The Original "Little Snow-White"

What could be so fitting but to blog on the original Grimm fairytale that inspired the Disney rendition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I went into this reading knowing only 1 change that Disney made: naming the dwarfs. Besides that, I had no prior knowledge of the Grimm version of Snow White. Here are the changes I found most noteworthy:


1. I'm not surprised by the "disnification" of the Queen's request to the Huntsman. In the original she requests Snow White's lungs and liver, while in the Disney version she wants her heart. The heart evokes emotions of love, making the audience forget how vulgar the Queen's request is. The Grimm version is a little more graphic in the sense that "lungs and liver" are a lot more grotesque. Also, the Queen ever-so-casually eats the organs that she assumed to be Snow White's. Cool.

2. One of the most emphasized points in the Disney film is how Snow White arrives in a cabin that is messy beyond belief. However, in the Grimm story, the cabin is described as "neat and clean." Literally, it's as if Disney read the fairytale and deliberately decided to directly oppose Grimm's vision of the cabin. Although in the Grimm version Snow White does end up staying and doing the cleaning in the house, it is Disney who changes the plot so that it is Snow White's idea to clean up the disgusting house. In doing so, he also portrays the dwarfs as being dirty and messy (think: bathing scene) which doesn't seem to be the Grimm brothers' intentions. I am left to believe that Disney wanted to depict women and men in very traditional stereotypes of the time, where women are clean while men are slobs.

3. I always thought Disney Snow White was ditzy, but Grimm Snow White puts her to shame. I am SO amused at Snow White's foolishness. First of all, how did she fail to recognize her stepmother when, one, the dwarfs had warned her that she would return, and, two, her disguise was literally just "coloring her face". C'mon, Snow White. You're expecting your stepmother to come and try to hurt you, but then a lady who, besides a really different skin tone, looks just like your stepmother arrives...nothing fishy about that, right? Oh, and also the fact that the Queen came back a SECOND time, and still Snow White didn't recognize her nor resist the urge to bite the apple after already having been a victim of a poisonous comb. Seriously, Snow White, get it together.

4. The Queen's death. Need I say more? Yet another case of "disnification". I don't think Disney's intended audience (or their parents, for that matter) would have been too chill with Grimm's cruel and unusual punishment killing of the stepmother. Disney chose to go with something a little more natural like lightning and cliffs, rather than to create an create an animated torture scene featuring burning shoes. Disney, I'm with you on this one.

For better or for worse, Disney made some changes that completely altered the plot and the overall feel of the Snow White story line. I wonder what the Grimm Brothers would have thought about the movie...