Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
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| Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | |
|---|---|
Original theatrical one-sheet poster
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| Directed by | David Hand (supervising) William Cottrell Wilfred Jackson Larry Morey Perce Pearce Ben Sharpsteen |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Written by | Ted Sears Richard Creedon Otto Englander Dick Rickard Earl Hurd Merrill De Maris Dorothy Ann Blank Webb Smith |
| Based on | Snow White by The Brothers Grimm |
| Starring | Adriana Caselotti Lucille La Verne Harry Stockwell Pinto Colvig Roy Atwell Otis Harlan Moroni Olsen Billy Gilbert Stuart Buchanan |
| Music by | Frank Churchill Paul Smith Leigh Harline |
| Studio | Walt Disney Productions |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
| Release dates |
|
| Running time | 83 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,488,423[1] |
| Box office | $416 million[2] |
Snow White premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre on December 21, 1937, followed by a nationwide release on February 4, 1938, and with international earnings of $8 million during its initial release briefly assumed the record of highest grossing sound film at the time. The popularity of the film has led to it being re-released theatrically many times, until its home video release in the 1990s. Adjusted for inflation, it is one of the top ten performers at the North American box office.
At the 11th Academy Awards, Walt Disney was awarded an honorary Oscar, and the film was nominated for Best Musical Score. It was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1989 and is ranked in the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films, who also named the film as the greatest American animated film of all time in 2008.
Disney's take on the fairytale has had a huge cultural impact, resulting in a popular theme park attraction, a video game, and a Broadway musical.
Plot
Through a textual prologue told via a storybook, Snow White is a princess living with her stepmother, a vain and wicked Queen who is assumed to have taken over the kingdom after the death of Snow White's mother and father. Fearing Snow White's beauty surpassing her own, the Queen forced her to work as a scullery maid and asked her Magic Mirror daily "who is the fairest one of all". For several years the mirror always answered that the Queen was, pleasing her.At the film's opening, the Magic Mirror informs the Queen that Snow White is now the fairest in the land. The jealous Queen orders a reluctant huntsman to take Snow White into the forest and kill her. She further demands that the huntsman return with Snow White's heart in a jeweled box as proof of the deed. The huntsman encounters Snow White but decides not to harm her. He tearfully begs for her forgiveness, revealing the Queen wants her dead, and urges her to flee into the woods and never come back, bringing back a pig's heart instead.
Lost and frightened, the princess is befriended by woodland creatures who lead her to a cottage deep in the woods. Finding seven small chairs in the cottage's dining room, Snow White assumes the cottage is the untidy home of seven orphaned children. It soon becomes apparent that the cottage belongs instead to seven adult dwarfs, Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey, who work in a nearby mine. Returning home, they are alarmed to find their cottage clean and suspect that an intruder has invaded their home. The dwarfs find Snow White upstairs, asleep across three of their beds. Snow White awakes to find the Dwarfs at her bedside and introduces herself, and all of the dwarfs eventually welcome her into their home after they learn she can cook and clean beautifully. Snow White cooks, cleans, and keeps house for the dwarfs while they mine for jewels and at night sing, play music and dance.
Meanwhile, the Queen discovers that Snow White is still alive when the mirror again answers that Snow White is the fairest in the land. Using magic to disguise herself as an old hag, the Queen creates a poisoned apple that will put whoever eats it into the "Sleeping Death". The Evil Queen explains that Snow White would collapse into a magical sleep if she were to take even a single bite of the apple. The sleep can only be cured by the power of "love's first kiss". The Queen reasons that this is no danger to her plans, as the dwarfs would not be able to awaken Snow White, and would think she was dead, thus resulting in Snow White being buried alive. The Queen goes to the cottage while the dwarfs are away and tricks Snow White into biting into the poisoned apple. As Snow White falls asleep the Queen proclaims that she will be the fairest of the land. The vengeful dwarfs, alerted by the woodland animals who recognize her, chase the Queen up a cliff and trap her. She tries to roll a boulder over them but before she can do so, lightning strikes the cliff, causing her to fall to her death.
The dwarfs return to their cottage and find Snow White seemingly dead, being kept in a deathlike slumber by the potion. Unwilling to bury her out of sight in the ground, they instead place her in a glass coffin trimmed with gold in a clearing in the forest. Together with the woodland creatures, they keep watch over her in an "eternal vigil". After some time, a prince, who had previously met and fallen in love with Snow White, learns of her eternal sleep and visits her coffin. Saddened by her apparent death, he kisses her, which breaks the spell and awakens her. The dwarfs and animals all rejoice as the Prince takes Snow White to his castle, which glows in the presence of Snow White.
