Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
A Little History and More
Snow White’s Beginnings
• Snow White, (in German,
Schneewittche, Snowdrop
in their first edition) is a
fairy tale known from
many places in Europe.
• The best known version is
the one collected by the
Brothers Grimm.
Snow White in her coffin,
Theodor Hosemann, 1852.
Snow White’s Beginnings
• The German version
features elements such as
the mirror and the seven
dwarfs.
• In non-German versions the
dwarfs are generally
robbers, while the talking
mirror is a dialog with the
sun or moon.
Snow White’s Beginnings
In a version from Albania, collected
by Johann Georg von Hahn
(1864), the main character lives
with 40 dragons.
The sleep is caused by a ring.
The start of the story also
has an interesting twist in
that a teacher urges the heroine to kill her
own mother so that the teacher can take her
place.
Snow White’s Beginnings
The origin of the tale is debated.
It is likely no older than the Middle
Ages.
Many scholars think it
originated somewhere
in Asia.
Once upon a
time, a queen
was doing
needle work
while staring
outside her
window at the
beautiful snow.
Snow White’s Beginnings
It was because of her distracted state that
she pricked her finger on her needle and a
drop of blood fell on some snow that had
fallen on her windowsill.
As she looked at the blood on the
snow she said to herself, "Oh, how
I wish that I had a daughter that
had skin white as snow, lips red as
blood, and hair black as ebony."
Snow White’s Beginnings
• Soon after that, the
queen gave birth to a
baby girl who had skin
white as snow, lips red
as blood, and hair
black as ebony.
• They named her
Princess Snow White.
Snow White’s Beginnings
• The queen soon died,
perhaps in childbirth.
• Soon after, the king
took a new wife who
was beautiful, but
very vain . . .
Snow White’s Beginnings
In the Brothers Grimm first edition, the villain is Snow
White's jealous mother.
In another
version she
does not order a
servant to take
Snow White to
the woods, but
takes her there
herself to gather
flowers and
abandons her.
It is believed that the
change to a stepmother in
later editions was to tone
down the story for
children.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
• In the Disney version, Snow
White wakes from her
enchanted sleep as soon as
the Prince kisses her, similar
to Sleeping Beauty.
• The Prince and Snow White
have met prior to her
enchanted sleep, so he has
fallen in love with the awake
rather than the sleeping
princess, an unusual variation
in the Snow White tales.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
• This version is perhaps
the most well known
version of the story, and
is a classic of the cinema.
• This version of Snow
White also has a role in
the videogame Kingdom
Hearts where she is one
of the Princesses of
Hearts kidnapped by
Maleficent.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White, although
marrying at the end of
the tale, is seven when
her stepmother tries to
kill her.
This may be explained
by her growing up while
in the coffin or during
her stay with the
dwarves.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
More often, Snow White
is depicted in
illustrations as
considerably older.
One interpretation of
the tale is the
polarization of women
into the evil and active
versus the innocent
and domestic.
• 10th Kingdom, a short
TV-series movie, was
loosely based on Snow
White, as well as many
other fairy tales.
• HBO's Happily Ever
After: Fairy Tales for
Every Child, cast Snow
White as White Snow,
daughter of a native
American chieftain.
In 1988, ABC released a
sitcom based on the home
life of Snow White and Prince
Charming called “The
Charmings."
Snow White is one of
Princess Fiona's
friends in the Shrek movies.
She shares an affinity with
small woodland creatures
with her Disney counterpart.
In 1988, the Filmation company
produced the first ever sequel to
the Snow White tale, originally
titled Snow White and the Realm
of Doom.
Disney feared that it would be
mistaken as a direct sequel to
their own.
Disney filed a lawsuit against
Filmation, which lead them to
change the title to Happily
Ever After.
After several years it was later
released on video in 1993.
SO, whatever happened to Snow White?
That is a good question.
She appears again in Happily Ever
After.
The saddest thing is the story’s
failure to provide a satisfactory
answer about what happened to
Snow White.
The story takes place a short time
after the events of the 1937 Disney
masterpiece.
Snow White's wedding is
approaching, and Lord
Malice, the brother of the
evil Queen, plans to stop
it.
Lord Malice transforms
himself into a dragon,
kidnaps Snow White, and
changes her prince into a
hideous man.
Snow White looks for
the Seven Dwarfs,
but they are on
vacation and have
leased their home
to their magical
cousins, the
Dwarfelles.
