What 1937 Disney film was the first full-length animated feature?

The 1937 Disney film that became the first full-length animated feature is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Produced by Walt Disney and based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, the film was a major gamble at a time when animated cartoons were usually short subjects. Disney began developing the project in the early 1930s, and many people in Hollywood reportedly dismissed it as “Disney’s Folly.”

The film required an unprecedented investment in animation, music, visual design and story development. Its success proved that audiences would watch a feature-length animated narrative, establishing animation as a major film medium and giving Disney the foundation for its feature-animation studio.

The Little Mermaid, Fantasia and Pinocchio are also landmark Disney films, but they came later. Fantasia and Pinocchio followed Snow White in 1940; The Little Mermaid was released in 1989. Snow White is often described more precisely as the first American feature-length animated film and the first cel-animated feature.