Cast
- Adriana Caselotti as Snow White: Snow White is a young princess. She is the daughter of a great king whose wife died when the daughter was very young. Her wicked stepmother has forced her to work as a scullery maid in the castle. Despite this, she retains a cheerful but naïve demeanor.
- Lucille La Verne as the Evil Queen: The Queen is the stepmother of Snow White. Once her magic mirror tells her that Snow White is fairer than she is, she immediately enlists Humbert the huntsman to kill her in the woods. After she discovers that Snow White did not die, she disguises herself as an old hag and uses a poisoned apple to remove Snow White from her path without killing her.
- Harry Stockwell as The Prince: The prince first sees Snow White singing at her wishing well. He immediately falls in love with her and her voice. He later reappears to revive her.
- Roy Atwell as Doc: The leader of the seven dwarfs, Doc wears glasses and often mixes up his words.
- Pinto Colvig as Grumpy: Grumpy initially disapproves of Snow White's presence in the dwarfs' home, but later warns her of the threat posed by the Queen and rushes to her aid upon realizing that she is in danger, leading the charge himself. He has the biggest nose of the dwarfs, and is frequently seen with one eye shut.
- Otis Harlan as Happy: Happy is the joyous dwarf and is usually portrayed laughing.
- Pinto Colvig as Sleepy: Sleepy is always tired and appears laconic in most situations. Sterling Holloway, who would later voice many other characters for Disney films was considered to voice Sleepy by Walt Disney.
- Scotty Mattraw as Bashful: Bashful is the shyest of the dwarfs, and is often embarrassed by the presence of any attention directed at him.
- Billy Gilbert as Sneezy:[3] Sneezy's name is earned by his extraordinarily powerful sneezes (caused by hay fever), which are seen blowing even the heaviest of objects across a room.
- Eddie Collins as Dopey (vocal effects and live-action reference only):[3] Dopey is the only dwarf who does not have a beard. He is clumsy and mute, with Happy explaining that he has simply "never tried" to speak. In the movie's trailer, Walt Disney describes Dopey as "nice, but sort of silly".
- Moroni Olsen as The Magic Mirror: The Slave of the Magic Mirror appears as a green mask in clouds of smoke. The Queen regularly asks him who is the fairest in the land.
- Stuart Buchanan as Humbert the Huntsman: Despite his status as the Queen's assassin, the Huntsman cannot bear to kill Snow White, even when the Queen orders him to take the princess's heart.
Production
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was to be the first full-length cel animated feature in motion picture history,[4] and as such Walt Disney had to fight to get the film produced. Both his brother and business partner Roy Disney and his wife Lillian attempted to talk him out of it,[6] and the Hollywood movie industry referred to the film derisively as "Disney's Folly" while it was in production. He had to mortgage his house to help finance the film's production, which eventually ran up a total cost of $1,488,422.74, a massive sum for a feature film in 1937.[1]
Story development
On August 9, 1934, twenty-one pages of notes—entitled "Snowwhite suggestions"—were compiled by staff writer Richard Creedon, suggesting the principal characters, as well as situations and 'gags' for the story. As Disney had stated at the very beginning of the project, the main attraction of the story for him was the Seven Dwarfs, and their possibilities for "screwiness" and "gags"; the three story meetings held in October and attended by Disney, Creedon, Larry Morey, Albert Hurter, Ted Sears and Pinto Colvig were dominated by such subjects. At this point, Disney felt that the story should begin with Snow White's discovery of the Cottage of the Seven Dwarfs.[5] Walt Disney had suggested from the beginning that each of the dwarfs, whose names and personalities are not stated in the original fairy tale, could have individual personalities. The dwarfs names were chosen from a pool of about fifty potentials, including Jumpy, Deafy, Dizzey, Hickey, Wheezy, Baldy, Gabby, Nifty, Sniffy, Swift, Lazy, Puffy, Stuffy, Tubby, Shorty and Burpy.[7] The seven finalists were chosen through a process of elimination. The leader of the dwarfs, required to be pompous, self-important and bumbling, was named Doc; others were named for their distinguishing character traits. At the end of the October story meetings, however, only Doc, Grumpy, Bashful, Sleepy and Happy of the final seven were named; at this point, Sneezy and Dopey were replaced by 'Jumpy' and an unnamed seventh dwarf.[1]Along with a focus on the characterizations and comedic possibilities of the dwarfs, Creedon's eighteen-page outline of the story written from the October meetings, featured a continuous flow of gags as well as the Queen's attempt to kill Snow White with a poisoned comb, an element taken from the Grimms' original story. After persuading Snow White to use the comb, the disguised Queen would have escaped alive, but the dwarfs would have arrived in time to remove it. After the failure of the comb, the Queen was to have the Prince captured and taken to her dungeon, where she would have come to him (story sketches show this event both with the Queen and the Witch) and used magic to bring the dungeon's skeletons to life, making them dance for him and identifying one skeleton as "Prince Oswald", an example of the more humorous atmosphere of this original story treatment.[5] It is written in story notes that the Queen has such magical power only in her own domain, the castle. With the Prince refusing to marry her, the Queen leaves him to his death (one sketch shows the Prince trapped in a subterranean chamber filling with water)[8] as she makes her way to the dwarfs' cottage with the poisoned apple. The forest animals were to help the Prince escape the Queen's minions and find his horse. The Prince was to ride to the cottage to save Snow White, but took the wrong road (despite warnings from the forest animals and his horse, whom he, unlike Snow White, could not understand). He therefore would not have arrived in time to save her from the Queen, but would have been able to save her with love's first kiss. This plot was not used in the final film, though many sketches of the scene in the dungeon were made by Ferdinand Hovarth.
