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RETROSPECTIVES

Walt Disney's S n 0 w White Adaptation, Ideology

By M. THOMAS INGE

Abstract: Walt Disney stand.s in relation lo the twentieth cen- tury as the did to the nineteenth century. Dis- ney took their work, and the wntings of numerous other authors, and retold their tales through animation and fihn with such consumtnate skill that they became the modern deOnitive versions. A.s in the case ot"5»(«r White and the . Disney also reshaped the stories to reflect his vision of Amer- ican values. Key words: adaptation; animation; Brothers Grimm; Disney. Walt; fairy tales; and the Seven Dwarfs

alt Disney's decision to develop a feature-length animated t1lm had a.s much to do with practical Weconomics as with his aesthetic interest in the newly developed possibilities of the art form. By the early 1930s, his studio artists were producing a da//Jing series of Academy Award-winning short.s featuring coordinated color and music as never before seen in animation. But the shttrts alone, despite their popularity and appeal lo theater managers. could not sustain the studio through the Depression years. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and other film comedians were forced lo move lo feature-length productions to survive the hard times, so Disney decided to follow suit. The decision could not have been made without a sense of courage and confidence that Disney's artists, skilled in pro- This photo is from the stafje version of Snow White and (he ducing comic shorts of a few minutes duration, could stretch Seven Dwarfs, written by Jessie Braham White, with music by Edmond Rickett, which opened on Broadway in 1912. their talents to fill a screen for the usual ninetv minutes. Such The play ran for several years and was Ihe basis for the 1916 film that Wall Disney saw as a child. Copyright retained by author 132 and the Seven Dwarfs

133 134 JPF&T—Journal of Popular Film and Television

astounding faith in himself and his with a childhood experience. His earli- screen animation the young Walt could workers also required exactly the right est memory of attending the motion have seen. decision with regard to material. Dis- pictures was when he and his news- The Queen orders the Hunter to kill ney already had turned with frequency paper-delivery colleagues were invited Snow White and bring back her heart, to traditional fairy tales, nursery to a special screening of the 1916 but we already know from earlier rhymes, and children's stories for the Eamous Players and Lasky Coipora- scenes that Snow White is a friend of "Silly Symphony" series, and he had tion silent version of Snow White and the Hunter's children and is not likely even featured Mickey Mouse in abbre- the Seven Dwarfs. The one-hour, eight- to be slain. She is abandoned in the viated versions of Gulliver's Travel.^ minute film featured Marguerite Clark. woods, where she is stalked by a lion, (1934) and Through the Looking Glass re-creating her role from the 1912 even though there were no lions in Ger- {1936). In a January 1933 appreciation Broadway stage version, one of a many. Snow White is confronted by of Disney, titled "A New Art in the series of such roles she played in child- what appears to be a parrot or a large Making," the editor of The Art News oriented dramas. The screening was parakeet that leads her to the home of suggested that Disney might turn to also noteworthy for its experiment in the Dwarfs. When they appear, we find such classics of literature as Alice in projection. The film was shown on four that they all have different names, Wonderland. or even Mohy-Dick, large screens simultaneously, although although only six are given: Bik. Blik, "drawn and colored by Rockwell the intent of such an experiment re- Frik. Fik. Snik. and Dik. They mine Kent." the most celebrated illustrator of Melville's novel (qtd. in Krause and Witkowski 9). Alice in Wonderland, of course, had never been far from Disney's mind and The [1916] film includes a brief and very poorly iinagination. His first succes,sful ani- mated shoils in 1924 were the scries o!" executed animated sequence of the witch in "Alice Comedies" that featured a live child actor against an animated back- silhouette flying to her lair—probably the first ground, althougii they had little to do with the Lewis Carroll classic. Bui in screen animation the young Walt could have 1931 and again in 1933, two other stu- seen. dios relea.sed their live-action versions of the story and thwarted Disney's plan to feature Mary Picklbrd in his produc- mains obscure (Holliss and Sibley 6-7: diamonds in a shaft, the entrance to tion ct)mbining animation with live Krause and Witkowski 17). which is inside their house. action. Other prospects Disney consid- Although the 1916 film follows the The good-hearted Hunter is jailed ered doing in the same fashion included basic plot elements of the Grimm ver- by the Queen for failing in his mis- Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle. sion, it also greatly expands on the sion, and the children are jailed in a long a popular vehicle of the stage and original. For example, the Prince, here separate cell (Disney would have the screen: L. Frank Baum's The Wondeiful named Florimond, first sees Snow Prince imprisoned in an early version Wizard of Oz. made into a play and a White when she is among a group of of his plot). Snow White's parrot musical immediately after publication dancing girls at court. She has dressed appears on the windowsill with a cord in 1900: and the widely loved Victor as one of them. The Queen, interested he can use to bring his children up to Herbert operetta of 1903. Babes in Toy- in the handsome Prince for herself, is his higher cell. The Queen meantime land. The rights to these properties dismayed when she sees that he favors has had the witch turn her into an old were owned by other studios, and all Snow White, so she sends him away. crone who brings a poisoned comb to negotiations with them failed, so Dis- She turns for help to a witch with Snow White, who puts it in her hair ney had to turn elsewhere (Holliss and whom she has had previous com- and falls unconscious. A bunny rabbit Sibley 5-7: Krause and Witkowski 17). merce, having asked the crone to give shows up in the mines to call the The German fairy tales of Jacob and her a lengthy head of hair (the per- Dwarfs back to revive Snow White Wilhelm Grimm, first published in former playing the witch wears eye- (they .seem to understand rabbit lan- 1812 and translated into English by glasses—an anachronism, of course— guage). The Queen later returns with a Edgar Taylor in 1823, already had pro- but so would the Disney witch in one poisoned apple, which does the trick vided plot lines for several shorts, of the earliest sketches of the character after one bite. including