The Evil Queen, also known as the Wicked Queen, Queen Grimhilde, or just the Queen, is a fictional character who appears as the main
antagonist in
Walt Disney Productions
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...
'
first animated feature film ''
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
'' (1937) and remains a villain character in their extended
''Snow White'' franchise. She is based on the
Evil Queen
The Evil Queen, also called the Wicked Queen, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of "Snow White", a German fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm; similar stories exist worldwide. Other versions of the Queen appear in subsequent ...
character from the 1812 German
fairy tale "
Snow White
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
".
In the film, similar to the
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
story it is based on, the Evil Queen is cold, sadistic, cruel, and extremely vain, owning
a magic mirror, and obsessively desiring to remain the "fairest in the land". She becomes madly envious over the beauty of her stepdaughter, Princess
Snow White
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
, as well as the attentions of the Prince from another land; such
love triangle element is one of Disney's changes to the story. This leads her to plot the death of Snow White and ultimately on the path to her own demise, which in the film is indirectly caused by the
Seven Dwarfs. The film's version of the Queen character uses her dark magic powers to actually transform herself into an old woman instead of just taking a disguise like in the Grimms' story; this appearance of hers is commonly referred to as the Wicked Witch or alternatively as the Old Hag or just the Witch in the stepmother's disguised form. The Queen dies in the film, but lives on in a variety of non-canonical Disney works.
The film's version of the Queen was created by
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
and
Joe Grant
Joe Grant (May 15, 1908 – May 7, 2005) was an American artist and writer.
Biography
Born in New York City, Grant worked for Walt Disney Animation Studios as a character designer and story artist beginning in 1932 on the Mickey Mouse shor ...
, and originally animated by
Art Babbitt and voiced by
Lucille La Verne
Lucille La Verne (November 7, 1872 – March 4, 1945) was an American actress known for her appearances in early sound films, as well as for her triumphs on the American stage. She is most widely remembered as the voices of the Old Witch in the 19 ...
. Inspiration for her design came from the characters of Queen Hash-a-Motep from ''
She'' and Princess
Kriemhild
Gudrun ( ; non, Guðrún) or Kriemhild ( ; gmh, Kriemhilt) is the wife of Sigurd/Siegfried and a major figure in Germanic heroic legend and literature. She is believed to have her origins in Ildico, last wife of Attila the Hun, and two qu ...
from ''
Die Nibelungen
''Die Nibelungen'' ("The Nibelungs") is a two-part series of silent fantasy films created by Austrian director Fritz Lang in 1924, consisting of ''Die Nibelungen: Siegfried'' and ''Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge''.
The scenarios for bo ...
''. The Queen has since been voiced by
Eleanor Audley
Eleanor Audley ( Zellman; November 19, 1905 – November 25, 1991) was an American actress with a distinctive voice and a diverse body of work. She played Oliver Douglas's mother, Eunice Douglas, on the CBS sitcom ''Green Acres'' (1965–1969) ...
,
June Foray
June Foray (born June Lucille Forer; September 18, 1917 – July 26, 2017) was an American voice actress. She was best known as the voice of such animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Nell Fenwick, Lucifer from Disney' ...
,
Janet Waldo
Janet Waldo (born Jeanette Marie Waldo; February 4, 1919 – June 12, 2016) was an American radio and voice actress. In animation, she voiced Judy Jetson in various Hanna-Barbera media, Nancy in ''Shazzan'', Penelope Pitstop, Princess from '' B ...
, Eda Reiss Merin, Louise Chamis and
Susanne Blakeslee
Susanne Ellender Blakeslee is an American voice, stage and musical theatre actress. She is also known as Susan Blakeslee, Suzanne Blakeslee, and Suzanne Blakesley;
Among her notable roles are the voices of Wanda, Anti-Wanda, and Mrs. Turner o ...
, and was portrayed live by
Anne Francine (musical),
Jane Curtin
Jane Therese Curtin (born September 6, 1947) is an American actress and comedian. First coming to prominence as an original cast member on the hit TV comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' in 1975, she went on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards for ...
(50th anniversary TV special),
Olivia Wilde
Olivia Jane Cockburn ( ; born March 10, 1984), known professionally as Olivia Wilde, is an American actress and filmmaker. She played Remy "Thirteen" Hadley on the medical-drama television series ''House'' (2007–2012), and has appeared in the ...
(''Disney Dream Portraits''), and
Kathy Najimy
Kathy Ann Najimy ( ; ar, كاثي ان نجيمي ; born February 6, 1957) is an American actress and activist. She is best known for her roles in the films ''Soapdish'' (1991), ''Sister Act'' (1992), '' Hocus Pocus'' (1993), '' Hope Floats'' ( ...
(''
Descendants'').
This version of the fairy tale character has been very well received by film critics and the public, and is considered one of Disney's most iconic and menacing villains. Besides in the film, the Evil Queen has made numerous appearances in Disney attractions and productions, including not only these directly related to the tale of Snow White, such as ''
Fantasmic!
''Fantasmic!'' is a nighttime show at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios. The show formerly operated at Tokyo DisneySea. It features fireworks, characters, live actors, water effects, pyrotechnics, lasers, music, audio-animatronics, searc ...
'', ''
The Kingdom Keepers'' and ''
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep'', sometimes appearing in them alongside
Maleficent
Maleficent ( or ) is a fictional character who appears as the main antagonist in Walt Disney Productions' 16th animated feature film, ''Sleeping Beauty'' (1959). She is represented as an evil fairy and the self-proclaimed " Mistress of All Evil ...
from ''
Sleeping Beauty
''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess cu ...
''. The film's version of the Queen has also become a popular
archetype
The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.
An archetype can be any of the following:
# a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ...
that influenced a number of artists and non-Disney works.
In ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''
Storyline
In "another land, far away," "many, many years ago," about the time of
fairy tales of castles, knights, fair maidens, romance, magic and witches," a mysterious and icily beautiful woman with magical powers (a 1938 promotional brochure suggests that she is able to work her
witchcraft
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...
having sold "herself body and soul to the bad spirits" of Germany's
Harz
The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...
mountains
[) has gained her royal position by marrying the widowed ]King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
, giving her rule over his kingdom before he died. "From that time on the cruel Queen ruled all alone, her every word was law, and all trembled in mortal fear of her anger."[ The vain Queen owned a magical mirror with which she could look upon whatever she wished. The Magic Mirror shows a haunted, smokey face of her familiar demon][ which replies to the Queen's requests. She regularly asks the mirror who is the fairest in the realm ("Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?" which is often misquoted as "Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all"), and the mirror would always reply that she is. The Queen has magical power only over her own domain, which is the castle.]
One day, however, the mirror tells her that there is a new fairest woman in the land, her 14-year-old[ stepdaughter, Princess ]Snow White
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
. She became obsessively jealous of the princess' emerging beauty, therefore turning her into a scullery maid in her own home. After observing the handsome Prince from another kingdom singing a love song to Snow White, the proud Queen falls in a jealous rage. She commands her faithful Huntsman, Humbert, to take the princess deep into the forest and kill her. He is also ordered to bring back her heart in a box to prove that he had done so. But Humbert cannot bear to kill the young princess upon realizing that she is impervious to harm, so he tells Snow White of the Queen's plot and tells her to run away and never to come back. To escape the penalty, he comes back with a pig's heart and gives it to the Queen. When she questions her mirror, it again replies that Snow White is the fairest in the land, and that she is living at the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs, revealing that the box contains the heart of a pig. The Dwarfs are fearful of the Queen's black magic
Black magic, also known as dark magic, has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes, specifically the seven magical arts prohibited by canon law, as expounded by Johannes Hartlieb in 14 ...
but decide to take in Snow White anyway.
Furious that Humbert tricked her, the Queen decides that first Snow White shall die by her own hand and at any cost. She goes down the dungeon to her secret room where she practices her dark magic, complete with a pet raven that "knows all her secrets," and in desperation uses her spellbook labeled "Disguises" and cauldron to make a potion that transforms her into a hag
HAG is a Swiss maker of model trains. The company was founded by Hugo and Alwin Gahler on 1 April 1944 in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
The Gahler brothers originally manufactured model trains in O scale but due to competition, particularly by Märk ...
with the recipe referred to as a "Peddler
A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a chapman, packman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, (coster)monger, colporteur or solicitor, is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of goods.
In England, the term was mostly used f ...
Disguise". The ingredients for the Peddler Disguise potion calls for Mummy
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay fu ...
Dust to make her look old, the Black of Night to shroud her clothes, a Hag's Cackle to age her voice, the Scream of Fright to whiten her hair, a blast of wind to fan her hate, and a thunderbolt to mix it well. Her beauty is shrouded in ugliness and age upon ingesting the potion, though presumably reversible. She then conjures a poison apple, which will cause "the Sleeping Death", and proceeds to leave the castle via a moat boat. She is sure that no one would know or perform the counter-curse to her spell, and believes the Dwarfs would bury her rival alive, thinking her dead. The Queen comes to the cottage, followed by two vicious vultures, and finds Snow White baking a pie for Grumpy the dwarf as she passes herself off as a traveling peddler. Somehow, Snow White's animal friends realize that the old hag is the Queen. After an unsuccessful attempt to warn Snow White by attacking the Queen, they go to warn the Dwarfs of the Queen's arrival. The Queen tricks the princess into letting her inside the cottage and eating the bewitched apple, telling her that it is a magic wishing apple. Snow White takes a bite and falls to the floor, apparently dead.
The Queen rejoices in her victory, but is soon discovered by the angry Seven Dwarfs, who grab pickaxes and chase her deep into the forest as a great storm begins. She climbs up into the mountains, where she gets trapped upon a precipice that overlooks a seemingly bottomless canyon. She tries to push down a large boulder to crush the approaching Dwarfs. Before she can do so, a lightning bolt strikes between her and the boulder, destroying the precipice and sending the Queen (along with the boulder) down the cliff to her death, screaming while she falls to the jagged rocks below (this scream was later reused in ''Sleeping Beauty
''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess cu ...
'' when Maleficent
Maleficent ( or ) is a fictional character who appears as the main antagonist in Walt Disney Productions' 16th animated feature film, ''Sleeping Beauty'' (1959). She is represented as an evil fairy and the self-proclaimed " Mistress of All Evil ...
is stabbed in the heart by the Sword of Truth). As the Dwarfs look wide-eyed over the cliff's edge, they cannot see her, but the vultures descend into the chasm. The Queen's dark reign is over, and her castle is then taken over by the revived Snow White and the Prince who broke the spell. (A 1936 pre-release ''Good Housekeeping
''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Hous ...
'' novelization by Dorothy Ann Blank, a member of the film's story team, affirms that the Queen in fact dies: "Far below, in a chasm as dark as her own wicked soul, lay the body of the hateful Queen.")
Conception, design and portrayal
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
changed the Queen from Snow White's biological mother in the Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
story into her stepmother. Early concepts for the film called for a "fat, batty, cartoon type, self-satisfied" Queen. However, Disney became concerned that such an approach would make the character seem less plausible. Sensing that more time was needed for the development of the Queen, he advised that attention be paid exclusively to "scenes in which only Snow White, the Dwarfs, and their bird and animal friends appear."[Paul Muljadi, ''Disney Theatrical Animated Features'', page 14.] Disney further developed the main plot himself (Ollie Johnston
Oliver Martin Johnston Jr. (October 31, 1912 – April 14, 2008) was an American motion picture animator. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last surviving at the time of his death from natural causes. He was recognized by The Wal ...
said the film's story was based on the idea that the Queen's character was going to murder "another drawing" and Disney decided to make it appear believable), finding a dilemma in the characterization of the Queen, whom he envisioned as a mixture of Lady Macbeth and the Big Bad Wolf
The Big Bad Wolf is a fictional wolf appearing in several cautionary tales that include some of '' Grimms' Fairy Tales.'' Versions of this character have appeared in numerous works, and it has become a generic archetype of a menacing predatory ...
