Did you ever see the castle in the sky in Disney’s 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'?

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Cristina Cabrera Jarro

BLOGGER PROFILE

“Hello, my name is Cristina Cabrera. I am a millennial, and I am a “Disney adult.”

Don’t worry, this is not how I usually introduce myself, and I understand that several of you may have either rolled your eyes, or excitedly cheered me on, and said “Me, too!”

When I was an undergraduate student at Florida International University, many of us introduced ourselves in such a manner during Rhetoric of Disney. Yes, this was an actual college credit-earning course (ENG4135 Fall 2012). In this class we were to explore and analyze Disney films, their morality, mindset and the discourse inspired by Walt Disney and his studio. We used religion journalist Mark Pinsky’s “The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust” as a textbook.

For many of us, the first time we ever saw a Disney movie was when we were kids. Not only did we experience Disney movies, but also cartoon shorts, soundtracks and sing-alongs, TV shows, theme parks, plush stuffed characters, dolls, merchandise, and more. Disney culture shaped our generation, the generations before us, and the generations after us.

The problem many of us experienced in Rhetoric of Disney was that we wanted to still look at our beloved childhood favorites with the eyes of children, which we no longer were. God bless Professor Barbara Weitz, who ambitiously led this class. More often than teaching, I think she consoled us as we were enlightened, horrified, disheartened, and then once again, inspired. She even acted as judge in what became a Disney debate court.

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was the first film we discussed in class. Premiering in 1937 as the first feature-length cartoon film, it was the longest and most complex animation production of its time. Even today, I believe that no other animated film has been able to accomplish so much in such a short time, especially considering that the animation was created by hand! Not a single computer helped in the production process. (That came much later. And what they accomplish is still incredible.)

But what was it about Snow White and her story that encouraged Walt Disney to select her as the first? Here I had to do some investigating. I am a “Disney adult” but with over 100 years of history there is a lot to sort through. The internet helped, but I actually have books on the matter, and referred to “Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs & The Making of the Classic Film” by Richard Hollis and Brian Sibley helped.

One of Walt’s first-ever experiences in a movie theater was watching a 1916 silent film version of Snow White starring Marguerite Clark as the iconic princess. The experience must have made quite an impression on him, because years later he pitched it as an animated feature-length version to his team of animators.

Ken Anderson, one of the animators present at that 1934 meeting, said, “He so thrilled us with the complete recitation of all of the characters that he had created that we were just carried away…we had no concept that we were going to do anything else or ever want to do anything else. We wanted to do what he had just told us!”

As production got underway, there were several debates regarding the plot and how much to incorporate from Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s version of “Sneewittchen,” which previously existed as a German oral fairy tale. The problem Disney and his studios faced was the reality that original fairy tales were generally not very kid-friendly stories.

The Grimm version of the fairy tale ends with the punishment of the evil Queen at Snow White's wedding.

Iron slippers had already been put upon the fire, and they were brought in with tongs, and set before her. Then she was forced to punt on the red-hot shoes, and dance until she dropped down dead.

Can you imagine if that was the last scene in the Disney version? It’s not very kid-friendly. Even reading it as an adult, I cringe.

Instead, Disney’s team gave us Snow White waking from her “sleeping death” with a kiss from the prince of her dreams, who sweeps her off her feet and places her on his white noble steed. She bids goodbye to the celebratory dwarves and forest animals, and as they walk off into the distance, there is a castle in the sky where they will live happily ever after.

Not bad!

However, I bet that the first time you saw “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” you either missed it completely or didn’t think much of the fact that the prince’s castle was in the sky. Don’t worry, I missed it too. Remember that once there was innocence and naivety in your eyes.

The first time I saw “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was in 1993 when it was reissued to movie theaters. I saw it again on Disney Plus a few weeks ago, and it led me to investigate the “castle in the sky,” which we also did not discuss in Rhetoric of Disney.

There are numerous theories on the internet about this scene, and a lot of them are inclined towards a Christian perspective of what the castle in the sky symbolizes: heaven. In fact, several others maintain that the characters and scenes featured in the movie have a Christian connotation, including the prince as Jesus Christ who takes a resurrected Snow White to heaven; Snow White tempted by the witch with an apple, similar to Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden; Snow White is a character that prays; the Evil Queen relies on the occult; and more.

While good artistic interpretation opens the imagination and encourages us to wonder and look deeper, those of us who know our faith see so much more.

They say Walt Disney was a devout Congregationalist Christian. Going back to Pinsky’s book “The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust,” he points out that Disney actually did not want religion in his movies, possibly out of fear that it would limit his audience.

Name it or not, I still see those Christian and religious values in the films and characters.  And I pray for the future of the Disney company, its executives and creatives who have led astray from the original vision.

After all, Disney himself once said, “I believe firmly in the efficacy of religion, in its powerful influence on a person’s whole life. It helps immeasurably to meet the storms and stress of life and keep you attuned to the Divine inspiration. Without inspiration, we would perish.”

What greater “Divine inspiration” is there than Our Heavenly Father?