Together they
journey to the Realm
of Doom where they
will defeat Lord
Malice and save the
prince.
• There is another Brothers
Grimm tale called Snow
White and Rose Red
which also includes a
character called
Snow White.
• This Snow White is a
completely separate
character from the one
found in this tale.
• The original German
names are also different:
Schneewittchen (the
Princess) and Schneeweißchen
(together with Rosenrot).
There is actually no
difference in the
meaning (both mean
"snow white"), but the
first name is more
influenced by the
dialects of Low Saxon
while the second one
is the standard
German version,
demonstrating a class
difference between the
two Snow Whites.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
• First, a 1902 Snow White
film was released.
• Then a 1916 version with
the title Snow White was
made.
• A 1933 Betty Boop
cartoon, Snow White, was
adapted from the story, as
was the famous 1937
Disney animated feature,
Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
• In 1961, the story was
parodied in the film Snow
White and the Three
Stooges, starring Moe,
Howard, Larry Fine, and
Joe “Curly-Joe" DeRita.
• This film is widely
regarded by fans of the
Three Stooges as their
worst feature film.
• In the film, the dwarfs
had gone on vacation
and lent Moe, Larry, and
Curly Joe the use of their
cottage.
• The comedy-horror-erotic
adaptation of Grimm's
Fairy Tales, Grimms
Märchen von Lüsternen
Pärchen (1969),
presented Snow White
among other characters
of Grimm Tales.
• A pornographic version
of Snow White was
released in 1976 in the Xrated animated film Once
Upon a Girl.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
Versions of Snow White
have included:
• 1987 fantasy film
• 1997 fantasy/horror film
• 2001 another live action
version was made for TV,
called Snow White.
• Daddy’s Little Bit of Dresden
China, a 1988 short film, uses
the Snow White story as part
of a story of child sexual
abuse.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
All the firsts:
• 1937 animated feature
• first produced by Walt
Disney
• first animated feature to
become widely
successful
within the
English-speaking world
• first to be filmed in
Technicolor
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
• premiered on
December 21, 1937
• adapted from the
old German fairy
tale Snow White
by the Grimm
Brothers
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
• Tenth highest-grossing film
of all time within the United
States
• Ranks 34th in the 100 greatest
American films of all tme
• Only traditionally animated
film on the list
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
• Hollywood movie industry mockingly
referred to the film as "Disney's Folly."
• It cost just over $1.5 million, a whopping
sum for a feature film in 1937.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
• Disney fought to get the
film produced.
• His brother and his wife
Lillian attempted to talk
him out of it.
• He had to mortgage his
house to finance the
film's production.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White is looked upon as a
triumph of storytelling skill in
animation.
Names of the Seven Dwarfs
Bashful, Doc,
Dopey,
Grumpy,
Happy,
Sleepy, and
Sneezy were
created for
this
production.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
Names were chosen from a pool of about 50 suggestions.
Keeping track of all seven dwarfs is
actually quite simple once you have
mastered this simple mnemonic
device: two S’s, two D’s, and three
emotions. Two S’s: Sleepy and
Sneezy; two D’s: Dopey and Doc; and
three emotions: Happy, Bashful, and
Grumpy.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
• Walt Disney and his
magical dwarfs
appeared on the
cover of Time
magazine.
• The New York Times
said "Thank you very
much, Mr. Disney."
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
Disney's wife, Lillian, told
him: "No one's ever gonna
pay a dime to see a dwarf
picture.“
The audience gave the film
a standing ovation at its
premier.
Did you know?
• The movie version of Snow
White, along with King
Kong, were the favorite
movies of Adolf Hitler.
• Mathematician and
cryptographer Alan Turing
was greatly enamored by
the story of Snow White
and eventually committed
suicide by eating a cyanide
laced apple.
Sources
Graphics:
•
http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/characters/sevendwarfs/sevendwarfs.html
•
http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/villains/queen/queen.html
•
http://www.searchforvideo.com/entertainment/animation/cartoon/snow-white/
•
http://community.livejournal.com/film_stills/762776.html
•
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/results.aspx?qu=dragons&sc=20#24
•
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/rosered/index.html
•
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812558251/thesurlalufairyt
Text:
•
http://arar.essortment.com/sevendwarfsnam_rygj.htm
•
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White
•
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/index2.html