Another One Bites the...Poisoned Apple?

Once upon a time, a little girl fell in love with fairy tales.  That same little girl grew up to become a young woman who still loved fairy tales, but often questioned where these stories originally came from.  She decided to investigate by reading the original copies, starting with her favourites.  Discovering that these original stories were not by any means the sugar-coated, pixie-dusted goodness that she had grown up with, she decided to share her information and opinions with the world and fellow fairy tale enthusiasts.

Now, my lovely fanatics, I thought I would start with the famous raven-haired, red-lipped beauty we all know and love.  I’ll give you a hint: She bit a poisoned apple, fell into a deep sleep, and was brought back to life by a kiss from her oh-so-handsome Prince Charming.  You got it! It’s Snow White. We’ve all seen Disney’s and Hollywood’s adaptations, but we never really wondered where they got the idea for it.  Let’s take a bite out of that apple, shall we?

View fullsize

Image courtesy of dreamstime.com

We’ll start with Disney’s 1937 animated film and Hollywood’s 2012 adaptations. The details of the original story, written by the Grimm Brothers, and the adaptations are similar; the Evil Queen has a talking mirror, she wants Snow White dead because she can’t stand to have someone else be more beautiful than her, and Snow White lives happily ever after with Prince Charming (or the Huntsman, which is implied in Hollywood’s Snow White and the Huntsman).  Now for the interesting parts: the differences.  

In the original story of “Little Snow White”, the Evil Queen sends the Huntsman out to kill Snow White and bring back her lungs and liver so the Queen can devour them, but the Huntsman takes pity on Snow White, lets her go and fools the Queen. The Evil Queen later dies by having her feet melted in heated iron dancing shoes at Snow White’s wedding. In Hollywood’s version, the Huntsman helps Snow White battle the Queen’s army, then kills the Queen by stabbing her in the heart. In Disney’s version the Evil Queen simply gets struck by lightning and falls off a cliff to her death.  Disney’s animated adaptation works for young ones, but Hollywood replaces a perfectly good original ending with one that they feel is better. 

Original fairy tales, one. Adaptations, zero.

Claire Marshall.

Claire is short, though she likes to cheat and wear heels.  She was born in Toronto and, yes, she likes the Leafs. She is a caffeine addict and likes super heroes and anime. In her spare time, she enjoys writing fiction, reading, playing video games, and watching her favourite shows and movies. She is a social media addict with a wicked sense of humour and follows celebrity gossip like the bible.

Links: Twitter || WeHeartIt || GoodReads ||