Other examples of the more comical nature of the story at this point include suggestions for a 'fat, batty, cartoon type, self-satisfied' Queen.[5] The Prince was also more of a clown, and was to serenade Snow White in a more comical fashion. Walt Disney encouraged all staff at the studio to contribute to the story, offering five dollars for every 'gag'; such gags included the dwarfs' noses popping over the foot of the bed when they first meet Snow White.[9]
Disney became concerned that such a comical approach would lessen the plausibility of the characters and, sensing that more time was needed for the development of the Queen, advised in an outline circulated on November 6 that attention be paid exclusively to "scenes in which only Snow White, the Dwarfs, and their bird and animal friends appear". The names and personalities of the dwarfs, however, were still "open to change". A meeting of November 16 resulted in another outline entitled 'Dwarfs Discover Snowwhite', which introduced the character of Dopey,[5] who would ultimately prove to be the most successful and popular of the dwarf characterisations.[7] For the rest of 1934 Disney further developed the story by himself, finding a dilemma in the characterization of the Queen, who he felt could no longer be 'fat' and 'batty', but a 'stately beautiful type', a possibility already brought up in previous story meetings. Disney did not focus on the project again until the autumn of 1935. It is thought that he may have doubted his, and his studio's ability, and that his trip to Europe that summer restored his confidence. At this point Disney and his writers focused on the scenes in which Snow White and the dwarfs are introduced to the audience and each other. He laid out the likely assignments for everyone working on the film in a memorandum of November 25, 1935, and had decided on the personalities of the individual dwarfs.[5]
It had first been thought that the dwarfs would be the main focus of the story, and many sequences were written for the seven characters. However, at a certain point, it was decided that the main thrust of the story was provided by the relationship between the Queen and Snow White.[9] For this reason, several sequences featuring the dwarfs were cut from the film. The first, which was animated in its entirety before being cut, showed Doc and Grumpy arguing about whether Snow White should stay with them. Another, also completely animated, would have shown the dwarfs eating soup noisily and messily; Snow White unsuccessfully attempts to teach them how to eat 'like gentlemen'. A partially animated sequence involved the dwarfs holding a "lodge meeting" in which they try to think of a gift for Snow White; this was to be followed by the elaborate 'bed building sequence', in which the dwarfs and the forest animals construct and carve a bed for the princess. This also was cut, as it was thought to slow down the movement of the story.[9] The soup-eating and bed-building sequences were animated by Ward Kimball, who was sufficiently discouraged by their removal to consider leaving the studio, however Disney persuaded him to stay by promoting him to supervising animator of Jiminy Cricket in his next feature Pinocchio (1940).[10]
Design
Don Graham
really knew what he was teaching, and he "showed" you how to do
something – he didn't just talk. He taught us things that were very
important for animation. How to simplify our drawings – how to cut out
all the unnecessary hen scratching amateurs have a habit of using. He
showed us how to make a drawing look solid. He taught us about tension
points – like a bent knee, and how the pant leg comes down from that
knee and how important the wrinkles from it are to describe form. I
learned a hell of a lot from him!
The first duty of the cartoon is not to picture or duplicate real
action or things as they actually happen — but to give a caricature of
life and action — to picture on the screen things that have run thru the
imagination of the audience to bring to life dream-fantasies and
imaginative fancies that we have all thought of during our lives or have
had pictured to us in various forms during our lives [...] I definitely
feel that we cannot do the fantastic things, based on the real, unless
we first know the real. This point should be brought out very clearly to
all new men, and even the older men.
