The Original Tale vs Retelling: Snow White

Snow White & The Seven Dwarves is one of many timeless fairytales written by the Brothers Grimm! It’s so timeless, various retellings, and Hollywood films and shows have put their own spins on it, the most famous of all Walt Disney! In my second Original Tale vs Retelling, I’m going to do Snow White the fairytale vs the Walt Disney movie. I know this technically could be in the Adaptations section of Book Notions, but it fits well here in the miscellaneous section! There are spoilers and since there are differences and dark origins be prepared to be taken into the darkness…

Similarities  

In both The Brothers Grimm fairytale & The Walt Disney movie, the evil queen is jealous of Snow White’s beauty. The Evil Queen also asks her huntsman to kill the poor princess and bring back proof that he had done it. The Huntsman could not bring him to do it because of how beautiful she was & let her escape to the forest. Snow White does find refuge with the dwarves. The Evil Queen attempts to kill her with the poisoned apple. There is a prince. Snow White & The Prince lives happily ever after & The Evil Queen dies.

Huge Differences & What’s Not Included in the Disney Film

Now here is the fun part! We are going to discuss the huge differences and what’s not included in the Disney Film! In the Walt Disney film, the film begins with The Evil Queen asking the magic mirror right off the bat, who the fairest in the land is. The Mirror answers her by telling her Snow White is fairer than she is.

In the Brothers Grimm story, the story begins in the winter and the queen of the kingdom looks out the window and wishes for a child born with skin white as snow, hair black as ebony & lips red as the blood. The Queen eventually is granted her wish and gives birth to her child our famous Princess Snow White. Shortly after that she dies.

In The Disney film, The Evil Queen asks the huntsman that after he kills Snow White to bring the Evil Queen Snow’s heart in a box. According to Disney cannon Snow White is 14 years old during this time.

In The Brothers Grimm Story, The Evil Queen asks the huntsman to bring back her lung & liver. The Evil Queen has the chef cook what she believes is the liver and lungs and eats it for dinner thinking that she’s won. As to why the Evil Queen wants to eat the liver and lung we don’t know. We can speculate and assume maybe she thinks eating the liver and lung of Snow White would make her even more beautiful? I know eating liver and lungs of any creature is not on the top of menu picks for me. Snow White was only 7 when she was declared fairer than the Queen. By the end of the story, she was of age to be married. It makes me think Snow White stood with the dwarves for years.

In the Walt Disney film, there is only one assassination attempt on Snow White and that is the iconic poisoned apple. Some can debate that the apple is redder than Snow White’s lips. The Evil Queen in her old lady’s disguise tricks Snow White into thinking that it’s a wishing apple. Snow White wishes for her handsome prince and to ride away with him and they would live happily ever after. Snow eats the apple and faints into her death sleep.

In the Brothers Grimm story, there are three assassination attempts & disguises. The Evil Queen after finding out the huntsman’s deceit knew she had to take matters into her own hands. The Evil Queen after finding out Snow was living with the dwarves disguises herself as an old peddler woman and tricks Snow White into lacing a corset around her waist. The Evil Queen purposely tied it too tight and Snow White faints. The dwarves find her and save her in time.

The second assassination attempt in the Queen’s disguise is another old woman and gives Snow White a poisoned comb. Snow took the comb after telling the woman she couldn’t let her in and combs it through her hair. Snow eventually faints and like last time the dwarves take the comb out of her hair and save her in time.

The third & final attempt the Queen disguises herself as a farmer’s wife. With the apple she made one half of it white for her to eat, & the other poisoned half blood red intended for Snow White to eat. The Queen tricks Snow White into eating the poisoned half. This time the dwarves could not save her. While the evil queen returned to her castle, she asked the mirror who is the fairest now. The mirror answers truthfully that indeed the Queen is the fairest. The Evil Queen celebrates because she has won for now…

In the Walt Disney version of Snow White, The Prince (who we now know is named Florian) hears about Snow White’s death and goes to her resting place in the forest where Snow lay in the glass coffin surrounded by the dwarves and animals of the forest. The prince being Snow White’s true love kisses her and breaks the Evil Queen’s spell, and they go off to live happily ever after. It’s not like they’re complete strangers as we see them meet in the beginning of the movie.

In The Brothers Grimm story, a prince after never meeting Snow White, sees her in her death like state and didn’t want to be apart from her. His servants carry the princess in the glass coffin and after tripping on a tree stump, the apple is dislodged from Snow’s throat. When Snow awakens and is in the castle she wonders where she is, The Prince tells her and she consents to marry him after he asks her. They eventually marry.

In The Walt Disney version of Snow White, The Evil Queen after tricking Snow White into eating the apple, she laughs manically & says she’s the fairest in the land. The dwarves and animals arrive to confront and possibly kill her, and it turns into a chase. The Evil Queen sees a huge boulder and uses a stick to try to kill the dwarves. We all know what happens next with the thunder striking in front of her and the Evil Queen falls to her death with the boulder falling on top.

In The Brothers Grimm version of Snow White, The Evil Queen is told by the mirror that the prince’s new bride is fairer than she is. Thinking she had won; The Evil Queen thinks Snow White is still dead. The Queen was invited to the wedding & she almost didn’t go but she would never know peace. The Evil Queen wanted to know who this new usurper was that was fairer than she. The Evil Queen attends the prince’s wedding. To the Queen’s shock and surprise, his new bride is Snow White! Obviously, she didn’t take it well and hot iron shoes were placed before her, and she danced to her death in hot iron shoes.

Which Version Was Better?

Honestly? I enjoy both versions of Snow White. They are unique in their own ways. I know Snow White & Cinderella are the most overdone fairytale adaptations ever, I hope someone in Hollywood makes a Snow White movie with the film ending with The Evil Queen dancing to death in hot iron shoes.  It would be cool if Disney would put the hot iron shoes in the live action movie as sort of an easter egg for those of us who are nerds about reading the classic tales. Unfortunately, with how Disney ruins their live action movies anymore, they are not that cool. There are a lot of great Snow White films out there & I’m sure there will be many more to come in the future.