Poisoned Apple

The Poisoned Apple is a blood-red apple which, when bitten, will send its victim into the Sleeping Death. A victim of the Sleeping Death can only be revived by love's first kiss. It is used by the Witch in an attempt to do away with Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. =Film and Television Appearances=

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

 * "One taste of the Poisoned Apple, and the victim's eyes will close forever in the Sleeping Death..." - The Witch



Preparing the Apple
After turning into the Witch, the Queen declares that Snow White should suffer "a special sort of death". Looking through her spell book, she comes to the recipe for the Sleeping Death, and, reading of the Poisoned Apple's effects, decides that it is the perfect way to kill the princess. She brews the potion and dips a green apple into the brew as the Raven watches silently. The Sleeping Death seeps into the apple, and the Witch raises the apple from the cauldron to reveal that the poison dripping from the apple has formed an image of a skull. This image fades as the apple turns red, to tempt Snow White. The Witch cruelly offers the apple to the Raven, who backs away, terrified, causing the Witch to cackle maliciously.She suddenly remembers that there may be an antidote to the Sleeping Death and searches through the spell book, discovering that the only cure is love's first kiss. Confident that the dwarfs will bury Snow White, making her unable to receive a kiss, the Witch laughs to herself. She puts the apple in a basket, and walks down through the dungeon below, emerging from the castle's catacombs in a raft. As she makes her way to the dwarfs' cottage, two sinister vultures see her and, sensing that death is imminent, quietly persue her.

"A Wishing Apple"
She reaches the cottage and, according to plan, finds that the Dwarfs have left and Snow White is alone. Catching the girl by surprise, the Witch offers her the apple, but is attacked by the animals of the forest (who sense danger when they notice the two vultures). Snow White does not recognise any danger in the old woman and lets her into the house to offer her a drink of water, while the animals rush to find the Dwarfs. The Witch tells Snow White that the apple will grant wishes, and, knowing of Snow White's romance with the Prince, persuades her to wish for a happy reunion before taking a bite. Snow White falls to the floor, taken by the Sleeping Death. The Witch is victorious, but is discovered by the seven dwarfs, who, led by Grumpy, persue her until she is cornered on the edge of a cliff, where she falls to her doom, to be eaten by the vultures. The dwarfs do not bury Snow White, instead placing her in a glass coffin. The Prince hears of Snow White's current state and comes to the clearing where her coffin is placed, reviving her with a kiss.

=Behind the Scenes=

Story Meeting
The scene of the Witch preparing the poisoned apple was discussed in a story conference in 1936:


 * Walt Disney: "The thought just struck me on the buildup of the music where she says, "Now turn red, etc." Where it starts you might go into innocent, sweet music while she is saying something about how innocent it looks. The music changes as the apple changes and could stay that way until she says, "Have a bite." It would be a good contrast."


 * Richard Creedon: "Admiring the apple as if she'd like to eat it herself - "Pink as a maiden's blush."

Both ideas were used in the final film; innocent music is playing when the apple turns red, and the Witch appears to admire it briefly before offering it cruelly to the Raven.

Stirring the Cauldron
A very short sequence involving the Witch stirring her cauldron was fully animated and completed, and was among the scenes cut from the film by Walt Disney at the last minute. In the sequence, the Raven looks on as the Witch stirs the cauldron with a huge bone. She pauses to see that the smoke rising from the brew is shaped like skulls, and adds a drop of an unknown ingredient to the concoction:
 * "Boil, cauldron, boil. Boil, cauldron, boil. Death within thy depths I see, for one who dares to rival me. Through the magical recipe, boil, cauldron, BOIL!."

At this, smoke from the cauldron fills the room. This sequence would have occurred immediately after the scene of the Seven Dwarfs going to sleep in their cottage; the sequence would have been followed by the scene in which the Witch dips the apple into the brew to make it poisonous.

Deviations from Source Material
In the original Snow White fairy tale, the Queen visited Snow White three times, each time in a different disguise and with a different object; first, she came with a corset, which she used to draw the breath from Snow White (the dwarfs arrive in tie to remove the corset); second, she came with a poisoned comb, which she put in Snow White's hair (the dwarfs simply remove it); finally, she came with the poisoned apple, the effects of which the dwarfs were unable to undo. Snow White was not cured in the original story by being kissed; the Prince was amazed at her beauty and had her carried in the glass coffin to his castle; on the way, she was knocked, and the piece of poisoned apple fell out of her mouth.

=Trivia=
 * The writing on the Witch's spellbook was not part of the original background - this was so that the writing could be added in different languages for showings of the films in different countries.

=References=