The Disney animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first of its kind when it came out in 1937. However, the animators needed human inspiration so their characters could be less Mickey, more human; naturalism doesn’t come easily! This lead to the process of rotoscoping, where dancers were filmed as motion study models for Disney animated characters.
One such model is Marge Belcher Champion. She was plucked from her father’s dance studio at fourteen-years-old to serve as the basis for Snow White — and look how cute she was! She continued dancing for the rest of her long life and still is to this day at ninety-years-old, which is pretty dang amazing. Check out Marge and her model compatriots square dancing, yodeling and dressing as large-headed dwarfs below. (Definitely worth a watch!)
Read more about the history of Disney on the Huffington Post.
the video was fascinating!
i love this post so much!
xo
thank you for sharing this! My friend linked me to this and I found it really interesting. Now I’m off to go check out the rest of your blog!
Wow, it was such a different time, wasn’t it? I guess it’s strange, but it made me think about my mortality. She has such great energy.