,[John Hanson Saunders, ''The Evolution of Snow White: A Close Textual Analysis of Three Versions of the Snow White Fairy Tale'', page 117.] and decided to set on "a high collar stately beautiful type" whose "beauty is sinister, mature, plenty of curves – she becomes ugly and menacing when scheming."[ According to a description in her card in the Disney Villains set, "the Witch's ugliness symbolises the evil disguised by the Queen's beauty."
The Queen's appearance was inspired by the "ageless ice goddess" character of Queen Ayesha ("She who must be obeyed") from the 1935 film '' She'', played by ]Helen Gahagan
Helen Gahagan Douglas (born Helen Mary Gahagan; November 25, 1900 – June 28, 1980) was an American actress and politician. Her career included success on Broadway, as a touring opera singer, and in Hollywood films. Her portrayal of the villain ...
. 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
Gudrun ( ; non, Guðrún) or Kriemhild ( ; gmh, Kriemhilt) is the wife of Sigurd/Siegfried and a major figure in Germanic heroic legend and literature. She is believed to have her origins in Ildico, last wife of Attila the Hun, and two qu ...
in the 1924 film ''Die Nibelungen
''Die Nibelungen'' ("The Nibelungs") is a two-part series of silent fantasy films created by Austrian director Fritz Lang in 1924, consisting of ''Die Nibelungen: Siegfried'' and ''Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge''.
The scenarios for bo ...
''. The Queen's face may have been inspired by Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Crawford was si ...
[ and also Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and ]Gale Sondergaard
Gale Sondergaard (born Edith Holm Sondergaard; February 15, 1899 – August 14, 1985) was an American actress.
Sondergaard began her acting career in theater and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Awar ...
.[Axel Nissen, ''Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties'', page 197.] Her costume and figure may have been inspired by a column statue at the Naumburg Cathedral Naumburg Cathedral (german: Naumburger Dom St. Peter und St. Paul, ), located in Naumburg, Germany, is the former cathedral of the Bishopric of Naumburg-Zeitz. The church building, most of which dates back to the 13th century, is a renowned landmark ...
depicting Uta von Ballenstedt
Uta von Ballenstedt ( — 23 October before 1046), a member of the House of Ascania, was Margravine of Meissen from 1038 until 1046, the wife of Margrave Eckard II. She is also called Uta of Naumburg as the subject of a famous donor portrait by ...
, the wife of Eckard II, Margrave of Meissen
Eckard II (german: Ekkehard; – 24 January 1046) was Margrave of Lusatia (as Eckard I) from 1034 and Margrave of Meissen from 1038 until his death. He was the last of his dynasty, with his death the line of Ekkeharding margraves descending from ...
who was widely regarded as the most beautiful woman of Medieval Germany
The Germani tribes i.e. Germanic tribes are now considered to be related to the Jastorf culture before expanding and interacting with the other peoples.
The concept of a region for Germanic tribes is traced to time of Julius Caesar, a Roman ge ...
. Also noted was her resemblance to two 1930s American movie stars from Europe, Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragic ch ...
and Marlene Dietrich
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...
. The Queen and Snow White were refined by Grim Natwick
Myron "Grim" Natwick (' Nordveig; August 16, 1890 – October 7, 1990) was an American artist, animator, and film director. Natwick is best known for drawing the Fleischer Studios' most popular character, Betty Boop.
Background
Born in Wis ...
and Norm Ferguson, who would often override Walt Disney's instructions. As in the case of other characters for the film, the Queen's appearance had to be approved by Albert Hurter before being finalised.[ One pre-final version of the queen had her wear a looser hood and a different crown and the edge of her cape was fur trimmed, as it can be seen in Gustaf Tenggren's pictures.]
Unlike much of Disney's animation of human characters in this period, none of Art Babbitt's lead animation work on the character was rotoscoped
Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a glass panel and traced o ...
. The animators were noted to prefer to draw the Queen over Snow White "because she was more real and complex as a woman, more erotic, and driven to desperate acts by her magic mirror."[Jack Zipes, ''The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films'', pages 115, 122.] The character, however, turned out to be especially problematic for the animators, as she had to be "regally beautiful, with confined but graceful movements," and "the experiments on her lovely cruel mouth and eyes alone represent drawings enough to fill a paper house."[ The sequence of her transformation in particular was the film's toughest to visualise using trick effects,] especially since Disney insisted on showing how the Queen felt as she changed.[
]
Her castle, which had been originally different and less grand in a concept art by Cornett Wood
Cornett Wood (September 12, 1905 – May 16, 1980) was an American animator and layout artist.
Along with other Disney animators Harry Reed and John A. Waltz, Wood was a graduate of the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis.
He served as a ...
, might have been inspired by Spain's Alcázar of Segovia and the throne she is uses has a peacock motif to symbolise her extreme vanity. The Queen is clad mostly in black and other "negative" dark colors, providing a contrast to Snow White's bright colorful wardrobe, and has "shiny black hair" under her hood. Her royal costume was painted with specially developed paints made to look like satin for her collar and like velvet for her robe. The Queen's music tracks were created with low celio notes, basses, and bassoons; the scribblings in her book of spells were written in Italian.
Notably, the Queen was the first character to ever speak in an animated feature film. She was originally voiced in English by Lucille La Verne
Lucille La Verne (November 7, 1872 – March 4, 1945) was an American actress known for her appearances in early sound films, as well as for her triumphs on the American stage. She is most widely remembered as the voices of the Old Witch in the 19 ...
, who achieved her voice change for the role of the Witch by removing her false teeth. Joe Grant
Joe Grant (May 15, 1908 – May 7, 2005) was an American artist and writer.
Biography
Born in New York City, Grant worked for Walt Disney Animation Studios as a character designer and story artist beginning in 1932 on the Mickey Mouse shor ...
, who contributed the design for her Witch form,[ noticed La Verne's changing attitude and posture when voicing the Queen and Witch, and sketched these poses and her ]body language
Body language is a type of communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. Th ...
down for animation reference.[ He also said he based the Witch's concept art on a woman who lived across the street from him. The character's foreign dubbing voice actresses included Cristina Montt in Chile; Mirela Brekalo in Croatia; ]Jiřina Petrovická
Jiřina Petrovická (30 January 1923 – 10 October 2008) was a Czechoslovak film actress. She appeared in 20 films and television shows between 1943 and 1985.
Selected filmography
* '' Fourteen at the Table'' (1943)
* ''Men Without Wings'' ...
in Czechoslovakia; Clara Pontoppidan
Clara Pontoppidan (23 April 1883 – 22 January 1975), also known as Clara Wieth, was a Danish actress. She worked mainly in Swedish and Danish silent films, including ''A Victim of the Mormons'' (Denmark, 1911).
Personal life
Clara Ponto ...
, Kirsten Rolffes and Lise Ringheim
Lise Ringheim (15 May 1926 – 25 September 1994) was a Danish film actress. She appeared in 37 films between 1943 and 1993. She was born in Frederiksberg, Denmark and died in Denmark.
Selected filmography
* ''Vi arme syndere'' (1952)
* ''W ...
in Denmark; Rauni Luoma and Seela Sella
Seela Maini Marjatta Sella (née Virtanen, b. 30 December 1936) is a Finnish film actress. She was born in Tampere, Finland.
During her career, which has spanned more than 60 years to date, Seela Sella has had roles in productions at the Finnis ...
in Finland; Adrienne D'Ambricourt and Claude Gensac
Claude Gensac (1 March 1927 – 27 December 2016) was a French actress. She appeared in more than 70 films and television productions since 1952. Gensac is the oldest nominee to date in the category César Award for Best Supporting Actress, nomi ...
in France; Dora Gerson
Dora Gerson (born Dorothea Gerson; 23 March 1899 – 14 February 1943) was a German cabaret singer and stage and motion picture actress of the silent film era who was murdered with her family at Auschwitz concentration camp.
Life and career
Born ...
and Dagny Servaes
Dagny Servaes (10 March 1894 – 10 July 1961) was a German-Austrian stage and film actress. In the theatre she appeared in the productions of Max ReinhardtStyan p.89 and Berthold Brecht. Servaes appeared in around sixty films during her career, ...
in Germany; Ilus Vay
Ilus Vay (born Ilona Horváth; February 1923 – 28 October 2008) was a Hungarian actress. She died on 28 October 2008 at the age of 85 in Budapest.
Filmography
*Jómadár (in the role of Cake shop assistant) – 1943
*Anyámasszony katonája ...
in Hungary; Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir in Iceland; Abha Parmar
Abha Parmar (born 11 July 1963) is an Indian actress. She is known for her role in the soap opera ''Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon?
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon? ( ''What Should We Name This Love?'') is an Indian Hindi-language romantic drama tele ...
in India; Antonella Rinaldi, Tina Lattanzi
Tina Lattanzi (born Annunziata Concetta Costantini; 5 December 1897 – 25 October 1997) was an Italian actress and voice actress.
Biography
A native of Licenza and the daughter of Ercole Costantini and Geltrude Montori, Lattanzi began her acting ...
, Dina Romano
Dina Romano (born Geltrude Ricci; 16 February 1876 – 7 November 1957) was an Italian stage and film actress. She appeared in more than fifty films during her career including '' The Materassi Sisters'' (1944).Landy p.285
Selected filmography
* ...
and Wanda Tettoni
Wanda Tettoni (March 8, 1910 – March 7, 1998) was an Italian actress and voice actress.
Biography
Tettoni was born in Siena in Tuscany and she made her big theatre debut in Milan when she was 16 years old. She even pursued an acting career i ...
in Italy; Tanie Kitabayashi
was a Japanese actress and voice actress. Born Reiko Ando in Tokyo, she began as a stage actress. Kitabayashi was a founding member of the famed Mingei Theatre Company, founded in 1950. Early in her career, she became well known for portraying o ...
in Japan; Blanca de Castejón
Blanca de Castejón (May 13, 1906 – December 26, 1969) was a Puerto Rican actress who is best remembered for her work in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, especially her award-winning supporting role in ''Escuela de vagabundos''. She wa ...
and Cristina Montt in Mexico; Dora Gerson
Dora Gerson (born Dorothea Gerson; 23 March 1899 – 14 February 1943) was a German cabaret singer and stage and motion picture actress of the silent film era who was murdered with her family at Auschwitz concentration camp.
Life and career
Born ...
in Netherlands; Astrid Folstad and Bab Christensen
Barbra Karine "Bab" Christensen (8 January 1928 – 10 April 2017) was a Norwegian actress.
She was born in Kristiania as a daughter of actors Gerda Ring and Halfdan Christensen and younger sister of actor Pelle Christensen. She made her stage d ...
in Norway; Danuta Stenka
Danuta Stenka (born 10 October 1961 in Sierakowice, Poland) is a Polish actress. She is one of the leading Polish film and theatre actresses.
