It seems that this sequence, which now shares its name with a 2012 film, was originally conceived in a more conventional way. The difficulty of animating the huntsman is partly responsible for the particularly effective use of mise-en-scène to inspire fear: shadow effects, a close-up on his hand, shots from behind and a focus of Snow White’s attention on a small lost bird.
In fact, the montage as originally planned was often changed, and the order of scenes (shots, in animation) was disrupted, while several were cut to speed up the pace, especially in the final cut of the sequence.
The growing tension of this scene is followed by the terror of the escape into the forest, where every branch, every animal, every sound is stylized as it might be in a nightmare. In fact, it’s this moment that is often cited as one of the scariest in the film. The artists had a field day creating menacing figures in the forest, not all of which made it into the film.
Amusingly, as the initial foreign versions were edited, more and more screams were added at the end of the sequence. Thus, Snow White screams once more in French than in English, once more in German, once more in Italian, and so on.
This difference was completely smoothed out during the re-recording of the new versions, which took place from the 60s.
Production information
Sequence number: 3A
Date of final draft: undated
Director: William Cottrell
Assistant director: Hal Adelquist
Animators of Snow White: Grim Natwick, Hamilton Luske, Errol Gray, Eric Larson, Jack Campbell & Tony Rivera
Animators of the Huntsman: Hamilton Luske & Errol Gray
Animator of the alligator-logs: Milt Kahl (originally assigned to Eric Larson)
Effects animator (Shadows, logs, rocks, water, flare on knife): Sandy Strother
Effects animator (Leaves): Reuben Timmons
Cast
Snow White: Adriana Caselotti (Virginia Davis & Thelma Hubbard on screams?)
The Huntsman: Stuart Buchanan
Scenes
Here is the sequence broken up into scenes with the corresponding animators.
Concept drawings
Storyboard
Rotoscope
The huntsman’s model was very close to the final character animation. Note the animator wearing a piece of cloth to represent Snow White’s dress in scene 10.
