- “When she breaks the tender peel, to taste the apple in my hand, her breath will still, her blood congeal, then I'll be fairest in the land!”
- ―The Evil Queen on her plans to poison Snow White[src]
The Evil Queen (also known as the Wicked Queen, or simply, the Queen) is the main antagonist of Disney's 1937 animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the first Disney villain in the Disney animated features canon. Determined to remain the fairest one of all, the Queen becomes insanely jealous of Snow White, the only one whose beauty surpasses her own. She eventually disguises herself as an old lady to tempt Snow White into eating a poisoned apple, in a final attempt to do away with her only, unknowing rival. Depicted in early designs as a fat character, her appearance eventually evolved into a much more sinister, stately beauty.
Her name was given as Queen Grimhilde in some old publicity material and comics, but this is seldom acknowledged by the Walt Disney Company.[5] The Twisted Tale books gave her the name Queen Ingrid.[6] She is sometimes referred to as the Wicked Queen, while theme parks sometimes refer to her as the Snow Queen (not to be confused with Queen Elsa). The Witch is sometimes referred to as the Old Hag or Peddler after drinking the potion of peddler's disguise.
The Evil Queen is generally regarded as one of the most iconic and menacing villains in cinematic history, once being voted the 10th greatest movie villain of all time by the American Film Institute. Additionally, she is one of the most prominent members of the Disney Villains line-up.
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Background[]
Development[]
The Evil Queen's early designs.
In the early stages of design, the Queen was drawn as a fat, frumpy, comical character, in the style of the characters of the Silly Symphonies. The Fleischer Betty Boop short Snow White, which, like much of Fleisher's work, had probably been studied by Disney's animators, also has an ugly Queen. However, when Albert Hurter introduced a more realistic style of character design to the Disney animators, it was ultimately decided that the Queen should be more beautiful, regal, cold and sinister, creating a much scarier character than had ever been attempted in animation before. Rather than a comical villain, she became a femme fatale, a type of character with which the Disney artists would have been familiar, through the silent screen; at the same time she is a figure from ancient Europe, viewed by American audiences in the 1930s as a symbol of not only charm and elegance, but also decadence and self-destruction. The Queen's costume is rumored to be based on that worn by Helen Gahagan in the 1935 film She, though animator Art Babbitt and other Disney artists have denied this. At a meeting on October 30, 1934, Disney suggested that the papier mache masks by Art Deco illustrator Vladislav Theodor Benda (an influence on Joe Grant's work) be used as inspiration for the Queen's face. The Queen, who was originally to be named Grimhilde (but who is never actually named in the film), was also modeled in part on Princess Kriemhild in the 1924 film Die Nibelungen. Her face may have been inspired by Joan Crawford and other contemporary American actresses such as Gale Sondergaard. Also noted was her resemblance to two Hollywood stars from Europe, Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Her costume and figure may have been inspired by a column statue at the Naumburg Cathedral depicting Uta von Ballenstedt, the wife of Eckard II, Margrave of Meissen who was widely regarded as the most beautiful woman of Medieval Germany. There are also facial similarities to George de Feure's La Femme au chapeau noir (1898-1900).
Babbitt based the Queen on "all of the women I've ever known", and noted that, while the animation of the Queen relied, to an extent, on live-action footage, he felt the need to 'caricature' and 'invent' in order to justify the medium of animation; the animation was not rotoscoped as the Prince's was.
Gustaf Tenggren's concept art of the Witch offering the poisoned apple to Snow White.
The Witch resembles hags in European illustrations of fairy tales, in particular, Arthur Rackham's illustration for Hansel and Gretel; a similar character was used in the Silly Symphonies short Babes in the Woods. Many of the artists at the studio tried designs for the Queen's Witch form; Joe Grant's pastel designs for the character were ultimately approved and used as the model for the animators to follow. Norman Ferguson was thought to have been cast as the animator of the Witch because of his skill at creating a lifelike effect while not actually being able to animate a living creature. He initially found difficulty in animating the Witch, as her illustration-influenced design was not thought to lend itself perfectly to animation, and there was concern that the Witch would amuse, rather than intimidate, the audience. However, Ferguson animated the Witch with respect to acting and personality rather than inner emotions. He set part of the Witch's phrases to the melody of a popular song of the time and animated to this rhythm, singing to himself as he drew. Notably, the Witch is the only character who occasionally looks directly into the camera and appear to address the audience; it is likely that this is because Ferguson's approach was inspired by vaudeville performers.
Live-action footage for the Witch was shot of actors Don Brodie and Moroni Olsen, who performed in drag. Ferguson's animation was also partially influenced by Lionel Barrymore's drag performance in The Devil Doll. As a result, the Witch possesses certain masculine qualities that make her seem more aggressive and dangerous. John Lounsbury was Ferguson's assistant in animating the Witch, and animated the scene in which the Witch disappears underneath a trapdoor, cackling that Snow White will be "buried alive". In story meetings concerning the transformation sequence and the sequence at the cauldron, Walt Disney made reference to Dr. Rotwang Rotwang's laboratory in Fritz Lang's Metropolis and the scene in Macbeth in which the three witches brew their potion. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is another influence. The sequence in which the Witch rows a boat from the catacombs underneath the castle suggests the influence of an illustration of Charon by Gustave Dore for Dante's Inferno.