Babes in the Woods (1932). by a studio artist: reproduced in Hol- The Hunter escapes prison with his based on the story of Hansel and Gre- liss and Sibley 11). The film includes a children and travels to the kingdom of tel. But the main reason offered by brief and very poorly executed animat- Prince Florimond to tell of the danger Disney for turning to "Snow White" ed sequence of the witch in silhouette besetting Snow White. The Prince sets was a sentimental one that had to do Hying to her lair—probably the tlrst out to save her and discovers her in a Retrospectives: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 135 beautiful, flower-bedecked glass cof- interaction between humans and ani- take Snow White oul inio Ibe woods and iln surrounded by the Dwarfs. The mals, of course, would be t)ne of the kill her. Tbc let tbe girl go Prince cairics the coffm to the court lo noteworthy creative features of Dis- and be killed a pig and took tbe pig's beart and carried il to tbc Queen. Again confront the Queen with the dead ney's film. There are other visual sim- tbe Queen consulted ber magic mirror body. The piece of poisoned apple is ilarities, such as the Hunter who is and found oul tbal Snow White still dislodged from Snow White's throat. dressed very much like Disney's with lived. Sbe tben resolved to disguise ber- and she awakes to a happy life with the same appearance and build or the self and go oul and kill Snow White. her . The witch turns beautiful glass coffin that holds the Tbe Queen had a sanctuary wbere sbe the Queen into a large-no.sed, ugly sleeping Princess. used to practice Ibis wiiehcrafl. She had all kinds of lortnulas and poisons whicb lady in waiting. She loses her long It is not possible to know how many she concocted. Tbe Queen disguised tresses, but Snow White spares her of these similarities are attributable to berself as a peddlar woman and went from any greater punishment. coincidence and how many to distant out tbree times to kill Snow Wbile. Tbe childhood memories on the part of Dis- tu'sl time sbe used a corset, the second, Despite these departure.s from and a aimb. and the third, un apple. (In our additions to the Grimm version, the ney. One could argue, however, tbat he version of ibis story, we only bave the 1916 nini bears many striking siTnilar- was as much inspired by this fihn as he Queen going out once.) The Queen ities in detail to the version that Disney was by any recent reading of the origi- wenl oul three different times and tried would ultimately produce. For exam- nal Grimm text. We learned about this to kill her: of course every time tbe ple, when Snow White prepares dinner source only recently when a copy of the dwarfs left Snow Wbite in tbe morning, tbey warned ber aboul ibe old Queen. for the Dwarfs, who have separate 1916 film turned up in the George East- Each time tbe Queen came lo kill Snow names here if not distinct personali- man House collection and was acquired Wbite. tbe dwarfs arrived home just in ties, they wash up before the meal, a by the Disney Archives (actually a copy time to loosen the corset or take tbe scene that Disney expanded into a full with Dutch title cards presumably pre- comb oul of her hiiir. However, ihe tbird comic routine for his film. When tbe pared for European distribution). time tbe Queen came lo kill Snow Dwarfs go to bed. they give one to Wbite. sbe brougbt ber a poisoned Although Disney claimed in a story apple, and Snow White bad already Snow White, leaving them one short. conference on December 22. 1936, taken a bite out of it. and il was loo late They do a routine of bumping the next with reference to a trip made the pre- wben tbe dwarfs came bome—tbey one out of bed until one is left without vious year—"While I was in Europe. I couki do iHitbing about it. a place to sleep (like Dopey), so he went to various book stores and pur- Tbese dwarfs were very sad. and cuddles up on the floor next U) Snow chased copies of this story and brought Snow' Wbite was so beautiful in death White. When the Dwarfs line up to tbat they built ber a coftin of glass and them back with me" (6)^wc do not gold. They built a beautiful shrine on march to the mines the next day. Snow know which translations or which edi- tbe bill and kept eternal vigil until the White follows at the end. imitating tions of the Grimm Brothers' version Prince appeared. He came to investigate their peculiar stiff step, but then she of "Snow White" he actually read. and was going to take her awiiy because adds at the end a little hitch step very There is no indication in the story con- she was so beautifid. Wbile be was car- rying ihe coffin, he jarred it. and the much like the one thai would charac- ference notes that he ever passed out terize Dopey.' Also, before they begin apple dropped out of her nioutb and she copies to the staff, and none are found immediately came to life. Wben they marching. Snow White kisses the last in what remains of his personal library. bad their wedding, they invited tbe old one on the head, again as with Dopey That he was conversant with the spe- Queen and made her dance in ber shoes in Disney's film. cific details of the original Is clear, until sbe was dead. however, in his summary given on that This was toid in straight narrative. This Although the here is covers a few pages in a book and has turned into an old hag by the witch same date: been translated in evety language. . . . rather than by her own wizardry, when In our \ersion of tbis story, we fol- she appears at the Dwarfs' cottage, she It's the kind oi' story thai you could lowed tbe story very closely. We have put in certain twists to make it more log- is framed in the window very much as wcite in two pages—in I'iiL-l it is only two or three p;iyes in the book. ical, more convincing and easy to swal- in the same scene by Disney. She is The theme of the thing is ihe jealousy low. We have taken the characters and also invited in by Snow White and of ihe stcp-inothcr. the Queen. She has haven't added any. We have tbe Queen, offered a drink of water. This plot has this magic mirror to consult to see if she the Mirror, tbe Prince, tbe Huntstiian. reduced the original three visits of the is the in the land. She would Snow Wbite and tbe Seven Dwarfs. The disguised Queen to two (the poisoned resort to anything to keep herself the only ihing we bave built in the story are fairest in the land. Snow White was her the animals who are friends of Snow comb and apple), just as Disney first step-daughter, and the Queen made a White's. Tbis wasn't in the original intended, until he reduced the visits to slave out of her lo keep her from look- fairy tale. We bave developed a person- one for dramatic economy. The rabbit ing beautiful. Sbc m;ide bcr work hard. ality in tbe mirror and comic personali- that goes to the mines to retrieve the One day when llie Queen consulted her ties of the Seven Dwarfs. (5-6) Dwarfs after Snow White has passed mirror, tbe luirror said .Snow While was tbc fairest in ibe land, and of eourse the Disney then followed this with a out from the poisoned comb is but one Queen had to do something about it— lengthy 5.600-word, highly detailed example of several scenes in which she was dreading tbat time. Tbe Queen summary of the film, encompassing animals intervene in the action. Such called ber Huntsman in and had bim what had been done and what remained 136 JPF&T—Journal of Popular Film and Television to be finished exaclly one year before '•[flourteen-year-old voice" (Krause DISNEY: Inside the cottage, all is its scheduled premiere. This must have and Witkowski 27. 