blog post 7

I have always been a Disney fanatic, and while I realize the majority of my posts are about Disney films, I have to admit…this one will be no different. I started thinking back to the first weeks of class when we discussed the villains of the Disney films. When I think of the villian that got to me the most when I was younger, it always goes back to the Queen in Snow White. Why was she so evil? In this blog post I want to attempt to answer that very question.

[The Queen: Pre-Apple Making] She is introduced to the Audience as a step-mother figure, which has a negative connotation to it to begin with. (in previous blog posts I discuss this a bit). Everything about her can give someone the creeps. Her look itself is dark, with dark clothes and a cape.  No hair is shown. She has long fingers and fingernails, and very heavy makeup. The eyes of the Queen are small and squinty, which are great for that evil look. Although her facial expressions are limited, the over-exaggeration of her features help with her look. And her voice is deep and haunting. But it is not only her appearance that makes her one of the scariest Queens that Disney has produced, her personality is also an extension of that terror. She exhibits two of the seven deadly sins…she is vain and jealous. Obsessed with her looks and those of her step daughter she plans to kill Snow White in order to be “The fairest in the land”. I believe that these traits are among the top reasons this woman scared so many. The lack of compassion is a characteristic that all of the “evil” women in Disney’s movies portray. They are on the extreme other side of their very compassionate counter-parts (the princesses) who generally love all things living and strive for true love with a prince.

[The Queen: Post Apple Making] The differences here are pretty obvious. She starts with the voice change, and the cackle of a laugh. Her eyes are now much larger and yellow. We see her white hair, showing her change in age appearance .She still wears dark colors and still has the long, and may I add, creepy fingernails. The whole wart and no teeth thing really add to the whole image I think. her facial expression and body movement also improve here. We see the eyes change shape as well as the brows moving. Some of these movements are choppy, and in no way compare to those Disney is capable of today, but they are classic, and the first of their kind for this feature length film. What is so ironic about this part of the film is that she leaves her vanity aside to try to seduce her step-daughter into eating an apple from a poor innocent women. Vanity and compassion apparently do not go hand in hand to this queen. She really shows her lack of compassion in these scenes. She does not believe in love, and makes that apparent after she reads how the spell will be un-done. She also succeeds in feeding the apple to Snow White after convincing her that all her Dreams would come true. It is scary to think that a  woman so evil could corrupt some one so pure, but that is what makes the Queen so frightening.

As this was Disney’s First feature length film there are some technical aspects that are left to be desired but on the whole the success of scaring little children with this evil woman is breath taking. She is the first of her kind, and she would later share some of the characteristics that the other evil women of Disney had.

Below there are two clips that I found on Youtube of the Queen’s Transformation.(I know they are longer, but I enjoyed watching them to write this)