Take A Look at Disney

2/20/14

Power of The Princesses: Snow White (with Ratin8tor)





Moviefan12: Hello & welcome to the first installment of Power of The Princesses,  A Look at Disney's look at all of the Disney princesses going all the way up to Anna and Elsa and starting with the very first Disney princess, Snow White.  Joining me to take a look at Snow White,  is Ratin8tor.  Thanks for joining me.




Ratin8tor: Thanks for having me, I'm looking forward to seeing the very first Disney Princess in the canon.




Original Voice Actress

Adriana Caselotti





















Moviefan12:   Adriana Caselotti was only 18 at the time.  She got the role of Snow White, when she overheard her father talking on the phone with Walt Disney about finding a suitable voice for Snow White. She then approached him about the role. She was also the physical model for the character as well. Snow White's voice is unique and that in part comes from how Adriana lowered her voice knowing that the character was intended to be 14 years old.  She never informed Walt of this decision until after the completion of the film.   And it's quite noticeable that Snow White's voice is perhaps the hardest of the princess voices to pull off. Adriana makes it sound childlike and dainty but some of her future voice actresses go overboard with this and make her sound for a lack of a better word, squeaky.






Ratin8tor: I find Adriana Caselotti's voice in this to be... interesting. It's clear that they were going for a 'young girl' voice to reflect Snow White's young age, but here I think they went too far with it in the wrong direction. It's been said before that it's very much like 'Betty Boop' and that's not an entirely unfair comparison. It is a somewhat shrill voice that's never really been replicated properly in future appearances, making it something of a unique voice. What's interesting to note is that according to her Wikipedia page Snow White was one of the few films she was ever in, cementing this voice as being one of the most unique for all the princesses.




Personality


Moviefan12:  I find the best way to describe Snow White is to say that she is both childlike and motherly at the same time.  You see her childlike side come out, when she is scared or running away and how she interacts with the animals.  Whereas her motherly side comes out around the Dwarfs, especially when she has them wash or they won't get supper.  Snow White in my eyes is a lovely young lady that is a bit naive but means well.



Ratin8tor: Now some of the more cynical people out there will point out that Snow White is generous to a fault. Her kind and loving nature directly results in her being put to sleep by taking the Wicked Queen's apple. But does that necessarily make her a bad character or role model? I mean yeah she's too nice, but when has 'too nice' been something that's a bad thing. Snow White is a lovely character who often puts others before herself and tries to make kindness in the world. Some say she's a bit of a flat character, that there isn't much personality there. I'd argue there's just enough for the film to work. She isn't shown to have any flaws (well, beyond her being too generous) but at the same time she's not completely flat. She gets scared, she gets frustrated, she acts like a mum to the dwarfs. There is a range of character there, it's just not brought to the surface as much as some of the other princesses. However she's still a warm, loving girl who is always kind and generous to others; and I fail to see how that can be a bad thing.


Favorite Moment

Moviefan12:  It's tough to choose a favorite moment but the sentimentalist in me has to go with...

Someday My Prince Will Come














Moviefan12:  It's just a sweet little song as we get to hear Snow White sing of the day, her love will come for her. Sure,  this may be looked down upon by people nowadays that Snow White was dreaming of a man to come into her life but keep in mind, that Snow White is the youngest of the princesses in her film and this kinda makes sense in that regard and it's just a really sweet number.   





 








Ratin8tor:  My favorite moment is perhaps the most unexpected. After being told to run through her life and running through the scary woods she starts to cry, before pulling herself together and starting to sing a little song. Why is this my favorite moment? Because it shows that Snow White isn't the 'damsel in distress' people tend to make her out to be. It shows that she's not a scared little girl but one who can stand on their own feet and look after themselves. It shows to the audience that even in her darkest moment Snow will always see the bright side of things and get herself out of trouble. It's a little moment but one that shows the inner strength of the character.


Later Appearances

Ratin8tor: If there's one thing I regret is that I had to spend every day I worked at Disney World staring at a roller-coaster that would be finished after I left the country. The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller-coaster replaced Snow White's Scary Adventures at Disney World and unfortunately since I haven't ridden either I can't make mention on them. All I can say was that the Snow White ride apparently traumatized more than a few kids back in its day, hence why it was removed.











And of course whilst we're talking about theme parks we have to mention her double-appearance in the area. She appears in two places, the first being the Germany pavilion at Epcot (reflecting her origins), the second being Fairytale Princess Hall (where she gets rotated with other princesses). Nothing more to say than that she appears and is just as lovely in person.