29). dirty and disorganized, so with the been not unlike his famous first enact- GRIMM: The Queeti's envy grows help of the animals. Snow Wbite per- ment of the plot ft) his full staff a year day by day at the sight of Snow White forms a major cleaning and prepares and a half earlier in mid-1935. It also around the palace. dinner; she thinks that a group of chil- suggests just how firmly the entire film. dren lives there. After all this work, DI-SNEY: The jealous Queen requires from the storybook opening to the final Snow White to perform scullery work she falls asleep across several of the shot of the huppy ending, was implant- diminutive beds. and dress in rags (perhaps boirowing ed in Disney's mind. an idea from the tale of Cinderella). GRIMM: The Dwarfs return to the Disney takes note here of various GRIMM: The Queen orders the cottage after a day in the mountains changes he has intentionally made— Huntsman to take Snow White into the digging for gold ore and minerals. reducing the Queen's visits from three forest, kill her. and bring back as proof DISNEY: The Dwarfs return from to one. adding the animals friendly to her lungs and liver. their mine in the mountains after dig- Snow White, and giving personalities Di.sMiY: The Queen asks for Snow ging for diamonds, rubies, and other to the mirror and the individual precious stones. Dwarfs. But the actual changes are far White's heart in a casket, a more sym- GRIMM: When they discover things more numerous and profound than he bolic choice. have been disturbed, the Dwarfs fol- indicated on this occasion or any other. GRIMM: The Huntsman reveals his low a routine similar to the pattern of The following is an outline of dele- purpose, and Snow White pleads for "The Three Bears." each asking a tions or alterations made in the process her life. He relents out of pity but also question. '"Who's been sitting in my of adapting the Grimm text: cynically reminds bimself that she will probably be devoured by wild animals chair?" "Who's been eating from my GRIMM: The opening paragraph pro- anyway. plate?" and so on. Except for this, the vides background on Snow White's Dwarfs are not given .separate person- DLSNHY: Dagger poised, the tender- alities. mother and the mother's subsequent hearted Huntsman relents and tells death, presumably from childbii'th. Snow White to flee into the woods. DISNEY: The Dwarfs are startled to DlSNHY: Snow White's origin was discover things so clean. They believe GKIMM: The Huntsman brings back omitted fR)ni the film for dramatic a monster is in the cottage and creep the lungs and liver of a young boar, expediency, although early scenarios upstairs to discover Snow White. After which the Queen boils and cats, and sketches included it. Many of Dis- she wakes, she learns of their separate engaging she believes in ritual canni- ney's book versions based on the film names and identities and reaches an balism. included this background and even a agreement with them that if they let DlSNHY: The Huntsman brings back portiait of the Queen mother looking her stay, she will cook and keep house the heart of a boar and the potential out her window at a snow storm as she for them. cannibalism is deleted. embroiders (reproduced in Holliss and GRIMM: Because she is so beautiful, Sibley81). GRIMM: Snow White is frightened in the Dwarfs do not wake Snow White the forest, and although the wild GRIMM: The remarries and the and allow her to stay the night. In the vain stepmother, who consults her beasts come near her, they do her no morning, they learn her story and offer harm. omniscient mirror, is reassured that an agreement that they will protect her she is the most beautiful as long as DISNHY: The forest appears fright- if she will keep house for them. Snow White is an infant. ening at tlrst, but it is all in Snow DISNEY: They all go down to dinner, DISNEY: The King is deleted entirely, White's imagination as what appear to where Snow White tutors them in but the Queen is fully developed in all be threatening eyes turn out to be cleanliness and manners before eating. her vainglory, and the mirror is given a those of the benign creatures of the A party with music and dancing fol- masculine personality as a commenta- forest. lows the dinner, and Snow White tor on the status of her beauty. GRI.MM: Snow White, alone, stum- entertains them with a story and a song GRIMM: Snow White matures at the bles on the cottage of the Dwarfs in about her dream Prince, whom she age of seven and at last rivals and the forest. met one day while scrubbing the excels the beauty of the Queen, as DISNEY: The friendly animals lead courtyard in the palace. Then they all revealed to her by the mirror. Snow White to the cottage when she retire for the night. DiSNi-v: The age of Snow White, indicates that she needs a place to GRIMM: The Dwarfs go off to work given the romantic context, had to be sleep for the night. after warning Snow White not to allow moved upward, fourteen being the GRIMM: Inside the cottage all is clean anyone else in the cottage, because most frequently mentioned possibility, and dainty, the dinnerware is laid out, sooner or later the Queen will try to and when Disney began his search for and dinner prepared. Snow White eats kill her again. someone to speak and sing the role of some of the food and falls asleep in the DISNEY: The Dwarfs march to the Snow White, he advertised for a only bed of the seven suited to her size. mines after a similar warning. Retrospectives: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 137

GRIMM: The mirror reveals to the Queen that Snow While still lives and is with the Dwarfs. The Queen decides to carry out the murder t)n her own: First, disguised as a peddlar wt)man. she offers Snow White a corset tied so tight her breath is cut off: second, she turns to witchcraft to produce a poisoned comb that she offers under another dis- guise; and finally, she goes to a hidden chamber to produce a poisoned apple, again offered under a final disgui.se. The first two times, the Dwarfs reiiini to revive Snow White, but the final time, they assume she is dead.