Walt Disney in 1935[12]
Very few of the animators at the Disney studio had had artistic training (most had been newspaper cartoonists); among these few was Grim Natwick, who had trained in Europe. The animator's success in designing and animating Betty Boop for Fleischer Studios showed an understanding of human female anatomy, and when Walt Disney hired Natwick he was given female characters to animate almost exclusively. Attempts to animate Persephone, the female lead of The Goddess of Spring, had proved largely unsuccessful; Natwick's animation of the heroine in Cookie Carnival showed greater promise, and the animator was eventually given the task of animating Snow White herself. Though live action footage of Snow White, the Prince and the Queen was shot as reference for the animators, the artists animators disapproved of rotoscoping, considering it to hinder the production of effective caricature. None of Babbit's animation of the Queen was rotoscoped;[13] despite Graham and Natwick's objections, however, some scenes of Snow White and the Prince were directly traced from the live-action footage.[11]
The studio's new Multiplane camera gave a three-dimensional feeling in many sequences, and was also used to give a rotating effect in the scene where the Queen transforms into a witch.
Music
Main article: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (soundtrack)
The songs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were composed by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey. Paul J. Smith and Leigh Harline composed the incidental music score. Well-known songs from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs include "Heigh-Ho", "Some Day My Prince Will Come", and "Whistle While You Work".
Since Disney did not have its own music publishing company at the time,
the publishing rights for the music and songs were administered through
Bourne Co. Music Publishers,
which continues to hold these rights. In later years, the studio was
able to acquire back the rights to the music from many of the other
films, but not Snow White. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became the first American film to have a soundtrack album, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in conjunction with the feature film. Before Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a film soundtrack recording was unheard of and of little value to a movie studio.Cinematic influences
At this time, Disney also encouraged his staff to see a variety of films. These ranged from the mainstream, such as MGM's Romeo and Juliet (1936) - to which Disney made direct reference in a story meeting pertaining to the scene in which Snow White lies in her glass coffin - to the more obscure, including European silent cinema. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as well as the two Disney films to follow it, were also influenced by such German expressionist films as Nosferatu (1922) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), both of which were recommended by Disney to his staff. This influence is particularly evident in the scenes of Snow White fleeing through the forest and the Queen's transformation into the Witch. The latter scene was also inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), to which Disney made specific reference in story meetings.[11]Release
Original theatrical run
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre on December 21, 1937, to a wildly receptive audience, many of whom were the same naysayers who dubbed the film "Disney's Folly".[1] The film received a standing ovation at its completion[14] from an audience that included Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich.[15] Six days later, Walt Disney and the seven dwarfs appeared on the cover of Time magazine.[16] The New York Times said "Thank you very much, Mr. Disney".[17] Variety suggested that "[so] perfect is the illusion, so tender the romance and fantasy, so emotional are certain portions when the acting of the characters strikes a depth comparable to the sincerity of human players, that the film approaches real greatness."[18]Following successful exclusive runs at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and a theater in Miami in January 1938,[1] RKO Radio Pictures put the film into general release on February 4. It became a major box-office success, making four times more money than any other motion picture released in 1938.[19] In its original release, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs grossed $3.5 million in the United States and Canada,[20] and by May 1939 its total international gross of $6.5 million made it the most successful sound film of all time, displacing Al Jolson's The Singing Fool (1928) (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was soon displaced from this position by Gone with the Wind in 1940).[20][21] By the end of its original run, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had earned $7,846,000 in international box office receipts.[22] This earned RKO a profit of $380,000.[23]
Re-releases
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was first re-released in 1944, to raise revenue for the Disney studio during the World War II period. This re-release set a tradition of re-releasing Disney animated features every seven to ten years, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was re-released to theaters in 1952, 1958, 1967, 1975, 1983, 1987 and 1993.[24] Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary release in 1987, Disney released an authorized novelization of the story, written by children's author Suzanne Weyn.[25][26]In 1993, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became the first film to be entirely scanned to digital files, manipulated, and recorded back to film. The restoration project was carried out entirely at 4K resolution and 10-bit color depth using the Cineon system to digitally remove dirt and scratches and restore faded colors.[27]
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has had a lifetime gross of $416 million across its original release and several reissues.[2] Adjusted for inflation, and incorporating subsequent releases, the film still registers one of the top ten American film moneymakers of all time.[28]
Reception
At the 11th Academy Awards, the film won an Academy Honorary Award for Walt Disney "as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field". Disney received a full-size Oscar statuette and seven miniature ones, presented to him by 10-year-old child actress Shirley Temple. The film was also nominated for Best Musical Score.[29] "Some Day My Prince Will Come" has become a jazz standard that has been performed by numerous artists, including Buddy Rich, Lee Wiley, Oscar Peterson, Frank Churchill,[30] and Oliver Jones.[31] Albums by Miles Davis, by Wynton Kelly, and Alexis Cole.[32]Noted filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein and Charlie Chaplin praised Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as a notable achievement in cinema; Eisenstein went so far as to call it the greatest film ever made.[33] The film inspired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to produce its own fantasy film, The Wizard of Oz, in 1939.[34] Another animation pioneer, Max Fleischer, decided to produce his animated feature film Gulliver's Travels in order to compete with Snow White. The 1941 parody Ball of Fire featured a nightclub singer disrupting the lives of seven scholars (and Gary Cooper) while hiding from the police. The 1943 Merrie Melodies short Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, directed by Bob Clampett, parodies Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by presenting the story with an all-black cast singing a jazz score.
