You probably guessed what I’ll be writing about from the topic but I assure you it probably won’t take the direction you thought of.
Below is a critical analysis on the degree of absurdity of the Walt Disney’s adaptation of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”. (So I say)
Where do I even start? (I ask as if I haven’t prepared for this for the past 22 years) Let’s start with a brief introduction to the story just in case you’re on the same boat as Rtr. Aamina who apparently haven’t watched Snow White in her 23 years of life.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was originally written by the ever famous Grimm Brothers and quite similar to their name the original story was in fact… grim. The original story is of a seven (READ THAT AGAIN) year old girl who lived with her step mother who tried to kill her with an apple which she choked on and somehow choked out when the dwarves dropped the coffin on the floor while carrying it. She then married the Prince (she was still 7 by the way) and the Evil Queen showed up to the wedding still wanting to murder Snow White. Let’s just say that the wedding was so “lit” that it ended with Snow White sentencing the Evil Queen to dance in hot iron shoes till she DIED. (Not the gentle Eliza Thornberry you thought of, was she?)
Moving on to the animation, the story revolves around a fourteen-year-old princess (what is it with the underage kids though) whose father had died and is in the care of her step mother who is now the Queen of the land. The Queen though beautiful herself was ever so worried about Snow White growing to be far more beautiful than her in the near future. So what does she do? Make the girl do all the chores and dresses her up in rags. (SPOILER: It didn’t work) Then the much dreaded day arrived where the Mirror (Mirror on the wall) deemed Snow White the fairest one in the land.
In my opinion, I think the Mirror might have actually meant “fairest in the land” in a more literal sense considering his description of Snow White was “Hair black as Ebony, Lips red as the rose and skin white as Snow”. (which reminds me, who in their right mind would honestly name their child Snow White??) Of course, the Queen wouldn’t have thought this far and also considering she was taking advice from a mirror her reaction seems almost normal.
Now you know what happens next (except Aamina of course). The Queen demands the Huntsman to kill Snow White but that doesn’t go as planned and Snow White after running all night ends up at a small cottage which (Yes that’s right, you guessed it) belonged to the Dwarves.
Snow White is a 14-year-old girl who has done chores most of her life and her only wish was to get married. So OBVIOUSLY when she saw a small cottage which had a lot of unwashed dishes and dirty floors the first thing she does is … clean the house with the help of her furry friends. (My mother would have loved her to be honest) The dwarves come home to find a very clean house and also confused as to where the dishes that were in the sink had gone. (who’d have thought dishes went in a cupboard… It’s almost as if they didn’t build their own house) The dwarves immediately start adoring the young girl who had great cooking and cleaning skills and to their horror they find her DEAD (not really) the very next day when they come home.
The dwarves being too sad and heartbroken to bury such a “beautiful” person, makes her coffin out of glass and gold and keeps her in the middle of the forest. (How normal a thing to do…) Apparently dead bodies in the middle of a forest was a normal thing back then because Prince Charming comes riding out of nowhere to find Snow White lying in a glass coffin and does the most NORMAL THING A PERSON COULD THINK OF IN SUCH A SITUATION. He kisses the random dead body in the middle of the forest and what’s more he isn’t even surprised when the dead body wakes up and decides to carry her off to his castle. Snow White also decides to go with the random man who kissed a random dead girl without question.
Here’s a fun fact – It’s suspected that Prince Charming wasn’t Prince Charming at all but rather the Grim Reaper who came to take Snow White away. (Laughs nervously)
However, considering this movie came out in 1937 (that’s two years before World War II) Disney did a pretty fantastic job. Though I am not the biggest fan of Snow White (No one could have guessed) I do enjoy watching it once in a while so I get a chance to do a ‘Leonardo DiCaprio with a wine glass’ (Or was it Champagne?) laugh.
And that’s all folks! Hope you enjoyed my rant
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