Snow White

Snow White is the heroine and titular character of Disney's 1937 hit Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She is a young Princess, the "Fairest of All" who, in her innocence, cannot see any of the evil in the world. This makes her more vulnerable to her jealous stepmother the Queen who wishes to be the fairest in the land; however, Snow White's inherent kindness and purity inspire her friends the forest animals and the Seven Dwarfs to protect her. In the film, she is both a protective mother figure (rescuing a baby bird and singing to the animals and dwarfs) and an innocent child (requiring protection from the Queen) in her relationship with the forest animals and the Seven Dwarfs. She is the first Disney Princess, and provided the basis for later heroines such as Cinderella and Princess Aurora. Snow White was voiced by Adriana Caselotti and animated by Hamilton Luske.

Personality
Snow White is the sweetest and most gentle of all the princesses. She is the youngest of the Disney Princesses (she is 14), she is naive, childlike, and kind, but she shows the sternness of a mother, such as when she made the Dwarves go wash their hands, or else they'd get no supper. She is a dreamer, romantic, and willing to work hard if need be to earn her keep. She enjoys singing, dancing, cooking, daydreaming, and loves all animals. And she is also the quietest of all the Disney princesses.

Inciting the Queen's Jealousy


Queen Grimhilde, jealous of her stepdaughter Snow White's beauty, forces her to work as a servant in her castle; even in rags, however, Snow White's beauty shines through, causing the Queen to worry that Snow White's beauty may one day surpass her own. She has such vanity that she consults her Magic Mirror every day, ordering the slave within to reveal the name of the fairest in the land. Every day the spirit says that the Queen is the fairest, and she is content, until the mirror informs her that Snow White has finally become the fairest in the land. Outside, as Snow White works, she sings "I'm Wishing", attracting the attention of the Prince, who is passing by. As she sings into the well, performing a duet with her echo, she is startled as the Prince suddenly joins in. She runs indoors, and watches from a balcony as he sings "One Song". The 2 are infatuated with each other. Watching from above is the Queen, who angrily closes the curtains of her window in jealousy.



Entering the Forest
The Queen summons her huntsman to her and orders him to kill Snow White and bring her heart back in a special box. The Huntsman takes Snow White to a secluded glade and, checking that no one else is present, advances on the princess as she is helping a young bird return to its parents. Snow White sees the Huntsman's shadow on the rock in front of her, turns around and screams in terror. However, the Huntsman cannot bring himself to kill her upon seeing the beauty in a princess such as herself, and begs Snow White for forgiveness. He tells her of the Queen's insane jealousy, and tells her to run away. She flees through the forest, and her fright is manifested in the plants around her; branches suddenly resemble clawlike hands, and floating logs resemble crocodiles. Overcome by terror she eventually collapses, sobbing. As light enter the forest, the woodland creatures cautiously approach Snow White, and she befriends them. Together they sing "With A Smile And A Song". No longer frightened, Snow White asks the animals if they know where she can stay. They lead her to the Cottage of the Seven Dwarfs; she enters and finds that noone is home. She sees that the whole cottage is a complete mess, and, with the help of the animals, she cleans the house, hoping that its residents will let her stay if she cleans up for them. At this point she sings "Whistle While You Work". When she is finished, she goes upstairs to find seven little beds. She falls asleep over three of them.

Meeting the Seven Dwarfs


Meanwhile, the Seven Dwarfs return home from a day's work at the Dwarfs' Mine. They see light coming from the window of their cottage, and smoke coming from its chimney, and enter the house, creeping around as they search for the 'monster' that has invaded their home. They hear a noise (some birds from the forest, joking about) coming from upstairs, and, after an unsuccessful attempt by Dopey to chase the thing down, enter the bedroom together. They approach the three beds that are being slept in, and are about to strike when Doc removes the bed cover to reveal Snow White sleeping. They are all infatuated with her, but Grumpy grumbles about her unwelcome presence, waking her up. She is first startled by the dwarfs, but soon befriends them, guessing the names of Doc, Bashful, Sleepy, Sneezy, Happy, Dopey and Grumpy because their names are carved on the beds. All the dwarfs except for Grumpy agree that Snow White is welcome to stay if she does the housework for them. A noise from downstairs reminds Snow White that she has left some soup boiling. She rushes dwnstairs, and tells the dwarfs that it is almost ready, and that they will have time to wash. The dwarfs reluctantly march outside and wash while singing Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum (The Dwarfs' Washing Song). After supper, the dwarfs perform "The Silly Song" for Snow White, and she dances with Dopey (who reaches her height by standing on Sneezy's shoulders). She then sings "Some Day My Prince Will Come" as the dwarfs listen. then declares that Snow White will sleep upstairs, and that the dwarfs will find somewhere to sleep downstairs.

