Snow White: 4 Adaptations

So, Mirror Mirror. How to begin? Well, I suppose I should first say that this is a pretty awesome movie. Not even kidding, it's a lot of fun to watch. But I don't really want to talk about the film by itself. Hence why this review is called Snow White instead of Mirror Mirror. I'm going to try and talk about the different adaptations of the fairy tale, and how this new is a lot better than most of them.

The original tale is a fairly standard fairy tale. We have a beautiful princess, whose mother is dead, an unexplained absent father and a wicked stepmother who is jealous of her stepdaughter. And 7 dwarves. For some reason. Anyway, in the story, Snow White's mum dies right after she is born and her father (I assume after a few years of mourning at least) marries another woman, who is vain, selfish and evil. And she has this mirror, see, that keeps on telling her she is the 'fairest of them all'. Now, this next part, from the original story is the part I find the weirdest and creepiest. When Snow White is seven, not 16 or 17, seven, the mirror one day says 'Snow White is the fairest of them all'. No offence, but seven!? Well, I'll get back to why that is particularly creepy. Anyway, the queen is pissed and she sends Snow White out with a huntsman and says he has to kill her and bring back her entrails. Which he doesn't do, instead he just leaves a seven(!?) year old in the middle of the woods. Luckily she finds seven dwarves (there is something about that number) and they let her into their home if she becomes their housemaid.

Anyway, the queen finds out and tries to kill Snow White 3 times, each time technically failing (not a very good witch, by all accounts) but on the third time she succeeds in making her sleep as if in death. The dwarves, thinking she's dead, put her in a glass coffin and don't bury her for some reason. After a while, a prince rides past the coffin and falls in love with her. Now here's the creepy part for me. Did Snow White age while in the coffin (which is probably more likely) or did he fall in love with a seven year old girl? If it's the latter, then ewwwww. Anyway, in the original story they get married, and the queen finds out that someone is fairer than she is and she gets pissed again. And so she goes and finds out who it is and discovers it's Snow White. And Snow White is like "It's payback time, bitch!" and makes the queen where red hot metal shoes and dance until she is dead. I like that ending. I have yet to see an adaptation that finishes like that though.

So, I'm going to talk about 4 different adaptations of the story (not ambitious at all). And where else to start but at the beginning of evil itself, the Disney version. Completed and released in 1937, this film showed the world that animation can be considered an art form and a viable way to tell a story. For the technology at the time, and considering the rather simplistic shorts that came beforehand. But I'm not here to talk about its merits in filmmaking. No, I'm here to see if it is actually a good adaptation. Well, all the elements are there. Pretty young girl (who looks around 18, thank god), eveil stepmother, surprisingly absent father, and 7 dwarves. Oh, and that whole business with the apple.

Let me make it clear, I really don't like this movie for a number of reasons. Ok, no, I really don't like this movie for one reason. Snow White. And it's not just her Lena Lamont voice. Her character is annoying! She spends all day wishing for a dude, and singing to animals in an out of tune voice that makes me sympathise with the evil Queen. No really, I can understand why she would want to get rid of her. Also, she doesn't do anything. Her character doesn't grow and everything happens around her rather than her creating a situation. It's not her fault she was born too pretty, fate just decided to gang up on her. Bleh! Anyway, for me, the best thing about this adaptation is the animation. It is lovely to watch, moving from the pastel-y colours of Snow White in the beginning to the dark, more vibrant colours of the forest and the blackness of the final chase scene. That and the Queen. I know she gets left behind in favour for more "complex" Disney villains, but to me, especially as a kid, she was absolutely frightening. And her character design is quite chilling.

Another thing that annoys me now, but didn't so much when I was a kid, is the seven dwarves. I know in the original story they are really more side characters with no distinct personalities. So, Disney decided that the story would not be complete without them having annoying one track personalities. I wouldn't mind it so much, if none of the other adaptations that came after it did exactly the same thing! I'm not even kidding, each of the other films in this series do exactly the same thing by either setting up stereotypes in one or two of the dwarves, or just giving them a generic "thing that they do/say/act."

As a whole, the film isn't too terrible an adaptation. It was faithful to the original fairy tale, right down to the bland under-developed characters. I know I shouldn't be mean because it was a product of its time, and it is quite an amazing film given when it was made. And it was a family film, which was kinda rare in the 30s. Most of the time there were only gangster films and King Kong.... Oh, that would be awesome!!

