Grimm's Fairy Tale "Snow White" Synopsis and Comments - Disney's Original Story! What the differences from the original story show about Disney's amazing alterations.
This time I would like to introduce "Snow White," a Grimm's fairy tale. I read "Snow White" in "100 Years of Grimm's Fairy Tales: Akazukin, Rapunzel, etc." published by Sekai Bunka Sha in 2022.
We have written about "Grimm's Fairy Tales" on this blog before.The Brothers Grimm and 19th Century German Nationalism: "The Grimm Fairy Tales and the 19th Century German Nationalism: The Brothers Grimm were Visitors at the Mendelssohn Family Salon."We talked about this in the article
The Brothers Grimm, famous for "Grimm's Fairy Tales," were German scholars active in the mid-19th century, and Andersen, the fairy tale writer famous for "The Girl with the Matchstick" and "The Little Mermaid," was almost a contemporary.
Andersen's Fairy Tales and Grimm's Fairy Tales.
Andersen's fairy tales were full of extremely sensitive stories that even adults would be moved by, while the Grimm fairy tales seem somewhat bland. This may be due to the difference in the creative process and the character of the content: Andersen created his stories by fully utilizing his sensitivity and imagination, while the Brothers Grimm, as scholars, collected fairy tales that were actually told by people and created a collection of fairy tales.
The "Snow White" presented here is also clearly darker and blacker than the "Snow White" we imagine.
The basic plot is the same as in the Disney film "Snow White," with which we are all familiar. The story is basically the same as in the Disney movie "Snow White," which we are all familiar with: "O my dear Kagami, O my wallflower! Who is the best in the land? is the pillar of the original story. The mirror's answer makes the mean princess jealous of Snow White's beauty and she plans to kill her.
First, the queen tried to assassinate Snow White by telling the hunter, but the hunter felt sorry for the princess and let her go into the forest. Then he killed a wild boar that had just appeared and offered his entrails, which he pretended were the princess's lungs and liver. In the movie, only the box containing them is depicted, but in the original story, the lungs and liver are boiled in salt water and eaten by the princess. This is indeed a violent Grimm's fairy tale. If they really were the princess's lungs and liver...
The princess escaped danger in the nick of time and wandered through the forest until she came to a house. This house was the home of our dwarves, but in the original story, each of the dwarves has no name and no personality. This is a very important point in considering the difference from the Disney movie, which I will discuss later.
Snow White is sheltered by the dwarfs, but the mirror reveals her survival. This is the same as in the movie. However, this is where the story differs greatly.
To my surprise, in the original story, the queen decides to assassinate Snow White three times! This surprised me too.
The first assassination was an attempt to kill by suffocation with a cord. The queen disguised herself as an old peddler and entered the house under the guise of selling a beautiful cord. She then clamped down on the princess's chest with all her might. The queen, seeing the princess unconscious, judges her to be dead, and rushes off in high spirits. However, the princess is revived by the dwarfs who return shortly thereafter. The first assassination attempt ended in failure due to the queen's lack of confirmation.
Then the queen, having learned of the princess's survival through the mirror again, decides to carry out a second assassination attempt. If the string doesn't work, she will poison the princess this time!
The queen again disguises herself as an old peddler (a different costume than before) and this time comes to sell a beautiful comb. Although the dwarfs had warned her not to let suspicious people into the house, she again let her guard down and let the queen in. The comb was poisoned, and brushing her hair with it would complete the assassination. The queen successfully combed the princess's hair with her words. Again, the princess loses consciousness, and she returns home in high spirits.
However, this time again, the dwarfs returned home and found the princess unconscious shortly after this. They pulled out a comb stuck in her hair, and soon the princess regained consciousness. How careless! Too careless! Once again, the princess failed in her assassination attempt due to a lack of confirmation.
Now, for the third time. This time we must succeed in the assassination. So much for the "gleeful" ending. This time, I will give him a powerful, fast-acting poison. And it's a very special one.
