Thursday, February 18, 2010

Snow White Differences

When comparing the Brother’s Grimm Snow White to Walt Disney’s version there are many subtle differences that change the overall theme of the story. The Brother’s Grimm version takes a much more dark and ominous path while Walt Disney’s is much more pleasant and happily ever after. Overall the two versions both involve the saving element of the story, a battle of youth versus old, and the empowering story of good overcoming evil.
When explaining Snow White’s true beauty the Brother’s Grimm explained her as white as snow, red as blood, and black as ebony. Disney’s version involved all except for red as blood. Instead they said red as a rose. This subtle difference shows how maturation of the audience each story is attempting to appeal to.
Multiple differences occurred when involving the portrayal and the overall demise of the Queen as well. In Disney, the Queen had Snow White dress in rags to hide her beauty, where as in the original, the Queen secretly grew extremely envious and resentful of Snow White, and soon ordered a huntsman to kill her and bring back her lungs and liver. In the film, the huntsman takes a pig’s heart as proof of Snow White’s death. To stay clear of the Queen’s wrath Snow White ran into the forest and hid in a cottage she stumbled across. In Disney, the animals of the forest led Snow White to the cottage.
When the dwarfs arrive home from the mines in the film, they believe that a monster of dragon has entered their home and taken refuge. So they decide to go into the cottage with their pick-axes and slay the creature. In the Brother’s Grimm version the dwarfs find Snow White asleep in bed and decide not to wake her because she is so beautiful.
In the end of the story, the Queen/ Witch is forced to put on a pair of red hot iron shoes and forced to dance till she dropped dead. This was obviously much too graphic for the Disney version, so they decided to end the Queen’s wrath by making her run of a cliff. The overall story differences where quite surprising to me, especially how the Queen dies.
When comparing both versions of Snow White, the accustomed fairy tales symbols are usually included such as magic, a battle between good and evil, marriage, true love, the saving element, and youth versus old. Incorporating all of these components gives you the overall theme of Snow White. So overall the theme of the story would have to be that true love conquers all. When your heart is full of envy and not pride you will be eaten up by your own deformities. Just like the Queen, she could not stand anyone to be better than herself, and that element alone ultimately lead the Queen to her death.

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