And of course there's Once Upon A Time. Now I've only seen the first season, so I'll leave Moviefan to elaborate further, but I liked this interpretation of Snow. She still has that kindness and generosity but it's now tied in well with her bad ass attitude and developed romance with Prince Charming. Unlike the movie, where they appear together for the briefest of moments, here they actually have an interesting and well-developed relationship. But I'll leave Moviefan12 to elaborate on it more.
















Moviefan12:  If you follow my other blog series,  you know that one of my favorite shows is Once Upon A Time and what R8 said is very much true about this version of Snow White, she still has her kindness and generosity but at the same time, she is willing to fight and to protect what is most important to her.  That being her family,  throughout all three seasons of the show, now we have seen,  you do not mess with Snow White's family.  Now,  I wish to bring up her Storybrooke counterpart, Mary- Margaret Blanchard.















For those that do not know  in the show,  the Evil Queen set a curse that caused all fairy tale inhabitants to be banished to our land and forget their fairy tale lives until the curse was broken by the savior, who just happened to be the daughter of Snow White and Charming.   In Storybrooke, before the curse was broken, Snow White was Mary Margaret Blanchard.  A nice and humble elementary school teacher that had more in common with the animated Snow White of the film than her Fairy Tale Land counterpart but I believe that was done intentionally.   I won't spend too much time because if you want my opinions on this version of Snow,  just read my Once Upon A Time reviews.



Now  some other notable appearances for Snow White include the stage adaption of the film from the '70s that played at Rockfeller Center, simply titled Snow White: Live!


 


















Now, this actually makes Snow White, the first Disney film adapted to stage and the whole production would later air on HBO in the early '80s.  You can find the entire play on YouTube.  (Hmm, looks like a future Screen To Stage article may be in the works).   Now Snow White in the the late '30s was also published as a comic strip.















And, she also like many princesses made appearances on House of Mouse and she will be appearing in season 2 of Sofia The First, in the episode, The Enchanted Feast. An image of Sofia and Snow White has already been released.




Now, there are many other appearances, one could go over such as there was actually a Snow White video game for the Gameboy Color.  




And there were even plans for a Silly Symphony sequel to the film, titled Snow White Returns.  Here is the plot from the Disney Wiki.

Returning home from the mine, the Seven Dwarfs receive a message from Snow White saying that she plans to make her annual visit to their cottage. Excited over the news, the Dwarfs try to figure out what would be the best gift to give to her. Sleepy suggests making a bed for her and they get to work. After working hard all day, they see that there's activity in the house and find that Snow White has already arrived and is working on a soup dinner. The short then goes into the deleted from film song, Music In Your Soup as Snow White eventually teaches them the proper way to eat soup. After dinner, the dwarfs ask Snow White to wait while they give her a surprise, but when returning to move the bed, they find that one of the trees they used as a bedpost is still rooted to the ground and they try hard to cut it down. Eventually, they find that Snow White went upstairs to sleep in the Dwarfs beds and end up sleeping in the bed that they constructed, with Dopey trying to figure a way into the cramped space at the end.




Before I hand this over to DisneyOtoko to talk about Snow White in Kingdom Hearts, there is one last interesting thing about her. One of Snow White's  voice actresses was a Disney.




Melissa Disney was the last VA for Snow before her current VA took over, she did the voice for the Disney princess soundtracks, it appears.  Besides Snow White, Melissa Disney also voiced Ginger, in the Nick series, As Told By Ginger.  She is a direct descendant of Walt Disney.  I just found that rather fascinating.  


Now, here is DisneyOtoko to talk about Snow White in the Kingdom Hearts games.


Snow White In Kingdom Hearts

DisneyOtoko: Snow White like many princesses especially of the Walt Era have important, but passive roles when actually taking into account what they do in their screen time. Still to varying degree they have some effect big or small on the keyblade wielders. 