So now it's time for that poison apple that we are all so familiar with.
Oh! ...Then that horrible old woman's disguise would finally appear here! But then, to my surprise, the third assassination was the disguise of a farmer's aunt. The queen in the illustration is also a lovely lady with a very good temperament. Not scary at all!
Well, what you still have is a lethal poison apple. They're badass with a pretty face.
The queen again deceived the princess with her words and finally succeeded in getting her to eat the apple. This time, she did it! The assassination is a success!
As expected, the queen is no longer on her guard. She made sure that he was dead, and upon returning to the castle, she immediately confirmed his death as well. The mirror assured her, "You are the best of the best.
The dwarfs, who had returned twice before with exquisite timing, were in the wrong place at the wrong time this time. The princess was already impossible to revive. The cause of her death was also unknown to them.
They are shocked by the death of their beautiful princess and continue to mourn for three days and three nights.
But as expected, it is time to bury her.... However, the princess was fresh and reddish as if she were alive. Seeing her lively appearance, they make a decision.
They made a glass coffin and carried it to the top of the mountain, where Snow White lay and guarded it for a long time.
Thus, long months passed, but Snow White's body never decomposed. In the Disney movie, there was an explanation for this, but there is no explanation in the original story. The princess was supposed to die if she ate the poisoned apple. But for some reason, the princess did not rot even though she was dead, and her body remained intact.
From there, he meets the prince and is resurrected, leading to a happy-go-lucky ending, but the original story is not so straightforward.
In the Disney movie, she met the prince at the very beginning of the story and was already in love with him. That is why Snow White is revived by the kiss of her beloved.
However, in the original story, they had not even met the prince yet. What is more, they did not even know each other existed.
Let me tell you something horrible.
To his surprise, the prince saw the dead body of Snow White and said, "How beautiful. Let me take it home with me. Let me take it home," he asks the dwarfs.
Confirmation. The prince looked at the corpse of a strange woman and said, "I want to make her my lover. I want to take it home."
Oh, what madness! This is indeed a "Grimm's Fairy Tale"! It's not enough that he fails two assassination attempts and disguises himself as a cute farmer's aunt in the end! The dark and violent development is the quintessence of Grimm's fairy tales!
So the prince receives Snow White's coffin half-heartedly from the dwarfs and carries it to the castle. What was the prince going to do now that he had the corpse? Well, that aside, an accident occurs during the transportation. The coffin was caught by a low tree along the way and shook the castle. And as a result, a piece of a poisoned apple flew out of Snow White's throat. What do you think happened? Snow White woke up from her sleep, opened the lid of the coffin and stood up by herself.
But if you think about it, this is a tremendous horror story. She suddenly came back to life without any warning. Moreover, there is no romantic resurrection, such as being brought back to life by a kiss from a prince.
I thought the prince would have been crushed by this sudden revival, but there he is, the mad prince. He reacted as you would expect.
I love you more than anything in the world. Please come with me to my father's castle. Marry me.
He suddenly proposes to her without any question as to why he came back to life! It's still a very emotional moment for me.
And so they lived happily ever after. But in the original story, there is still one more mountain to climb.
As you have probably noticed, the wicked queen is still alive and well. In the Disney movie, she died after falling down a rocky mountain, but in the original story, she returned safely to the castle.
Then I was invited to the wedding of the prince and the princess, which I reluctantly attended, but it ended incredibly badly. This is hard to explain, so I would like to quote directly from the story.
The marriage proposal between Snow White and the prince was a wonderful one.
The evil Okisama was also invited to the wedding ceremony. Okisaki-sama stood in front of the kagami, dressed in his beautiful clothes.
O Kami, O Kabe no Kami! Who is the first kiryōyōyō in the land?"
Then Kagami replied, "I am not a good person.
Okisaki-sama, Okisaki-sama is the most beautiful person here. But the great Okisaki is a thousand times more beautiful than Okisaki.