Snow White's success led to Disney moving ahead with more feature-film productions. Walt Disney used much of the profits from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to finance a new $4.5 million studio in Burbank – the location on which The Walt Disney Studios is located to this day.[19] Within two years, the studio completed Pinocchio and Fantasia, and had begun production on features such as Dumbo, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan.[35]
- American Film Institute recognition
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies - #49[38]
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - #34[39]
- AFI's 10 Top 10 - #1 Animated film[40]
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains: The Queen - #10 Villain[41]
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs:
- "Someday My Prince Will Come" - #19[42]
- "Whistle While You Work" - Nominated[43]
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes: "Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?" - Nominated[44]
- AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals - Nominated[45]
Home media
On October 28, 1994, the film was released as the first video in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection and the first in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series.[4]Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released on DVD on October 9, 2001, the first in Disney's Platinum Editions, and featured, across two discs, the digitally restored film, a making-of documentary narrated by Angela Lansbury, an audio commentary by John Canemaker and, via archived audio clips, Walt Disney.[46]
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released on Blu-ray Disc on October 6, 2009, the first of Disney's Diamond Editions, and a new DVD edition was released on November 24, 2009. The Blu-ray includes a high-definition version of the movie sourced from a new restoration by Lowry Digital, a DVD copy of the film, and several bonus features not included on the 2001 DVD. This set returned to the Disney Vault on April 30, 2011.[47]
Media
Theme parks
Snow White's Scary Adventures is a popular theme park ride at Disneyland (an opening day attraction dating from 1955),[48] Tokyo Disneyland,[49] and Disneyland Paris.[50] Fantasyland at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom[51] is currently undergoing an expansion due to end in early 2014. The Snow White's Scary Adventures ride has closed and will be replaced with Princess Fairytale Hall, where Snow White and other princesses will be located for a meet and greet. Included in the 2013 expansion of Fantasyland is the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster.[52] Snow White, her Prince, the Queen (both in the form of a regent and a hag), and the Seven Dwarfs are also featured in parades and character appearances throughout the parks. Disneyland's Fantasyland Theater hosted Snow White: An Enchanting Musical from 2004 to 2006.Video games
The first attempt at a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs video game was for the Atari 2600 as part of their line of children's games.[53] It was never officially released, although a "homebrew" version was made available on a limited basis.[54]Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released for the Game Boy Color system in 2001.[55]
Snow White also makes an appearance in the PlayStation 2 game Kingdom Hearts as one of the seven fabled Princesses of Heart.[56] A world based on the movie, Dwarf Woodlands, appears in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for the PSP.[57]
Broadway musical
Unknown Mary Jo Salerno played Snow White in the Disney-produced Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (also known as Snow White Live!) at the Radio City Music Hall.[58] Music and lyrics for four new songs were created by Jay Blackton and Joe Cook, respectively; titles included "Welcome to the Kingdom of Once Upon a Time" and "Will I Ever See Her Again?".[59] It ran from October 18 to November 18, 1979 and January 11 to March 9, 1980, a total of 106 performances.[60]Other appearances
The Seven Dwarfs made rare appearances in shorts, despite their popularity; they simply were too numerous to animate efficiently. Commissioned shorts The Standard Parade (1939), The Seven Wise Dwarfs (1941, using mostly recycled footage), All Together (1942) and The Winged Scourge (1943) all include appearances.[61]Animated television series House of Mouse, which included many Disney character animated cameos, included the characters in the special Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse. The Evil Queen appeared in a starring role in the film Once Upon a Halloween as well. In the arena of live action, fantasy television series Once Upon A Time regularly include live action interpretations of characters including Snow White, the Evil Queen and Grumpy.
A 1937–1938 newspaper comic strip adaptation was republished repeatedly as a comic book, most recently in 1995.[62]
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