Work on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was started in 1934, with the movie itself coming out three years later. Now, most of the work on that film was actually work on the film, obviously. However, it’s definitely arguable that work on the film started even before the night Walt acted out the plot of the film to his staff. Perhaps it started in 1932, when the animators started taking art lessons which eventually became a studio process. Perhaps it started in 1933, when Ub Iwerks invented the first multiplane camera. However, if you look through projects the studio released in the ‘30s, you can see Walt working toward what would become the studio’s first feature.

It’s an ongoing process, or it was in the era of theatrical shorts. The studio used those shorts to develop techniques that would be used in the features. This was both artistic and technical, too. “The Old Mill” was a final test of the multiplane camera, and of course its artistic style can be seen in the finished film as well. As we’ve talked about before, “The Goddess of Spring” was part of the work on creating more realistic human figures. We’ve also talked about how “The Worm Turns” was in part practice for creating the Evil Queen’s workshop. “Flowers and Trees” was the first-ever three-strip Technicolor film, which wasn’t deliberately experimenting for future films but definitely did come in handy for them. I’d argue that “The Pied Piper” shows a midpoint between Funny Animal Animation and convincing human characters.

It isn’t just things tied into Snow White, either. “Grand Canyonscope” was filmed in Cinerama. Sure, that didn’t stick around, but if it had, Disney now knew how to animate for it. The Silly Symphonies faded away as the feature division took off, but for decades to come, there were details that showed up in the shorts before appearing in the features. We’re not talking xerography, here, where the details literally showed up, but again we’re talking techniques and technology. The shorts were practice, because if they go wrong, you haven’t screwed up something that could once again bring the company to the verge of bankruptcy.

In theory, even after the end of the theatrical-release shorts, Disney animation could have continued being tested with the stuff the studio made for television. In practice, the two divisions were fairly separate. This means that the laboratory Disney had for their experimentation was closed. Oh, there are still shorts being created by the studio now and again, but it’s hardly being used as much as it could be. This is yet another reason for my passionate belief that we need to bring back animated shorts before features. Test the technology; experiment with the art.

Honestly, this is why I’m kind of glad to discover that Disney produced a rare commercial recently, for Givenchy. It’s 2D-animated. It’s hand-drawn. And, okay, it’s part of a partnership that has produced an insanely overpriced collection based on 101 Dalmatians. (There is no such thing as a T-shirt worth $600.) Still, that could actually be practice for doing another 2D, hand-drawn film, and my goodness but it would be lovely if they’d do that. And the way to make sure it looks good when you get there is to practice. It’s one of the good things we could learn from what Walt did.

I’m not asking for a $630 “nylon bucket hat” from Givenchy, just that you give a few bucks to my Patreon or Ko-fi!