Anyway, moving on to the second most evil family corporation in America, the Hallmark version. Snow White: The Fairest of them All. Oh Hallmark, you stay so close to the story yet stray so far. This adaptation certainly show that. The story is essentially the same (well, it is the same). There are a few differences from the story, the main one is that Snow White didn't start out as a princess. That is, her father wasn't a King, but became one when he accidentally wished to be after rescuing a frozen troll wizard with his tears... Don't ask, it's Hallmark. They write everything when they're high. So, yeah, Snow White wasn't a princess, and also the Prince pisses off the Queen (who is played to an embarassing level of over-acting by Miranda Richardson) and she turns him into a bear in a snowglobe (Don't ask! It's Hallmark!) and he becomes a prince again after he kisses Snow White to make her not frozen? (God, I wish I had that clip of Christopher Lloyd saying "I was frozen today!" -sigh-)

Yeah, there are some silly story choices, but as an adaptation it's ok. I mean, it's nothing new, even the dwarves seem to be copying the Disney dwarves, except they have even less personality, and they're named after the days of the week. Snow White is a little more likeable, she has a little more attitude, but that might be because she can only emote between happy and slightly put out. I think the thing I like least about Snow White is that she is essentially a house wife, and I have no idea why. How did she learn to cook and clean? She's a bloody princess! Ok, she wasn't born a princess but she was raised one! Gah! Anyway, yeah, this is ok. Again, it pisses me off now, but I did like when I first saw it. The adaptation is more faithful (at least the absent father is explained... with magic!), but there are some truly stupid additions that Hallmark chose to try and add whimsy. If anything, see it just to see how bad it can be, especially Miranda Richardson's acting.

The next film I want to talk about is the Amanda Bynes' movie, Sydney White. When I first went to see it, I didn't know it was a Snow White adaptation until my friend told me it was halfway through. So, without knowing beforehand, I can say that this is a very subtle adaptation. Yeah right! As subtle as getting hit over the head with a brick! Anyway, the norms are here. Dead mother, absent father, but instead of a princess, Sydney is a new college student and wants to get into a sorority of bitches that her mum was in. While it's not very subtle, it is very clever. The magic mirror has become a website, where people vote on which girls they think are hot, the poisonned apple is a Mac with a virus. The seven dwarves are now seven dorks, or geeks or nerds. What the hell is a dork? Anyway, even though I hate the one-track personalitites of the Disney version, I do like the obvious harking back to that version with modern versions of those personalities.

This is certainly the funniest out of all of them, but that's mainly because of Amanda Bynes as a no nonsense Snow White, who is more focused on getting good marks than finding a prince. The prince in this one is actually a character, and not just a romantic lead. He has motives, back story, he has a fleshed out character. The other two versions don't dwell on the prince as much, preferring instead the evil queen. In fact, I'm sure the prince in the 1937 film doesn't say anything, he just sings. Also, the romance developes slowly, and while there are some rom-com misunderstandings, they all sort themselves out and all is well. I don't really have any objections to this film, apart from the fact that it is predictable (in a good way) and the occaisional embarassing joke.

And this brings us to Mirror, Mirror. I know I have only seen this once, but I do think this is my favourite adaptation of Snow White, for one main reason. Snow White is not a damsel in distress. She's smart and kind, and her character grows over the course of the film in a natural way. Also, Julia Roberts as the evil queenis so fun to watch. You can just tell how much fun she is having in the role. Again, the romance between the young lovers is also more natural, with both in love with each other, and yet there are just some things that they can't stand in them as well, yet they love them all the same. Of course, the dwarves have one track personalities, but instead of them being shoved down your throat in the Disney version, or being uber condisending in the Hallmark version they seem more realistic.

The film got lot of mixed reviews, with people saying that it wasn't original or lacked depth. I can't agree with that, mainly because the original story lacked so much depth that all adaptations can appear to have more depth even when they're excessively shallow (coughDisneycough). And not original? Yeah, remember that bit about the apple? Not in this version. No, Snow White has to save the prince from a spell by kissing him, instead of the other way round. Cause that's not original. In fact (spoilers!) when the queen does try to poison Snow White in a last attempt to get rid of her, Snow White sees right through her and beats her at her own game. But even if you don't agree with that, most critics have said that the best part of the film is the stagecraft of the film. The costumes and scenery are spectacular! You notice them more than in the other adaptations (except the Disney one which was beautiful to look at). Also, the film ends on a random Bollywood number. Because it can!

So, I do love Mirror Mirror more than the other versions, because it is more modern and more fun than some of the other versions that take the original story just too seriously. That isn't to say that the other versions are bad, but for our time, this version is perfect. So, go see it! Even if you don't like it, the costumes and scenery should hold your attention enough. I'm sorry this is so long (I didn't even get to half the things I wanted to talk about), but you probaly won't get another blog for a while, unless I suddenly get creative. Anyway, what are your favourite Snow White adaptations? I always love watching and comparing different versions of things. Though I probably won't see Snow White and the Huntsman, that one looks really... tweeny. Also, the next blog might be a list...