DLSNHY: The Queen, angry over the Huntsman's failure as revealed by the mirror, descends to her dungeon to mix a magic potion, which turns her into an ugly witch. Turning to her witchcraft book on poisons, she fash- ions an apple that will put Snow White in a death-like coma, love's first kiss being the only antidote. At first, Dis- ney intended to use two visits with the poist)ned comb and the apple, but dra- Marguerite Clarke matic pacing required only one visit starred as Snow White in {someone overlooked the fact that ihe both the 1912 Broadway final page of the book shown at the play ikiid 1916 film uf very end of the film still carried a dec- Snow While and the Seven oration of a comb with strands of hair Dwarfs. Clarke made a fiircer ol' plajiny such in it [Holliss and Sibley 8-9]). dnuiias for children and was still portraying Snow GRIMM: Efforts to revive Snow White as late as 1925. White fail, so the Dwarfs prepare to bury her, but she is still so beautiful to the arms and a declaration of love ike most fairy tales, the basic plot even in death that they place her in a from the Prince. structure of the story of "Snow glass coffin on top of a mountain L DISNEY: The Prince, already loved White" can be found in hundreds of where animals keep vigil. by Snow White, arrives in his search variants collected by folklorists in DlSNi;Y: The animals, seeing that for her, raises the lid of the coffin, and Europe. Asia, Africa, and North and Snow White is in danger, frantically offers love's first kiss. She awakens South America, many of which pre- retrieve the Dwarfs from the mines. with great delight to bis arms as the date the Grimm version. They al! tend They airive in lime io pursue the witch animals and Dwarfs rejoice at the res- to follow the same basic structure of who slips off the edge of a cliff to her urrection. The idea of the kiss to awak- nine episodes: "origin {birth of hero- death when it is .struck by a bolt of en the princess may have been bor- ine), jealousy, expulsion, adoption, lightning during a stt>rm. The mourn- rowed from the story of Sleeping renewed jealousy, death, exhibition, ing Dwarfs place Snow White in a Beauty (although it also had been used resuscitation, and resolution" (Tatar. glass coffin and keep vigil at her side in a forty-minute version of Suow Cla.s.sic Fairy Tales 74). If we place the along with the animals. White in 1913 | Holliss and Sibiey 6]). Disney version in this tradition, we see GRIMM: A Prince happens to pass GRIMM: The wedding feast is that he has made only one major through the forest, sees the beautiful attended by the wicked and now furi- change in the structure: that of delet- maiden in the coffin, and persuades ously jealous Queen, who is forced to ing the first element, the birth of Snow the Dwarfs to let him carry it with him dance in red-hot iron shoes until she White and Ihe death of her mother. Io his kingdom. When they stumble drops to the ground dead. This was a decision made late in the over a shrub while carrying the coffin, DiSNKY: The Queen falls to her process and presumably so as lo ct)]ne the piece of apple is dislodged from death from a precipice during a storm, more directly lo the basic conflict and Snow White's throat, and she awakens and the wedding is deleted. action. A birlh and death scene would 138 ,|PF&T—Journal of Popular Film and Television have provided little opportunity for A few changes had to do with dra- film. He found the use of animals effective animation too, not to mention matic pacing, such as omitting the "indescribably delightful" and noted, "I the difUculty of establishing a proper birth of Snow White, reducing the can remember no finer moment in any lone Tor a film meani to be entertain- three visits of the disguised Queen to film ihan this one when al sunrise in the ing with an immediate sad scene. only one, and not including a fmal forest the banks of eyes which have There were plenty of technical and wedding scene, which could only be looked so sinister all night turn out to dramatic Justifications for this dele- anticllmactic to the revival by love's belong to rabbits, fawns, chipmunks. tion, but the remainder of the tradi- first kiss. Others had to do with dra- bluebirds, and turtles. The transition is tional structure was maintained. Thus, matic engagement—that is creating from shadowy evil to the clearest and Disney's version is a legitimate variant more interest in the characters or plot most blithesome benevolence" (108). in the "Snow White" cycle of tales. through audience sympathy and Too cute and cuddly for other Disney The changes in detail Disney did involvement—such as making Snow crilics. in future films the animals make fall under a variety of categories White into a scullery maid, bringing in would prove to be the bread and butter having to do with creating an effective the Prince at the beginning, giving the for the success of the Studio and the and engaging film, using the full poten- mirror a personality, making the merchandising of Disney properties. Huntsman sincerely sympathetic. tial of the new art of animation, and The major challenge to the anima- depicting the cottage as disorderly and making a version suitable for an Amer- tors resulted from the desire to give the Dwarfs in need of motherly atten- ican audience in the first part of the the Dwarfs separate personalities. It tion, having them mine diamonds and twentieth century. It would have to be a would have been much easier to cre- precious stones rather than minerals, film that children would enjoy enough ate seven generic Dwarfs all acting and substituting a kiss for the dislodg- to sit still for almost ninety minutes and and reacting in the same way. Giving ment of a piece of poisoned apple (the that adults would find engaging enough them names and personalities sight of a princess throwing up would to sit through it with ihem. The adults, required the development and mainte- not be very appealing). after all. controlled ihe money, and nance of consistent attitudes and these were Depression years when little The additions and expansions to the actions throughout the film and dur- was left for family diversion. The film Grimm text were mostly intended to ing their interchanges with each other would have to maintain the Disney Stu- allow the animators to exercise their and Snow White. It also meant that dio's tradition for safe, family enter- newly discovered skills and tech- when all seven were on screen, which tainment that amused and edified and niques in filling the screen with lively was much of the time, anywhere the that demonstrated the creative knack and humorous activity, as in the clean- viewers looked they would find a