Brilliantly told and long overdue. The original “Snow White” is no bedtime story. It is a gothic parable of power, paranoia, and psychological metamorphosis dressed in the trappings of folklore. What you’ve done here is peel back the cellophane layer of Disney gloss to expose the raw sinew of the tale’s darker truths. Now people might understand.
The idea that beauty in the Grimms’ version is not passive currency but active threat is crucial: beauty as a locus of power that must be controlled, even destroyed. This isn’t romance, it is a generational power struggle: the aging queen clings to symbolic capital while the child becomes an existential menace the moment she surpasses her. Freud would have a field day!
What’s more fascinating, though, is how Snow White’s resurrections (three near-deaths) form a proto-initiation ritual. She’s not just surviving;m, she’s being forged. The poisoned apple isn’t just biblical, it is mythic, even shamanic. Across cultures, the descent into symbolic death is how wisdom, maturity, and rebirth are achieved. This tale, in its raw form, belongs not to the genre of romance but of rites of passage.
Disney’s rendering, by contrast, makes Snow White less a heroine than a helpless doll in a musical terrarium. The forest no longer threatens, it sings. The queen is no longer a terrifying lesson in tyranny and vanity, but a cartoon villain with thunder effects. In stripping the story of its terror, Disney inadvertently stripped it of its depth. Sadly.
We forget that fairytales weren’t invented to comfort children, but to prepare them for violence, for loss, for betrayal, for ambiguity. They’re not promises of happy endings, but survival manuals encoded in metaphor.
Perhaps it’s time to give children back their monsters, and teach them how to outwit them.
All folktales are similar. They prepare children for a life full of violence, All folk tales are similar. They prepare children for a life full of dangers and to which they must be very careful.
I read somewhere about Little Red Riding Hood from the 17th century. It was something scary, with the child drinking the blood and eating the intestines of the grandmother...
Let's bury the triteness of Disney once and for all, as well as those infantile truths promising eternal youth (or beauty). A moment (again) to embrace the power of oral tradition and the way it has always helped us cope with real fears and outcomes. As we are all adults here, Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, do remind us once again!
Is there any story Disney didn't sanitise out of recognition? The only Disney film I like is Mary Poppins simply because of the cast and songs - the books are far superior (and I have always modelled myself on Mary P since my children were born. Practically Perfect in Every Way).
My children didn't watch Disney films (no Disney princesses in our house) but did watch Looney Tunes (far better fun and lessons to learn!).
Old Walt knew what he was about though - would parents have taken their children to see a cartoon which honestly portrayed a Grimms story? People found Dumbo and Pinocchio scary enough!
When we read the Grimm tales in Switzerland, it was loudly. We were around 9 and 10. It helped with the language, grammar, conjugation. The famous "Spieglein Spieglein an der Wand, Wer ist die Schönste im ganzen Land? (Little mirror, little mirror on the wall, who is the most beautiful in the whole country?)" made our teeth chatter. Yet, no matter how young, we enjoyed the tales. Do not forget, the Grimm brothers wrote three tomes, in High German, Low German, and dialects. So blissful! I read them through the Gutenberg library.
The Disney original Snow White was always my favorite fairytale of the animated films done before their 2nd renaissance in the 80’s/90’s. The colors are so gorgeous, the dwarves funny and endearing and the romance sweet and touching.
It angers me greatly that in this latest travesty, they thought crapping all over the legacy of their first beautifully done animated film, to serve “THE MESSAGE”, was the way to go.
The only saving grace of all this may be that it helps topple Disney as it exists now, and from the ashes something better takes its place.
The details of the original Grimm Brothers story was fascinating. I’d read it years ago as a young girl, but did not absorb and retain it all. I’m going to have to find a great fairytale collection to add to my library. Preferably one with some of the gorgeous illustrations I recall from my youth. Any suggestions are welcome!
I studied film history and in one of my classes, which centered around Fairy Tales, not a single Disney movie was ever watched. Instead we watched a piece by a visual artist that took a clip of Cinderella and was mocking Disney always needing a woman to have a prince rescue her. I wish I could remember who the artist was, but I can’t.
