10 Fascinating Facts About Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs
7. Prince Charming Originally Had A Larger Role
Have you ever noticed that Prince Charming in Snow White has pretty much nothing to do? He appears after hearing Snow White’s singing voice, sings to her, kisses a bird and then buggers off until right at the very end to revive the princess with love’s first kiss. That’s the entirety of the Prince’s actions for the entire duration of the 83-minute film.
According to the people who worked on the film, early drafts of the film would have the Prince take on a much bigger role, but ultimately make the film a lot darker as a result. The film would have had Snow White meet with the dwarfs, then as the original book went, the Queen would have tried to kill her off with a poisoned comb, with the dwarfs thwarting her attempt.
The Queen would then kidnap and imprison the Prince, torturing him with her magic and dancing skeletons until he agreed to marry her. He would have refused, and she would go to kill Snow White with the poisoned apple, leaving the Prince to drown.
He would be saved by the creatures of the forest but, not being able to understand the animals would go down the wrong road and would be too late to save Snow White, leaving her dead and most likely leaving everyone who went to see the film very depressed.
Thankfully the ending was changed to a happy and more upbeat one with Snow White receiving a full-on wake after eating the apple, the Queen getting crushed by a boulder, possibly being ripped apart by vultures and the dwarfs leaving Snow White to decompose in a glass coffin for all the world to see. But it’s okay, because the Prince kisses the corpse, err, princess and they all live happily ever after… blimey, the early films were really dark.