The dwarfs gather around a table to decide what gift to give Snow White to thank her for her kindness. This sequence was rejected before the end of production, and was never included or fully animated. A recreation based on the existing drawings has been offered on video editions since the Laserdisc release.
That recreation allows us to see a fascinating fact: not only was Ward Kimball responsible for most of the animation on this sequence, but he seems to be the only one who almost completed his assignment. Even though Les Clark & Dick Lundy had a few scenes assigned to them, it seems that they did not actually work on them, or at least did not complete most of them, lest one scene by Dick Lundy. The deleted soup sequence is often mentioned as the main reason for Ward Kimball’s disappointment regarding his unused work, but surely this sequence was also a major disappointment for him. Especially considering that the final draft is dated November 15, 1937, meaning that the sequence was still planned for inclusion a month before the premiere.
It’s easy to see the reason for this cut, though: while the juxtaposition of light-hearted and suspenseful sequences reinforces each other’s power, at this point in the story, we can no longer afford to spend several minutes laughing with the dwarfs while the Queen is moments away from killing the heroine! In fact, the length of the sequences that follow will get shorter and shorter, making them follow each other faster and faster, increasing the audience’s pulse.
To capitalize on the work already done on these cut sequences, a short film project entitled Snow White Returns was studied shortly after the film’s release. But the only finished shot of this sequence is the one from scene 12, which was reused for scene 2 of sequence 14E, where Sleepy utters one of those rare lines. Here, it was intended to be “What if we make her a bed?” but he eventually pronounces “Maybe the old Queen got Snow White?”
Production information
Sequence number: 11A
Date of final draft: November 15, 1937
Director: Ben Sharpsteen
Assistant director: Lou Debney
Animators of the dwarfs: Ward Kimball, Dick Lundy & Les Clark
Ward Kimball assistant animator: Claude Smith
Cast
Doc: Roy Atwell
Grumpy and Sleepy: Pinto Colvig
Happy: Otis Harlan
Bashful: Scotty Mattraw
Sneezy: Billy Gilbert
Additional dwarfs voices: Jim MacDonald, Clarence Nash, Hal Rees & Lem Wright
The birds: Esther Campbell, Anne Darlington, Marion Darlington, Peggy Downey, Ruth Magden, Louise Meyers, Clarence Nash & Ruby Ray
Scenes
Here is the sequence broken up into scenes with the corresponding animators.
Some of the animation was not finished and non of the scenes were painted.
Concept drawings
Some of these drawings show a gag involving a bossy Doc, hitting Dopey over the head with a hammer, and Dopey swiftly placing a nut to be cracked on his skull before he does. In the legend, it is clearly stated that Dopey suggests to build a bed for Snow White. In the final, although unfinished, version of thi sequence, Sleepy suggests that, and obviously Dopey does not speak at all in the film.