Not to mention every single Disney film, there is never a mother. The mother is always dead or has just died.
A lot of the nursery rhymes developed from the Middle Ages were about dark things like the Plague and death, but at some point they got repurposed or lost in translation. I don’t love it when things are disneyfied because they lose their soul and grit. That’s how I feel about Times Square.
Awesome analysis! I've written one too. People told me that my interpretation was canonical, but now, after what you wrote, I realize that the symbolic view is more important and is the solution to avoid the erasure of this tale.
Interesting piece. Disney has a history of cleaning up and simplifying. As for the latest version, I’ve heard terrible reviews of it. To be honest, I’ve been avoiding Disney movies for a while.
The Disney Snow White still “bargains and earns her keep.” When she finds the dwarves’ cottage, she promptly sets about cleaning it. When the dwarves come home, she offers to cook and clean for them if they let her live there. Of course, present-day Disney completely misunderstood that, so (from what I’ve heard), live-action Snow White simply tells the dwarves to clean their cottage themselves.
I will say I was expecting more of a connection to the new one that just came out given the photo at the top, but otherwise this was great and well-written! I’m a big Grimm fan and still have one of their books on my bookshelf right now in my office. It was given to me as a child and I read that thing so often the binding is barely holding it together.
I’m curious your take on the new one if you do go see it. I see movies with my aunt occasionally and she chose the new Snow White. We see it next Friday and I’m… hesitant… we’ll see how it goes! At this point in my mind it’s maybe 10% of the original tale, if that.
Brilliantly told and long overdue. The original “Snow White” is no bedtime story. It is a gothic parable of power, paranoia, and psychological metamorphosis dressed in the trappings of folklore. What you’ve done here is peel back the cellophane layer of Disney gloss to expose the raw sinew of the tale’s darker truths. Now people might understand.
The idea that beauty in the Grimms’ version is not passive currency but active threat is crucial: beauty as a locus of power that must be controlled, even destroyed. This isn’t romance, it is a generational power struggle: the aging queen clings to symbolic capital while the child becomes an existential menace the moment she surpasses her. Freud would have a field day!
What’s more fascinating, though, is how Snow White’s resurrections (three near-deaths) form a proto-initiation ritual. She’s not just surviving;m, she’s being forged. The poisoned apple isn’t just biblical, it is mythic, even shamanic. Across cultures, the descent into symbolic death is how wisdom, maturity, and rebirth are achieved. This tale, in its raw form, belongs not to the genre of romance but of rites of passage.
Disney’s rendering, by contrast, makes Snow White less a heroine than a helpless doll in a musical terrarium. The forest no longer threatens, it sings. The queen is no longer a terrifying lesson in tyranny and vanity, but a cartoon villain with thunder effects. In stripping the story of its terror, Disney inadvertently stripped it of its depth. Sadly.
We forget that fairytales weren’t invented to comfort children, but to prepare them for violence, for loss, for betrayal, for ambiguity. They’re not promises of happy endings, but survival manuals encoded in metaphor.
Perhaps it’s time to give children back their monsters, and teach them how to outwit them.
All folktales are similar. They prepare children for a life full of violence, All folk tales are similar. They prepare children for a life full of dangers and to which they must be very careful.
I read somewhere about Little Red Riding Hood from the 17th century. It was something scary, with the child drinking the blood and eating the intestines of the grandmother...
A trite comment perhaps, but it doesn’t help that she doesn’t appear snow white.
Grimm's works should be required reading in high school and for literature majors as well.
Good piece.
The general public has no knowledge of how dark and twisted traditional folk and fairy tales are, prior to sanitizing them for children.
This was my sister’s concentration for her literature degree
Really? Any time any Disney fairytale adaptation gets mentioned there’s always someone going on about cutting of heels or whatever.
Let's bury the triteness of Disney once and for all, as well as those infantile truths promising eternal youth (or beauty). A moment (again) to embrace the power of oral tradition and the way it has always helped us cope with real fears and outcomes. As we are all adults here, Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, do remind us once again!