Hearing this, Okikikisama started to utter a few words of warning, but he was so worried that he could not understand what was going on. He did not want to go to a marriage meeting, but this made him feel even more anxious and restless. So I went to see the young Okisaki-sama.
When Okisaki-sama entered the venue of the big wedding party, she realized that the young Okisaki-sama was Snow White. She felt pain in her heart and dread.
When Okisaki stood still, an iron topknot was already on the charcoal fire. The shoes were barely held up and held in front of Okisaki. Okisaki-sama put on the red-hot iron shoes and began to dance, and kept on dancing. Finally, he ran out of breath and collapsed to his death.
Sekai Bunka Sha, Ltd. "100 Years of Reading Grimm's Fairy Tales: Akazukin, Rapunzel, etc." p. 64-65
This is the end of the story. It is too mysterious a finale.
When Okisaki stood still, he saw that an iron jacket had already been placed on the coals. The shoes were finally placed across the fire and held out before him.
This development also does not specify who the subject is. It is unclear who did this to Okisaki. Did Snow White do it, or was it the prince? Or did something supernatural do it to punish the jealous queen?
In any case, this abrupt ending left an indescribable aftermath...
This is the original story of "Snow White".
In this way, it is easy to see how Walt Disney altered this story in a fascinating way.
First of all, as I mentioned earlier, each of the seven dwarfs was given a strong personality in the Disney film. It was a revolutionary event in the animation industry at that time to portray them so attractively, both visually and in terms of their personalities. Moreover, their presence made the film more cheerful and comical at once. In the U.S., "Snow White" was known as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".Snow White and the Seven DwarfsThe official title of the film is "The Last of Us" (or "The Last of Us"). This title was chosen because of Walt Disney's strong commitment to the project. The existence of the Seven Dwarfs was such an important element.
Also, the fact that Snow White and the prince met at the very beginning. And the inclusion of the romantic element of a lover's kiss in the resurrection of the princess. We also created a thrill by reducing the number of assassinations of the princess from three to one and transforming the queen into the form of a terrifying witch.
Above all, he boldly cut the mysterious punishment for the prince who loved a dead body and the queen in the last act, so that families could watch the movie in peace. This kind of reassuring storytelling was Walt's most important priority.
There are other changes, but there is no point in going over them one by one, so I will leave it at that.
Snow White" was released in 1937. I casually watched this movie on video when I was a child, but I had no idea that this movie was first released before the war! It is unbelievable.
Now, let's look at the scene that inspired the making of this film, by Neil GablerThe Madness of Creation: Walt Disney.We will look at this from the biography of
In May 1933, Walt decided to animate "Snow White," a Grimm's fairy tale. He cited "The Seven Dwarfs" as the reason for his choice, stating, "I felt sympathy for the dwarfs. There is a prince and a girl in this story, and there is romance.
Walt had seen the live-action film of "Snow White" in Kansas City in January 1917, when he was 15 years old, and this was his motivation for choosing Snow White for his first animated feature film. Also, Snow White's ruthless parents, the girl's daily suffering, the utopia of the future, and the escape to a fantasy world overlapped with my own boyhood in Walt's image.
Snow White was a fable of his boyhood. He was Snow White, frightened by his parents' jealousy and migratory tyranny, escaping into his own world (the fantasy of cartoons), where he found compassion, love, independence, and trust. Snow White was the story of Walt Disney's growth, a true story of what he overcame and achieved.
In the winter of 1934, Walt gave the first presentation of "Snow White" at 7:30 p.m. to a staff of 50 people. Walt stood in a darkened room, in a single spotlight, and began to tell the story of Snow White, with acting. He used different voices, sometimes as Snow White, sometimes as the mean queen, and sometimes as the Seven Dwarfs. The performance lasted three hours. When it was over, the staff was so enthralled and moved that some even had tears in their eyes.
