This public talk (December-21-2023) opens the VIFF’s December 2023 series The Wonders, following a screening of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, Walt Disney Studio). The talk discusses the pivotal role that Snow White played in the history of the Disney studio and theatrical feature-length animation more broadly. Just as the film’s titular dwarfs descended into the mines to source lustrous diamonds, hundreds of workers entered Walt Disney’s animation studio between 1934 and 1937 to produce and polish a new vision of spectacular, expensive animation.