Life and career
From 1991, she spent a decade working at Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw, then at TR Wars ...
in Poland; Svetlana Smirnova and Zinaida Sharko
Zinaida Maximovna Sharko (russian: Зинаида Максимовна Шарко; 14 May 1929 – 4 August 2016) was a Russian actress of theatre and film. She was a member of Bolshoi Drama Theatre, and was awarded People's Artist of the RSFSR i ...
in Russia; and Helena Brodin
Helena Brodin (born 11 June 1936) is a Swedish actress. She appeared in more than 40 films and television shows between 1960 and 2000.
Selected filmography
* ''Hugo and Josephine
''Hugo and Josephine'' ( sv, Hugo och Josefin) is a Swedish fi ...
, Hjördis Petterson
Hjördis Olga Maria Petterson (17 October 1908 – 27 May 1988) was a Swedish actress. She appeared in more than 140 films. She was born in Visby, Sweden and died in Stockholm.
Selected filmography
* ''Perhaps a Poet'' (1933)
* ''Eva Goes ...
and Lil Terselius
Lil Poldi Terselius (5 November 1944 – 26 October 2021 Retrieved 27 October 2021 ) was a Swedish stage and film actress. At the 14th Guldbagge Awards she won the award for Best Actress for her role in ''Games of Love and Loneliness''. She wo ...
in Sweden.
The Queen was the first character to meet death in a Disney film. As part of elimination of the original story's more gruesome aspects, and to make Snow White seem more a "nice girl", the Evil Queen is no longer cannibalistic and her destruction was made "just as certain but more merciful" than in the original story, where she is forced to dance to her death in red-hot iron shoes on her feet as an invited guest at Snow White's wedding.[ Snow White's role in the Queen's demise was removed, and the Queen "dies more neatly and quickly,"][ as justice is served without resorting to killing or torture. She also invites her own downfall while pushing the boulder, and her fate is only suggested rather than shown. One of the Witch's animators was ]Ward Kimball
Ward Walrath Kimball (March 4, 1914 – July 8, 2002) was an American animator employed by Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was part of Walt Disney's main team of animators, known collectively as Disney's Nine Old Men. His films have been honor ...
, whom Walt Disney let to also draw the two vultures watching her fall "to make it a little easier" for him, as Kimball had been reassigned after his own sequence was cut from the film, since Disney thought these additional dwarfs gag scenes would distract from "the real drama" of the tension between Snow White and her wicked stepmother that was supposed to drive the film.
Abandoned concepts
The original outline of the story featured another attempt by the Queen to kill Snow White, using a poisoned comb, an element taken from the Grimms' version of the tale (the Dwarfs would arrive in time to remove it). The Queen was originally intended to have seven black panthers guarding the entrance to her secret room with the Mirror; a concept art of the Queen walking a pet panther can be seen in The Walt Disney Family Museum
The Walt Disney Family Museum (WDFM) is an American museum that features the life and legacy of Walt Disney. The museum is located in The Presidio of San Francisco, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco. The museum r ...
and at Disney California Adventure
Disney California Adventure Park, commonly referred to as California Adventure or by its acronym DCA, is a theme park located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Park ...
. The books ''Snow White: Magic Mirror Book'' and ''The Complete Story of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' reveal that the Huntsman was afraid to disobey a command to kill Snow White because the Queen might feed him to her panthers or shrink him magically "to the size of a walnut". In one 1937 novelization, the Queen vows the Huntsman would pay dearly for allowing her stepdaughter to escape, but first she would deal with Snow White herself. In another version, the Huntsman would also be dragged to the dungeon when the Queen finds out that he has betrayed her, and the Queen might smash her own Mirror in anger.[David Koenig, ''Mouse Under Glass: Secrets of Disney Animation & Theme Parks'', page 28.]
The envious Queen would also decide to take possession of Snow White's attractive young suitor, the (At the time) 18-year-old Prince (described in a press kit as "every woman's dream man") for herself, offering him an opportunity to share the throne with her through a marriage. With the Prince refusing to marry her, the Queen would have him captured by her guards and taken to her dungeon to be suspended in chains in a . She would later visit him there and use her sorcery to taunt him by bringing the dungeon's skeletons (also chained to the walls) to life and making them dance, identifying one skeleton as "Prince Oswald"[Richard Holliss, Brian Sibley, ''Walt Disney's Masterpiece Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', pages 14, 81.] (the name was an inside joke
An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or a private joke, is a joke whose humour is understandable only to members of an ingroup; that is, people who are ''in'' a particular social group, occupation, or other community of shared interest. It i ...
reference to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (also known as Oswald the Rabbit or Oswald Rabbit) is a cartoon character created in 1927 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for Universal Pictures. He starred in several animated short films released to theaters from 1927 to 1 ...
), only for the Prince to defy her again. She then has him given to the torturers, described as "the Nubia
Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...
ns", and "exits with a dirty laugh." According to production story-meeting notes from October 1934, "Queen wants to marry Prince, but he refuses to acknowledge 'that she is the fairest in the land,' since he has seen Snow White." A story note states about their meeting in the dungeon: "This is a sequence of gruesome comedy ― of dancing skeletons ― fantastic shadows ― witchcraft and deviltry." Later, after transforming herself, she decides to punish the Prince for having scorned her. She informs the Prince of her plan to have the Dwarfs bury Snow White alive and then leaves him to his death, still chained and trapped in a subterranean chamber filling with water[John Canemaker, ''Before the Animation Begins: The Life and Times of Disney inspirational Sketch Artists'' (Hyperion, New York, 1999) .] to slowly drown. She then makes her way to the Dwarfs' cottage with the poisoned apple, while birds and forest animals were to help the Prince escape the Queen's minions and find his horse as would race to try and save Snow White.
The Prince-in-dungeon plotline described above was not used in the final film, although it was carried out to the drawing and cel
A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid (consisting of cellulose nitrate and camphor) was used during the first half of the 20th century, bu ...
stage, and several inspirational sketch pictures of the dungeon scenes were drawn by Ferdinand Hovarth. It is said that Disney "knew that the Queen would have to look scary without being too scary." Some skeletons are briefly featured in the finished film in the other parts of the dungeon, except in Australia's censored original theatrical release version. Similar motifs and scenes were later used in ''Sleeping Beauty''[Kay Stone, ''Some Day Your Witch Will Come'', page 71.] and '' Aladdin''. Elements of this sub-plot have also made their way into some other Disney's ''Snow White'' fiction and visitor attractions.
Other appearances
Disney theme park attractions
The Queen is a primary character in the Disneyland
Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...
rides Snow White's Scary Adventures
Snow White's Enchanted Wish is a dark ride at the Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris theme parks, and formerly at the Magic Kingdom. Located in Fantasyland, it is one of the few remaining attractions that was operational on Disney ...
(first opened in 1955), where she was seen more than any other character in all four versions of the ride, recreating a number of scenes from the film, sometimes including the torture chamber from an abandoned concept, with "a few skeletons of her past victims." In one new scene, she turns into a hag while standing in front of the mirror (back to the visitors) and intoning: "Magic Mirror on the wall, with this disguise I'll fool them all!" In 2021, when the ride was redesigned to Snow White's Enchanted Wish, she appeared less often in order for guests to focus more on Snow White's story. She also appears in her hag form at the roller coaster Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which first opened in 2014.
In the ''Disney Villains Mix and Mingle'' and ''Mickey's Boo-to-You Halloween Parade'' shows during Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom Park, previously known as Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom (1971–1994) and The Magic Kingdom (1994–2017), is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, Florida. Owned and operated by The ...
's Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) is a separate-admission Halloween-themed event held annually during the months of August, September, and October at the Magic Kingdom theme park of the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vis ...
, the Queen is one of the villains led by Maleficent that appear during the Cinderella
"Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...
Castle Forecourt Stage. Susanne Blakeslee
Susanne Ellender Blakeslee is an American voice, stage and musical theatre actress. She is also known as Susan Blakeslee, Suzanne Blakeslee, and Suzanne Blakesley;
Among her notable roles are the voices of Wanda, Anti-Wanda, and Mrs. Turner o ...
voiced the Queen at 2001's Share A Dream Come True Parade, where she could be seen transform herself into a hag. The Wicked Queen is one of the "favourite" villains included in Magic Kingdom Park's special pre-parade procession "It's Good to be Bad" a night before the annual Main Street Electrical Parade. One event featured a giant interactive mirror and included the Queen and two other "Divas of Evil", Maleficent and Cruella de Vil. She also prominently appears at Villains Unleashed party, a separately ticketed event at Disney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Based on a concept by M ...
that was introduced in 2014.
In the interactive gallery Walt Disney: One Man's Dream, the Queen appears alongside Maleficent and Judge Frollo in the villains' act of the show, where she seems to be the leader of the trio. On the cruise ship ''Disney Fantasy
''Disney Fantasy'' is the fourth cruise ship owned and operated by Disney Cruise Line, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, which entered service in 2012. Her sister ship, ''Disney Dream'', was launched in 2011. ''Disney Fantasy'' is the sec ...
'', the Queen, appearing with her raven, is one of the seven suspects (and sometimes the culprit) in the interactive gallery Midship Detective Agency's story "The Case of The Plundered Paintings".
Film and television
The Queen is featured in some Disney television specials like '' Our Unsung Villains'' (1956) and '' Disney's Greatest Villains'' (1977). Segments of the Queen's appearance are also shown in '' A Disney Halloween'' (1981)'' and in Disney's Halloween Treat
"Disney's Halloween Treat" is a 1982 Halloween-themed episode of '' Walt Disney'' which originally aired on October 30, 1982.
Plot
The episode is narrated by a jack-o'-lantern puppet (voiced by Hal Douglas) and features a compilation of Disney ...
'' (1982). She makes small cameo appearances in the animated series ''Disney's House of Mouse
''Disney's House of Mouse'' (or simply ''House of Mouse'') is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation that originally aired for three seasons on ABC and Toon Disney from January 13, 2001, to its finale ...
'', voiced by Susanne Blakeslee
Susanne Ellender Blakeslee is an American voice, stage and musical theatre actress. She is also known as Susan Blakeslee, Suzanne Blakeslee, and Suzanne Blakesley;
Among her notable roles are the voices of Wanda, Anti-Wanda, and Mrs. Turner o ...
(where she is seen sitting with Lady Tremaine
Lady Tremaine is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Productions' 12th animated feature film, ''Cinderella'' (1950) and its direct-to-video sequels '' Cinderella II: Dreams Come True'' (2002) and '' Cinderella III: A Twist in Time'' ...
in her queen form, and with Madam Mim and Witch Hazel
Witch-hazels or witch hazels (''Hamamelis'') are a genus of flowering plants in the family Hamamelidaceae, with three species in North America ('' H. ovalis'', '' H. virginiana'', and '' H. vernalis''), and one each in Japan ('' H.&nb ...
in her witch form) and in the films ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit
''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 19 ...
'' (1988) and '' Runaway Brain'' (1995), shown there in her witch form.
In the live-action television special ''Disney's Golden Anniversary of Snow White'' (1987), the Queen is played by Jane Curtin
Jane Therese Curtin (born September 6, 1947) is an American actress and comedian. First coming to prominence as an original cast member on the hit TV comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' in 1975, she went on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards for ...
in a parodic scenario. She casts a spell on Grumpy in an attempt to get him to persuade the other Dwarfs to retire and destroy the original film after the 50 years. After the failure of this, her Mirror convinces her to finally quit "this whole curse business" and focus on her current career as a television horror host
A horror host is a person who acts as the host or presenter of a program where horror films and low-budget B movies are shown on television or the Internet. Usually the host assumes a horror-themed persona, often a campy or humorous one. Generall ...
