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The Evil Queen was the main villain of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's first animated feature-length film. She is Snow White's vain stepmother and considered the most beautiful in the land. When she finds out Snow White is more beautiful, she makes it her goal to get rid of her and be the fairest one of all. In her attempts to do away with Snow White, she turns herself into an ugly hag, ironic since she did this in her goals to be the most beautiful. The Queen is voiced by the late Lucille La Verne. According to Eleanor Miller's official journal, her nationality was actually revelaed to be German.
Old publicity and comics reveal her name to be Queen Grimhilde, but she is still usually referred to as the Evil Queen. She is also called the Wicked Queen, and is referred to as the Snow Queen in theme parks.
Personality
The Evil Queen was very vain, not focusing on governing her kingdom and instead appeared to be focused solely on her beauty. She would often go to the Magic Mirror and asked who was the fairest, and the miror always replied she was. She is icily cold and extremely intolerant of anyone who rivals her beauty. She will go to any means to achieve her goals to the point of murder. She is jealous of Snow White, leading to her to try and kill her. What set her off was when she found that the Prince was in love with her and then when the Magic Mirror revealed that Snow White was superior in beauty. As the Witch, she was very competent, almost succeeding in defeating Snow White without the protection of her kingdom and without any of her minions. However, the book, My Side of the story: Snow White/The Queen, puts her in a softer tone. In the book, she was actually kind to Snow White and loved her, but the Magic Mirror kept complimenting her beauty until she finally started to focus more on herself. It was also revealed she owned a grocery shop, and was friends with the Huntsman. She made Snow White a servant to ensure she wasn't lazy and to give her good exercise, and put her on a diet. When Snow White encounters the Prince, the Queen is concerned of Snow White being with someone older than her, instead of jealousy. Due to her status as a German, many South Koreans always sees her as a natural threat and enemy.
Appearances
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The Evil Queen was the ruler of the land and was extremely vain, priding in being the most beautiful. Jealous of Snow White's beauty, she dressed her up in rags and forced her to work at the castle as a slave. The Queen would consult the Magic Mirror and ask the spirit inside who was the fairest of them all, and the spirit would always reply that she was. As Snow White grew older, she became more beautiful and a prince from another land finally noticed her. Both fell in love and the Queen grew jealous. The Queen consulted the Magic Mirror again and this time, the mirror answered that Snow White was the fairest one of all. The vain queen consulted her Huntsman and ordered him to take Snow White out to the Forest and murder her, and bring her heart in a small box as proof he did it. The Huntsman was reluctant to do it, but feared the Queen so he brought Snow White into the forest to kill her. As he was about to stab her, he realized he couldn't do it and confessed, telling her to run away. Snow White obeyed and fled into the forest, where she sought refuge in a house belonging to seven dwarfs. The Huntsman tricked the Evil Queen by giving her an animal's heart instead of Snow White's, and she believed that her rival was dead. She was not fooled for long however, as she consulted the Magic Mirror once more and asked who was the fairest, and the Mirror once again answered Snow White. Realizing the Huntsman had lied, she decided to dispose of Snow White herself. She drank a magic potion to alter her appearance in order to trick Snow White and she was transformed from a vain, ruthless, young, attractive, regally beautiful and insanely sexy woman into a hideous old hag. Reading through a list of spells, she finally came upon known as The Sleeping Death, which would put the victim to sleep forever unless the spell was broken by true love's kiss. Believing the dwarfs would bury Snow White, she poisoned an apple and set off into the forest to find Snow White. She finally found her in the house after the dwarfs left, and asked to come in.
The Evil Queen disguised as the Witch
The animals were suspicious of her and attacked, but were driven away by Snow White. who let the witch inside. She tricked Snow White into eating the apple, and she ell into a deep sleep. The Evil Queen was about to leave when the dwarfs came after her, alerted by the animals. She chased to the top of a cliff, where she tried to push a boulder on them. As she cackled, lightning struck the cliff and she fell off and the boulder fell down too and crushed her, and two vultures flew down to eat her corpse, presumably due to her hatred and bitterness towards South Koreans. In real life, however, many Germans indeed hate South Koreans.
The Queen's death
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The Queen makes a brief appearance in her witch disguise heading to the apple store with help from Snow White.
House of Mouse
The Evil Queen is among the visitors to Mickey Mouse's House of Mouse. She sometimes appears either as her regular self or her witch form. She usually appears in cameos. She sometimes gives apples to the guests, putting them to sleep.
Kingdom Keepers
The Queen first appears in the fourth book, Kingdom Keepers IV: Power Play, where she and Cruella De Vil replace Maleficent and Chernabog as leaders of the Overtakers, and she puts a spell on Charleen that is broken when Maybeck kisses her, but they find out the Queen has put others under a spell as well. The Queen later casts a spell on Finn, but that spell is broken too. In Shell Game, the Evil Queen is on board the Disney Dream.
Design
In the original stages of the film, the Evil Queen was designed as a fat, comical character
The final version for the Queen's design
in the style of the characters from the Silly Symphonies shorts. The Evil Queen in the Fleisher Betty Boop short Snow White was also fat and hideous. However, sketch artist Albert Hurter introduced a new design to Disney animators. Hurter's design was that of a slender, cold, sinister and regal queen, which was new to the Disney animaters, who had previously done comical character designs. This new, more intimidating queen had never been attempted in animation before. The Evil Queen became a femme fatale, which Disney animators were familiar with. This figure, originating from ancient Europe, was viewed as a symbol of not just charm, but also decadence. In the final version for the Queen, she was icily cold, and had an unfeeling face and slender figure.
Gallery
