The Evil Queen

The Evil Queen (also known as the Wicked Queen, or simply, the Queen) is the main antagonist of Disney's 1937 animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the first Disney Villains in the Disney animated features canon. Determined to remain the fairest one of all, the Queen becomes insanely jealous of Snow White, the only one whose beauty surpasses her own. She eventually disguises herself as an old woman to tempt Snow White into eating a poisoned apple, in a final attempt to do away with her only, unknowing rival. Depicted in early designs as a fat character, her appearance eventually evolved into a much more sinister, stately beauty.

Her name was given as Queen Grimhilde in some old publicity material and comics, but this is seldom acknowledged by the Walt Disney Company. The Twisted Tale books gave her the name Queen Ingrid. She is sometimes referred to as the Wicked Queen, while theme parks sometimes refer to her as the Snow Queen (not to be confused with Queen Elsa). The Witch is sometimes referred to as the Old Hag after drinking the aging potion.

= Plot =

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Jealous of her stepdaughter Snow White's beauty, the Queen forces her to work as a servant in her castle; even in rags and wooden shoes, however, Snow White's beauty shines through, causing the Queen to worry that Snow White's beauty may one day surpass her own. She has such vanity that she consults her Magic Mirror every day, ordering the slave within to reveal the name of the fairest in the land. Every day the spirit says that the Queen is the fairest, and she is content until the mirror informs her that Snow White has finally become the fairest in the land. Outside, as Snow White works, she sings to herself, attracting the attention of the Prince, who is passing by, and they are instantly infatuated with each other. The Queen watches from her window, unseen by the two lovers, and, jealous both of Snow White's beauty and the Prince's affections, closes the curtains furiously.

Summoning her faithful Huntsman to her, the Queen orders him to take Snow White far into a secluded area of the forest, where she can pick wild flowers, and kill her. She presents him with a box, in which Snow White's heart must be brought as proof. The Huntsman is reluctant to carry out such a deed, but, knowing the penalty for failure, takes Snow White deep into the forest. Just as he is about to stab the princess, he finds that he cannot bring himself to destroy such innocent beauty and, frantically warning Snow White of the Queen's vanity and jealousy, tells her to flee into the forest. He returns to the Queen, bringing in the box the heart of a pig to fool her. Meanwhile, Snow White finds the Cottage of the Seven Dwarfs and is found by the dwarfs, whom she tells of the Queen's attempts to kill her. They are fearful of the dark magic of the Queen, not least because, Grumpy, not keen on having a woman around the house, refers to her as an "ol' witch", and suggests that she may have discovered them already, have made herself invisible, and be watching them right now. They nevertheless take pity and agree to take her in.

That night, the Queen once again consults the slave in the Magic Mirror, who tells her that Snow White is living in the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs and that the Huntsman has brought her a pig's heart after she believes that Snow White is dead in the forest. Furious after realizing that she has been tricked, the Queen descends a spiral staircase, entering a dark chamber filled with arcane and magical artifacts, as well as her pet raven perched on a skull. She decides to go to the cottage herself, disguised as a peddler. Consulting a book on disguises and searching for a formula to transform her beauty into ugliness, she mixes the required potion ingredients (though exactly how she prepared most of them into a tangible form for the concoction can be anyone's guess), such as mummy dust to make her old, the black of night to cloak her clothing, an old hag's cackle to age her voice, a scream of fright to whiten her hair, a blast of wind to fan her hate, and finally a thunderbolt to mix it well. After putting all the ingredients together, she begins her magic spell as she drinks the potion and magically transforms herself from a regally beautiful queen to an ugly old hag, including her hair turning white, her skin and hands becoming wrinkled, her royal attire becoming a peddler's cloak and her voice is changed as well and she declares that it is a perfect disguise. She then decides to dispose of Snow White with a poisoned apple, which will send its victim into the "Sleeping Death".

