10 Fascinating Facts About Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs
8. 50 Dwarfs Were Pitched
One of the most memorable elements about the entire film was the seven dwarfs. They were one of Disney’s earliest mascots for their feature film department and all who went to see the film know their names. Doc, Grumpy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Happy, Bashful and Dopey all became household names alongside Snow White, the Magic Mirror and the Evil Queen Grimhilde. Deciding on their names though was a longer process than picking them from a hat.
The guys at Disney animation had invented around 50 names for the dwarfs they could have used in the film and had to whittle them down to just 7. Names included funnier ones like Burpy, Dizzey, Wheezy and Lazy, to ones that could be questionable by today's standards like Tubby, Deafy and Baldy.
They chose Doc as the leader of the dwarfs, and the other 6 were chosen for their unique character traits, i.e. Grumpy, Happy, Bashful, Sleepy, and at the time Jumpy and an unnamed seventh, before they were replaced by Sneezy and eventually Dopey.
Snoopy was also considered but considering Charlie Brown was quite a popular cartoon character at the time he was dropped pretty quickly. There was also Thrifty but considering it was the 30s there could have been problems with that character in later years, especially how they inevitably would have animated him… doesn’t really bare thinking about.