You may be aware that Jonathan Pageau is trying to re-capture the classic fairy tales starting with Snow White last year, then Jack and the Beanstalk next. Here's a podcast on Snow White https://www.thesymbolicworld.com/content/the-secrets-of-snow-white
and the store front here; Snow White has is beautifully illustrated.
https://store.thesymbolicworld.com/products/the-symbolism-of-snow-white
Highly recommend!
Could it be that the 7 dwarves represent the 7 sacraments, and the 3 temptations by the queen are simultaneously the 3 denials of Christ by Peter?
Is there any story Disney didn't sanitise out of recognition? The only Disney film I like is Mary Poppins simply because of the cast and songs - the books are far superior (and I have always modelled myself on Mary P since my children were born. Practically Perfect in Every Way).
My children didn't watch Disney films (no Disney princesses in our house) but did watch Looney Tunes (far better fun and lessons to learn!).
Old Walt knew what he was about though - would parents have taken their children to see a cartoon which honestly portrayed a Grimms story? People found Dumbo and Pinocchio scary enough!
When we read the Grimm tales in Switzerland, it was loudly. We were around 9 and 10. It helped with the language, grammar, conjugation. The famous "Spieglein Spieglein an der Wand, Wer ist die Schönste im ganzen Land? (Little mirror, little mirror on the wall, who is the most beautiful in the whole country?)" made our teeth chatter. Yet, no matter how young, we enjoyed the tales. Do not forget, the Grimm brothers wrote three tomes, in High German, Low German, and dialects. So blissful! I read them through the Gutenberg library.
The Disney original Snow White was always my favorite fairytale of the animated films done before their 2nd renaissance in the 80’s/90’s. The colors are so gorgeous, the dwarves funny and endearing and the romance sweet and touching.
It angers me greatly that in this latest travesty, they thought crapping all over the legacy of their first beautifully done animated film, to serve “THE MESSAGE”, was the way to go.
The only saving grace of all this may be that it helps topple Disney as it exists now, and from the ashes something better takes its place.
The details of the original Grimm Brothers story was fascinating. I’d read it years ago as a young girl, but did not absorb and retain it all. I’m going to have to find a great fairytale collection to add to my library. Preferably one with some of the gorgeous illustrations I recall from my youth. Any suggestions are welcome!
Snow White seems like a real dumbass
I studied film history and in one of my classes, which centered around Fairy Tales, not a single Disney movie was ever watched. Instead we watched a piece by a visual artist that took a clip of Cinderella and was mocking Disney always needing a woman to have a prince rescue her. I wish I could remember who the artist was, but I can’t.
Not to mention every single Disney film, there is never a mother. The mother is always dead or has just died.
A lot of the nursery rhymes developed from the Middle Ages were about dark things like the Plague and death, but at some point they got repurposed or lost in translation. I don’t love it when things are disneyfied because they lose their soul and grit. That’s how I feel about Times Square.
Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.
~ G.K. Chesterton
Awesome analysis! I've written one too. People told me that my interpretation was canonical, but now, after what you wrote, I realize that the symbolic view is more important and is the solution to avoid the erasure of this tale.
Interesting piece. Disney has a history of cleaning up and simplifying. As for the latest version, I’ve heard terrible reviews of it. To be honest, I’ve been avoiding Disney movies for a while.
The Disney Snow White still “bargains and earns her keep.” When she finds the dwarves’ cottage, she promptly sets about cleaning it. When the dwarves come home, she offers to cook and clean for them if they let her live there. Of course, present-day Disney completely misunderstood that, so (from what I’ve heard), live-action Snow White simply tells the dwarves to clean their cottage themselves.
I will say I was expecting more of a connection to the new one that just came out given the photo at the top, but otherwise this was great and well-written! I’m a big Grimm fan and still have one of their books on my bookshelf right now in my office. It was given to me as a child and I read that thing so often the binding is barely holding it together.
I’m curious your take on the new one if you do go see it. I see movies with my aunt occasionally and she chose the new Snow White. We see it next Friday and I’m… hesitant… we’ll see how it goes! At this point in my mind it’s maybe 10% of the original tale, if that.