The Witch brews the poison and dips an apple into the brew, turning it black, then, upon her orders, a tempting red, giving the poisoned fruit the appearance of an ordinary, if not exceptionally appetizing in appearance, apple. She then voices her plot to her raven, before having her boastful declarations halted by the possibilities of her schemes facing failure. To ensure no antidote gets in her way, she consults her spell book, quickly finding that the victim of the "Sleeping Death" can only be revived by "Love's First Kiss". This brings no sense of fear or apprehension to her, as she firmly believes the dwarfs, as they would think Snow White is actually dead, will bury her alive. Cackling to herself, she puts the apple in a basket, and walks down through the dungeon below, emerging from the castle's catacombs in a raft. On her way down the catacombs, she passes by a skeleton who appears to be reaching for an empty jug of water and sarcastically asks if he wants a drink before kicking the jug into the skeleton, smashing it to pieces. As she makes her way to the dwarfs' cottage, two sinister vultures see her and, sensing that death is imminent, quietly pursue her.

She reaches the cottage and, according to plan, finds that the dwarfs have left and Snow White is alone. Catching her by surprise as she is preparing a gooseberry pie for the dwarfs, the Witch poses herself as an apple giver and offers her the apple, claiming apple pies to be the superior dish and offering the poisoned apple for Snow White to sample. As the meeting occurs, however, Snow White's bird companions spot the vultures darkly observing and anticipating what's to come, indirectly informing them that the Witch has evil intentions. They attack her before Snow White is able to take hold of the apple, successfully delaying the former's plot, though Snow White orders them to leave, as she still believes the Witch to be a harmless peddler. The Witch cleverly uses Snow White's kindness to her advantage and pretends to be shaken from the attack, asking for shelter within the cottage, to which Snow White obliges to. This forces the birds and other forest animals to rush over to the diamond mines and alert the dwarfs of what's happening.

Meanwhile, the Witch manipulates Snow White into believing the apple is actually a "magic, wishing apple", capable of making one's dreams come true with one simple bite; offering it in gratitude of fending off the birds. Snow White becomes taken with the idea once the Witch openly mentions speculation that her wish may have something to do with someone she loves, referencing the Prince. Wanting to finally reunite with him, she takes the apple, makes the wish to live a happy life by his side, and takes a bite. In a matter of seconds, she falls under the curse and drops to the floor unconscious. The Witch cackles in joyous victory as a thunderstorm starts to pour rain, declaring she'll now be the fairest in the land. As she makes her leave, the Witch is confronted by the dwarfs. She fearfully flees, but soon finds herself trapped on the dead end cliff of a rocky mountain. with the two vultures perched onto a nearby tree branch, watching the events unfold. Spotting a massive boulder nearby, the Witch tries to kill the dwarfs by crushing them with it, cackling insanely as she does so. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning strikes the ledge of the cliff, destroying the portion holding the Witch, and causing her to fall hundreds of feet below to her death. The boulder tumbles down after her, crushing her body and ensuring her demise. The two vultures then fly down the cliff to devour her remains.

House of Mouse
The Queen made frequent cameos in crowd shots on House of Mouse, mostly in crowd shots with Lady Tremaine from Cinderella.

In "Pluto Saves the Day", the Queen (in her hag form) was seen selling poisoned apples to Pete in his plot to cast the "Sleeping Death" spell on Mickey and friends. Her evil plot was used as an advertisement later at the end of the episode.

In "The Stolen Cartoons", she gave a visual representation of Daisy's exclamation "The crowd's getting ugly!" by turning into her hag form. Earlier in that same episode, she was seen visiting the Magic Mirror in the lobby, only to immediately by dismissed with "Save it, Queenie. Everyone's fairer than you."

In "The Mouse Who Came to Dinner", she was seen sitting with Maleficent, Jafar, Shan Yu, Hades, and Ratigan.

The Evil Queen can also be spotted several times in Mickey's House of Villains, usually in her witch form.

She even had her own commercial, where her poisoned apples are a product. Her slogan is "One bite, and you’re out like a light."

= The Queen made frequent cameos in crowd shots on House of Mouse, mostly in crowd shots with Lady Tremaine from Cinderella.

In "Pluto Saves the Day", the Queen (in her hag form) was seen selling poisoned apples to Pete in his plot to cast the "Sleeping Death" spell on Mickey and friends. Her evil plot was used as an advertisement later at the end of the episode.

