Information
Sequence number: 4A, 4B, 4D, 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, 7A, 11A, 14B, 15A
Date of document: October 17, 1934
Date of Meeting: October 15, 1934
Topics covered: Grumpy, washing sequence, soup, bed building, Prince in dungeon
Meeting participants: Walt Disney, Richard Creedon, Larry Morey (“In Walt’s office Monday afternoon”)
Minute writer: Harry Bailey
This meeting started with a description of Grumpy. Jumpy is still considered as a character.
Grumpy’s Characterization
After the dwarfs enter the house and see changes that have taken place, Grumpy says:
“There’s a curse on this house – I’m awarning you. We’ll all be drugged inter trubbil!!!”
He doesn’t enjoy the dance sequence but surreptitiously keeps time with the music. When SnowWhite asks him to dance, he pouts and turns his back on her, or else goes into a snappy jig. The dwarfs applaud, but when he sees SnowWhite applauding, he registers contempt.
He won’t show his hands when SnowWhite asks him to hold them out for her to see, but instead sticks out his tongue. Disgustedly, he washes his face and hands by dipping the tips of his fingers in water and touching his cheekbones. Grumpy always acts as a hold-out and is crabby about everything until SnowWhite recovers from the poison comb; then he weakens but reverts to type until her poison apple sequence, when he is as sorry as the rest… sobbing harder than all the others during the prayer.
[Character suggested as being deaf – has a high, happy voice quality – always busy doing something, like whittling; or peeling an apple with a long peel, or down to nothing but the core.]
The dwarfs all stare at SnowWhite without speaking, also staring at anyone who dares to speak to her. They push Doc forward to speak for them, and they can introduce themselves. SnowWhite inspects their hands and sends them out to wash up. Grumpy’s actions are described in the “Grumpy’s Characterization Sheet.”
The washing outside is full of fun, with action involving catching soap, soap in their eyes, and one dwarf blindly reaching for a towel. SnowWhite rings the dinner bell at the doorway, and they all pile in helter-skelter. They might say grace at the table, with one quietly sucking up soup during this action. Fade out reel on soup guzzling scene to the Queen.
Birds tie an apron on SnowWhite during dish cleaning. Birds pull spectacles off a dwarf at the mine to spread the alarm of SnowWhite’s danger at the hands of the Queen-Witch. No time is taken at the mines to build up the personalities of the seven little men; rather, they pick up with them in action, happily singing a good marching song or singing, “Now our work is done,” etc.
Silly suggestions are made by the dwarfs about what to make for SnowWhite as a present until Sleepy suggests, “Why don’t you make her a bed?” – which meets with their approval. When the dwarfs find the door to their house open, consternation follows. One says, “It’s never been open before!” They sneak in as a tense feeling begins to build.
The dwarfs look in silly places for the one who cleaned up their place, stressing silly gags, such as looking into a pot hanging on a crane in the fireplace. When Jumpy discovers SnowWhite, his hat goes up in the air as he double-takes and then tears out to the others. When they realize there’s a girl in the house, they all bolt for the door until Doc stops them and leads them back to SnowWhite in bed. This action is marked by comical tenseness.
The dwarfs sing a song for SnowWhite they haven’t sung in fifty years. Beds are all set, and SnowWhite could sleep in a little alcove set apart with a homemade curtain of clothes hung up.
The Queen uses jolly ingredients to make up the potion for her change into a fat peddler woman. She paces the floor awaiting the Huntsman’s return. She works skeletons like marionettes to amuse the Prince, bound and gagged in the dungeon, perhaps introducing Mr. Bones to him. Skeletons are in closets and odd places; one is even chained in a nonchalant pose. The Queen tells the Prince, “I always liked Charlie’s pose. Heh, heh!” A suggestion is made that the Queen only has the power of witchcraft over her domain, capturing the Prince to keep him in her power. She wants to marry him, but he refuses to acknowledge “that she is the fairest in the land,” having seen SnowWhite. The Queen has him dragged away to “think it over” so he will not interfere with her diabolical plans for SnowWhite. Heh! Heh! Heh! Is she a witch!
