SNOW WHITE (1955)
aka Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge
Article 3124 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-16-2009
Posting Date: 3-4-2010
Directed by Erich Kobler
Featuring Elke Arendt, Addi Adametz, Niels Clausnitzer
Country: West Germany
What it is: Another German fairy tale

When her magic mirror informs an evil queen that her stepdaughter named Snow White is more beautiful than her, she plans to have her murdered. However, Snow White takes refuge in a cottage inhabited by seven dwarfs. However, the evil queen is not so easily thwarted…

We follow up yesterday’s movie with another German version of a classic fairy tale by the same director. Well, at least the story of Snow White has more story to begin with than “The Shoemaker and the Elves”, and if you need to figure out how to stretch it to a full-length movie, you have a handy version from Disney that can give you a few pointers. Most of the differences between the two versions seem to be a matter of this version hewing closer to the original fairy tale; in this one, for example, the wicked queen makes three visits to the dwarfs’ cottage, with a poison belt and a poison comb taking the place of the apple for the first two visits. The movie does have a certain fairy tale quality to it, but, to my eyes, it adds very little new to the tale. Sometimes you have to face the fact that a children’s movie is indeed for children, and I suspect a young child who hadn’t been introduced to the Disney version would find this one acceptable. However, it is one you would probably not bother watching with them. Well, at least this one was dubbed into English.