We forgot about it. It took us three years to make the film, and every time we got stuck, we would picture how Walt had acted that night. There was no other way to depict it but his performance," said one animator.
Diamond, Neil Gabler, translated by Kazuo Nakatani, "The Madness of Creation Walt Disney," P224-225
Thus began Walt Disney's unprecedented challenge.
At that time, low-budget short animation was the mainstream in the animation industry. The quality should be as good as possible with as little money as possible. Quantity was better than quality! That was the animation industry at that time. Even if you spent a lot of money to make a good product, no one would pay much for it, and it would be meaningless since the audience would have little chance to see it.
But it was Walt Disney who turned that around.
After debuting Mickey Mouse in 1928 with "Steamboat Willie," he continued to produce animated cartoons of overwhelming quality without regard to profitability. Other companies in the industry even made fun of Walt. But Walt insisted on quality, and finally embarked on the production of a feature film, something no one had ever attempted before.
Until then, short animated films of a few minutes were the norm in the industry. Now, they suddenly decided to make a full-length feature film of over 80 minutes. This was an unprecedented challenge that even other companies in the same industry were appalled by. Unlike today, everything was done by hand. To make an animation of this length, an unbelievable amount of pictures had to be drawn. And it was done in overwhelming Walt-quality, and in all colors.
The budget, then, was astronomical. Walt ended up investing as much as $1.5 million in the film. In 1937, this would have been an unbelievable amount of money. It was a major investment in the company's fortunes. However, the film was a huge hit thanks to the appeal of the story, the presence of the dwarfs, and the overwhelming quality of the film. It quickly became a huge success, earning $8 million, which was unthinkable at the time.
I was surprised, even after all this time, that this work, which I had casually watched on video as a child, was such an amazing piece of work.
There is one more episode about this film that I would like to share with you. This film has a deep connection with Chaplin. This is a long story, but it is a very interesting one, so I will read it carefully.
After considering various myths and folklore as the basis for his first feature film, he decided to animate the Grimm's fairy tale "Snow White" around May 1933.
However, the people around him, including the staff, were very opposed to the production of a feature-length animated film. The purchasing power of consumers in the U.S. was declining after the Great Depression, and the overseas market was shrinking due to Hitler's rise to power in Germany. The common opinion among those around them was that it was not the time to take risks and venture out.
In the midst of all this, only Chaplin supported Disney's adventure. Disney recalled in an interview in 1964.
Charlie was very kind to me. He encouraged me to move forward when everyone else was skeptical about my first animated feature film."
Chaplin once had the same experience as Disney. At the end of the 1910s, when he was enjoying great popularity with his short comedies, he began producing a feature-length comedy, The Kid. Distributors were opposed to producing a feature film because they only needed a lot of short comedies that would always be a hit when shown. However, Chaplin kept his faith and spent more than a year to complete "The Kid. As a result, within a few years of its release, "The Kid" was screened in more than 100 countries around the world and, as noted above, became the first film to be shown almost simultaneously on a global scale, changing the course of cinema history.
Based on this experience, Chaplin gave Disney a lesson on how to make a feature film. The importance of a main character, story, and theme that people can relate to.
Charlie taught me that in the best comedies, you have to feel for the main character. You have to shed a tear for the protagonist before you can laugh at his or her deeds."
Confident that he had received advice from the king of comedy, Disney gathered a staff of 50 people at his studio one winter day in 1934. Then, under a single spotlight in a pitch-black room, he performed all the roles in "Snow White" from beginning to end for three hours in a Chaplin-inspired performance. When the solo performance was over, the crew was said to be in tears. The entire crew would spend the next three years of production always remembering Days Two's performance.
However, an unprecedentedly large project was faced with a major obstacle. First, what to do with the huge production budget of $400,000, or two-thirds of Disney's annual sales at the time (which would eventually grow to $1.5 million). Moreover, sales would decrease because the production of animated shorts would have to be curtailed during that time. Again, brother Roy negotiated with Bank of America and received a loan of $250,000 in August 1935, $630,000 in May 1936, another $630,000 in March 1937, and $327,000 in September of the same year.
