How Disney Changed Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Reflect His American Values
According to Jack Zipes, Disney manipulated fairy tales by other authors to tell an American story, based on what he thought were American values and norms. From its inception in 1923, as “The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio,” the company focused on producing films that reflected on the ideal American version of culture. Regularly placed in the 19th-century rural American setting, the movie featured a hero whose bravery and ethic in the face of danger always left him triumphant over his enemy. Such enthusiastic sentimentality had a significant impact during the country’s depressing years and resulted in characters such as Mickey Mouse and little snow-white emerge as household names.
One example of a fairy tale that Disney manipulated to reflect America’s perception of values was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Originally, snow white was a 19th-century German fairy tale published in 1812 by the Grimm Brothers. Changing its concept a bit to a more ‘American and romantic’ piece, Disney adopted the part, and it aired in theatres on 21st December 1937.
Snow White and the seven dwarfs is an old-style story of genuine friendship, jealousy, and love. In the story, the beautiful snow-white is forced to escape into the forest by the queen’s wrath just because she is more beautiful than the latter. There, she meets new friends, the seven dwarfs, but the queen continues to pursue her, to kill her. Luckily, she is saved by a good handsome prince, and in the end, evil defeats good, and the beautiful princess lives happily ever after. This is the typical Disney narrative. Comparing Disney’s version and Grimm’s version, the latter is more impulsive and extreme. Disney’s version is a pure narrative of good versus evil, with snow-white representing good and the evil queen representing evil. From a diagnostic point of view, snow-white in the story represents the ‘good’ American values while the evil queen represents the ‘less appealing un-American values.’ Accordingly, the good always defeats evil.
In the film, the main protagonists are the princess and the prince. The princess, snow-white, is very beautiful, meek, and in her goodness, a bit naïve. As a typical American hero, snow white is innocent, sweet, gentle, respectful, and cheerful. She is so generous, helpful, and trusting in nature in such a way that her character can land her in trouble, with ‘bad’ people trying to take advantage of her.