.
The Queen (voiced by Susanne Blakeslee) is the main villain in the 2005 direct-to-video animated film ''Once Upon a Halloween
''Once Upon a Halloween'' is a 2005 British animated fantasy film featuring the Evil Queen (from ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'') and Disney Villains. The film is an anthology that features clips from Disney animated films plus shorts and so ...
'', but appears only in the Witch version despite misleading cover art (furthermore, only her shadow is shown). In it, the Queen plots to conquer Halloween and asks her cauldron to show several villains to which one of them helps her in her plan. The cauldron also explains its origins as it is one of the cauldrons formerly owned by the three witches from '' The Black Cauldron''. Eventually, the cauldron turns against the Wicked Queen and makes her vanish into nothingness.
Early on into the project that would become the mostly live-action film '' Enchanted'' (2007), it was actually supposed to be a direct-to-video animated sequel to Disney's ''Snow White'' (with a working title of "''Snow White 2''") in which Narissa (back then often misspelled as "Noriss") was the evil Queen's sister who would kidnap six of the dwarfs to lure Snow White, the Prince, and their 13-year-old daughter Rose aided by Dopey, into a trap. In the ultimately unrelated story of the released film, Susan Sarandon
Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actorMcCabe, Bruce"Susan Sarandon, the 'actor'" ''Boston Globe''. April 17, 1981. Retrieved January 21, 2021. and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, ...
's character of Queen Narissa still had her characteristics, powers, and physical features were inspired by the Queen from ''Snow White'' as well as by Maleficent from ''Sleeping Beauty''. Hank Tucker's storyboard shows how Narissa would appear as just the Evil Queen in an early version of the film's animated opening.
In a possibly related Mike Disa
Michael Disa (born February 14, 1965) is an American film director, screenwriter, and animator. He began working as an animator at Disney in the mid-1990s, where he was involved with several films up until the late-2000s. During this time, he also ...
's and Evan Spiliotopoulos
Evangelos Spiliotopoulos ( el, Ευάγγελος Σπηλιωτόπουλος; born c. 1973) is a Greek-American screenwriter, film producer, and film director.
Early life
Spiliotopoulos was born in Greece, and graduated from high school there ...
' abandoned pitch for the DisneyToons' ''Snow White'' prequel film ''The Seven Dwarfs'', a beautiful girl similarly named Narcissa appears to aid the dwarfs against an evil wizard, who would be eventually revealed as her father whom she would betray and trap him inside a mirror. Narcissa steals the ancient magic secrets of the Olden Dwarfs, marries and then murders Snow White's father, and "begins her reign as the Evil Queen, with the damned soul of her own father forever encased in the Magic Mirror as her slave. Thus, the dwarfs must live in hiding to protect their families from the Queen's vengeance." Three computer-animated sequels to ''The Seven Dwarfs'' "were to follow the title characters return home to families and friends after the Evil Queen's death in ''Snow White''."
In a 2015 Disney Channel Original Movie
Many television films have been produced for Disney Channel, an American family-oriented basic cable channel and former premium television channel since its launch on April 18, 1983. Until October 1997, films were released under the banner na ...
titled '' Descendants'', the aged Evil Queen (played by Kathy Najimy
Kathy Ann Najimy ( ; ar, كاثي ان نجيمي ; born February 6, 1957) is an American actress and activist. She is best known for her roles in the films ''Soapdish'' (1991), ''Sister Act'' (1992), '' Hocus Pocus'' (1993), '' Hope Floats'' ( ...
) is among a host of other villains who have been imprisoned on a forbidden Isle of the Lost, and her daughter Evie (played by Sofia Carson) is among their offspring who are allowed to return into the kingdom to attend school alongside the offspring of iconic Disney heroes (Evie's father is unidentified). The Evil Queen seemed to have joined forces with Maleficent, Jafar, and Cruella De Vil
Cruella de Vil is a fictional character in British author Dodie Smith's 1956 novel '' The Hundred and One Dalmatians''. A pampered and glamorous London heiress and fashion designer, she appears in Walt Disney Productions' 17th animated feature ...
in trying to take over Auradon. Its title image features the iconic red apple of the Evil Queen, which was prominently featured in a teaser trailer. Carson returned as Evie in 2017's '' Descendants 2'' and 2019's ''Descendants 3
''Descendants 3'' is an American musical fantasy television film, and the third installment in the ''Descendants'' series, following '' Descendants'' and '' Descendants 2''. It is written by Sara Parriott and Josann McGibbon, and is directed ...
''.
In Justin Merz's and Evan Daugherty's script for the live-action spin-off ''Rose Red'', currently in development, Snow White's sister Rose Red is going to "join Grumpy and the fellow Dwarves on a journey to find the Evil Queen and break her curse." Another project in development was Michael Seitzman's television series ''Book of Enchantment''.
In ''The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse
''The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse'' is an American animated streaming television series produced by Disney Television Animation for Disney+. The series is a continuation and revival of the Emmy Award-winning 2013 ''Mickey Mouse'' shorts, uses ...
'', the Queen, in her old hag form (voiced by Tress MacNeille
Teressa Claire MacNeille (née Payne; born June 20, 1951) is an American voice actress, whose credits include voicing Dot Warner on the animated television series '' Animaniacs'', Babs Bunny on ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Chip and Gadget Hackwrenc ...
), plays a prominent role in the episode "Once Upon an Apple", where she goes up against Mickey Mouse.
Gal Gadot
Gal Gadot-Varsano ( he, גל גדות ; born 30 April 1985) is an Israeli actress and model. At age 18, she was crowned Miss Israel 2004. She then served in the Israel Defense Forces for two years as a combat fitness instructor, whereafter she ...
will portray the character in a live-action version of the animated film.
Theatrical shows
As in the film, the Queen character is featured in 1979 ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
'' musical version, played by Anne Francine. In the Disney on Ice reenactment of the movie in 1986–1987, and then in 1994–1997 and again in 2000–2001, she was voiced by Louise Chamis and played by various skaters beginning with Melanie Scott in 1986–1987, and including Elena Koteneva, who was substituted by Davina Lee-Gooding in 1995. Francine also played her in the 1980 stage play and television program ''Snow White Live'' and Chamis voiced her in Disneyland
Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...
's ''Snow White – An Enchanting Musical'' in 2004 and 2006. The Evil Queen was further featured in Disney Live
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...
's ''Three Classic Fairy Tales'' in the section based on the film.
In the night-time visual show ''Fantasmic!
''Fantasmic!'' is a nighttime show at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios. The show formerly operated at Tokyo DisneySea. It features fireworks, characters, live actors, water effects, pyrotechnics, lasers, music, audio-animatronics, searc ...
'', first played in 1992, the Queen, voiced by Louise Chamis, is the main villain and the leader of all the Disney Villains
This is a list of Disney villain characters often based on animated fictional characters who have been featured as part of the Disney character line-up. Some of these villain characters have appeared in sequels, video games, comic books, stage pr ...
. She is introduced in the second act, when her Magic Mirror (voiced by Tony Jay
Tony Jay (2 February 1933 – 13 August 2006) was a British actor.
A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was known for his voice work in radio, animation, film, and video games. Jay was particularly noted for his distinctive bari ...
) tells her that there are now three princesses (Snow White, Ariel
Ariel may refer to:
Film and television
*Ariel Award, a Mexican Academy of Film award
* ''Ariel'' (film), a 1988 Finnish film by Aki Kaurismäki
* ''ARIEL Visual'' and ''ARIEL Deluxe'', 1989 and 1991 anime video series based on the novel series ...
and Belle) fairer than her. Enraged, the Queen transforms herself into a hag and uses the Mirror and her cauldron to summon various "all the forces of evil" in the form of a collection of Disney villains to come to her aid. They include Maleficent, who transforms into a dragon. (In the Tokyo DisneySea
is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, just next to Tokyo. It opened on 4 September 2001, at a cost of 335 billion yen. The Oriental Land Company owns the park, and licenses intellectual prope ...
version, she also traps Mickey
Mickey is a given name and nickname, almost always masculine and often a short form (hypocorism) of Michael, and occasionally a surname. Notable people and characters with the name include:
People Given name or nickname Men
* Mickey Andrews (bor ...
inside her mirror.) At the climax of the show, Mickey is able to defeat the dragon and vanquish all the villains with a magic sword. The Witch is the last to die, transforming back into the Queen before she is destroyed.
In the ''Disney Dream
The ''Disney Dream'' is the third cruise ship operated by Disney Cruise Line, part of The Walt Disney Company. She is the first of the ''Dream''-class. She currently sails three-day, four-day, and occasional five-day cruises to the Bahamas. The ...
'' cruise ship show ''Villains Tonight!'', first played in 2010, Hades calls forth Disney's most powerful villains for help to regain his evil. The Queen, changing from the Witch form, denies his invitation since Hades also invited Maleficent, her rival for Hades' affections and for the status of "the most evil in the land". The Queen claims not to be Hades' girlfriend, but they just had "an interesting weekend" on Castaway Cay. In the end, the Queen and Maleficent put their differences aside as all villains should stick together and advise Hades to find evil within himself, and not from others.
Games
The Evil Queen is featured in a number of traditional games, albeit usually as a mere obstacle for the players. She is, however, playable in some of them, such as ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Game'' in the Disneykins franchise and ''Disney Villains Collector's Edition Monopoly''. In 2019, the Evil Queen was added to ''Disney Villainous'' as a playable character in the expansion set ''Wicked to the Core''.
Jim Razzi's 1985 children's gamebook ''Snow White in the Enchanted Forest (Choose Your Own Adventure: Walt Disney #1)'' features an alternate story starring the original character of an unnamed boy from Snow White's kingdom in a series of confrontations with Evil Queen as she is searches the forest for Snow White hiding with the Dwarfs. The young hero's goal is either to "put an end to her, once and for all" before it is too late, or to lead the Prince to the sleeping Snow White. This task is made harder by the Queen's much greater powers in it than in the film, including being able to instantly change between her hag and queen forms at will, magically disappear in a cloud of smoke, change herself into an animal and back, and turn others into animals with magic beams from her hands. She also serves as the antagonist in the unreleased ''Snow White'' game for the Atari 2600
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocesso ...
. In 2001's ''Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' for the Game Boy Color, the players need first to solve a puzzle minigame for the Queen to consult her mirror, and later to lead the Dwarfs in pursuit of the Witch before she can get back to her castle.
The Queen is one of the four Disney Villains that appear in 1999 video game '' Disney's Villains' Revenge'', voiced by Louise Chamis. Jiminy Cricket
Jiminy Cricket is the Disney version of the " Talking Cricket" (Italian: ''Il Grillo Parlante''), a fictional character created by Italian writer Carlo Collodi for his 1883 children's book ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'', which Walt Disney adap ...
and the player venture into the worlds of the stories to restore the happy endings. In the altered (and game's final) story, where there is no Prince, the Queen (appearing in both of her forms) has built a lair resembling her poisoned apple inside the scary wood, and has put Snow White to eternal sleep in her dungeon and intends to do the same to the Seven Dwarfs. The player needs to correctly mix ingredients for several potions including the True Love Potion to magically summon the Prince and save the day. It is followed by the fight with the Queen where she tries to get away and the player has to reflect her magic ball spells, until she retreats to her lair. There, while asking her mirror, she suddenly transforms into a hag and the mirror breaks.