par- for being at the forefront of new tech- ing of the Dwarfs' cottage, the ticular Dwarf in character reacting on niques and challenges in film anima- sequence when the Dwarfs wash their the basis of his own defined personal- tion. Everyone loved what genericaily hands before dinner, or the after-din- ity, just as would be true in a live- came to be known as "Mickey Mouse ner parly with lots of movement and action film. This provided the full cartoons." and the studio was not about music. This would have been true as animation screen with a degree of to barter away any of its public atfec- well of several scenes finally cut activity and comic engagement unlike tion and support for an ill-developed because they did not further the plot, anything moviegoers had seen before. and controversial project. such as a soup-eating sequence during Except for mood-setting scenes, con- stant activity marked the narrative Some changes were simply a matter dinner or the Dwarfs building a special progress. of common sense, such as changing bed for Snow While as a gift. Snow White's age from seven to about Although a few animals were men- The most obvious changes were fourteen or older. Other illogicalities tioned in the original story—the wild intended to tone down the violence of of the original plot, however, were beasts thai brush against Snow White the original tale. What were supposed apparently never questioned—the dis- when she first enters the woods, and the to be Snow While's lungs and liver in a appearance of Snow White's father. owl, raven, and dove that come to casket were replaced by her heart, the the King; why there were no female mourn her death—the fuller interven- Queen's ritual cannibalism was deleted, Dwarfs; whether the Seven Dwarfs tion of animals afforded the animators and the honible death of the Queen were brothers: how or where the an opportunity to do what they had from dancing in red-hot slippers was Dwarfs marketed the minerals or pre- done best in the short films before replaced by a more dramatic ending. In cious stones they dug from the earth; Snow While and the Seven Dwarfs: cre- fact, her death was not only more dra- and, given her all-consuming vanity ate a host of anthropomorphic creatures matic but more poetically just in that and concern for beauty, how the that totally engaged the young and she was not stricken down by another Queen could have allowed herself to many of the older views too. At least hand but more appropriately by the be disguised or turned into a horribly one reviewer of Snow White and the forces of nature she had tried to bend to ugly old hag. But the plots of fairy Seven Dwurfs after its New York her own wicked ends through witch- tales are not to be analyzed in terms of release, critic Mark Van Doren, espe- craft. Rather than cause the innocents to logic or rationality. cially complimented this aspect of the be expelled from the Garden of Eden, Retrospectives: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 139 in this case the forbidden apple leads to characters without damage to the origi- psychological and cultural importance a restoration of paradise. nal tale. ... In every case, no matter has been the heaviest charge made But there are plenty of frightening what form we choose lo tell a story, we against the Disney version. Child psy- elements left in the film to unsettle the always hold its author in the highest chologist Bruno Bettelheim. in bis viewer, especially a young one; the respect. We do our utmost to keep the groundbreaking study The Uses of abandonment of Snow White by her qualities that have made his tale Enchantment: The Meaninf> and parent, albeit a stepmother; the image immortal" (317). Yet one of his harshest Importance of Fairy Talc^. charged that of Ihe Huntsman with knife upraised critics. Frances Clark Sayers, would Disney and other film adapters pro- over Snow White; the haunted forest charge, "What 1 deplore about Mr. Dis- duced "fairy tales only in prettified and with spooks we are relieved to discov- ney is his tendency to take over a piece simplified versions which subdue and er are benign or natural; the transfor- of wt)rk and make it his own without rob them of all deeper significance" mation of the Queen into the wicked any regard for the original author of the (24). He read "Snow White" as another wilch in her laboratory; the witch's original book" (119). The mediating version of ihe Oedipal myth: "The stt)ry plan to see Snow White effectively balance not recognized bclween ibese deals essentially with the Oedipal con- buried alive, one of the basic human extreme statements, neither of which is flicts between nn)ther and daughter; fears; and the striking death of the entirely true, is ihe need to make a good with childhood; and tlnally with ado- witch as all the sound and fury of film. Things thai work on paper do noi ie.scence, placing major emphasis on nature crashes around her. Any one of work on the screen and vice versa, and what constitutes a good childhood, and these has been known to send a child the fmal imperative is to adjust the orig- what is needed to grow out of it" (202). running from the theater or to invest a inal source in the direction of effective The Dwaifs, it seems, are a part of that young viewer with several nightmares. Only the death of Bambi's mother would do that more effectively. In Great Britain. South Africa, and the Faithfulness to the art of filmmaking is more Netherlands, Snow While and ihe Seven Dwarfs was rated as unsuitable important than faithfulness to the text, and the for small children and parfially banned or altered because of these scenes principles of evaluation should be cinematic, iHolliss and Siblcy 66; Makin 31). The frightening elements of the story not literary. emai were modified or adjusted, in any case, to a more sensitive or sensible level, not entirely banished, as some and creative filmmaking. As the story project as stunled phalluses that "sym- critics would claim. conference notes indicate, it was film bolize an immature pre-individual form images and pers{-)nalities, not literary of existence which Snow White must In cinematic terms. Snow While and sources, that played on the imagination transcend" (210). Giving them individ- ihe Seven Dwarfs was a resounding of the artists as they made decisions ual personalities, then. Bettelheim success and a landmark in animation about the shape and naiure of Snow believed, seriously interfered with chil- history. Realistic and smooth human White and the Seven Dwaifs. Comedi- dren's •"unconscious understanding" actions were successfully combined ans such as Laurel and Hardy, Charlie (2I0)of the tale. with caricature and exaggeration