Voice[]
Lucille La Verne was first asked to provide only the voice of the Witch,[7] but read for both parts and was later offered the part of the Queen when no other actress was found. Some at the studio felt that her voice was too deep, but David Hand argued that she "knew how to deliver lines," particularly when adding ingredients to the potion. William Cottrell and Joe Grant were in charge of La Verne's recording session. At first, they felt that her voice was too smooth for the Witch. Asking herself to be excused, La Verne left the room; upon returning a few moments later, her voice was exactly what Cottrell and Grant wanted. When asked how she achieved this, La Verne admitted that she had removed her false teeth. Cottrell was so convinced by La Verne's performance that, at the line, "A drink of water! Please!", he leaped from his chair to fetch her a drink. Joe Grant noticed La Verne's changing attitude and posture when voicing the Queen and Witch, and sketched these poses down for animation reference.
Personality[]
The Queen enviously glaring down upon an entranced Snow White and her Prince.
From the outside, the Queen appears to be calm, regal, and sophisticated, but in reality, this collected and stately facade hides an extremely sadistic, hateful, cold and sinister person. She is ruthless, jealous, and obsessive, and wants nothing more than to be the fairest in the land. She also has an extreme vanity that made her utterly intolerant of rivals. Being solely focused on the idea of becoming the fairest of all, the Queen does not appear to be significantly involved in governing her kingdom, though the skeletal remains of prisoners in her dungeon point to her being a cruel ruler. As such, her nature as a cruel ruler is apparently well-known throughout her kingdom, as implied by the Seven Dwarfs' horrified discussion amongst themselves upon learning that Snow White was related to her. In the end, her mad vanity and jealousy of Snow White's superior beauty and the Prince's affections eventually drove her to murderous insanity. She transformed herself into a hideous hag (thus willingly destroying her own beauty) and conjured a poison named the "sleeping death" to achieve this end as a sign of her determination and desperation. Owing to her more calm and refined demeanor, and to a lesser extent her true hateful nature, she very rarely shows vivid emotions, even less so smiling. The closest she ever gives to a smile was when pouring the ingredient of blackest night into her peddler disguise, depicted as a menacing and murderous grin.
Being an alternate form of the Queen, the Witch has some of her personality traits, most notably her vanity and unstable jealousy of Snow White, kept intact. However, due in part to the transformation, she has also become more outwardly maniacal and sadistic, constantly cackling insanely, as well as once trying to play an extremely cruel joke on her pet raven by making it seem as though she wanted it to eat the poisoned apple, as well as her making a similar joke to a long-deceased prisoner by kicking a jug at his skeletal remains to "offer him a drink." Despite her insanity, she was also extremely intelligent and calculating, wanting to ensure that she does not overlook anything in order to make her plans an absolute success. This trait was especially evident in her stopping herself while boasting about how the poisoned apple will ensure Snow White's eventual demise to look up whether there was a cure for the effects of the poisoned apple that would cause her plans to fail. She was also delusional as shortly after poisoning Snow White, the witch declared herself to be the most fairest in the land, despite her current ugliness (tought she could probably gain back her former beauty with magic).
Despite her cunning mind, the Witch herself made fatal mistakes which completely ruined her plans and brought to her ultimate demise. The greatest one was to understimate the Dwarves as an insignificant threat. When she left her castle in fact, didn't prepare any plan
to face or stop them, thinking they would have been out for working and not considering the possibility of confrontation with them. When this actually happened althought, she found herself defensless against them. Forcing her to run for her life from the dwarves, and almost getting reached and killed.
The Evil Queen also showed to be violent and with a very strong bloodlust. This was depicted firstly when she asked for the Hunter to bring her Snow White heart's, as a proof he truly killed her, as when she cackled insanly thinking that dwarves were going to bury the young princess alive (thinking she was death because of the sleeping poison). Again this gruesome side of her Is showed during her desperate flee from the dwarves. Finding herself trapped, without any more resources, she decides to try "to crush their bones" with a big boulder, laughing maniacally while doing so.
The book My Side of the Story: Snow White/The Queen gives a different portrayal, stating that the Queen was actually very kind to Snow White at first (she even has a portrait of her stepdaughter on one of the walls of the castle), but she gets too wound up in her jealousy, which ultimately results in her untimely end.[8][9][10][11] The book also reveals her, when not in her castle, owning a grocery store (as seen in the last page of the book)[12] and that the Huntsman was a very good friend of hers.[13] She also, according to her explanation, made Snow White a servant in her castle to keep her stepdaughter from being lazy (The Queen also tells Snow White to do chores every day because it's a "good exercise" - this is proven in one scene from the book where Snow White eats some cake, only for The Queen to snatch it away from her stepdaughter, telling her not to eat sweets because she is "still in growth and needs to diet"[14]). Also, according to The Queen, she never asks the Magic Mirror who is the fairest in the land. But the Magic Mirror keeps complimenting on how beautiful The Queen is[15] (in its opinion). In the scene where Snow White first meets The Prince and flirts with him, The Queen watches them from her window with a worried look on her face, concerned about Snow White's safety with an older boy (whereas in the film, she watches them with anger and jealousy of Snow White's beauty, and possible sexual interest in the prince).
In addition, the Serena Valentino novel Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen paints her in a far more tragic light, that of an extremely broken woman who, due to emotional abuse from her father, was feeling extremely insecure about whether or not she truly was beautiful. It also showed that she did initially genuinely care for Snow White as if she were her own daughter before the king's untimely demise.
Physical appearance[]
- “Her beauty is sinister, mature, plenty of curves... she becomes ugly and menacing when scheming and mixing her poisons; magic fluids transform her into an old, witch-like hag.”
