Animated films have become a theatrical staple, entertaining audiences in droves, landing huge marketing deals, and producing oodles of toys. But that wasn’t always the case.

In the early 1930s, when Walt Disney announced that he wanted to make a feature length animated film, he was met with skepticism. Despite that, he forged ahead with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, releasing the movie in late 1937. Based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, Snow White was a critical and commercial success. It premiered on December 21, 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theatre then saw nationwide release a few months later on February 4, 1938.

Production began in early 1934. By June, Walt Disney announced that Walt Disney Productions would produce it as his first feature length film. Up until then, Disney had produced short features with characters like Mickey Mouse, but Walt wanted to expand into longer films. His wife Lillian and his brother and business partner Roy both tried to convince him not to make the movie. Others in the movie industry were skeptical and even cynical about the concept. But Walt was so sure of the film that he mortgaged his house to finance the movie, which exceeded $1.4 million.

Walt and a team of writers and animators worked on the story together. He wanted the story to feature the Seven Dwarfs and the comedy that could center around them, so Disney staff writer Richard Creedon gathered notes on the characters and possible gags. Walt suggested that the Dwarfs have names and individual personalities, even though they were nameless in the original fairy tale. They came up with around 50 possible names, including ones like Jumpy, Baldy, Gabby, Lazy, and Tubby. Even with this long list some of the finalists were early frontrunners, like Doc (who would be their leader), Bashful, Happy, Sleepy, and Grumpy.

During this early phase, they were planning to follow the original fairy tale version that had the Queen attempt to kill Snow White with a poisoned comb. After convincing Snow to use the comb, the Queen would escape alive, and the Dwarfs would get there in time to remove the comb and save Snow. The Queen would capture the Prince and torment him in her dungeon, the Prince would refuse to marry her, so she’d leave him for death. She would go to the Dwarfs’ cottage with the poisoned apple and the animals in the forest would help the Prince escape. He would ride to the cottage to save Snow White but go the wrong way and would not arrive in time to save her from the Queen, but would get there in time to give her love’s first kiss.

More comical gags at this stage included the Queen being fat and batty, yet self-satisfied, while the Prince would be more of a clown, attracting Snow through humor and a silly serenade. Walt encouraged the staff to come up with comedic bits like this, among which was the scene when the Dwarfs’ noses pop over the foot of the bed when they meet Snow.

However, concerns arose that the comical bits would diminish the story’s plausibility. More development went into the Queen and they worked on the Dwarfs’ names and personalities. At this point the character of Dopey was introduced, which proved to be a great move since he would become the most popular of the Dwarfs. During the fall of 1934, Walt kept developing the story, and wrestled with turning the Queen into a stately beauty instead of a dumpy, unattractive woman.

After a short break from the project, Disney refocused on the movie in the fall of 1935. They focused on scenes in which Snow White and the Dwarfs were introduced. Assignments were given to staff members and they continued fleshing out the personalities of the Dwarfs. Initially, the Dwarfs were going to be the center of the story, so many of the scenes were written for the seven of them. But several of those scenes were cut from the movie, including scenes that had Doc and Grumpy arguing about Snow and another that showed Snow trying to teach them to eat properly.

When it came to creating art, concept artist Albert Hurter was the primary designer on the animation. Everything from characters to basic background objects needed his approval before they could move forward. Gustaf Tenggren served as a color stylist and handled staging and atmosphere for many scenes, as well as designing the movie posters and the pressbook. Ferdinand Hovarth developed some of the darker concept artwork and Joe Grant designed the Queen’s form as the Witch.

Songs were composed by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey with the incidental music score by Paul J. Smith and Leigh Harline. The movie ‒ which produced some iconic songs like “Heigh-Ho,” “Whistle While You Work,” and “Some Day My Prince Will Come” ‒ became the first American film to have a soundtrack album.

Audiences loved the movie as soon as it debuted, including those that maligned it during production. It earned positive reviews from top critics and six days after it premiered, Walt Disney and the Dwarfs appeared on the cover of Time magazine. After exclusive runs at Radio City Music Hall in New York, RKO gave it a general release in February 1938. At the box office it made four times the amount of any other movie that year and in May 1939 it became the most successful movie with sound.

The success of Snow White continued with awards and accolades for decades after its release. The movie was nominated for an Oscar for Best Musical Score and the U.S. Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. It’s ranked on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 greatest American film and has also been named the greatest American animated film of all time.