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 Brothers Grimm 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 Seven Dwarfs. Disney also reshaped the stories to reflect his vision of Amer- ican values. Key words: adaptation; animation; Brothers Grimm; Disney. Walt; fairy tales; Snow White 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 Huntsman 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 Prince Charming. 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.