In 2010's video game '' Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep'', the Queen (voiced by Kyoko Satomi in Japanese and Susanne Blakeslee in English) appears in the Dwarf Woodlands world. She recruits the protagonist Terra
Terra may often refer to:
* Terra (mythology), primeval Roman goddess
* An alternate name for planet Earth, as well as the Latin name for the planet
Terra may also refer to: Geography Astronomy
* Terra (satellite), a multi-national NASA scienti ...
to kill Snow White and bring back her heart in return for allowing him to use the Magic Mirror to locate Master Xehanort. Terra, like the huntsman, ultimately does not go through with this, and the Queen, learning of his betrayal, forces the Mirror to consume him, but Terra manages to fight the Mirror off and the Queen reluctantly gives him the information he looks for. She later appears briefly in Ventus's scenario, where she crosses paths with him on her way to poison Snow White. She drops the poisoned apple, which Ventus returns to her. She notices Ventus's Keyblade and muses that Terra threatened her with a similar weapon. She is then only briefly mentioned in Aqua
Aqua is the Latin word for water. It is used in many words which relate to water, such as aquatic life. In English, it may also refer to:
Arts
* Aqua (color), a greenish-blue color
Business
* Aqua (skyscraper), an 82-story residential skysc ...
's storyline, when the Magic Mirror tells Aqua that the Queen is now dead and he is no longer under her control.
In 2013's free-to-play mobile game ''Seven Dwarfs: The Queen's Return'', an uncanonical continuation of the film, the Queen has survived the fall at the climax of the film because there was a lake at the bottom of the abyss. She then reverted to her youthful form and, seeking revenge, cast an evil curse on Snow White as well as the dwarfs and their entire forest. The game's updates were supposed to allow the players to "meet (and defeat)" the Queen, adding quests involving a search for her hidden hideout to, as promised, "help the Dwarfs rid the enchanted forest of the Evil Queen." However, this was ultimately left unresolved as the game was discontinued in May 2014.
A 2014 weekly challenge in ''Disney Infinity: Toy Box'' included "Mirror Mirror" obstacle course that pit Snow White against the Evil Queen in a race for the poisonous apple. Downloadable Queen-themed avatar costumes were made available for the users of the PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...
and Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
video game consoles. A webcam browser game ''Become Your Inner Villain'' hosted on Disneyland Resort's Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
page enables the player turn into one of four villains including the Evil Queen. Her dungeon and laboratory (complete with the Mirror) are featured in the online game ''Aaah-Choo''.
In the 1990 video game ''Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
''Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse'' is a 1990 platform game developed by Sega and released for the Mega Drive/Genesis. An 8-bit version of the game was later released for the Master System and Game Gear. The game follows Mickey Mouse on ...
'', an old witch named Mizrabel takes the form of the Evil Queen after draining the youth from Minnie Mouse
Minnie Mouse is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. As the longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a bow, polka-dotted dress, white bloomers, and low-heeled shoes occasiona ...
. In 2012's '' Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion'', the previously defeated Mizrabel returns to transform into various Disney villains, including the Queen, before setting on Maleficent. In 2013's HD remake of ''Castle of Illusion'', Mizrabel looks like a cross between the Queen and Maleficent in her youthful form and professes her ambition to be "the fairest of them all".
The Queen is a playable character to unlock for a limited time in the video game ''Disney Magic Kingdoms
''Disney Magic Kingdoms'' is a 2016 city building game developed and published by Gameloft for iOS, Android, and Windows. It is themed off the Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. The game was officially launched on March 17, 2016.
Storyline
The game ...
''.
Literature
In the 1949 audiobook release, the Queen (voiced by Eleanor Audley
Eleanor Audley ( Zellman; November 19, 1905 – November 25, 1991) was an American actress with a distinctive voice and a diverse body of work. She played Oliver Douglas's mother, Eunice Douglas, on the CBS sitcom ''Green Acres'' (1965–1969) ...
) wears a yellow dress and a red cape. She tells the Huntsman to take Snow White to the forest and leave her there to die. In the end of the book, after being chased by the dwarfs, the Queen dies when she slips while climbing the mountain and falls into the sea. The Queen's story from the film is itself subject of the 2018 storybook release ''Disney Villains: The Evil Queen''.
One chapter in Todd Strasser's 1993 ''Disney's the Villains Collection/Stories from the Films'' is dedicated to ''Snow White'' and the Queen. She is also a subject of one of the illustrated books in the Disney Princess series ''My Side of the Story'', titled ''Snow White/The Queen'' (2004), which portrays her as a misunderstood positive character.
The novel ''Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen'' by Serena Valentino, published by Disney Press
Disney Publishing Worldwide (DPW), formerly known as The Disney Publishing Group and Buena Vista Publishing Group, is the publishing subsidiary of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Its imprints inclu ...
in 2009, tells a story much more sympathetic to the Queen than most other Disney media. The book shows how the Queen became the villain from the film, much in the style of '' The Killing Joke'', with the Magic Mirror, here possessed by the spirit of her abusive father, having been a corrupting influence. According to the book, her mother was a witch and the King died in a war against another kingdom prior to the events of the film. After her husband's death, the Queen slowly descends into madness. By the end of the novel, Snow White gets the mirror and the Queen becomes the spirit inside the mirror after her death in the film.
The Queen is one of the Overtakers, villains of '' The Kingdom Keepers'' novel series. She was introduced in 2011 in the fourth book of the saga, ''Power Play'', alongside Cruella De Vil. Like Maleficent, she is very powerful and is able to cast almost any spell with a flick of her finger; she can also transform herself and other characters. In ''Power Play'', when Maleficent and Chernabog
The following are fictional characters from Disney's 1940 film '' Fantasia'', its 1999 sequel '' Fantasia 2000'' and the 2014 video game '' Fantasia: Music Evolved''. Characters in this list are sorted by the film and segment in which they appe ...
are captured by the Keepers, the Queen becomes the new leader of the Overtakers.
Melissa de la Cruz
Melissa de la Cruz (born 1971) is a Filipina-American writer known for young adult fiction. Her young-adult series include ''Au Pairs'', the '' Blue Bloods'', and ''The Beauchamp Family''.
Early life and education
Melissa de la Cruz was born in ...
wrote the ''Descendants'' prequel novel ''Isle of the Lost''. In that book, it is revealed that the Evil Queen once tried to overthrow Maleficent as the ruler of the Isle.
Comics
The 1937–1938 film tie-in serial comic strip "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" written by Merrill De Maris
Merrill De Maris (February 26, 1898, New Jersey – December 31, 1948, Escondido, California) was an American writer who worked on Disney comic strips for King Features Syndicate.
De Maris helped Floyd Gottfredson with many of his early ''Mick ...
, one of the writers of the film, is centred primarily around the relationship between Snow White and the Queen. It further explores the source of the Queen's descent into a murderous envy, as she learns that the Prince came to her castle seeking the most beautiful woman in all the world and is shocked when he says he meant Snow White. Like in the abandoned film concept, the Queen (here actually named Grimhilde) has the Prince arrested. In her Witch form, she later tells the captive Prince that she is going to get rid of Snow White and make him hers, while the Prince is defiant and calls her a "miserable hag".[ This scene is followed by his escape from prison, in much less dramatic circumstances than the film's drowning concept. The film was further adapted into an other comics including in 1969, 1973, 1983, and 1991.
There is a number of sequel comics quasi-canonically set in the film's world. A 1939 Italian comic "Snow White and the Wizard Basilisk" (''Biancaneve e il mago Basilisco'') features the titular evil wizard who later lives in the castle that had belonged to the Queen, trying to hurt Snow White's and the Prince's son until he is too killed when the castle is destroyed. The Prince's imprisonment in the Queen's dungeon from the earlier comics is referenced in it. Another early sequel comic ''Pamuk Prenses ile Sevimli Prens'' (1942) tells of the further adventures of Snow White and Prince Charming, as the Witch returns to put a spell on the latter. In one American 1944 sequel, the dead Queen's castle is taken over by her brother, the Wicked Prince.
Later comics usually feature the Queen in her Witch incarnation, often with her still trying to eliminate either Snow White ("The Seven Dwarfs and Thumper", "No Ritmo Da Bruxa", "A Maçã Superenfeitiçada", "Kerstverhaal") or the dwarfs ("The Enchanted Mountain", "Halloween"). Such stories include Jack Bradbury's stand-alone 1958 comics ''Mystery of the Missing Magic'' and ''A New Adventure of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''. In the comic "The Seven Dwarfs and the Witch-Queen", the Witch shrinks all the dwarfs except of Dopey who manages to save his brothers. In "A Pirate's Tale" (aka "The Pirate"), the greedy old Witch transforms herself into a rat as she plans to steal a treasure and turn the dwarfs into cheese and eat them, but Dopey destroys her with a cat.
Usually under the alias the Witch, she often comes back to interact (usually to antagonize, but sometimes also to occasionally cooperating with protagonistic characters) with other Disney characters. She has appeared in the comics of many characters, including Daisy Duck's nieces April, May and June, the Beagle Boys, ]Br'er Rabbit
Br'er Rabbit (an abbreviation of ''Brother Rabbit'', also spelled Brer Rabbit) is a central figure in an oral tradition passed down by African-Americans of the Southern United States and African descendants in the Caribbean, notably Afro-Bahami ...
, Chip 'n Dale
Chip and Dale (also spelled Chip 'n' Dale) is a cartoon duo of anthropomorphic chipmunks created in 1943 by The Walt Disney Company.
Concept
The characters were first drawn by Bill Justice and introduced in the 1943 Pluto short '' Private ...
, Donald Duck & Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Huey, Dewey, and Louie
Huey, Dewey, and Louie are Multiple birth, triplet cartoon characters created by storyboard artist (screenwriter) Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company from an idea proposed by cartoonist Al Taliaferro and are the nephews of Donald Duck and th ...
, Jiminy Cricket
Jiminy Cricket is the Disney version of the " Talking Cricket" (Italian: ''Il Grillo Parlante''), a fictional character created by Italian writer Carlo Collodi for his 1883 children's book ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'', which Walt Disney adap ...
, José Carioca, Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Li'l Bad Wolf, Tinker Bell
Tinker Bell is a fictional character from J. M. Barrie's 1904 play '' Peter Pan'' and its 1911 novelisation ''Peter and Wendy''. She has appeared in a variety of film and television adaptations of the Peter Pan stories, in particular the 1953 ...
, and the Three Little Pigs, as well as her fellow witches such as Madam Mim from '' The Sword in the Stone'', Witch Hazel from ''Trick or Treat
Trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween custom for children and adults in some countries. During the evening of Halloween, on October 31, people in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase "trick or treat". Th ...
'', and Magica De Spell
Magica De Spell (''magica'' being the feminine of ''magico'', ) is a cartoon character created in 1961 by Carl Barks for the Duck universe. An Italian sorceress, she constantly attempts to steal Scrooge McDuck's Number One Dime, which she bel ...
(especially in Brazilian comics). She also starred with the Big Bad Wolf
The Big Bad Wolf is a fictional wolf appearing in several cautionary tales that include some of '' Grimms' Fairy Tales.'' Versions of this character have appeared in numerous works, and it has become a generic archetype of a menacing predatory ...
in the 1970s-1980's comics series ''The Big Bad Wolf & The Wicked Witch'', including "Mirror Mirror", "Witch Switch", "The Apple Caper", "The High-Hopping Wolf", "Double Trouble", and "Getting the Boot".
