Snow White

I wanted to compare the character of the queen/witch in the movies. I found it interesting that these are separate characters in the 1916 version, they are the same person in the Disney version, and in the 1961 version, there is no witch. I believe that taking out the witch makes the film less fairy-tale like. I feel as if the witch represents evil magic. If you take this out, the story does not seem as magical or as evil. It is true that the stepmother does try to kill Snow White several times, but she does not seem as evil as the stepmother in Disney who is a witch. If you have an evil person, that sucks. If you have an evil person who also has magic powers that they can use for evil, I'd run and hide. So, I think that taking out the witch in the 1961 version takes away from the story. In the 1916 version, there are two separate people. This also takes away from the evil of the stepmother. As we mentioned in class, the stepmother just seems stupid to get herself into a dangerous deal. She must kill Snow White not because she wants to, but because she made a deal that she would. Therefore, she doesn't seem as evil. If the witch were the person actually going after Snow White, that would be more frightening than the stepmother. Yet, the witch simply tells the stepmother what to do, so this takes away from her evil as well. Having 2 separate people splits up the evil. Neither character seems as evil as they could be. This means that the ending is satisfying, but not as satisfying as it could be when good prevails over evil. Therefore, I like the Disney version the best. I could simply be biased because I grew up loving this movie, but the stepmother seems to be the most effective at portraying evil that must be overthrown. She is the same person as the witch. I would be most afraid of the evil stepmother trying to kill me who has evil powers that she could use against me than the other two stepmothers in the other films. I just found this interesting. I feel as if it is more rewarding that good prevails over evil if the evil is extremely frightening.