At the Queen's Castle, the Queen, after being told by the Magic Mirror that Snow White still lives, descends into her laboratory and transforms into the Witch. She prepares the Poisoned Apple, one bite of which will send it's victim into the Sleeping Death, which can only be cured by 'Love's First Kiss'. The Witch leaves the castle and proceeds towards the Dwarfs' Cottage.

The Poisoned Apple


Snow White kisses each dwarf goodbye as they leave for the mine, and is making a pie for Grumpy when the Queen peers through her window, pretending to be a peddler selling apples. She offers Snow White the apple, but is attacked by the woodland creatures, who recognize the danger. Snow White shoos the animals away and takes the old woman inside for a drink of water. The animals rush off to fetch the dwarfs. The Queen tells Snow White that the apple is a magic wishing apple, capable of making all of Snow White's wishes come true, and succeeds in persuading her to take a bite. Snow White soon falls to the floor, taken by the Sleeping Death. As the Queen is leaving, she is seen by the dwarfs, who chase her to a cliff, where she falls to her death to be eaten by vultures. The dwarfs find Snow White and they grieve her "death" as they return home. Later, as they find her so beautiful, even in death, they place her in a glass coffin. The Prince hears of this and rides to the clearing where her coffin has been placed. The dwarfs part and the Prince approaches Snow White, awakening her with a kiss. The dwarfs rejoice, and Snow White kisses each dwarf goodbye before leaving with the Prince for the Prince's castle, the outline of which is shown in the clouds above.

House of Mouse
As with many other Disney feature animated characters, Snow White made many cameo appearances as one of the guests on Disney's 2001-03 television series House of Mouse. She notably figured prominently in the episode "Pluto Saves the Day", in which dressed up as her as part of his plan to put the House staff to sleep with some poisoned apples he bought from the Witch. Snow White notices his plot, however, and helps Pluto by telling him that he needs to kiss the sleeping staff members to wake them up. Snow white is usually seen with Aurora and Cinderella, or the 7 Dwarfs.

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts


Since it's opening in 1955, Snow White and her Seven Dwarfs have been meetable characters at Disneyland in California and its' subsequent theme parks in Florida, Japan, France and Hong Kong.

Fantasmic!
Snow White appears in the first act of the live nighttime spectacular Fantasmic! In the show Snow White dances with The Prince to Someday My Prince Will Come during the Princess Melody.

Dream Along With Mickey
In the live castle stage show in the Magic Kingdom Park, Snow White appears along with the Prince as Mickey's special guest. Snow White and other Disney Princesses help Minnie fulfill her dream of becoming a princess. Snow White and The Prince reappears in the end celebrating the defeat of Maleficent, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee.

Snow White's Scary Adventures


In her ride "Snow White's Scary Adventures," Snow White's appearances vary. In the original version ride at Disneyland (which was then simply called "Snow White's Adventures) she did not appear at all, because Walt Disney intended the riders to imagine that they were Snow White. This was also done at the original Disney World version as well. The idea did not catch on and figures of Snow White were later added. In Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, she is glimpsed once ascending the dwarves staircase, while she is seen twice at Paris (once on the stairs and then at the end) and even more times in Disney World (in the courtyard, running through the woods, taking the Poisoned Apple, being awoken by The Prince and then riding off into the sunset.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Snow White's first appearance in Birth by Sleep is when she is encountered by Terra in a meadow in her home world of Dwarf Woodlands, the girl not at all surprised to see the Keyblade wielder standing before her. When the Unversed arrive, Terra summons his Keyblade to defeat them, but he also frightens Snow White and she flees into the woods in fear.

After Ventus arrives in Dwarf Woodlands and meets the Dwarfs, he hears Snow White scream and finds that she has been cornered by Unversed and monsters that inhabit the trees of Dwarf Woodlands. He manages to take her to safety and they find the Seven Dwarfs' House where she stays until the Dwarfs come back. They agree to let her stay and keep her company. After defeating the Mad Treant, Ventus heads to leave, but accidentally leads the old hag to where Snow White is.