Despite these daunting debts, the film was finally completed, but Dysney did not have the know-how to release a feature film. UA, which was the only one that could be relied upon, decided not to release "Snow White". All directors except Chaplin were against it. In negotiations with the new distributor, RKO, there was a risk that Disney would be forced to take unfavorable terms.
It was also Chaplin who helped me at that time. He encouraged Disney and said, "Your films will live for a long time. My advice is to own the rights to all your films. If you don't own the rights, buy them back. Chaplin believed in the success of "Snow White" and said, "I want you to know what I did. They may buy your film. You should accept nothing but the best terms," he said, opening his books and showing Roy the figures for the best terms, "Don't sell it for less than this. You should take more."
And to his surprise, he generously provided Daisney with a complete set of materials from his distribution of "Modern Times. "Disney, who was able to negotiate a business deal with RKO based on Chaplin's terms, expressed his gratitude to Chaplin in a letter dated May 31, 1938. (omitted).
Chaplin said, "Don't let those cynics and bankers underestimate you about 'Snow White. This film will be your biggest hit," and he was right.
True to Chaplin's teaching that "in the best comedy, one must sympathize with the hero," Disney created Snow White as a beautiful princess whom everyone loves, but who is subjected to unjustified persecution by her stepmother. At the same time, it was Disney's "allegory of boyhood. Frightened by the jealousy of her parents and the oppression of her transient mother, Snow White escapes into her own world (the fantasy of animation), where she finds compassion, love, independence, and trust. Snow White is the story of Walt Disney's growth. (omitted).
In terms of characters and gags, Chaplin's influence can be seen especially in the Seven Dwarfs. The gag in "The Life of the Dog" in which the leader of the group stops suddenly when all seven are walking together and the six walking behind him bump into each other in turn, and the scene in the cabin in "The Golden Age" in which Sneezy sneezes and a strong wind blows and the other dwarfs try to run against the wind but cannot move forward, are exact copies of the scene in the cabin in "The Golden Age. It is a perfect copy of the scene in the cabin in "The Golden Age of Madness. Above all, by introducing only one character, Dopey, who does not speak, the film takes over the gags of the silent comedy.
Attending the premiere of "Snow White" on December 21, 1937, Chaplin commented that Dopey, one of the Seven Dwarfs, was "one of the greatest comedians of all time. He must have recognized that animation was his successor.
Snow White" was an unprecedented hit, grossing $4 million in the U.S. and $4 million internationally. Some time after its release, Disney boasted for the rest of his life that Chaplin, who had taught him about the movie business, had gone out of his way to visit the Disney Company's books.
Kobunsha, Hiroyuki Ohno, Disney and Chaplin: Giants Who Gave Birth to the Entertainment Business, p. 147-153.
It is amazing that that Chaplin helped Walt Disney so much and never doubted the success of "Snow White".
And it's very Chaplin-like that he is a great admirer of Dopey (or Dopey in the Japanese version) among the dwarfs. He is my favorite character too. (Although I also adore the tsundere, the angry one...)
Thus, I now feel deeply that "Snow White," which was also connected to that Chaplin, is what a terrific masterpiece it is. It is truly a blessing to be able to watch such a wonderful film from childhood as a matter of course. Don't underestimate that it is for children. Disney is a masterpiece.
Now that we have talked about both the original "Snow White" story and the movie, what do you think? I am sure that you would like to see the movie again. Or perhaps you would like to challenge the violence and darkness of the original story. We hope you will enjoy the film as much as you want to.
The above is a summary of "Grimm's Fairy Tale: 'Snow White' - Disney's Original Story! What Amazing Alterations Disney Made to the Original Story as Revealed by the Differences from the Original".
Next Article.
Click here to read the previous article.
Related Articles