Snow White in Birth by Sleep

Snow White has her home world first shown in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep called the Dwarf Woodlands and the story in the game is very similar to the film with the Keyblade wielders having more interactions with the Hearts of Pure Light. The Keyblade wielders help Snow White and her dwarf friends from the Unversed that are summoned by the Evil Queen's piercing and fierce jealousy. 
Terra's Story 

Terra lands in the Magic Mirror Chamber where he witnesses the Evil Queen learning of Snow White's title as Fairest of Them All. When Terra reveals himself he asks about the whereabouts of Master Xehanort and the Evil Queen strikes a deal with him. If he kills Snow White she will ask the mirror what he seeks. So Terra takes the role of the Huntsman. Terra is very concerned because he did something terrible to another princess and that haunts him throughout his campaign and in Dwarf Woodlands he treads carefully to not repeat that mistake and obviously has no intention of following the Queen's orders. He finds Snow White in the flower field like in the film and he asks her the same questions, but unfortunately doesn't get any answers and Terra is struck by her kindness and purity. The Unversed then show up and Terra takes a stand to protect Snow White and she runs into the dark forest. Terra returns and tries to force the answers from the Queen and after defeating the Magic Mirror he only gets vague and cryptic answers from the mirror and departs after condemning the Queen for daring to feign beauty and radiance when in reality her heart is full dark jealousy. 

Ventus's Story

After Ventus has a not so good run in with the Seven Dwarfs he approaches the cottage, but hears Snow White screaming from the forest. He runs and finds her (after the scary scene in the movie) and encourages her that everything is fine that what she saw was her own perception and he escorts her back to the cottage (in a fairly enjoyable section of gameplay) when Ventus does basic recon after settling her in the cottage he returns and the dwarfs are home and they once again accuse him of being a thief, but at Snow White's urging they warm up to him a little bit. When Snow White explains her encounter with Terra in her state of fear she misinterpreted the encounter as hostile and Ventus obviously denies that Terra did anything wrong which he didn't. Snow White realizes her mistake, but the dwarfs aren't buying it and kick Ventus out. After Ventus defeats the Unversed boss in the forest he goes to the flower field and sees the Queen in her Old Witch form and she drops the poison apple and Ventus not knowing so picks it up and gives it to the Old Witch and the 

Witch sees his Keyblade and tells a biased half truth that Terra was malevolent toward her (which he was for deserved reasons) and Ventus is cast into doubt over his surrogate elder brother's behavior and doesn't want to believe it. Snow White's revision of her original account of her encounter with Terra is unfortunately subverted making Ventus more isolated and doubtful of his friends and will be an element of his campaign. 

Aqua's Story

Snow White really doesn't do much because when Aqua arrives at the cottage Snow White is already in the glass coffin and the Evil Queen is already dead. When Aqua investigates the Queen's dungeon for clues to an antidote (she tells the Prince where to find her) and she does battle with the Magic Mirror and after the battle the mirror fades away permanently. She returns empty handed, but the Prince shows up and gives true love's kiss and the happily ever after just like in the movie. Snow White and the other princesses in Aqua's campaign for that matter are more symbols than participants. They symbolize Aqua's affiliation to the light and that she is the most optimistic of the playable characters.




After Birth By Sleep

In the credits we see Snow White and the Prince in the flower field and the Dwarfs are marching to meet them for a reunion of sorts. The scene is wonderful, but if you know the series it doesn't last long. Maleficent and the Heartless destroy the Dwarf Woodlands and take her to Hollow Bastion where she is put into suspended animation to be used for the completion of the Final Keyhole and the way to Kingdom Hearts so that Maleficent and the other Disney villains can attain godhood and dominion over all. 

Snow White in Kingdom Hearts 1

Now here's a bit of trivia. If the player DID NOT go to Wonderland or left before defeating Wonderland's boss and sealed the Deep Jungle Keyhole the villain meeting scene where normally Alice would be revealed to be one of the Princesses and her whereabouts Snow White appeared instead. But the canon is that the Dwarf Woodlands was destroyed before KH1 and NOT during KH1. 

When Snow White and the other princesses awaken she works with them to hold the darkness back and also along with the other princesses upgrade Sora's fire magic to its maximum power. And when the secret boss in Final Mix appears she also comments on the ominous energy.




Is Snow White A Good Character?


Moviefan12:  I find this a difficult question to answer.  Because we are looking at the first princess from Disney.  And she isn't the strongest character in this line-up but she set the example for what was to come with the future ladies. She isn't the best but looking at her as she came first, and in her time, she is a good enough character.


 Ratin8tor: Now it's charitable to say that she's a product of her time, but she really is Disney's first venture into feature-length films. As such some of the more finer points of character development and story arc were left out due to not knowing how to do it properly. But does that she mean she's a bad character? Hell no. Snow White set the template that all the Princesses were to be based on, showing grace and poise in times of distress and always being a kind and generous person. She may be a bit underdeveloped, but that doesn't mean she's a total write-off. Snow White is the perfect role model that everyone, boys and girls, should inspire to be like. Someone warm and kind who is willing to help out strangers and always try to do good in the world. She may be the first, but she's also one of the best.

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