- ―Walt Disney
The Queen is an icily beautiful woman with a serene, unfeeling face and a slender figure. She has pale skin, red lips, lime green eyes, and seemingly penciled-on eyebrows. Her transformation into her witch disguise heavily suggested that she has long, chest-length black hair. Her features and her royal attire create a stunning Queenly image. The Queen is seen wearing a purple gown with long sleeves and a red rope belt tied around her waist. She wears a black balaclava covering her ears, neck, and hair, leaving her face exposed. The Queen wears a long black cloak that appears to be part of the cowl. The cloak is lined with red inside, and the bottom of the cloak is lined with white fur. She has a high white collar attached to her cloak. She also wears a golden pendant that seems to connect with the collar. She also wears orange-yellow high-heel pumps. To top off her royal appearance, the Evil Queen wears a golden crown atop her head with five spikes on the front and a jewel on the tip of the middle and tallest spike. The color scheme of her attire represents her pride and vanity.
In her witch disguise, the Queen's physical appearance changes from that of a youthfully beautiful queen with an unfeeling look on her face to an ugly, old peddler vividly displaying emotions. She has long, chest-length white hair, thick eyebrows, the same green eyes from her normal form, and dark rings around her eyes. Her nose becomes long and crooked with a large wart, and she only has one visible tooth on her bottom jaw. Her hands are gnarled and have pointed, dirty fingernails. She dons a black, cowled robe that retains the hanging sleeves of her gown. She also seems to wear gray slippers.
Powers and abilities[]
According to the 1938 promotional brochure, the Queen had sold herself - body and soul - to the evil spirits of the Hartz Mountains to become a witch with arcane knowledge and the ability to cast magic that is malevolent in nature. Examples of powers she derived from her magic were:
- Catoptromancy: Through her magic mirror, the Queen had the ability to always gain accurate insight into a question or situation, as well as to divine the exact locations of people or objects faraway from her.
- Potion Brewing: The Queen had the ability to create potions or beverages that could cause magical effects - she brewed a potion that transformed her from a youthfully beautiful queen into an ugly old hag. A weakness towards this ability, at least regarding the Peddler's Disguise, is that it can't hide her true nature from animals, as evidenced by Snow White's forest friends easily recognizing who she really was and attempted to defend Snow White by attacking her. Another ability she derived from this province is:
- Poison Generation: The Queen had the ability to create poisons - after her transformation into a hag, she went on to brew a poison that would send its victims into "The Sleeping Death", the only known antidote of which was "love's first kiss". Her Mirrorverse counterpart has this skillset amplified to have her inflict poisons by a mere touch, with it being heavily implied her pure hateful heart was the source of this amplified ability.
- Wind Generation: The Queen had the ability to generate winds - while preparing her potion, she summoned a blast of wind "to fan her hate", and this wind was so strong that it extinguished a candle and startled her pet raven.
- Lightning Summoning: The Queen had the ability to call or summon lightning from the sky - while preparing her potion, she summoned a thunderbolt "to mix it well". It is unclear whether she retained said ability after becoming the hag, due to her not using it against the Dwarves and ironically enough met her end via a thunderbolt.
When searching her bookshelf just before adopting her peddler disguise, the book titles imply that, besides her poison generation skills and various witchcraft/sorcery/black magic/black arts, she was also skilled at alchemy and astrology.
The Queen in hag form also showed a deceptive level of physical strength, as she was shown dislodging a boulder bigger than her with minimal effort when cornered by the Dwarves.
Abandoned concepts[]
Imprisoning the Prince[]
It was originally planned that jealous of the Prince's affections for Snow White, the Queen would have him brought to her, and she would have him locked in her dungeon. As the Witch, she would have made the skeletons in the dungeon (one of whom would have been identified as 'Prince Oswald') rise up and dance. She would have left the Prince in the dungeon, and he was to escape in the manner of Errol Flynn, enabling him to reach Snow White and break the spell.[16] The idea was abandoned when it was realized how difficult it was to animate the Prince convincingly, and the character only appeared when he needed to further the story, which centered primarily around the relationship between Snow White and the Queen.
However, comics released to promote the film include such scenes; the Witch locks up the Prince and tells him of her plans for Snow White, telling him that she will win his affections, while the Prince is defiant. Later, as the animators became more experienced at animating human characters, a similar concept was used in Sleeping Beauty, in which Maleficent has Prince Phillip captured and taken to the Forbidden Mountains, where she shows him visions of the future she has planned for him.
Deleted Scenes[]
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. 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.
Appearances[]
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs[]
The Queen preparing to summon the slave of the magic mirror.
Jealous of her stepdaughter Snow White's beauty, the Queen forces her to work as a servant in her castle; even in rags and wooden shoes, 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 to herself, attracting the attention of the Prince, who is passing by, and they are instantly infatuated with each other. The Queen watches from her window, unseen by the two lovers, and, jealous both of Snow White's beauty and the Prince's affections, closes the curtains furiously.
The Queen ordering the Huntsman to bring Snow White's heart in a jeweled box.
Summoning her faithful Huntsman to her, the Queen orders him to take Snow White far into a secluded area of the forest, where she can pick wild flowers, and kill her. She presents him with a box, in which Snow White's heart must be brought as proof. The Huntsman is reluctant to carry out such a deed, but, knowing the penalty for failure, takes Snow White deep into the forest. Just as he is about to stab the princess, he finds that he cannot bring himself to destroy such innocent beauty and, frantically warning Snow White of the Queen's vanity and jealousy, tells her to flee into the forest. He returns to the Queen, bringing in the box the heart of a pig to fool her. Meanwhile, Snow White finds the cottage of the seven dwarfs and is found by the dwarfs, whom she tells of the Queen's attempts to kill her. They are fearful of the dark magic of the Queen, not least because, Grumpy, not keen on having a woman around the house, refers to her as an "ol' witch", and suggests that she may have discovered them already, have made herself invisible, and be watching them right now. They nevertheless take pity and agree to take her in.