Several comics include the Witch kidnapping another Disney character, either to be her slave or to exchange them for something, until they are rescued. Example of this include her abducting, besides Snow White ("Diamond Dust Dilemma", "The Weather Witch"), such characters as Chip 'n' Dale ("Witch Convention"), Tinker Bell ("Pixie Dust Dilemma", "The Big Bust-out"), and ''Dumbo
''Dumbo'' is a 1941 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth Disney animated feature film, it is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, ...
'' characters ("Dumbo", "The Chips Are Flying", "A Witch in Time"). The Witch also captures Dumbo in "Dumbo l'échappe belle", but is defeated by Mickey and Br'er Bear and imprisoned by the Dwarfs. In "The Gingerbread House", the Witch captures the Wicked Witch of the West
The Wicked Witch of the West is a fictional character who appears in the classic children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900), created by American author L. Frank Baum. In Baum's subsequent ''Oz'' novels, it is the Nome King who is ...
's children Witch Child and Warlock whom Magica De Spell was tasked to look after. Another recurring motif is the Witch's attempts to turn characters into gold, for example Pinocchio
Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...
("The Magic Brew") or all the forest animals ( "Get Rich Witch"). She may also simply try to steal the treasures, from either the Dwarfs ("Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs", "Verjongingsdrank") or other characters ("Black Magic Menace", "Pursuit of Plunder"). In a prequel story ''Battle of Wits and Witches'', the Queen turns into the hag to steal a diamond from the Dwarfs but is foiled by Mickey and Goofy. She also repeatedly attempts to ruin Christmas, like in "The Golden Christmas Tree" where she lures Huey, Dewey and Louie to her lair use their tear drops in a magic potion to destroy all the Christmas trees in the world, or in "Delivery Problems" where she plots to put Santa Claus' reindeer to sleep.
In the ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories'', sometimes abbreviated ''WDC&S'', is an American anthology comic book series featuring characters from The Walt Disney Company's films and shorts, including Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Mickey Mouse, Chi ...
'' parody of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz afte ...
'', "The Wizard of Bahs" by Vic Lockman and Strobl, the Witch is unexpectedly turned into an old tree trunk by Daisy Duck while her castle turns to sand. In "The Captured Castle", the Witch captures Cinderella's castle, while in "It's Snow Joke" she turns Dale's snowdragon alive and Chip 'n' Dale steal her flying powder in "The Magic Spell". The Witch's magic wand is obtained by Goofy in "Magic-Mender" and stolen by the Big Bad Wolf in "The Magic Wand". In "The Haunted House Caper", the Witch turns Donald Duck's house into a haunted one, a story continued in "13 Blackcat Road". In ''O Sindicato Das Bruxas'', José Carioca fights against her syndicate of witches. In "The Washed-up Witch", she ends up deprived of her powers and accepting Scrooge McDuck's offer to become his private secretary, while Mickey hires the Witch as a babysitter for Morty and Ferdie in "The Sitter Solution".
Many stories have been first published in Italian Disney digest comic series, in particular in ''Topolino
''Topolino'' (from the Italian name for Mickey Mouse) is an Italian digest-sized comic series featuring Disney comics. The series has had a long running history, first appearing in 1932 as a comics magazine. It is currently published by Panin ...
''. They include "The Seven Dwarfs and the Evil Witch" (''I Sette Nani e la Strega Malvagia''), "Snow White and the Broken Mirror" (''Biancaneve e lo specchio infranto''), "The Seven Dwarfs and the Spell of the Queen" (''I Sette Nani e l'incantesimo della regina''), "Snow White and the Castle of Four Winds" (''Biancaneve al castello dei quattro venti''), "The Seven Dwarfs and the Heroic Antieve" (''I Sette Nani e l'eroica antivigilia''), "The Seven Dwarfs and the Brew of Seven Herbs" (''I Sette Nani e l'infuso delle sette erbe'' aka "The Seven Herbs Spell!"), "Snow White and the Silver Rose" (''Biancaneve e la rosa d'argento''), and "The Seven Dwarfs and the Joker Wizard" (''I Sette Nani e il mago burlone''), among others.
In Italian Disney comics, the Queen in her youthful form is usually wearing a red robe and is often shown using a crystal ball
A crystal ball, also known as an orbuculum or crystal sphere, is a crystal or glass ball and common fortune-telling object. It is generally associated with the performance of clairvoyance and scrying in particular.
In more recent times, the cry ...
to spy on the good characters. "Snow White and the Shattered Mirror" (''Biancaneve e lo specchio infranto'') has the old Witch, terminally ill, discover she has only one day to live, but she refuses to accept her destiny and finds a way to conquer death. In "Goofy the Magician and the Seven Dwarfs" (''Pippo mago e i Sette Nani''), the young Queen's four goon henchmen attack the dwarfs and steal their treasure but then decide to keep it for themselves and Grimhilde seeks help from the wizard Abracadabro to stop their run; eventually, it is the Prince who defeats the robbers. In other comics, the Queen works specifically to magically hurt Snow White and others in various cruel ways. "Donald Fracasse" (''Paperin Fracassa'') is a parody of the adventure film '' Captain Fracasse'' in which Snow White is blinded by the Queen and Donald Duck needs to heal her. In "The Seven Dwarfs and Christmas in Danger" (''I Sette Nani e il Natale in pericolo''), the Queen goes to steal a comet stardust as the last ingredient for her spell to destroy Snow White. In another Christmas story, "The Seven Dwarfs and the Christmas Spell" (''Il Sette Nani e l'incantesimo di Natale'', the Queen turns Snow White's baby son Glauco into a Christmas tree, but the curse is broken by the motherly love of the princess.
Many of the ''Topolino'' Snow White comics were the works of Romano Scarpa
Romano Scarpa (September 27, 1927 – April 23, 2005) was one of the most famous Italian creators of Disney comics.
Biography
Growing up in Venice he developed a particular love for American cartoons and Disney comics, that, at the time, were ...
. His comic "The Seven Dwarfs and King Arbor's Crystal" (''I Sette Nani e il cristallo di Re Arbor'') provides an explanation as to how the Queen would have survived her apparent death in the film (as some branches and bushes eased the fall and she was rescued by her loyal guards) and why she could not change back to her normal self (as her castle was burned down by the Huntsman and her book of magic is gone). In this story, Grimhilde (Grimilde) enlists the aid of her great admirer and past suitor, the evil King Arbor of Vegetalia, in a plot to use a magic crystal device to swap her old body with Snow White's. The intrigue is foiled by the dwarves who destroy the crystal, and the resigned Arbor allows the Witch to live with him, saying he will try to remember she ''was'' "the most beautiful among queens". The uneasy relationship between Grimhilde and Abor continued in "The Seven Dwarfs and the Fountainhead" (''I Sette nani e la fonte meravigliosa''), in which she desperately attempts to regain her youth, but instead only turns into a childlike version of her Witch form for a short time. Other comics by Romano Scarpa do have the Queen back in her youthful body, and sometimes even taking other shapes, as well as commanding various minions. In "The Seven Dwarfs and the Birtch Ring" (''I Sette Nani e l'anello di betulla'' by Romano Scarpa), the Queen learns about the eighth Dwarf named Ginger (Zenzero), who has left his companions to go in search of fortune traveling the world, and transforms into a pixie calling herself Fagottina to send him home and sow discord among his brothers. In "The Seven Dwarfs and the Wolf's Cliff" (''I Sette Nani e la balza del lupo''), she sends a gang of three bandits named Bragia, Sghembo and Schidione to kidnap Snow White. In "The Seven Dwarfs and the Throne of Diamonds" (''I Sette Nani e il trono di diamanti''), Jiminy Cricket is deeply enamored by the Queen's beauty and attempts to convince her to become good, but the Queen refuses to be redeemed. Instead she orders her loyal soldiers to steal the throne that the Dwarfs make for Snow White in a plot to turn her rival into an old woman. Eventually, the Queen is captured by another witch named Tardona and Snow White is restored to her youth.
Several stories by Scarpa and others have the Queen meet her actual end in various ways while trying to get her revenge, usually involving being defeated by Dopey as he alone escapes her plots. In Scarpa's three-part "Snow White and the Green Flame" (''Biancaneve e verde fiamma''), the Queen proudly flies on a broom to the great gathering of witches, but is met with a very different welcome than she excepted: the other attendees declare that her shameful inability to deal with just a little girl and a few dwarfs has disgraced them all and so she should be punished for this according to the laws of Hell. When the Queen begs the High Witch for mercy, she is given a magic wand with the power of transformation and is told that, if she fails to succeed this time anyway, she herself will be turned into a magic broom for a more "honorable" witch to fly on. Desperate to avoid her sentence, the Queen uses this wand to gain trust of Snow White and to turn her a figurine, then takes the form of the princess to ambush the dwarfs and do the same with them. But Dopey escapes and he manages to outwit the Queen as she waits for the Prince's arrival to complete her work. After a fight, he takes hold of her wand and uses it to restore his friends and to foil the last gamble of the Queen, who is herself first transformed into the figurine then does turn into a broom by the High Witch's curse. Scarpa's "Snow White and the Chained Fairy" (''I Sette Nani e la fata incatenata'') begins with Grimhilde flying to strike down Snow White with a thunderbolt, but the princess is saved by the fairy named Fawn. The Queen captures Fawn in a cavern and the dwarfs struggle to free the fairy. To thwart their mission, the Queen takes on many forms trying destroy them in various ways, and one-by-one the dwarfs sacrifice their lives until only Dopey remains. But then he alone manages to win the magical water that brings back all of them to life, and the freed fairy's magic makes the cavern collapse down on the Queen to make sure she will never hurt anyone again. The Queen also again transforms into a pixie in his "Snow White and Easter in the Woods" (''Biancaneve e la Pasqua nel bosco''), where, after her attempt to kill Snow White with magic is foiled by woodland creatures, the Queen is so enraged that she calls upon the infernal powers to "take her" and her castle burns into flames and crumbles around her. "Snow White and the Bewitched Dress" (''Biancaneve e l'abito stregato'') has the Queen magically disguise herself as an old Gypsy to give Snow White a cursed dress and capture her, then starts her work on the spell to rid of the dwarfs and all the forest creatures. But Dopey infiltrates her castle, frees Snow White, and locks up the Queen inside her laboratory set ablaze. After he and the princess escape, they watch how the castle with the Queen trapped in her own dungeon is consumed by fire and finally explodes. In "The Seven Dwarfs and the Covenant of the Queen" (''I Sette Nani e il patto della regina''), she conjures the demon Shadow Lord Oren and makes a pact with him to take the soul of Snow White, but Oren warns her that if she fails she will pay him with her own life. With now greater powers and the help of seven evil dwarfs she attempts to eliminate her hated rival once and for all, but instead ends up burning all of her vital energy and Oren arrives to inform her how she now destroyed herself with her own hands. The Queen, begging for a last chance, disappears as Oren takes her with him to Hell. "The Seven Dwarfs and the Christmas Fairy" (''I Sette Nani e la fatina di Natale'') presents a scenario in which the Queen successfully casts a forever-sleep enchantment, this time perfected for no awakening by a kiss, on Snow White again. But, while trying to zap Dopey, she then accidentally falls victim of her own witchcraft. The titular Christmas Fairy manages to wakes up Snow White and leaves the Queen to her Sleeping Beauty style fate. In a less definitive ending in "Grump & Crump" (''Brontolo & Briciola''), Grumpy sends the Queen to her to prison by the magic of the Christmas mistletoe.