By the time Aqua arrives, Snow White has already taken a bite on the poison apple and fallen into a deep slumber and placed in a glass coffin by the Seven Dwarfs. Later on, Aqua arrives with the Prince, who turns out to be Snow White's first love and the only person who can break the spell. He kisses her on the lips and awakes her from her slumber. She takes her farewell to the Dwarfs before the Prince sweeps her away.

During the ending credits, she is seen with the Prince and the Dwarfs in the meadow where her little friends throw flower petals around them. She and the Prince look at the petals in delight.

Snow White becomes a D-Link to Aqua and Ventus after their encounters separately.

Kingdom Hearts
Snow White's world was destroyed by the Heartless. She was one of the first Princesses of Heart to be captured and taken to Hollow Bastion.

Once they are all gathered, Maleficent has their hearts extracted in order to open the keyhole from Hollow Bastion and release the power within it. When the princesses' hearts are restored, Snow White and the other five princesses wake up from their slumber and use their combined power to shield the darkness inside in order to keep it from spreading throughout the universe. They are not able to keep it up for long, possibly because Kairi; the seventh princess is not present, but they manage to do so long enough for Sora to return and seal the keyhole. After it was sealed, Snow White remains in Hollow Bastion with the princesses, and Beast, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith.

When Kingdom Hearts was sealed she is returned to her own world.

Kingdom Hearts II
Although she does not appear in the game, Snow White's name is part of the password that allowed access to the DTD dataspace in Space Paranoids. In password form, her name is the first.

Behind the Scenes
In order to take only the actresses' voice into account, Walt Disney listened to each audition in his office while the actress performed in another room, without any knowledge of the actress' appearance or reputation. According to a later interview, most of the voices auditioned did not sound young enough. Among the many actresses rejected was Deanna Durbin. Adriana Caselotti was chosen for the voice of Snow White on September 1935 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs production timeline (DVD feature). Though eighteen when recording the voice, Caselotti made her coloraturo soprano sound younger, knowing that the character was intended to be fourteen years old; however, Caselotti never informed Disney of this. In recording sessions, clarity of diction was stressed, but Caselotti found difficulty in the line, "Grumpy, I didn't know you cared"; instead of "didn't", Caselotti was only able to say "din'". After rehearsing the line many times, Disney eventually said "Oh, the heck with..." and "din'" remained in the final film.

Design
The design and characterization of Snow White was influenced by both the heroine of traditional European romantic fairy tales and the popular Hollywood heroine. Early designs showing Snow White with blond hair suggest Eugene Grasset's depiction of the goddess of spring in Le Printemps as another influence; like Disney's Snow White, Grasset's goddess is closely connected to nature, and, as in one of Grasset's studies for the piece, Snow White entertains animals with music.

Snow White's design was supervised by Grim Natwick, an animator who had previously developed and worked on Betty Boop at the Fleischer Studio. Early designs for the character resemble Betty Boop, and some appear to be caricatures of famous actresses such as Zasu Pits; however, Snow White's appearance, like the Queen's became less and less caricatured. For example, Hamilton Luske's first design for Snow White depicted her as a slightly awkward, gangly teenager. This design could easily have been animated without the use of live-action reference, but Walt Disney had a different idea in his mind; the character ultimately was designed to be older, and more realistic-looking. In order for Snow White to better relate onscreen to the seven dwarfs, however, it was decided that her head be slightly larger than normal. The ink and paint women felt that Snow White's black hair was too unnatural and harsh, so drybrushed whisps of light grey over the top of each cell.



Animation
Marge Bell (who would later become Marge Champion) performed live-action reference for the animation of Snow White, directed by Hamilton Luske. When it was decided that Snow White should have a slightly larger head than normal, Bell was made to wear a football helmet to make her head appear larger. This was stopped after 5 minutes, as Bell found it impossible to perform ande-action reference.

Staging
The scene in which Snow White kisses Grumpy, and Grumpy's subsequent reaction, was inspired by a sketch by Albert Hurter, as was the scene in which Snow White, after being poisoned, lies in a bed surrounded by the weeping dwarfs. For the latter, Walt Disney made reference in a story meeting to a recent film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, suggesting that light appear to shine from her as the dwarfs and animals mourn around her. In this same story meeting, Dick Creedon suggested that the rain outside the Cottage of the Seven Dwarfs be used to suggest tears, weeping for the princess.