The Queen after transforming into a witch.
That night, the Queen once again consults the slave in the Magic Mirror, who tells her that Snow White is living in the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs and that the Huntsman has brought her a pig's heart after she believes that Snow White is dead in the forest. Furious after realizing that she has been tricked, the Queen descends a spiral staircase, entering a dark chamber filled with arcane and magical artifacts, as well as her pet raven perched on a skull. She decides to go to the cottage herself, disguised as a peddler. Consulting a book on disguises and searching for a formula to transform her beauty into ugliness, she mixes the required potion ingredients (though exactly how she prepared most of them into a tangible form for the concoction can be anyone's guess), such as mummy dust to make her old, the black of night to cloak her clothing, an old hag's cackle to age her voice, a scream of fright to whiten her hair, a blast of wind to fan her hate, and finally a thunderbolt to mix it well. After putting all the ingredients together, she begins her magic spell as she drinks the potion and magically transforms herself from a regally beautiful queen to an ugly old hag, including her hair turning white, her skin and hands becoming wrinkled, her royal attire becoming a peddler's cloak and her voice is changed as well and she declares that it is a perfect disguise. She then decides to dispose of Snow White with a poisoned apple, which will send its victim into the "sleeping death".
The poisoned apple.
The Witch brews the poison and dips an apple into the brew, turning it black, then, upon her orders, a tempting red, giving the poisoned fruit the appearance of an ordinary, if not exceptionally appetizing in appearance, apple. She then voices her plot to her raven, before having her boastful declarations halted by the possibilities of her schemes facing failure. To ensure no antidote gets in her way, she consults her spell book, quickly finding that the victim of the "sleeping death" can only be revived by "love's first kiss". This brings no sense of fear or apprehension to her, as she firmly believes the dwarfs, as they would think Snow White is actually dead, will bury her alive. Cackling 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. On her way down the catacombs, she passes by a skeleton who appears to be reaching for an empty jug of water and sarcastically asks if he wants a drink before kicking the jug into the skeleton, smashing it to pieces. As she makes her way to the dwarfs' cottage, two sinister vultures see her and, sensing that death is imminent, quietly pursue her.
The Witch tempting Snow White at the cottage.
She reaches the cottage and, according to plan, finds that the dwarfs have left and Snow White is alone. Catching her by surprise as she is preparing a gooseberry pie for the dwarfs, the Witch poses herself as an apple giver and offers her the apple, claiming apple pies to be the superior dish and offering the poisoned apple for Snow White to sample. As the meeting occurs; however, Snow White's bird companions spot the vultures darkly observing and anticipating what's to come, indirectly informing them that the Witch has evil intentions. They attack her before Snow White is able to take hold of the apple, successfully delaying the former's plot, though Snow White orders them to leave, as she still believes the Witch to be a harmless peddler. The Witch cleverly uses Snow White's kindness to her advantage and pretends to be shaken from the attack, asking for shelter within the cottage, to which Snow White obliges. This forces the birds and other forest animals to rush over to the diamond mines and alert the dwarfs of what's happening.
The Queen about to meet her demise.
Meanwhile, the Witch manipulates Snow White into believing the apple is actually a "magic, wishing apple", capable of making one's dreams come true with one simple bite, offering it in gratitude for fending off the birds. Snow White becomes taken with the idea once the Witch openly mentions that her wish may have something to do with someone she loves, referencing the Prince. Wanting to finally reunite with him, she takes the apple, makes the wish to live a happy life by his side, and takes a bite. In a matter of seconds, she falls under the curse and drops to the floor unconscious. The Witch cackles in joyous victory as a thunderstorm starts to pour rain, declaring she'll now be the fairest in the land. As she makes her leave, the Witch is confronted by the dwarfs. She fearfully flees but soon finds herself trapped on the dead-end cliff of a rocky mountain with the two vultures perched onto a nearby tree branch, watching the events unfold. Spotting a massive boulder nearby, the Witch tries to kill the dwarfs by crushing them with it, cackling insanely as she does so. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning strikes the cliff's ledge, destroying the portion holding the Witch and causing her to fall hundreds of feet below to her death (in the radio drama adaptation, the bolt of lightning instead hits her directly, electrocuting her[17]). The boulder tumbles down after her, crushing her body and ensuring her demise. As the Seven Dwarfs look down to the Witch, the two vultures fly down the cliff to devour her remains. The Evil Queen was gone for good, but Snow White still remained locked in her spell. The Dwarfs didn't have the heart to bury her, so they fashioned a coffin out of glass and gold and placed her in a part of the forest, watching over her with the birds and forest animals. Later the Prince visited the forest, and found Snow White. He then used Love's First Kiss to revive her, breaking the curse, much to everyone's joy.
House of Mouse[]
The Evil Queen, in her hag form, striking a deal with Pete in House of Mouse.
The Queen made frequent cameos in crowd shots on House of Mouse, mostly in crowd shots with Ben Ali Gator and Hyacinth Hippo from Fantasia, Lady Tremaine from Cinderella, and Madame Medusa from The Rescuers.
In "The Stolen Cartoons", she gave a visual representation of Daisy's exclamation "The crowd's getting ugly!" by turning into her hag form. Earlier in that same episode, she was seen visiting the Magic Mirror in the lobby, only to immediately be dismissed with "Save it, Queenie. Everyone's fairer than you."
In "Pluto Saves the Day", the Queen (in her hag form) was seen selling poisoned apples to Pete in his plot to cast the "Sleeping Death" spell on Mickey and friends. Her evil plot was used as an advertisement later at the end of the episode. Her slogan is "One bite, and you're out like a light."
