THE KENNETTI MAIN PAGE
Site design and maintenance: Kenneth Sundberg
Latest Update: March 29, 2010

THE FAIREST ...AND THE SCARIEST OF THEM ALL - Page 3
Scariest Tribute to Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

--------------------
Dark Secrets
of the Dungeon

Many people would claim that the entire storyline of "The Captured Prince" - the heavily chained and gagged young man tortured by a psychotic older woman - does not belong to "Disney". However, with the Mickey Mouse cartoons and comics of the early 1930s Walt Disney had already produced several adventures with the mouse, his dog and girlfriend being tied up, chained, gagged, abused and sometimes left in a definite death trap - with the rescue coming in the nick of time. The most shocking example of these adventures is The Mad Doctor cartoon (1933) in which Mickey and Pluto are captured by the title character who wants to cut Mickey in half with a whirling buzz-saw. Many decades later, the title character of Disney's Aladdin (1992) was to endure an even more shocking drowning attempt than Snow White's Prince. (More about these and many other Disney horrors at the supplementary section "Disney Dungeons" starting on page 7!)

Conceived in October 1934 and defined with several preliminary sketches, the full concept of "The Captured Prince" is surprisingly detailed. In the dimly-lit dungeon, amidst grisly skeletal remains and several instruments of torture, the Prince is chained heavily to the wall - with at least five separate padlocks sealing his fate. Cruelly gagged, tight collar chaining his neck against the wall, arms spread wide apart in merciless manacles and chained feet barely touching the ground, the Prince can only strain at his bonds while the Evil Queen personally taunts him. The original sketches feature also some alternate, even more cruel chaining methods for the Prince; in addition to all aforementioned padlocked manacles his spread legs were chained wide apart, which would have indeed made his tight collar even more torturous. Another sketch shows the young man blindfolded, dangling helplessly against a pillar as the Queen steps closer. (KenNetti is currently unable of presenting the aforementioned original sketches [as shown in the second disc of 2001 Collector's Edition DVD] and hence some of the sketches have been re-drawn for this Tribute).

Pointing out a particular skeleton of Prince Oswald, the Evil Queen makes sure her new prisoner understands the gruesome fate awaiting him if he still refuses her marriage proposal. At the Queen's command, the skeletons start a macabre dance to "entertain" the chained Prince. Suggested horrors take place as the Evil Queen leaves the Prince in the hands of the royal torturers (who are specified as Nubians). Later in the night, when the Evil Queen finds out that Snow White is still alive, the torture of the Prince leads to a cruel attempt to drown him.

The idea of Oswald the skeleton may have been a hidden but biting sarcasm for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the character who was "kidnapped" from Walt Disney in 1928 by Charlie Mintz - an act that lead Walt to the creation of Mickey Mouse. The concept of dancing skeletons was naturally based on the famous 1929 Silly Symphony cartoon The Skeleton Dance. Silly as it sounds, one may only imagine how powerful and macabre the end result could have been through the gorgeous 1937 final animation - something like Fantasia's "Night on the Bald Mountain".

It seems that some details of this abandoned storyline ended up in California Disneyland's 1983 Snow White’s Scary Adventures dark ride and also its counterparts in Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. The Dungeon scene in all three rides features one skeleton chained to the wall almost exactly like Prince Oswald's grisly remains in the principal sketches for the movie. (Photo evidence from California's Disneyland, taken in 2007). In the 1937 finished animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs there is not a single so grotesquely chained skeleton on any wall - so it seems quite apparent where these terrifying dungeons in the Snow White's Scary Adventures dark ride have found their inspiration. (Read more by hopping straightly to the Dungeons page of KenNetti's Snow White's Scary Adventures Tribute).

The highly dramatic subplot would have continued after the Evil Queen's transformation into an old hag (generally known as the "Wicked Witch"). In her disguise the Queen pays one last visit to the Prince, who is still hanging chained to the dungeon wall. The old hag tells him about the poisoned apple - and possibly even makes her famous movie soliloquy of "she'll be buried alive!" in front of the desperately struggling Prince. In the final 1937 movie the Witch taunts her pet raven during this soliloquy, but the words would serve a far more dramatic purpose if the raven was replaced by the chained and gagged Prince - as the Witch thrusts the apple into his face: "Have a bite? Ahh-heh heh heh hee! It is not for you, it is for Snow White! When she breaks the tender peel to taste the apple in my hand, her breath will still, her blood congeal! Then I will be Fairest in the Land! Heh heh hee! But wait! There may be an antidote. Nothing must be overlooked. Aah, here it is! The victim of the Sleeping Death can be revived only by Love's First Kiss. Love's First Kiss! Bah! No fear of that - the Dwarfs will think she's dead. She'll be buried alive! Heh heh heh hee! Buried alive! Heh heh heh hee!"

After such words, one may just imagine the desperation of the chained and gagged Prince, as the Witch begins to flood the dungeon and exits with a victorious cackle, leaving the helpless Prince to drown.

The cruel drowning of the Prince may seem the biggest quirk in the abandoned concept. Regarding the Evil Queen's motive, the decision to drown the young man seems downright odd. Why does she suddenly want to get rid of the Prince? Wouldn't she want some company after her return from the Dwarfs' cottage? There are at least two major reasons, the first one being that a dead Prince can not revive Snow White from the spell of the Sleeping Death. The second reason for flooding the dungeon is that by this time the imprisoned Huntsman may have joined the Prince in the deepest dungeon. So, by flooding the dungeon the Evil Queen may want to kill two flies with one blow. (And if someone wonders the mechanism of the dungeon flood, it should be noted that the Evil Queen's castle is located close to a lake - and the deepest dungeons, actually subterranean chambers, have been built really deep inside the cliff overlooking the lake).