for Chaplin. Will Rogers, Harry Langdon, Feminist crilics Sandra Gilbert and the first time. A full range of cinemat- and W. C. Fields influenced the person- Susan Gubar shift the ground some- ic techniques usually found only in alities of the various Dwarfs, and popu- what by viewing the struggle between live-action films—close-up shots, a lar films of 1931 and 1932, such as Snow White and her stepmother as moving camera, zooming, and so on— Dracula. Chandit the Magician, and enacting "the essential but equivocal were impressively applied to anima- Dr JekyU and Mr Hyde, are mentioned relationship between the angel-woman tion. Like any film at its best, it evokes for the atmosphere and sets surround- and the monster-woman" of the male a variety of responses in the audi- ing the Queen, her throne room, and her imagination (36). in which the wicked ence—happiness, laughter, sadness, dungeon laboratory. Faithfulness to the Queen becomes the more admirable fear, and horror. It has a fully devel- ail of filmmaking is more important character because of her aggressive. oped plol with a conflict that pits good than faithfulness to the text, and the independent behavior. Taking this one and innocence against Jealousy and principles of evaluation should be cine- step fuither, Maria Tatar notes. "The evil, with a firm resolution on the side matic, not literary. Disney version of 'Snow White' relent- of justice. Like all fairy tales, it is a Adaptation to new aesthetic, geo- lessly polarizes the notion of the femi- story of fear and survival. graphic, national, and cultural contexts nine to produce a murderously jealous In a short essay on the art of adapta- is al the heart of survival for the fairy and forbiddingly cruel woman on the tion, Disney once claimed, ''a film ver- tale anyway. But betrayal of the fairy one hand and an innocently sweet girl sion can give wider scope and even add tale of "Snow White" and its deepest accomplished in the aii ot good house- 140 JPF&T—Journal of Popular Film and Television keeping on the other" {Classic Fairy with the letter but had never tampered Disney during his lifetime reveals that Tales 78). Thus, old prejudices are con- with the spirit of the tales, just as they certain themes and values form recur- firmed and little of a positive nature can repeatedly asserted the essential con- ring patterns. These include an alle- result from Disney's adaplalion. tours of each folktale plot remained giance to agrarian values and democra- Totally untutored in Freud or any intact, comparisons of successive edi- tic patriotism; a belief in the .self- olher psychological theory and neces- tions of Nursery and Household Tales reliance, individualism, and work ethic sarily unaware of what folklorists. suggest that the Grimms were either that stand behind the American dream; anthropologists, psychiatrists, femi- disingenuous, dishonest, or engaging in and an emphasis on the stability of the nists, and literary theorists would reveal self-deception when they made such home and loyalty to family. Several of about fairy and folk tales, Disney and declarations" (24). It turns out that they these themes show up in Snow White his animators had no idea they were completely rewrote, sanitized, and and the Seven Dwaifs-—^the animals are traipsing on sacred ground. When Time altered the texts to suit their own lime told to "whistle while you work" when magazine queried Disney about the and cultural contexts to make them they help Snow White clean up the meaning of Snow White and the Seven suitable for nineteenth-century children Dwarfs' cottage, and the Dwaifs sing Dwarfs at the time of its reiea.se. he and general readers. The tales are liter- "Heigh-ho, heigh-ho. It's off to work replied. "We just iry and make a good ary creatit)ns in iheir own right, and the we go" to dig in tbe mines, not for prof- picture. And then the professors come Grimm Brothers adapted them so well it but because it's "what we like to do." along and tell us whal we do" ("Mouse and witb such literary skill that, for a Perhaps Depression-weary Americans and Man" 21). This they have done in spades but usually as if Disney had violated some canonical text engraved in stone. His intentions were simple in terms of meaning, as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs accurately he noted in the story conference reflected the general public attitude toward quoted above; "The theme of this thing is the jealousy of the step- the place of women in society and continued mother, the Queen" (.-)). He was not g |opg tradition in Westem culture of portray- being disingenuous. Intentionally or not, however, he was stepping into a ing women as passive vessels of innocence culturally and psychologically charged mine field by choosing to and virtue. adapt the story of "'Snow White." and he may be held accountable for whatever meanings with which he may century at least, their versions of "Snow were encouraged to learn "It ain't no have invested the traditional tale. White." "'Cinderella^ and ""Hansel and trick / To get rich quick / If ya' dig-dig- A good deal of the response on the Grelel" were considered the definitive dig / With a shovel or a pick" (Holliss pail of Bettelheim and others seemed lo and best-known versions. Their ideolo- and Sibley 48-49). Snow White presume the existence of some sort of gy emanates from the authors and not demonstrates a high degree of resource- standard version, an Urtext. against the German folk mind. fulness and self-reliance when she which to measure Disney's version. As struggles to survive in the forest and the mosl widely known, this more often isney stands in relation to the makes herself useful to the Dwarfs. On than not turned out to be the Grimm D twentieth century as the Brothers the other hand, the Queen takes her Brothers' version in one or more of its Grimm did to the nineteenth century. individualism and independence to an various translations, especially given He took their work and the writings of extreme, and because of her vanity she that Disney claimed it as his source. For numerous olher authors and taletellers moves beyond the rules of civil society a long time, we assumed the venerable and retold their stories through anima- to narcissistic self-destruction. Perhaps German philologists had collected their lion and film with such consummate like F Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby, tales and faithfully recorded them skill that he made them the modern she demonstrates how a dream (to be directly from the mouths of the folk and definitive versions and the best-known the most beautiful woman in the king- that their stories stood as authentic ones worldwide. At the same time, he dom) can be conupted when she con- extensions of the German national reshaped the stories such that they eludes that the end justifies the means, character and identity. But scholars reflected his vision of American social and both are willing to murder on have proved different in recent decades. and ethical values. Like all his films. behalf of their dreams. As Maria Tatar has concluded in her Snow While and the Seven Dwaifs was The primary value that informs study The Hard Facts of the Grimms' invested with a distinct ideology. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Faijy Tales. "'Although the brothers A suiTey of the films completed however, is an allegiance to the home insisted that ihey may have tinkered under the direction and influence of and family. Disney's biographer Retrospectives: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 141