In "The Mouse Who Came to Dinner", she was seen sitting with Maleficent, Jafar, Shan Yu, Hades, and Ratigan when Daisy has them moved for their table to be used by the critic.
In "House of Crime", her hag form was the first villain to be interrogated by Goofy. After denying seeing any disguised villains, she changed back into the Queen after Goofy left. However, when all the villains are placed into a large jail cell, she's back in her hag form.
In "Halloween With Hades", her hag form was shown entering the club at the beginning, leaving her basket of poisoned apples at Daisy's desk when she told her that they don't allow outside food. Later in the episode, Donald tried to scare the Queen, only for her to turn the tables by changing into her hag form. Her hag form also made appearances throughout the episode.
The Evil Queen can also be spotted several times in Mickey's House of Villains, usually in her witch form.
Other appearances[]
The Queen makes a cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. She is seen in her witch disguise, crossing the streets in Toontown to get to the Apple Store with help from Snow White.
In Runaway Brain, Mickey Mouse plays a Mortal Kombat-style video game featuring Dopey in battle with the Witch.
In Mickey Mouse, the Evil Queen appears in the episode "Sock Burglar" as one of the suspects interrogated by Minnie Mouse. In its follow-up series The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, she appears in the episode "Once Upon an Apple" where Mickey's efforts to cheer everyone up interfere with her poison apple plans for Snow White, resulting in her trying and failing to take out Mickey first.
Jennifer Kale was dressed as the Evil Queen in her hag form in the seventh episode of Agatha All Along.
The Evil Queen appears in Once Upon a Studio in her old hag form. She joins the other characters to take the group photo to celebrate Disney's 100th anniversary.
Printed media[]
Comics[]
The Queen's name was given in the 1937 comic strip adaptation.
Her role in the comics adaptation of the movie was largely the same, though it did have some expansions. Aside from retaining the subplot of her attempting to force the prince to fall for her instead of Snow White, it also added a scene at the beginning where she overhears the Prince's speech to Snow White on how he had found the fairest in the land, and initially assumes he's referring to the Queen only to learn he was actually referencing Snow White. It would have also been implied in the same scene that Snow White was at least somewhat aware of her stepmother's intolerance towards anyone rivaling her as she gets fearful when the Prince flirts with her and tries to warn him to keep quiet as otherwise the Queen would hear him and do something bad only for him to make clear he wants her to hear.
After the comic adaptation of Snow White, the Queen, in her hag form, returned as a recurring antagonist to the Seven Dwarfs, and later many other Disney protagonists, occasionally teaming up with fellow Disney villains like Pete and Captain Hook. One story in the 1980s, "The 7 Dwarfs and King Arbor's Crystal" provided an explanation for her return, and why she couldn't change back to her normal form. Specifically, she fell onto some branches and bushes that eased her fall, and her castle had been burned down by Hubert the Huntsman as revenge, with her book of spells being destroyed with it. Additionally, in the 1960s Italian story "Menace of the Witch's Ruby" reveals that she lost her status and credibility in the court of the Witch Empress Mammona after losing the kingdom, with her later schemes of revenge being an effort to get back into her good graces. In two 1940s' stories, it was also revealed that she had a deceitful twin brother.
Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen[]
The novel, written by Serena Valentino, reveals what caused the Queen to become the monster that she is in the film. It seems that her father, a maker of mirrors, never told her she was beautiful, leading to insecurity about her appearance. When her father dies, she marries the King whom she met at the well by her father's house. She grows to love Snow White as if she were her own daughter. But when the King's three witch-like cousins come for a visit they give her the Magic Mirror in which resides the spirit of her dead father. It serves as a corrupting influence on her throughout the novel. After her husband's death, the Queen slowly descends into madness. By the end of the novel, Snow White obtains the mirror and the Queen becomes the spirit inside the mirror after her death in the film.
Mirror, Mirror (A Twisted Tale)[]
In this story, she is called Ingrid and is the sister of Snow White's mother. Their mother died when they were young and their father were abusive towards them, so they went to a farm to work. Ingrid disliked that Katherine was giving people food for free and so dabbled into dark magic, which, thanks to the Magic Mirror, has corrupted her. Eventually, after her sister became Queen and found out, Ingrid killed her and took over as Queen, using a love spell on the King. She then banished the King and, some time afterward, sent the huntsman to kill Snow. But when she learned that Snow White was still alive, she made the apple and plotted to kill her with it, but then decided to kill the Prince.
Kingdom Keepers[]
The Queen is first seen in the fourth book at Disney Quest. She and Cruella replace Maleficent and Chernabog as leaders of the Overtakers when they were captured and cast a spell on some friends and schoolmates of the keepers to spy on them or send their messages. In the fifth book, she and Cruella appear again aboard the Disney Dream while following the hyenas who caught the Keepers' scent. In the seventh book, the Queen escapes the labyrinth in Mexico along with Chernabog. Having spent three years trapped there, she has lost her beauty, as well as more of her sanity.
Video games[]
Disney's Villains' Revenge[]
In this story, the Evil Queen changes the ending of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by writing the Prince out of the tale. She then manages to kidnap the seven dwarfs and hold them hostage in an attempt to force Snow White to eat the poisoned apple in exchange for their safety. Snow White does so, and the Evil Queen leaves her laboratory to bestow the same cruel fate upon the imprisoned dwarfs. However, Jiminy Cricket and the player manage to restore the Prince, who immediately rescues Snow White through "true love's kiss".
The Evil Queen also takes part in the final boss, and joins the other villains (Captain Hook, the Queen of Hearts, and the Ringmaster) in battling the player and Jiminy.