In "The Stolen Cartoons", she gave a visual representation of Daisy's exclamation "The crowd's getting ugly!" by turning into her hag form. Earlier in that same episode, she was seen visiting the Magic Mirror in the lobby, only to immediately by dismissed with "Save it, Queenie. Everyone's fairer than you."

In "The Mouse Who Came to Dinner", she was seen sitting with Maleficent, Jafar, Shan Yu, Hades, and Ratigan.

The Evil Queen can also be spotted several times in Mickey's House of Villains, usually in her witch form.

She even had her own commercial, where her poisoned apples are a product. Her slogan is "One bite, and you’re out like a light."

= Video Games =

Kingdom Hearts
In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, the Evil Queen serves as the antagonist of Dwarf Woodlands. In Terra's scenario, the Queen has just learned from the Magic Mirror that Snow White is now fairer than her in beauty in an almost identical way to the original film. However, the mirror continues to say Snow White's heart was of pure light, and the Queen should be wary of it. It is then the Queen notices that Terra has been listening in from the shadows and is asked if she has met Master Xehanort. Truthfully answering that she does not, the Queen sends Terra away. However, she then calls him back with an offer: kill Snow White and bring her heart back as proof of the kill in exchange for asking the Magic Mirror where Master Xehanort is. Terra initially asks if she had interest in the hearts of light, and she replies that she only wanted Snow White's life, and that her radiance was all the light that the kingdom needed. She sends Terra to kill Snow White in the Flower Glade not far from the castle. However, Terra had no intention of doing as she wished, merely inquiring of her the location of Master Xehanort, of which she was also ignorant, before the Unversed chase Snow White into the forest. Upon his return to the castle, the Queen voices her rage at Terra for his failure. Terra replies that he never intended to follow her orders, and that despite her claims of radiance, all he could see were thick shadows of jealousy hanging on her heart. Furious, the Queen commands the Magic Mirror to consume Terra. However, the mirror respectfully states that it is incapable of following the Queen's order, having no power apart from answering questions truthfully. Losing all patience, the Queen (in the Japanese version) glows red and uses her darkness to force the mirror to obey her or (in the English version) tosses a green potion at it that transforms it into an Unversed. Empowered, the Magic Mirror sucks Terra inside its realm. However, it proved to be no match for the Keyblade wielder, and Terra is quickly released. Terra commands the Queen to ask the mirror where he can find Master Xehanort, and she grudgingly complies, though the couplet that the Mirror gives is of no help to Terra, who is unable to discern that it refers to the Keyblade Graveyard. Regardless, Terra thanks them and leaves, whereupon the Queen begins to think up another way to kill her stepdaughter.

In Ventus's scenario, she appears under the disguise of an old hag and prepares to carry the poisoned apple to Snow White, but drops it on her way. Ventus, unaware of her motives, politely gives the apple back. Upon seeing Ventus's Keyblade, the Queen remembers her encounter with Terra and twists the truth to make it look like Terra had threatened an old lady with his Keyblade just to learn if she knew any information about Master Xehanort. Though she succeeded in troubling Ventus, the Queen truthfully tells him she has no clue where he is now and departs for the forest, leaving Ven with a tale of half truth...

Some time between Ventus and Aqua's scenarios, the Queen succeeds in having Snow White eat the poisoned apple. She is then only briefly mentioned in Aqua's storyline by the Seven Dwarfs, who tell Aqua they chased away the Queen following her foul deeds. The Spirit of the Magic Mirror later confirms to Aqua the Queen's death after the Keyblade Master defeats him, also saying that his service was complete as a result before departing from the mirror.

In Kingdom Hearts, the Witch makes a cameo appearance during Sora's Dive to the Heart. Along with the dwarfs and forest animals, she appears on the stained glass podium that shows Snow White.

The Evil Queen appears as a villain in the mobile game Kingdom Hearts Union χ, again depicted as the antagonist of Dwarf Woodlands. Here, after the Queen successfully places Snow White in a sleep-like death, she is confronted in a boss battle atop the rocky mountain. She summons a hag-like Heartless, but upon its defeat, the Queen falls off the cliff, to her death.