The Queen also appears as one of the villains in the 2005 Disney manga series ''Kilala Princess
''Kilala Princess'', known in Japan as is a shōjo fantasy, Romance novel, romance, and adventure manga series written by Rika Tanaka and illustrated by Nao Kodaka. The first 15 chapters were serialized by Kōdansha in the monthly manga magaz ...
'' by Rika Tanaka and Nao Kodaka, where the protagonists Rei and Kilala Reno find themselves in the world of Snow White, and meet and befriend the princess. They go the Queen's castle to ask the Magic Mirror how to find Kilala's friend Erika, but discover the Queen is still alive (and even commanding the two vultures, as well as wolves) as she appears and demands Kilala's magical tiara. The children try to flee but are attacked by wolves and locked up in the dungeon, where the Queen transforms into the Witch and prepares to turn Kilala into an ugly creature. Snow White appears and agrees to sacrifice herself to save them, but Kilala stops her at last moment before she can eat a poison apple; Rei then attacks the Queen, who falls into her cauldron, turns into a vulture, and flies away in a defeat.
Merchandise
The character has been featured in a wide variety of Disney merchandise, such as in the Designer Villains series of limited edition dolls and make-up products, or the Wickedly Beautiful entry in the Beautifully Disney collection of cosmetic products. Various other such merchandise include many dolls, figurines/statuettes, costumes, clothing items, watches/clocks/mirrors, key chains/blanks, mugs, other tableware, bags/purses/suitcases, containers, prints/posters/cards/stickers, pins/buttons/magnets, holiday ornaments, plush toys, puzzles, other beauty products, and so forth. In one issue of ''Disney Adventures
''Disney Adventures'' (also short-formed as ''D.A.'') was an American children's entertainment and educational magazine published twelve (later ten) times per year by Disney Publishing Worldwide, a subsidiary of Disney Consumer Products, a unit o ...
'' in 1997, the Evil Queen appeared on the cover attempting to woo Will Smith
Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his acting career starring as a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC sitcom '' The Fresh ...
.
One hand-made figure costing $2,000 was the most expensive out of 200,000 items being sold at the Disney World shopping village in 1985. During an auction in 1988, an animation cel from the iconic scene of the Queen holding her heart box sold for a record-setting price of $30,000. In 1997, another cel from the same scene sold for $21,275 and a cel of the Witch offering an apple to Snow White realized $13,800. Another cel showing the Queen reading her spellbook sold for $8,050 in an earlier in auction in 1995. In 2015, a Hag cel was sold on an auction for $48,000. Another record was made in 2016, when a cel of the Queen in front of her mirror was sold for $58,000.
In ''Once Upon a Time''
An almost entirely alternate take on the character of the Evil Queen is Regina Mills, the main antagonist in the first season of the 2011 ABC live-action TV series ''Once Upon a Time
"Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 (according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'') in storytelling in t ...
'' where she is played by Lana Parrilla
Lana Parrilla (born July 15, 1977) is an American actress. She was a regular cast member in the fifth season of the ABC sitcom ''Spin City'' (2000–2001) and in the fourth season of '' 24'' (2005), and starred in ''Boomtown'' (2002–2003), ' ...
. Regina is the mayor of the idyllic town of Storybrooke, Maine, but is secretly the Evil Queen of legend, having cursed many beloved fairy tale characters to live in a land without magic, where they will never get their happy endings. The show is not directly based on the Disney animated films, but is inspired by them and makes many references to them. One of its episodes is titled "The Evil Queen
The Evil Queen, also called the Wicked Queen, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of "Snow White", a German fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm; similar stories exist worldwide. Other versions of the Queen appear in subsequent ...
".
Reception and legacy
Critical reception and popularity
The Disney version of the character was very well received by film critics, even as some were disturbed (columnist Dorothy Kilgallen for instance urged Disney to not make future villains as scary as the Witch[). ]Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter (born March 25, 1946, Kansas City, Missouri) is an American novelist, essayist, and film critic.
Life and career
Hunter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. His father was Charles Francis Hunter, ...
included her being "cool" among the "wonderful truths about ''Snow White''." Janet Maslin
Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...
wrote the film's Snow White "exists only to be victimized by her wicked stepmother - a far more interesting character. The image of the wicked Queen (initially conceived as a raven-haired glamour girl, and the epitome of late-1930s sophistication) who drinks an aging potion and then shrivels, sprouting warts and claws, turning before our eyes from a sexy, voluptuous creature into a frightening old crone, must leave as powerful an impression on the audience as Snow White's chirpy femininity." Similarly, Roger Ebert wrote ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' was "not so much about Snow White as it was about the Seven Dwarfs and the Evil Queen," opining this was the reason it has remained "the ultimate animated masterpiece" by 2001 instead of having been forgotten soon after its premiere in 1937.
Individualist feminist Camille Paglia
Camille Anna Paglia (; born April 2, 1947) is an American feminist academic and social critic. Paglia has been a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since 1984. She is critical of many aspects of modern cultu ...
said that she used to be transfixed by this "temperamental diva bitch", due to the contrast with the ideal of womanhood that she had been presented to as a child: "Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
, this silent mother; and here was the witch queen who has this weird dialogue in the mirror and it didn't have to be charitable and it didn't have to be nice. I thought she was fabulous." Likewise, Lana Parrilla
Lana Parrilla (born July 15, 1977) is an American actress. She was a regular cast member in the fifth season of the ABC sitcom ''Spin City'' (2000–2001) and in the fourth season of '' 24'' (2005), and starred in ''Boomtown'' (2002–2003), ' ...
, who later herself played the Evil Queen in ''Once Upon A Time'', said that whenever she watched Disney's ''Snow White'' as a young girl she rooted for and "loved the evil queen―every time the evil queen came on, I was like 'OK!' She was just so fascinating to me." Author Deborah Lipp wrote: "As I've said before and will doubtless say again, given a choice of being Snow White (helpless, sweet, voiceless) and the Wicked Queen, with the cool castle and the magic and the minions, give me my Magic Mirror ''now!''" Film director John Waters
John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...
said he too rooted for the evil queen to win, and Chay Yew said that if he were a Disney character, he would be the evil queen from ''Snow White''.
''Once Upon the Time'' co-creator Adam Horowitz
Adam Horowitz (born December 4, 1971) is an American screenwriter and producer. He is known for co-creating the ABC fairy tale drama series '' Once Upon a Time'' with his writing partner Edward Kitsis. Days after the show ended its seven-year ...
said that his earliest Disney memory was seeing a re-release of Disney's ''Snow White'' when he was "terrified by the Evil Queen while also being unable to look away and that stuck with me through the years." Similarly, fashion designer and Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie (; born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, humanitarian and former Special Envoy to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award ...
's ''Maleficent
Maleficent ( or ) is a fictional character who appears as the main antagonist in Walt Disney Productions' 16th animated feature film, ''Sleeping Beauty'' (1959). She is represented as an evil fairy and the self-proclaimed " Mistress of All Evil ...
'' collaborator Stella McCartney
Stella Nina McCartney (born 13 September 1971) is an English fashion designer. She is a daughter of British singer-songwriter Paul McCartney and the late American photographer and animals rights activist Linda McCartney. Like her parents, McCa ...
said: "My favorite Disney film was ''Snow White''. I remember growing up watching tand being completely freaked out by that scene where the evil queen becomes the old witch and she makes the poison apple." Film maker and actor Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including '' Time Bandits'' (1981), '' ...
listed the film's Queen among his eight favourite villains, commenting how "truly strange" is that "vanity and beauty are what she's all about, yet the identity she assumes when she becomes the old beggar woman is practically the ugliest in all the kingdom." Fairy tale lecturer Jack Zipes alike noted that "it is somewhat strange that the queen believes the mirror, for the picture of Snow White reveals that she is a pretty pubescent red-cheeked ordinary girl while the queen is a stunning beautiful mature woman who might easily win a beauty contest."[
Jim Lentz, Director of Animation Art at ]Heritage Auctions
Heritage Auctions is an American multi-national auction house based in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1976, Heritage is an auctioneer of numismatic collections, comics, fine art, books, luxury accessories, real estate, and memorabilia from film, mu ...
, said in 2015: "The Evil Queen is, to this day, one of the great villains of cinema, and she was at her terrifying best when she became the Old Hag and set off to destroy Snow White." According to film maker and actor Brad Bird
Phillip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American film director, animator, screenwriter, producer, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning forty years in both animation and live-action.
Bird was born in Montana and grew up i ...
, back in 1937 "they had to re-upholster the seats in a very large movie palace in New York because little kids were peeing on the seats when the witch came on in ''Snow White''." The Queen ranked as tenth in the American Film Institute's 2003 list of the 50 Best Movie Villains of All Time, being the highest-ranked animated villain. When Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, Inc., formerly Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. and informally known as Disney Parks, is one of The Walt Disney Company's five major business segments and a subsidiary. It was founded on Apri ...
held their 2011 Disney Villains popularity poll for Wicked Gooey Apple Awards (named after the Queen's poison apple), the Evil Queen came first and won in three out of five categories: "Sinister Stylings" (for the most fashionable villain), "Curses! Foiled Again!" (for the villain who received the best comeuppance), and the ultimate "Unfairest of Them All" (for the most evil villain). Jeff Kurtti's 2005 book ''Disney Villains: The Top Secret Files'' ranks her as "the greatest villain of them all". The Evil Queen has also been often included on top lists of best villains by various publications.
Cultural impact
According to Maria Tatar
Maria Magdalene Tatar (born May 13, 1945) is an American academic whose expertise lies in children's literature, German literature, and folklore. She is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Chair of the Committee o ...
, an academic specializing in children's literature, the film turned "the evil queen into a figure of gripping narrative energy and makes Snow White he character
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
so dull that she requires a supporting cast of seven to enliven her scenes. Ultimately it is the stepmother's disruptive, disturbing, and divisive presence that invests the film with a degree of fascination that has facilitated its widespread circulation and that has allowed it to take such powerful hold in our own culture." Alan Charles Kors and Edward Peter Edward Peter may refer to:
* Percy Peter (Edward Percival Peter), English swimmer and water polo player
* Edward C. Peter II
Edward C. Peter II (May 8, 1929 – November 12, 2008) was a career officer in the United States Army. A veteran of the ...
credited the Queen's character's influence in changing the popular visual image of witches in film and other fiction as specifically female, more often young and attractive than old and ugly, and dressed in a characteristically defining costume. A part of Maila Nurmi
Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi (December 11, 1922 – January 10, 2008), known professionally as Maila Nurmi, was an American actress who created the campy 1950s character Vampira.
She was raised in Astoria, Oregon, where she worked in tuna and s ...
's inspiration for her character of Vampira came from Nurmi being fascinated by the Queen after watching Disney's ''Snow White'' at the age of 14. When she was cast for the 1939's '' The Wizard of Oz'' as the Wicked Witch of the West
The Wicked Witch of the West is a fictional character who appears in the classic children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900), created by American author L. Frank Baum. In Baum's subsequent ''Oz'' novels, it is the Nome King who is ...
, Gale Sondergaard
Gale Sondergaard (born Edith Holm Sondergaard; February 15, 1899 – August 14, 1985) was an American actress.
Sondergaard began her acting career in theater and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Awar ...