Kingdom Hearts series[]
In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, the Evil Queen serves as the antagonist of Dwarf Woodlands. In Terra's scenario, the Queen has just learned from the Magic Mirror that Snow White is now fairer than her in beauty in an almost identical way to the original film. However, the mirror continues to say Snow White's heart was of pure light, and the Queen should be wary of it. It is then the Queen notices that Terra has been listening in from the shadows and is asked if she has met Master Xehanort. Truthfully answering that she does not, the Queen sends Terra away. However, she then calls him back with an offer: kill Snow White and bring her heart back as proof of the kill in exchange for asking the Magic Mirror where Master Xehanort is. Terra initially asks if she had interest in the hearts of light, and she replies that she only wanted Snow White's life, and that her radiance was all the light that the kingdom needed. She sends Terra to kill Snow White in the Flower Glade not far from the castle. However, Terra had no intention of doing as she wished, merely inquiring of her the location of Master Xehanort, of which she was also ignorant, before the Unversed chase Snow White into the forest. Upon his return to the castle, the Queen voices her rage at Terra for his failure. Terra replies that he never intended to follow her orders, and that despite her claims of radiance, all he could see were thick shadows of jealousy hanging on her heart. Furious, the Queen commands the Magic Mirror to consume Terra. However, the mirror respectfully states that it is incapable of following the Queen's order, having no power apart from answering questions truthfully. Losing all patience, the Queen (in the Japanese version) glows red and uses her darkness to force the mirror to obey her or (in the English version) tosses a green potion at it that transforms it into an Unversed. Empowered, the Magic Mirror sucks Terra inside its realm. However, it proved to be no match for the Keyblade wielder, and Terra is quickly released. Terra commands the Queen to ask the mirror where he can find Master Xehanort, and she grudgingly complies, though the couplet that the Mirror gives is of no help to Terra, who is unable to discern that it refers to the Keyblade Graveyard. Regardless, Terra thanks them and leaves, whereupon the Queen begins to think up another way to kill her stepdaughter.
In Ventus's scenario, she appears under the disguise of an old hag and prepares to carry the poisoned apple to Snow White, but drops it on her way. Ventus, unaware of her motives, politely gives the apple back. Upon seeing Ventus' Keyblade, the Queen remembers her encounter with Terra and twists the truth to make it look like Terra had threatened an old lady with his Keyblade just to learn if she knew any information about Master Xehanort. Though she succeeded in troubling Ventus, the Queen truthfully tells him she has no clue where he is now and departs for the forest, leaving Ven with a tale of half truth...
Some time between Ventus and Aqua's scenarios, the Queen succeeds in having Snow White eat the poisoned apple. She is then only briefly mentioned in Aqua's storyline by the Seven Dwarfs, who tell Aqua they chased away the Queen following her foul deeds. The Spirit of the Magic Mirror later confirms to Aqua the Queen's death after the Keyblade Master defeats him, also saying that his service was complete as a result before departing from the mirror.
In Kingdom Hearts, the Witch makes a cameo appearance during Sora's Dive to the Heart. Along with the dwarfs and forest animals, she appears on the stained glass podium that shows Snow White.
The Evil Queen appears as a villain in the mobile game Kingdom Hearts Union χ, again depicted as the antagonist of Dwarf Woodlands. Here, after the Queen successfully places Snow White in a sleep-like death, she is confronted in a boss battle atop the rocky mountain. She summons a hag-like Heartless, but upon its defeat, the Queen falls off the cliff, to her death.
The Evil Queen is an antagonist in Kingdom Hearts Dark Road, trapping Xehanort, Eraqus and Vor inside the Magic Mirror.
Epic Mickey[]
The Queen herself did not appear; however, her Witch Form, as well as the Poison Apple, did. In the game, there are robotic enemies known as Beetleworx, made by The Mad Doctor to help Oswald the Lucky Rabbit build the Cartoon Wasteland, and move characters to their new homes. Once the Shadow Blot arrived, however, the Mad Doctor reprogrammed his Beetleworx. Among these enemies, are large types with canons that shoot paint and thinner, and have a painted shell that Mickey must erase. One of these "shells" has the head of the Witch form of Queen Grimhilde, the body of the poison apple, and their guns look like bottles of poison, even marked with skulls and crossbones. These enemies only appear in the Lonesome Manor level, after irritating the Organ in the Ball Room, or in the Attic as well as in the sequel where they can be found in the caves of Rainbow Falls
Disney Heroes: Battle Mode[]
The evil queen in her witch form appears in the game as one of the playable and unlockable characters, although she does not attack with anything she can only summon her raven to attack the enemies, in her victory pose she returns to her normal form.
Disney Parks[]
The Queen poses for a photo at one of the Disney Parks.
The Queen is a meetable character who makes appearances at all of the Disney theme parks. She appears both as a normal human and sometimes as the Witch, despite her death as the Witch in the film. Mostly because of the meet and greet nature of the appearances, the Queen's evil nature is significantly downplayed to have her instead come across as snobbish, though friendly to the guests.
Snow White's Scary Adventures[]
The Queen practically stars in all versions of Snow White's Scary Adventures. She is seen more than any other character in all four versions of the ride, recreating classic scenes from the movie, including peering out her window at Snow White in the movie (and the guests in the theme parks), transforming, creating the apple, offering the apple to the guests, and on the cliffs for her comeuppance.
