“With a smile and a song …”: Walt Disney and the Birth of the American Fairy Tale

Abstract

Using the new frameworks for analysis of Disney animation laid out by scholars such as Douglas Brode and Nicholas Sammond, I apply a sociohistorical treatment to Disney’s version of “Snow White.” My central thesis is that Disney changed the story of Snow White in order to incorporate the new ideology of the 1930s, including the transformation of the American Dream of success. This work preempted the studio’s involvement in shaping national myths for propagandistic purposes during World War II in America.