(who herself has earlier served as one of inspirations for Disney) insisted on playing a glamorous vision of the character, similar to the Disney's interpretation of the Queen from ''Snow White''; when Sondergaard's idea was rejected by producers Mervyn LeRoy and Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed (September 9, 1894 – April 12, 1973) was an American lyricist and Hollywood film producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture twice, in 1951 for '' An American in Paris'' and in 1958 for '' Gigi''. Both films were musicals. ...
in favor of making the Wicked Witch ugly, she withdrew from the project and Margaret Hamilton was cast instead.[ Still, the similarities between the two films, including the portrayals on their respective witch characters, were such that ''The Wizard of Oz'' was at one point advertised as "''Snow White'' with live actors."
An official Disney.com blog Oh My Disney stated the Evil Queen has been "the original Disney villain, and we’re really not exaggerating." According to '']The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'', La Verne's role as the Queen "was credited as the model for such future villains as Ursula in ''The Little Mermaid
"The Little Mermaid" ( da, Den lille havfrue) is a literary fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a ...
'' (1989) and Scar
A scar (or scar tissue) is an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair in the skin, as well as in other organs, and tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a n ...
in ''The Lion King
''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance ...
'' (1994)." Maleficent from ''Sleeping Beauty'' inherited a number of characteristics from the Evil Queen, including the cowl, high collar, billowing cloak, arched eyebrows, cruel lips, and raven familiar. An abandoned concept from ''Snow White'' was that the Queen kidnap the Prince and lock him in her dungeon; similarly, in ''Sleeping Beauty'', Maleficent kidnaps Prince Philip. Lady Bane, a vain evil sorceress from ''Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears
''Adventures of the Gummi Bears'' is an American animated television series, created by Disney CEO Michael Eisner, produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, and distributed by Buena Vista Television. The series, loosely inspired by the gummy ...
'', too bears a similarity to the Evil Queen in her costume and character. Four wicked witches of the East, West, North and South, resembling the Witch from Disney's ''Snow White'', are also the villains Mickey has to kill to save Disneyland in 1988's '' Mickey Mouse: The Computer Game''. The first names for the magic-wielding antagonist couple The Glooms in Disney XD's own series ''The 7D
''The 7D'' is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation, which premiered on Disney XD on July 7, 2014. It is a re-imagining of the title characters from the 1937 film '' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' by ...
'' (2014) ― set in a timeframe before the Seven Dwarfs first met Snow White ― might have been inspired by the Evil Queen character's alternate name "Grimhilde", with the bumbling warlock
A warlock is a male practitioner of witchcraft.
Etymology and terminology
The most commonly accepted etymology derives '' warlock'' from the Old English '' wǣrloga'', which meant "breaker of oaths" or "deceiver" and was given special applicati ...
husband named "Grim" and the determined witch wife named "Hildy".
The Queen's character design from the film was used in some other Snow White adaptations, such as for the Queen in the Turkish film ''Pamuk Prenses ve Yedi Cüceler'' (1970). Queen Naga in Italian erotic comic books ''Biancaneve
''Biancaneve'' is an Italian erotic comic book, created in 1972 by Renzo Barbieri and Rubino Ventura (pseudonym of Giuseppe Pederiali) and illustrated by Leone Frollo.
The series, published by Edifumetto, was based on ''Snow White and the Seven ...
'' was at first loosely based on the Disney version, as was its Snow White's character. When Filmation
Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and ...
announced their own animated sequel to the fairy tale, the studio was sued by Disney until Filmation promised their characters would not resemble the ones from the Disney film. The settlement specifically stated there could not be a "wicked witch" character appearing in the film, which instead was made to feature the Queen's brother in a vendetta to avenge her death, and the title was changed from ''Snow White in the Land of Doom'' to '' Happily Ever After''.
The Queen also inspired main antagonist characters in the otherwise unrelated titles, such as the stepmother queen in the Russian animated film ''The Wild Swans
The Wild Swans ( Danish: ''De vilde svaner'') is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a princess who rescues her 11 brothers from a spell cast by an evil queen. The tale was first published on 2 October 1838 in Andersen's ...
'' (1962), the Witch Queen in the Mexican film '' Tom Thumb and Little Red Riding Hood'' (1962), the goddess Venus in the anime version of ''Unico
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Sanrio's manga magazine ' from November 1976 to March 1979 and collected in two volumes. A pilot film for a potential television series was produce ...
'', Queen Admira in the American film '' The Hugga Bunch'' (1985), and the queen of the witches in the video game ''Curse of Enchantia
''Curse of Enchantia'' is a graphic adventure game developed and released by the British video game company Core Design for MS-DOS and the Amiga in 1992 in video gaming, 1992. The game tells the comic fantasy story of Brad, a teenage boy from mo ...
'' (1992). Lady Macbeth's rendition in Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
' 1948 '' Macbeth'' resembles the Queen in her costume, make-up, and even the manner of her death; Lady Macbeth was also visually based on the Queen in a 1982 comic book adaptation. The evil Queen Bavmorda from 1988's film ''Willow
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...
'' bears a resemblance so much that ''Cinefantastique
''Cinefantastique'' is an American horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine.
History
The magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset printed quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor ...
'' editor Frederick S. Clarke described her as "simply ''Snow Whites Wicked Queen, right down to her hooded costume." Robin Wood has drawn a connection between the looks of the Witch and of the Emperor in the '' Star Wars'' franchise (which eventually became a Disney property too). According to video game designer Steve Brown, the Queen's old Witch form served as an inspiration for the main character Witch Queen in his 1985 game ''Cauldron
A cauldron (or caldron) is a large pot ( kettle) for cooking or boiling over an open fire, with a lid and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger and/or integral handles or feet. There is a rich history of cauldron lore in religion, mythology, and ...
''. Brigitte Nielsen
Brigitte Nielsen (; born Gitte Nielsen; 15 July 1963) is a Danish actress, model, and singer. She began her career modelling for Greg Gorman and Helmut Newton. She subsequently acted in the 1985 films ''Red Sonja'' and ''Rocky IV'', later retu ...
said she based her role as the Black Witch (who also kidnaps a prince character out of jealously for a princess) in the 1992 Italian film ''Fantaghirò 2
''Fantaghirò 2'' (also known as ''The Cave of the Golden Rose 2'') is the second television film in the ''Fantaghirò series'', directed by Lamberto Bava and originally aired in 1992 as a two-parter (and so is known in certain releases as ''Fant ...
'' on Disney's "Grimilde" (the Queen's name in Italian comics).
The Queen's castle has been used prominently in the advertising of the film (acting as the backdrop of the film's poster). Later Disney fairy tales, including ''Cinderella
"Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...
'', ''Sleeping Beauty'', ''The Little Mermaid'', ''Beauty and the Beast
''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine ...
'' and ''Aladdin'', feature similarly fantastical castles and palaces, and often these buildings act as centerpieces or backdrops for the movies' posters. A fairy tale castle stands at the centre of each Disney theme park, and the image of the castle is used in the logo for Buena Vista International
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, formerly known as Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. until 2007, is an American film distribution studio within the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. It h ...
.
Homage cameos and parodies
The character has also made several parodic cameo and homage appearances in non-Disney media. In the 1945 radio program '' This Is My Best'', the Queen uttered a curse so dreadful that the Magic Mirror shattered into a thousand pieces and where the Queen once stood was nothing but a heap of ashes from which black spiders crawled and scuffled off into the night. In Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
's live-action film ''Annie Hall
''Annie Hall'' is a 1977 American satirical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay written by him and Marshall Brickman, and produced by Allen's manager, Charles H. Joffe. The film stars Allen as Alvy Singer, w ...
'' (1977), Alvy mentions that when he saw Disney's ''Snow White'', he was attracted to the Queen while all the other children had a crush on Snow White. This is followed by an animated sequence of the Wicked Queen, resembling Annie and voiced by Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton (''née'' Hall, born January 5, 1946) is an American actress and director. She has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Glo ...
, talking to the cartoon version of the daydreaming Alvy, but turns out that even the Queen scolds him; Alvy attributes it to her having her period
Period may refer to:
Common uses
* Era, a length or span of time
* Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Period (music), a concept in musical composition
* Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...
mood, to which the Queen reminds him she is just a cartoon character.
The Queen was referenced when she appeared as a villain in an issue of Italian horror comic book series ''Dylan Dog
''Dylan Dog'' is an Italian horror comics series created by Tiziano Sclavi and published by Sergio Bonelli Editore since 1986.
The series features the eponymous character, a paranormal investigator who takes on cases involving supernatural e ...
'' in 1988. In ''The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
'' episode "Four Great Women and a Manicure
"Four Great Women and a Manicure" is the twentieth and penultimate episode of the twentieth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. First broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on May 10, 2009, it is the sec ...
" (2009), the Queen escapes the dwarves after poisoning Snow White, only to be lynched by a mob of angry woodland creatures. In the short film '' Welcome to the Club'' (2022), the Queen also appears in her witch form along with other Disney villains. In the '' U.S. Acres'' two-part cartoon "Snow Wade and the 77 Dwarves", Lanolin appears as the Wicked Queen with a costume is based on the Disney version. In the '' Family Guy'' 2009 episode "Road to the Multiverse
"Road to the Multiverse" is the first episode of the eighth season of the animated comedy series ''Family Guy''. Directed by Greg Colton and written by Wellesley Wild, the episode originally aired on Fox in the United States on September 27, 2009, ...
", Herbert
Herbert may refer to:
People Individuals
* Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert
Name
* Herbert (given name)
* Herbert (surname)
Places Antarctica
* Herbert Mountains, Coats Land
* Herbert Sound, Graham Land
Australia
* Herbert ...
appears as the disguised Queen. ''The Muppet Show
''The Muppet Show'' is a sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and featuring the Muppets. The series originated as two pilot episodes produced by Henson for ABC in 1974 and 1975. While neither episode was moved forward as a s ...
'' character Miss Piggy
Miss Piggy is one of the Muppet characters known for her breakout role in Jim Henson's ''The Muppet Show''. Since her debut in 1976, Miss Piggy has been notable for her temperamental diva superstar personality, tendency to use French phrases i ...
is the Queen in the 2010 parody comic book miniseries ''Muppet Snow White''. Cassie Scerbo
Cassandra Lynn Scerbo (born March 30, 1990) is an American actress, singer and dancer. She was one of the members of the all-girl pop band Slumber Party Girls in the CBS children's music variety series '' Dance Revolution''. In acting, she s ...
played the Evil Queen in the 2013 YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
parody music video '' Cell Block Tango''. The Queen also appears in ''Counting Scars'', Oh My Disney's Halloween 2014 parody music video of OneRepublic's "Counting Stars
"Counting Stars" is a song by American pop rock band OneRepublic from their third studio album, ''Native'' (2013). The song was written by lead singer Ryan Tedder, and produced by Tedder and Noel Zancanella. It was released as the album's seco ...
". Kimberly Cole played the Evil Queen in Todrick Hall
Todrick Hall (born April 4, 1985) is an American singer, choreographer, and YouTuber. He gained national attention on the ninth season of the televised singing competition ''American Idol''. Following this, he amassed a huge following on YouTu ...
's 2014 parody music video ''Snow White and the Seven Thugs''.
See also
* The Queen from "Snow White" in the original fairy tale, and in other derivative works
Notes
References
{{Authority control
Animated human characters
Disney animated villains
Female film villains
Disney comics characters
Snow White (franchise)
Fantasy film characters
Female characters in animated films
Female characters in film
Female characters in musical theatre
Fictional alchemists
Film characters introduced in 1937
Fictional German people
Fictional murderers
Fictional queens
Fictional shapeshifters
Fictional witches
Evil Queen
Video game bosses