Steven Watts has noted. "Disney car- but like them, he comes around when sets up little girls for a lifetime of fever- ried out of boyhood a great fondness he yields to the charms of innocence, ish romantic expectations that don't for a big family full of warmth and beauty, and domesticity. Although her easily mix with the jungle out there that happiness, a feeling largely shaped by animus is mainly against Snow White, is the modern dating scene" (H3). Ber- his own family's lack of such quali- the Queen also takes obvious delight nard is overstating the case. One rather ties" (14), with reference to the in disturbing and destroying the stable suspects that given the environment in strained relations between Disney and family the Princess has created with which young women are raised today, his father and the difficult times the her adopted children. wilh the active encouragement they children experienced under his stern But the Dwarfs cannot substitute for receive to pursue careers as well as paternalism. An emphasis on the fam- the genuine article, a husband, and this marriage and family, very few are like- ily as a source of social cohesion requires the return of the Prince. In the ly to be lulled into the notion that pas- would lead Disney to what Watts early story meeting notes. Snow White sivity breeds success. The cosmetics called "the Disney Doctrine: a notion was envisioned as a "Janet Gaynor" and fashion industries probably do that the nuclear family, with its atten- type and the Prince was "Douglas more to encourage the idea that the key dant rituals of marriage, parenthood. Fairbanks," both highly popular to success is beauty or appearance than emotional and spiritual instruction. romantic film figures of the time any film more than sixty years old. and consumption, was the centerpiece (Krause and Witkowski 20). As in Snow Wlute and the Seven Dwaifs of the American way of life" (326). most Hollywood romantic comedies, on this score is very much a part of its Although done for dramatic reasons the Prince arrives to rescue Snow original time and place. It accurately rather than (hematic intent, the omis- White and literally carry her off on his reflected the general public attilude sion of Snow White's birth and the white horse to marriage and a new life toward the place of women in society death of her mother brought the focus together. No doubt a family will fol- and continued a long tradition in West- to bear on her subsequent dysfunction- low, the Dwarfs will visit as adopted ern culture of portraying women as al family—a totally absent father and uncles of the children, and domestic passive vessels of innocence and an overbearing, jealous stepmother. security will pievail. The narrative virtue, although Disney's Snow White Only the presence of the Huntsman impulse and urge of the entire film is shows a good deal more spunk than provides any sort of male-oriented toward family stability and social most fairy tale princesses. The facts of fatherly compassion. The male voice cohesion. Gi\en Disney's attitude and Disney's own life suggest that he was of the mirror remains neutral and belief sysiem, this happened naturally not always easy around women. Dis- objective, although the Queen must and inevitably and would happen ney's father seems to have been a stern turn to this masculine gaze for affir- again in many more films to come. and forbidding man, litlle given to mation of her self-worth based on From our perspective, given the rad- affection; he was undermined by the superficial appearances. It is an unnat- ical redefinitions of family in the past mother, who was pliant and supportive ural family that finally turns to infanti- few decades, the creation of the of young Walt's independence. In fact, cide as a means of resolving tensions increasingly ubiquitous "extended fam- she agreed to let him alter his birth and conflicts. ily" as a result of divorce, as well as the date, and she signed his father's signa- When Snow White comes to stay influence of feminism in changing pub- ture on an official document so Walt with the Dwarfs, her first Impulse is to lic attitudes toward the roles of women. could serve in the Red Cross Ambu- treat them like children, assume the Snow Whiw and the Seven Dwcufs lance Corps during World War I (Watts role of the mother, and create a sense appears old fashioned and reactionary. 10). In his twenties, he spent little time of domestic harmony. She agrees to Kay Stone has taken both the Grimms dating, primarily because he lacked fulfill the role of housewife if they and Disney to task for popularizing money and was a workaholic anyway. agree to work and support what forms heroines who are "not only passive and He manied one of the first women essentially a family unit. Whereas Doc pretty, but also unusually patient, obe- with whom he fell in love, and Lillian appears to be the leader of the group. dient, industrious, and quiet" (44). On appears to have happily accepted the given his intelligence. Grumpy aciual- the re-release of Snow Whire ami the traditional rotes of housewife and ly takes on a more fatherly role in his Seven Dwa)fs in 1993, as journalist mother. By Hollywood standards cer- initial reluctance to have anything to Jami Bernard put it, the film has tainly, the Disney's marriage was do with domesticity. He was like many returned "just in time to mess up a new happy, faithful, and uneventful. of the stereotypical romantic leads in generation of little girls." The real prob- Although a good many women were the films of Hollywood at the time— lem is the song "Some Day My Prince employed at the Disney Studios, most men who resisted marriage until they Will Come"—"eminently humniable, of them worked in the eel inking and discovered their true feelings beneath ennobling the virtues of passivity