Snow White v. Snow White

 In both the original tale by the Grimm brothers and Walt Disney’s film from 1937 there are some specific details that occur in both versions. One similarity that is very apparent is the appearance of the evil stepmother (queen), the magic mirror, and the description of Snow White. The description of Snow White that is translated through the various editions of the fairytale is: white as snow, black as ebony, and red as blood. The queen came up with the disguise of an old hag in order to trick Snow White into trusting her. In both versions, the evil queen uses an apple to poison Snow White. Both also include the help of the seven dwarves hiding and protecting Snow White from her stepmother. They both put forth the idea that women belong in the household cleaning and cooking.  

In the Disney version, the evil queen only attempts to kill Snow White once with a red apple. Snow White offered the idea of her cleaning and cooking for the dwarves while they were out mining for gems. They did not show the presence of her father throughout the film. In this version, the evil queen tried to kill the dwarves and she ended up knocking herself off the cliff. Snow White was woken up by the kiss of true love.  

In the Brother Grimm’s version, Snow White’s stepmother attempted to kill her three times: a corset, a comb, and an apple. The apple in the tale had two sides; white and red which was the poisonous side of it. The dwarves offered her a proposition of cleaning ad cooking in order to stay there. Her father was only mentioned in the beginning of the story. The wakening of Snow White only occurred when the dwarves gave her as a gift to the king, and the king’s men stumbled with her coffin causing her to cough up the piece of apple. In the ending, the evil queen was forced to dance in heated iron shoes until she died.  

I think Disney diverted from the original tale of Snow White to Americanize the tale and to also make the tale kid friendly. He Americanized the tale by changing certain details in order to make sure that the movie would be very successful and popular for years to come.