Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (1937) is the first feature-length animated film, based on the German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions and was a huge success.

## Plot

Snow White (Adriana Caselotti) is a young princess who lives with her stepmother, the Wicked Queen (Lucille La Verne). The Wicked Queen makes Snow White do lots of work and asks her Magic Mirror (Moroni Olsen) "who is the fairest of them all?" Meanwhile, Snow White is very lonely, and sings to herself as she works.

One day, when Snow White is singing "I'm wishing" by the wishing well, she meets the Prince (Harry Stockwell), who meets her because he heard her voice. Also, the Mirror answers that the Wicked Queen is no longer the fairest of them all; Snow White is.

Angered by this, the Wicked Queen sends a huntsman to kill Snow White and put her heart in a jewelled box. The huntsman finds Snow White, but can't bring himself to kill her. Instead, he tells her that the Wicked Queen intends to kill her and that she must run away.

Frightened, Snow White runs through the woods and eventually finds a cottage, which is very unclean. Presuming the people living there to be orphans, Snow White cleans the cottage before falling asleep across the

beds. The dwarfs (Doc, Dopey, Happy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy and Bashful) arrive after working at the mines to find that there has been an intruder. They eventually find Snow White and welcome her into their home once they realise that she can cook and clean. Only Grumpy doesn't seem happy about this.

Once the Mirror tells the Wicked Queen that Snow White is still the fairest of them all, the Wicked Queen realises that the heart is a pig's heart and comes up with a bigger plot to kill Snow White. She goes to her dungeon and finds a book about magic. Here, she finds instructions on making a potion that will cause the person who drinks it to sleep forever until a "true love's kiss". Dismissing this and assuming that Snow White would be immediately buried, the Wicked Queen puts the potion inside an apple and disguises herself as an old woman.

The Wicked Queen manages to find Snow White whilst the dwarfs are at work. She tricks Snow White into letting her in, despite the dwarfs warning Snow White against this previously. Snow White eats the apple that the Wicked Queen gives her and immediately collapses.

However, the animals sensed that the Wicked Queen intended to hurt Snow White and quickly warned the dwarfs, who rush back to the cottage immediately. They chase the Wicked Queen and eventually corner her on a cliff. She tries to roll a boulder over them but lightning strikes on the cliff and she falls to her death.

The dwarfs find Snow White seemingly dead in the cottage. Unable to bear burying her, they put her in a glass coffin and mourn around her. The Prince finds out about Snow White's apparent death and comes to see her, giving her true love's kiss. This causes Snow White to awaken, which causes the dwarfs and animals to cheer. Snow White and the Prince walk off towards a castle, and live happily ever after.

## Characters

### Snow White

Snow White is a 14 year old princess who has been raised by the Wicked Queen. She is happy to do all the jobs around the castle such as cleaning, not wanting to disobey the Wicked Queen. Whilst working, she sings to pass the time. Snow White is very kind, being immediately liked by the Prince and the dwarfs, as well as befriending animals, all of whom were devastated at her death. Even the huntsman takes her side in the end. She also has an authority around the dwarfs, and can easily get them to do what she wants. Her kindness comes with trusting people too easily, such as the Wicked Queen in disguise. Snow White is good at singing, cooking and cleaning.

### The Wicked Queen

The Wicked Queen is Snow White's stepmother, who would do anything to be the fairest of them all. She is very vain and dislikes and fears Snow White based only on the fact that she becomes the fairest of them all. She is also very cunning, finding it easy to find and trick Snow White, as well as being able to brew a deadly potion and disguise herself with dark magic. Her determination is also shown when her first plan fails and she creates a new plan and shows there is no limit to her cruelty.

### The Dwarfs

In general, the dwarfs are kind and messy. They kindly let Snow White stay at their house, but need her to clean up after their mess. Doc (Roy Atwell) is seen as the leader of the dwarfs, and is particularly kind and hardworking. Dopey (Eddie Collins), however, is portrayed as clumsy and never talks, causing him to seem the most child-like of the dwarfs. Happy (Otis Harlan) is, as the name suggests, happy, although even he is upset when he thinks that Snow White is dead, whilst Grumpy (Pinto Colvig) is stubborn and miserable. Sleepy (Pinto Colvig) is sleepy, Sneezy (Billy Gilbert) sneezes a lot and Bashful (Scotty Mattraw) is very bashful. Overall, the dwarfs' names reflect their personalities.

### The Prince

The Prince doesn't appear much in the film, but he is clearly kind and caring as he comes back to see Snow White even though he only met her once. He also has a good singing voice and sings with Snow White at the start of the film.

### The Huntsman

The huntsman has a cruel side to him as he works for the a Wicked Queen and is prepared to kill Snow White for no apparent reason. However, he shows kindness when he warns Snow White about the Wicked Queen, saving her life, and perhaps risking his own (if the Queen ever found out).

## Songs

* I'm Wishing (Snow White)
* One Song (the Prince)
* With a Smile and a Song (Snow White)
* Whistle While You Work (Snow White)
* Heigh Ho (the dwarfs)
* Buddle-Uddle-Um-Dum (the dwarfs)
* The Silly Song (the dwarfs)
* Someday My Prince Will Come (Snow White)

## Descendants

Descendants is a live-action film about the sons and daughters of famous Disney characters. The Wicked Queen features in it as one of the main villains. In the Descendants universe, the Wicked Queen has been captured and trapped on the Isle of the Lost, which is located near Auradon (where Belle and the Beast rule). The Wicked Queen also has a daughter called Evie (who has a Magic Mirror, though this one is smaller and not attatched to a wall), and has become friends with Maleficent, Cruella de vil and Jafar. Along with Mal, Carlos and Jay, Evie turns good at the end of the film, much to the villains' disapproval. During the film, Dopey's son, Doug, takes a liking to Evie and defends her after using her Magic Mirror to cheat in class. Unlike Dopey, Doug isn't a dwarf and talks, although he struggles to remember the names of all the dwarfs. Snow White also makes a brief appearance, presenting the coronation of Ben in Auradon, and the Wicked Queen shows her dislike of her.

## Rides in Disney Theme Parks

Snow White has a ride in Disneyland Paris and in Disneyland Tokyo. It used to be in Walt Disney World too but was closed on the 31st of May 2012.

## Trivia

* Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs is thought to be set in Germany, in the early 1500s
* Snow White is the youngest Disney princess, at 14 years old
* Snow White was in the coffin for around a year
* The Prince is never named, but it is thought that he is called Florian
* In Oliver and Company, a chihuahua is seen singing Heigh Ho, contributing evidence to the theory that some Disney films are films within the Disney universe (the chihuahua knows the song because it has seen Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs)
* There is a theory connecting Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs and Tangled: that the Wicked Queen survived the fall and went on to become Mother Gothel
* The castle seen at the end appears in the sky, which has led some to believe that Snow White actually dies and what happens at the end is her heaven
* An alternative interpretation is that the castle reflects the perfect life that Snow White sees ahead of her

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