and painting department, because it was a superficial masculine avoidance of pre-determined happy endings. Snow felt that their artistic inclinations were commitment that characterized the White . . . has merely to wait prettily, better suited to copying and painting male image. Grumpy is no Jimmy because someday her prince will come, rather than creating or animating. One Stewart. Cary Grant, or Spencer Tracy. someday she'll find her love. That song excep[it)n was Mary Blair, who 142 JPF&T—Journal of I'oputar Film and Television worked as an art director and designer ginia Foundation tor Independent Col- Gilbeil, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The on numerous films in the 1940s and leges. The author thanks David R. Smith. Madwoman in the Aftie: The Woman archivist, and his assistant Becky Clinc for 1950s and designed the "It's a Small Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Liter- their invaluable and amiable assistance, ary hnai>inauon. New Haven. CT: Yale World" exhibit originally for the 1964 and Margaret Adainic for enahling access UP. 1979. World's Fair. In general. Disney was a to the research I'aeiiity ordinarily restricted Holliss, Richard, and Brian Sibley. Wah man of his age and expressed no par- to Disney personnel. Although Dave Smith Disney's Snow While and the Seven ticular discontent with established kindly agreed to check the original manu- Dwarfs & ihe Making of the Classic Film. gender attitudes and roles, although he script for errors, this article in no way New York: Simon & Schuster. 1987. reflects the opinions or carries the approval Krause, Martin, and Linda Witkowski. Wai! was opposed to racism and ethnic of The Walt Disney Company. Disney's Snow White and the Seven stereotyping. It would be a long time All previously unpublished quotations Dwarf's: An An in Its Making. New York: after his death before the Studio, in this article are used by permission from Hyperion/Indianapolis Museum of Art. working under the shadow of his influ- Disney Enterprises, Ine. 1994. Maltin. Leonard. The Disney Films. 3rd ed. ence, would begin to adjust its gender NOTE attitudes, indeed not obviously until New York: Hyperion, 1995. 1. According to animator Frank Thotn- "Mouse and Man." Time Dec. 27, 1937: Beauty and the Beast in 1991. Some as, he first drew the sequence in which 19-21. would argue that just two years before, Dopey fell out of step and did a little hitch Sayers, Frances Clark, and Charles M. in The Little Mermaid and Pretty step to catch up. He reported, "Wall said. Weisenberg. "Walt Disney Accused." Woman, the studio still was unenlight- 'Hey. ihat's good—we ought use that all Horn Book Magazine Dec. 1965: ened about the portrayal of women. the way through ihe picture'" (Culhane W)2-ll. 118), which created frustration among Sneeiiwwir je en de Zeven Dwergen [Snow The power and importance of Snow other animators who now had to go back While and the Seven Dwaijs]. Famous While and the Seven Dwarfs does not and reanimate Dopey up to that poinl. But Players and Lasky Corporation. |I916). reside in any challenge to accepted the first mention of Ihe hitch step I found 68-niinute feature film with Dutch title in the story meeting notes for Snow White mores. It is to be admired as a piece of cards. and the Seven Dwarf's was by Disney him- Snow White Story Conference Notes. Walt cinematic art, a miraculous bringing self on October 2, 1936: "You see them Disney Archives, Oct. 1934 through Dec. together of collaborative talents under march out. Cut ahead to Doc. He is oul 1937. I Unpublished typescripts.] the guiding intelligence of a creative there. He sees them and turns around into Stone. Kay. "Things Walt Disney Never genius to produce a film that continues the march—steps back and steps forward, Told Us." Journal of American Folklore to charm and engage generation after moving right into it after marching in 80 (1975): 42-50 place for a couple of steps. Dopey is wait- Tatar. Maria, ed. The Classic Fairy Tales: generation of new viewers. It does no ing for the last—when it is his turn he Texts. Criticism. New York: Norton, violence to the traditional patterns of steps into il, but out of step and always 1999. meaning of the original fairy tale but trying to get in as they go off. I think you . The Hard Facts of the Grimms' rather renews and affirms the rele- ought to do ihat all through ihe picture. He Fairy Tales. Princeton. NJ: Princeton UP. vance of the story for another century. never can get into step. He does a skip 1987. when he gels in and he gets out again. In this and later films. Disney was a Van Doren. Mark. "Fairy Tale in Five Acts." When they send him out lo wash it's the A'«//Vw Jan. 22. 1938:'IO8-<)9. major interpreter and conservator of same thing" (3). Disney mentions Dopey's Watts, Steven. The Magic Kingdom: Wall Western culture and values for twenti- ••funny little step" later in the notes for the Disney and the American Way of Life. eth-century Americans, and to a large same dale (6) and again in the notes for Boston: Houghton Miftlin. 1997. extent the world. Few artists, writers. November 2, 1936(1 I). or cultural figures had a more pro- WORKS CITED found impact on the popular imagina- M. THOMAS INGE is the Blackwell Pro- Bernard. Jami. ""Snow While' of Yester- fessor of Humanities at Randolph-Macon tion than did Walt Disney, and his year Still Messing up Girls' Minds." College in Ashland. Virginia, where he work would define both the potential Richmond Times-Dispiilvh Aug. 1. teaches courses in the history of animation. and limits of film animation until the 1993: H3. Walt Disney. American literature, and film. end of the century and beyond. Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchant- His most receni publications on the comic nient: The Meanini^ of Fairy Tales. New arfs include Comics as Culture (1990). Any- York: Random House, 1976. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS thing Can Happen in a Comic Strip {1995). Culhane. John. "Un forget I able Snow and Charles M. Schtilz: Conversations Much of the rcsciirch for this essay was White." Reader's Digesi Dec. 1987: (2000): with Dennis Hall, he co-edited the completed during a \isit lo iheWalt Disney 114-19. four-volume reference work Greenwood Archives in Burhank, Califoniiii. March Disney. Walt. "Ways of Telling the World's Guide 10 American Popular Culture (2002). 20-24, 2000. with the support of a sabbat- Great Stories." Clipping in the Walt Dis- This artiele is part of a continuing study of ical granted by Randolph-Macoii College ney Archives, source not identified. 1953: the art of adaptation in Disney's films. and a Mednick Fellowship awarded by Vir- 314-17.