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White as Snow, Red as blood, and Hair as Black as Ebony

                The original "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," was written by the Brothers Grimm, which held strong symbolic and psychological meaning. In the years later, Walt Disney, a famous filmmaker in America, recreated this story with his own twist. Disney made several changes to the story but with a purpose.

Differences between the Brothers Grimm and Disney Versions

Image result for snow white and the seven dwarfs                The Brothers Grimm version of the fairy tale starts out with Snow White's beloved mother dying and her father remarrying in a years time. In the Disney version, Snow White is depicted as an orphan and has neither a mother nor a father. She is taken care of by the Evil Queen in the castle. In the Disney version she is also seen as the castle maid, always cleaning and doing work for the Evil Queen. Whereas, in the Brothers Grimm version she does not do any work for the castle. In addition, the Brothers Grimm version gives the prince a very minuscule role, he shows up in the end and receives the glass coffin as a gift from the Dwarfs, and then soon marries the princess. But in Disney's version, the Prince comes in the beginning of the film and plays a large role in Snow White's life.  then leads to the Evil Queen not only be jealous of her beauty but also the prince's love. In the Disney's version, Snow White gives the seven dwarfs names that symbolize human characteristics, such as sleepy. In the Brothers Grimm, the Queen makes three attempts to kill and defeat Snow White, with a corset, a comb, and an apple. In the Disney version, the Queen only comes once and only uses an apple. To add on to that, in the Disney version, Snow White awoken from her coma-like sleep by a true-loves kiss from the prince. In the Brothers Grimm version, Snow White is awoken when the coffin is suddenly jolted, which causes the poison apple piece to become dislodged in her throat. In the end of the Brothers Grimm version the Evil Queen is punished by having to dance in red hot iron shoes until she falls down dead, which is much crueler then the Disney version where she dies trying to kill the dwarfs.    

Similarities between the Brothers Grimm and Disney Versions

Image result for snow white   In both stories, Snow White is depicted as white as snow, as red as blood and her hair as black as ebony. There are a lot of the same symbols, such as the magic mirror, seven dwarfs, the poison apple and the glass coffin. In both of the stories, Snow White is poisoned by an apple and goes into a coma-like sleep. She is later woken up by some way and lives happily ever after with the prince. The Queen also dies and that is her punishment for her cruelty towards Snow White and her jealousy. There is also lots of repetition in both stories which signifies a fairy tale and also includes some type of magical component in it.

Why Disney Made these Changes

Image result for walt disney During the time that Disney was writing his version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, America was going through the depression. So, a lot of his themes and motifs were based off of this, to connect to Americans. The dwarfs play a major role in the Disney version and the dwarfs can be seen as the American workers during the depression. They go out everyday and work extremely hard, all day, to make sure they have money so that they, themselves, and their families can survive through the hard times. He also changed the story because he wanted his version to be the most well known, and he wanted to become a very accredited film maker. So, he changed the story for his own interest, to make it a better animated story and to appeal to his audience better, families and children in America during the depression.





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