Monday, October 1, 2012

Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs

            Snow White is a tale known by all.  It involves a beautiful princess, an evil queen, seven dwarfs, as well a prince who saves the day.  However the Grimm Brother's version of the story is much different than the well known Disney version of the story. 
            To start off, most people do not know how Snow White received her name.  Her mother's blood fell onto white snow after she pricked her finger one day.  She decided that she wanted a beautiful daughter who's skin would be white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair as black as the wood in the window frame she had been sitting in.  This is one thing Disney fails to mention and I did not learn until I read this story. 
            When Snow White finds the dwarfs house in the Disney movie, she discovers that it is filthy and with the help of animals she cleans the house.  She then falls asleep in three of their beds.  When they find her in the movie, she asks if she can stay and offers to clean the house for them.  Now in the book, that is not what happens.  She discovers the house all neat and tidy and decides to eat a small part of each of the dwarfs soup, and tests each of the dwarfs beds until she find a comfortable one to sleep in.  When they find her they agree to let her stay if she will clean the house for them. 
            Another big difference between the two is the fact that in the book, the evil queen visits Snow White 3 times total.  The first two she fails at killing her and in the third try she finally succeeds.  When the prince comes and finds her, he asks the dwarfs if he can take her back to the palace to admire her and they agree.  While they are taking her back they stumble and the apple that is lodged in her throat comes out and she 'wakes up.'  In the Disney movie the witch only has to visit her one time before successfully 'killing' Snow White.  Snow White is awaken by the princes kiss soon after.
           I believe that Disney does this because he wanted to make it more kid appropriate first of all.  Second, he focused more on the dwarfs than Snow White herself.  This makes the film more kid friendly.  He does this most likely to make money.  If kids want to see the movie, their parents will have to go with them, therefore, more money is made.  I also believe that the reason Disney cut out the two other times that the evil queen visits Snow White is because it would have been to long.  The movie would have been at least 15 or 20 minutes longer, and back when the movie was created a 90 minute movie was probably too long.