in the entertainment business thought Disney's first feature length project would be a success. It was generally known as “Disney’s folly”. Disney proved everyone wrong. It was a tremendous hit. And as usual it took some advertising to make it a hit.

Several posters were designed to promote the movie. And, as usual the quality varied. From quite awful or really boring, to nearly fantastic art.

Movie posters come in different styles, classified as Style A, B, C, and so on. One version is sometime classified as “international”. Not entirely uncommon is the fact, that the Style A poster often is the one least interesting as art. These are first and foremost considered as pure marketing devices. The Style A poster for Snow White, is no exception. Straight and very forward in it’s message, but oh, so dull.

In 1936, Disney recognized an illustrator by the name of Gustaf Tenggren. Having seen his illustrations for different fairy tales, Disney thought Tenggren could be useful for the over all look of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. And Disney was right.

But Tenggren not only designed the look of the movie. He also produced art for posters. The B and C style posters are Tenggrens unmistakeable artwork. They are both fine works of art, but the really outstanding poster is the B style, presented here.