Sleepy is one of the most notable characters in the animated movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Sleepy always appears tired, where he gets his name from, and always ready for a nap.
Sleepy’s Background
Sleepy is constantly yawning, which provides the animators an opportunity to exaggerate his sleepy mannerisms. Animators also intentionally made one of his eyes smaller than the other to help him appear continuously drowsy throughout the film.
Sleepy Dwarf Highlights
Sleepy’s Personality
As his name suggests, Sleepy is a dwarf who is always eager to get some sleep. His eyes are always droopy and weary. In most scenes, Sleepy struggles to stay awake despite the exciting or haunting events around him.
While Sleepy may seem lazy, he is a hard worker. Or, at least, he tries his best to work hard as much as possible. He also finds himself involved in clumsy accidents due to his slow reactions.
Sleepy also has redeeming qualities. For example, 7 Dwarfs Sleepy is perhaps the most logical and observant of the seven dwarfs. He was the only dwarf to make the proper assumption that the witch was attacking Snow White at the cottage when the friendly animals kept frantically interrupting them while working at the mines.
Sleepy’s Physical Appearance
Sleepy is an average-sized dwarf who is constantly yawning. Sleepy is depicted with a long beard down to his waist, a light green tunic, red pants, a black belt, and a teal cap.
He also has a plump red nose and a single bottom tooth you can see when he yawns. The easiest way to recognize Sleepy is his main characteristic: constant yawning and tiredness.
Sleepy’s Moments in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Sleepy is first introduced in the film while working in the mines with the dwarfs. Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, and Happy dig up the diamonds and gems and give them to Sleepy.
He is responsible for the mine cart. Sleepy takes the diamonds to Doc for inspection, and Dopey cleans up the treasures deemed no good.
The opening mine scene also provided comic relief as Sleepy tried to swat the fly bugging him. Sleepy ends up smacking the deer behind because of his clumsiness and the deer kicks Sleepy 7 Dwarfs, sending him flying through the air.
The alarm at the mine sounds, and all the dwarfs march home in a single file line singing “Heigh-Ho.” Sleepy is fourth in line behind Happy and is not shown singing since he is tired and yawning.
Sleepy also appears in the cottage when they first meet Snow White. The dwarfs frantically searched for the monster, only to find Snow White sleeping on their bed upstairs.
Naming each dwarf one by one, Snow White correctly identifies the Sleepy Third.
After dinner, the dwarfs all sing and dance to “The Silly Song.” Being bothered by a fly again, Sleepy takes a swing with his symbol and smacks himself instead.
The following day, the dwarfs head to work, and each gets a kiss on the top of their heads one by one, and Sleepy is fifth in line.
Later, when the forest animals are trying to get the dwarf’s attention to rescue Snow White, Sleepy is the first one to catch on to the message and warn the others.
Sleepy was also in one of the final scenes where the dwarfs were weeping over Snow White, enclosed in a glass coffin that the dwarfs built for her. Sleepy is silently weeping while being drowsy, together with Sneezy and Bashful.
Film and Show Appearances
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit (cameo)
- Flubber (cameo)
- Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse
- Teacher’s Pet (cameo)
- The Lion King 1 1/2 (cameo)
- Mickey’s House of Villains
- The Standard Parade
- Seven Wise Dwarves
- All Together
- The Winged Scourge
- Walt Disney anthology series
- House of Mouse
- Once Upon a Time (live-action)
- The 7D
- Mickey Mouse
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (video game)
- Disney Princess (videos game)
- Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (video game)
- Kingdom Hearts X (video game)
- Kingdom Hearts Unchained X (video game)
- Disney Magical World (video game)
- Disney Magic Kingdoms (video game)
- Disney Emoji Blitz (video game)
- Disney Sorcerer’s Arena (video game)
Sleepy Quotes
“How’d you guess?”
“Apple dumplings.”
“Maybe the old Queen’s, uh, got Snow White.”
Sleepy Fun Facts
- Sleepy is the first dwarf introduced in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- Pinto Colving voices Sleepy in the original film.
- Jerry Riley portrays Sleepy in the musical.
- Sleepy is somehow involved with the fly all four times it appears in the film. Twice he tries to swat the fly with no success. The other two times, the fly is shown resting on a bar of soap and later on his nose as he sleeps.
To see a complete list of the seven dwarfs names, view our dwarfs list post, and be sure to visit our cartoon characters page to find more of your favorite characters and Disney characters.
Jump to Sleepy’s fellow dwarf pages to learn more about Happy dwarf, Doc dwarf, Grumpy dwarf, Dopey dwarf, Bashful dwarf, and Sneezy dwarf.
Brandon Crombar
Editor In Chief / FounderBrandon is an animation enthusiast and animated film critic. He has been writing about animation since 2013 to celebrate animated movies, characters, and songs. His favorite animated movies include Finding Nemo, Aladdin, and The Lion King.