Fantasmic![]
The Queen appears in the second act of Fantasmic!, and asks the Magic Mirror who the fairest one of all is. The Mirror, projected onto water screens, replies that Mickey Mouse's imagination creates fairer things than she. Jealous, the Queen pulls down her collar and recites a spell that transforms herself into the Witch and uses the Mirror to summon various 'forces of evil', including Ursula, Cruella De Vil (only in Florida), Scar (only in Florida), Judge Claude Frollo (only in Florida), Jafar (only in Florida), Hades (only in Florida), Chernabog and Maleficent, who transforms into a dragon. Mickey is able to defeat the villains with a glowing white sword, which he first uses to defeat the dragon. This causes white sparks to surround every one of the villains. The Witch is the last to be defeated, transforming back into the Queen as she dies.
Disneyland Resort[]
The Queen's hag form used to be caged up in the shop Le Bat en Rouge in New Orleans Square. When the key of the caged was touched, she tried to bargain with guests for them to release her by offering to teach them magic such as turning water into gasoline. The figure is currently on display at The Disney Gallery on Main Street, U.S.A..
In the 2015 rendition of World of Color, the Evil Queen made a cameo appearance during the segment celebrating Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In the Halloween variant Villainous, the Evil Queen is the first of the villains that Shelley Marie seeks to learn from, offering magical power and using her cauldron to call upon the skeletons from The Skeleton Dance. When offering a poison apple to Shelley though, she rejects it and falls into the cauldron, leading her to Ursula.
Walt Disney World[]
The Evil Queen is the main Villainess of Wishes, the firework spectacular at the Magic Kingdom. She drowns out Jiminy Cricket, and consults her Magic Mirror, asking it's assistance in casting a spell that will allow her evil Wish to come true as well.
She can often be found at Disney's Hollywood Studios for the Random Afternoon Pop-Ups that take place on The Streets of America, and around Echo Lake.
She also joined her fellow Disney Villains lead by Hades for the Unleash the Villains event in 2013.
The Queen was the primary antagonist of the former Magic Kingdom's castle show Cinderella's Surprise Celebration. During the show, she took over Cinderella's castle, and forced Cinderella back into servitude and called upon Captain Hook, Shan Yu, and Jafar to help her in her conquest of the Kingdom.
The Queen can be seen in the new Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular show during Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom. She is the first of the villains to be conjured by Maleficent when the Sanderson Sisters need "frightful friends" during the show.
The Queen makes a cameo appearance in the form of an audio-animatronic at the end of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train; spying on Snow White and the dwarfs in her witch disguise.
Tokyo Disney Resort[]
In One Man's Dream II: The Magic Lives On!, located in Tokyo Disneyland, The Queen appears alongside Maleficent and Judge Frollo in the villains' act of the show. The Queen seems to be the leader of the trio in the show.
Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour[]
The Evil Queen used to appear in this horror attraction, first being seen in a portrait which Snow White's portrait transforms into. She would later be seen as a shadow when guests pass through her laboratory.
Disneyland Paris[]
She makes appearances at Walt Disney Studios Park. She is also commonly found in Disneyland Paris park.
Hong Kong Disneyland[]
In 2016, the Queen served as the co-lead of the Disney villains (along with Jafar) during the Villains Night Out! Halloween mini-parade and castle show.
She also appeared (in her hag form) during the final scene of The Nightmare Experiment.
Disney Cruise Line[]
Aboard the Disney Fantasy, the Queen is one of the villain suspects in the attraction Midship Detective Agency, and is sometimes the culprit.
In Villains Tonight, aboard the Disney Magic cruise ships, Hades' evil meter has gone down, which can result in him being fired as Lord of the Underworld. To regain his evil, Hades calls forth Disney's most powerful villains for help. He sends Pain and Panic to give The Queen an invitation, but she declines since Hades also invited Maleficent. The Evil Queen and Maleficent are rivals for Hades' affections and for the status of "The Evilest of Them All". In the end however, they put their differences aside as all villains should stick together. The Queen, and Maleficent, advises Hades to find evil within himself, and not from others.
To Pain and Panic, the Queen claims not to be Hades' girlfriend, but they just had "an interesting weekend" on Castaway Cay.
Differences from the source material[]
- In the first Brothers Grimm version of the fairy tale, the Queen was Snow White's biological mother. However, in all later versions, she was the heroine's stepmother, as she is in the film.
- In the original Snow White fairy tale, the Queen did not drink a potion to transform into a peddler woman, but merely 'painted her face'.
- The Queen also 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 time to remove the corset); second, she came with a poisoned comb, which she put in Snow White's hair (the dwarfs simply remove it); and finally, she came with the poisoned apple, the effects of which the dwarfs were unable to undo. However, as noted in the Deleted Scenes section above, they were considered to be implemented, but were removed due to time constraints.
- 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. The awakening kiss is transferred from another fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty (which was also adapted by Disney).
- On a similar note, the Queen's reasoning for dismissing the Love's First Kiss cure for her attempt at poisoning Snow White was toned down in the film to her thinking Snow White would already be dead by that point. In the original fairy tale, she indicates that Snow White, the fairest girl in the land, had she gotten true love would have already had "a lot more" than that by that time (essentially implying Snow White would no longer have been a virgin).
- In some versions of the fairy tale, the Queen was killed much later and in a far more gruesome manner, at the wedding of Snow White: she is forced to wear red-hot iron shoes and dance with them in front of Snow White until she drops dead. Later, bowdlerized versions say instead that she died instantly from the rage in her heart after seeing Snow White still alive.
- In one of the oldest versions, the Huntsman brings her the liver, heart, and lungs of a boar, and the Queen, thinking them to be Snow White's organs, eats them in a stew.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The sequence in which the Vultures watch the Witch fall to her death, then fly down to her body, impressed Sylvia Moberly-Holland enough to inspire her to apply as an Inspirational Sketch Artist at the Disney studio.
