Starting with snow white

Snow White 
tale (through which he emphasizes its fullest form 
in the Grimms’ version). Therefore, one can detect the folkloric tradition of the tale in 
these bullets, but in its brevity, each disregards those attributes that made Disney’s 
version so memorable.
By leaving out the color, the description of animation (as in the forest scene), and 
the songs, the essence of the Disney version is lost. The first summary of the tale is 
informed by the visual, animative (or cinematic), and musical enhancements that Disney 
had creatively inserted. Each action has been constructed so as to be memorably recalled.

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Yet, as the bulleted list shows, the combination of European and American folkloric 
traditions (the story thread running through both) has also been maintained. Thus, the 
overarching structure, as well as the finer points are readily recalled for retelling because 
of the ways in which Disney unified: (a) the 
Snow White 
tradition (the tale as it had been 
told) with (b) his own creativity and technological innovation via the full-length, 
animated feature film.
When I am speaking of Disney’s “folkloric impact” then, I am referring to both 
the story memory that has been generated from his exemplary film, as well as the ways in 
which that story memory becomes translated into successive versions of 
Snow White
.
The unification of tradition and technology propelled Disney’s work forward as a 
“classic,” and, this “classic” status propelled the subsequent “folkloric impact” of the 
animator. While marketing also ensured the further establishment of his tale, as well as 
its “folkloric impact” for successive generations, I argue that it was first and foremost 
Disney’s mastery over the story and its tradition(s), which enabled this film’s continued 
affirmation. 
Teasing out this idea of “folkloric impact” is necessarily tied to the categorization 
of a “classic,” or public and scholarly conceptions of a “classic” or “authentic” text.
Because I am arguing that Disney’s “classic” is one with “staying power,” to be recalled 
and retold, revised, or adapted further, my study first requires a response to the question:
what makes a “classic” 
Snow White 
version? Further, in historicizing the American 
Snow 
White 
tradition, I cannot ignore the precursory European tradition that has been deemed 
so influential to the (pre-Disney) succession of the 
Snow White 
tale. Therefore, Chapter 

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2, “
Snow White
: The Origins of a ‘Classic’” begins by offering a response to the question 
of how a “classic” is formed or constructed. Through a series of four measures: 1) a 
folkloric foundation, 2) the cultural consciousness of the creator, 3) a distinct formal 
style, and 4) adaptation, I analyze the three most frequently referenced early European 
versions of 
Snow White
. These include: Giambattista Basile’s “La schiavottella” (“The 
Young Slave”) (1634-6), Johann Karl August Musäus’ “Richilda” (1782), and Wilhelm 
and Jacob Grimm’s “Sneewittchen” (“Little Snow White”) (1812-1815). The result of 
my critical evaluation whittles these three down to one, the single European “classic” that 
has proven most influential to the European tradition and successive studies of the 
Snow 
White 
tale, the Grimms’ “Sneewittchen.” Because this tale offers a foundation or 
benchmark, based upon the critical discourse surrounding the version as well as Jones’ 
prolific folkloric study, its formation and rise to prominence meaningfully segues into 
later understandings of Disney’s American