Books On Film | Snow White

For the rest of this month, we'll talk about a couple of classic fairy tales that have been turned into films.

Snow White (originally titled Sneewittchen) is a German fairytale collected and published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. There are several Snow White stories that originate in Europe, including ones where the heroine meets knights or dragons, but the German version is the most well known.

The story is about a young girl whose beauty obsessed step-mother wants to be rid of her because she will one day surpass her in looks. The tale was popularized in the Disney animated film Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (1937). It was one of the earliest film adaptations of the fairy tale and is probably the most well known version. Although, the premise of the movie is the same as the book there are differences. For instance, true love's kiss in nowhere in the original fairy tale and golden dancing shows make no appearance in the animated film.

Last year we saw two live-action adaptations: The first, Mirror Mirror (2012)  was based on the novel by Gregory Macguire (author of Wicked). It starred Lilly Collins and Julia Roberts. The second, Snow White and The Huntsman (2012) later became a novelized book. It starred Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, and Chris Hemsworth. Like the Disney film, both live-action movies take liberties with the story. They are very different from each other and from the book, but they are still very much Snow White films.

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