Comparing Disney's Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

The Grimm brothers’ “Snow-White” and Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” both follow a very basic plot: Snow white is a beautiful girl born to a king. As she grows she becomes even prettier. The Queen gets jealous of Snow white because she wants to be the fairest in the land. The Queen then sends the huntsman to go kill Snow white and bring back her heart as proof of her death. The huntsman tries to kill Snow white but cannot bring himself to do it, so he tells her to run away. Snow white did as she was told and ran into the woods where she came across a cottage the seven dwarfs lived in. The dwarfs let her stay with them as long as she cooked and cleaned. After that the Queen finds out from her magic mirror that Snow white is

still alive so she devises a plan to try to kill Snow white.
The Grimm brothers’ “Snow-White” is the darker and more violent telling of the two stories.

The word choices that this story makes really show the difference in the tone. One example is when they describe Snow white they say, “Skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony”. The Queen in this story is also crueler. The story starts with the Queen sending the huntsman out to kill Snow white and bring back her heart as a token (38). When he brought back the heart to the Queen “it was salted and cooked, and the wicked woman ate it up, thinking that was an end of Snow white” (39). Later the Queen tries to kill Snow white many times in the story but fails until the last try.

By comparison, the Disney version “Snow-white and the Seven Dwarfs” is a lighter telling of this story. When they use the line that describes Snow white they say, “Skin as white as snow, lips as red as a rose, and hair as black as ebony”. They exchange the word “blood” with “rose” to make it not as harsh. In this version the animals in the woods and the dwarfs are more playful and they play a larger role. For example, in this version the dwarfs all have names like: Bashful, Doc, Dopey, and Grumpy. They use these characters to add a lighter tone to the movie to make it more playful for

children.
All in all, the two authors, the Grimm brothers and Disney, tell the same story, but they take different tones that create many variances. The harsh dark tone the Grimm brothers use creates a story that I would not let children read. I think it is too violent for children in elementary school to read. On the other hand, the Disney version gave some characters more time in the story to add some comedic relief to the dark story. Overall, both versions of the story have their own key element and values. However, the tone makes a difference in the intended audience for the two stories.