- The Queen is the first character to appear in the film, making her the first Disney character to appear in the Disney animated features canon.
- The Queen provided the inspiration for many villains that followed, particularly MGM's Wicked Witch of the West, Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, and Queen Narissa from Enchanted. Critics have also noted similarities between the Witch and the cackling, hooded Emperor Palpatine, the villain of the Star Wars saga.
- The Queen's throne is decorated with the statue of a peacock that is considered one of the most beautiful and vainest of birds, which also made the well-known expression "Vain as a Peacock". This further illustrates the Queen's own obsessive vanity.
- In the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, the Queen uses her own darkness to control the Magic Mirror and force it to battle Terra. In the English version, however, she simply smashes a potion on the Mirror to make it obey.
- In the English version of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, the Queen is voiced by Susanne Blakeslee, who also voiced Maleficent, and Lady Tremaine in the same game. Her iconic scene with the Magic Mirror is near-faithfully recreated in the English version, save for changing her term to refer to the mirror from the original film's "slave" to "spirit".
- Her name, Regina, in Once Upon a Time is Latin and Italian for "Queen".
- The Queen is ranked number 10 on the AFI's 100 Years, 100 Heroes and Villains, being the highest ranked animated villain on the list, in front of Man (Bambi) at number 20 and Cruella De Vil (One Hundred and One Dalmatians) at number 39.
- The first couple of seconds of her scream upon falling to her death was later reused for Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, when she gets stabbed in the heart by Prince Phillip.
- A hag resembling the Queen's hag form can be seen sitting next to the Grim Reaper during the town meeting in The Nightmare Before Christmas.
- The original concept of a fat, frumpy, comical evil queen would later be used for the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland.
- She is mentioned in the Goof Troop episode "Midnight Movie Madness", as having scared Max so much when he and Goofy saw Snow White, when he got hiccups.
- In the 1987 book The Complete Story of Walt Disney's Snow White, it was claimed that the Queen had murdered the King by poisoning him. However, in Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen, not only was she not involved in any way with his passing, but his demise if anything was one of the factors that ultimately shattered her sanity and had her becoming a villain.
- In the Disney Parks, the Queen sometimes has a red jewel engraved on her crown, namely in Fantasmic and Snow White's Scary Adventures.
- While in the original movie the Queen had to use a potion to change her form, in House of Mouse, she is capable of changing forms at will.
- The Queen's death scream can be heard in The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse episode "Keep on Rollin'".
- The Evil Queen is the first main antagonist in the Disney Animated Canon to fall to her death. Antagonists who have succeeded her are Ratigan, Percival C. McLeach, Gaston, Claude Frollo, and King Runeard.
- The Queen's initial name in production materials, Grimhilde, is derived from a major antagonist in various Norse mythology stories, such as the Völsunga saga, the Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra saga, and Gríms saga loðinkinna. Coincidentally, her role in those sagas was also an evil queen who also was a sorceress.
- The name itself is Nordic for "Masked Battle", which fits due to the Evil Queen's usage of her witch disguise as well as her beauty being a mask ultimately.
- Also by coincidence, it partly managed to reflect the Brothers Grimm (i.e. Grimhilde), who were the authors of the original Snow White fairy tale.
- According to a press pamphlet for the film, part of the reason for the manner of death for the Evil Queen in the climax was also meant to be a callback to her backstory of her faustian deal with evil spirits in the Hartz Mountains for her sorcerous abilities, specifically the vow she took when entering the deal (with it being partly inspired by the local German folklore that inspired the overall fairy tale). Her vow was, translated into English "If I had to keep my vow / That I take and swear to now, / May the vultures, wolf and bear / On my body feed and tear / Mock my agony and groans / Rend the red flesh from my bones / Where the dark pine branches wave / Be this wilderness my grave!"[18]
- In the original 1916 film, the Queen and Witch are two different people. In fact, it is the Witch who endows the Future Queen with her beauty. In return, the Queen promises to give her Snow White's heart so the Witch can make a hair growth potion.
- In the original 1916 film, the Queen's name is Brangomar.
See Also[]
- Regina Mills
- Evil Regina
- The Evil Queen (Descendants)
- The Evil Queen (Snow White)
- London Tipton (portrayed the Evil Queen in "Once Upon a Suite Life")
References[]
- ↑ http://filmic-light.blogspot.com/2013/06/ilene-woods-as-snow-white-1949-rca.html
- ↑ http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mickeys-christmas-carol/
- ↑ "The women behind “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937)".
- ↑ "7 surprising inspirations for classic Disney characters".
- ↑ Disney Descendants - Meet The Villain Kids: Evie
- ↑ Mirror, Mirror (A Twisted Tale)
- ↑ Animated Voice Talents. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Platinum Edition (Disc 2).
- ↑ http://rose-magnifique.net/wicked/myside6.jpg
- ↑ http://rose-magnifique.net/wicked/myside8.jpg
- ↑ http://rose-magnifique.net/wicked/myside9.jpg
- ↑ http://rose-magnifique.net/wicked/myside11.jpg
- ↑ http://rose-magnifique.net/wicked/myside17.jpg
- ↑ http://rose-magnifique.net/wicked/myside13.jpg
- ↑ http://rose-magnifique.net/wicked/myside4.jpg
- ↑ http://rose-magnifique.net/wicked/myside7.jpg
- ↑ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs production timeline (DVD feature)
- ↑ http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/disney-on-lux-radio-theater-part-one/
- ↑ http://filmic-light.blogspot.com/2016/02/1938-uk-snow-white-pressbook.html
External links[]
Evil Queen (Disney) on WikipediaQueen Grimhilde on Villains Wiki
The Evil Queen on Kingdom Hearts Wiki
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