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A hand-inked and hand-painted limited edition cel titled "Heigh Ho," faithfully recreated from Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The animation for the "Heigh Ho" sequence was supervised by Fred Moore, Frank Thomas, and Bill Tytla, three of Walt's most trusted "Nine Old Men". Each dwarf was animated to express a unique personality through movement, a revolutionary approach at the time that astonished audiences and critics alike.
When the film premiered in 1937, audiences were captivated by this very scene, the song, the motion, and the emotion, and it remains one of the most beloved sequences in Disney history. As Time magazine noted on release, "No one had ever seen anything like it".
This edition was released in 1993 by Disney Art Editions in a worldwide run of only 275 pieces, with each cel individually inked and painted by studio artists at Walt Disney Studios, Burbank.
This piece (numbered 166/275) captures the Seven Dwarfs: Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey, as they march home from the mine, lanterns swinging, in the film's most iconic sequence. The "Heigh Ho" scene has long been regarded as the musical and emotional heart of Snow White, a moment that defined the tone of Disney animation for generations to come.
The cel was created using over 56 individual ink colours, including subtle variations in tone, such as the four distinct colours used on each dwarf's nose, to reflect the natural warmth and shadowing of the original artwork. These were carefully selected using archival colour references and the original production drawings from Disney's Animation Research Library. Each character was inked by hand on acetate and painted on the reverse using Disney-approved acrylics, replicating exactly how the original animation was produced in the 1930s.
The panoramic background has been recreated by a Disney background artist using original layout drawings, background paintings, and colour model references from the original film. The result is a seamless recreation of the dwarfs' woodland path, a feat of studio artistry that could not exist as an original production setup, since only a single pan background would ever have been created for the scene.
Accompanied by its original Walt Disney Studio seal and certificate of authenticity, this edition stands as one of the finest examples of Disney's 1990s studio art programme, created during a period when the company sought to preserve and celebrate its most historic animation moments through authentic hand-crafted releases.
Sold out immediately upon release in 1993, this edition was distributed through Disney Stores, Theme Park galleries, and authorised dealers worldwide. Today, it is considered one of the most sought-after cels from the official Disney Studio Art Program. Dimensions (framed): 48.75 cm x 80 cm x 3 cm (19.25" x 31.5" x 1.25")
Sold without copyright; see copyright notice in the Terms and Conditions.
Estimate: £1,500 - 3,000 Ω
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