Evil Queen (Disney)

The Evil Queen, also known as Queen Grimhilde, the Wicked Queen or simply the Queen, is the main antagonist from the Walt Disney Company's animated film adaptation of "Snow White", based on the character of the same name voiced by Lucille La Verne from the original story. The first "serious" Disney villain to feature in a full-length film, she has gone on to become one of the most iconic film villains of all time and is widely regarded to be the quintessential Disney villain.

Fictional character history

A vain and proud beauty, the Queen gained her royal position by marrying a widowed king who died soon after marrying her.

The Queen had a magical mirror with which she could look upon whatever she wished. The Magic Mirror shows a haunted, smoky face which replies to the Queen's requests. She regularly asks the Mirror who is the fairest in the land ("Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?"), and the Mirror always replies that she is.

One day, the Mirror tells her that there is a new fairest woman in the land, her stepdaughter, Snow White. After observing the handsome Prince singing a love song to Snow White, the Queen, in a jealous rage, orders her huntsman Humbert to take the Princess deep into the forest and kill her. He is ordered to bring back her heart (not her lungs and liver) in a box to prove that he had done so.

Humbert could not bear to kill the young princess, so he tells her to run away and never to return. In order to escape the penalty, he returns with a pig's heart and gives it to the Queen. When she questions her Mirror, it again replies that Snow White is the fairest in the land, and that she is living at the cottage of the seven dwarfs.

Furious, the Queen goes down into the dungeon laboratory and mixes a potion that turns her into an old peddler woman. Her beauty is shrouded in ugliness; a true image of twisted evil. This appearance of the Queen is commonly referred to as The Witch. She then conjures a poison apple which holds death-like sleep inside it, and proceeds to leave the castle. She is sure that no one would know or perform the counter-curse to her spell, and believes the dwarfs would bury Snow White alive, believing she was dead.

The Queen comes to the cottage, followed by two vicious vultures, and finds Snow White baking a pie for Grumpy the dwarf. Somehow, Snow White's animal friends realize that the old hag is the Queen. After an unsuccessful attempt to warn Snow White by attacking the Queen, they go to warn the dwarfs of the Queen's arrival.

The Queen tricks Snow White into letting her inside the cottage and eating the poisoned apple, telling her that it is a magic wishing apple. Snow White takes a bite and falls to the floor, apparently dead. The Queen rejoices in her victory, but is soon discovered by the Seven Dwarves, who chase her deep into the forest as a great storm started. She climbs up into the mountains, where she stands upon a precipice, that overlooks a seemingly bottomless canyon, and attempts to push a large boulder onto the dwarves with a large stick. Just then, a well-placed bolt of lightning strikes between her and the boulder, destroying the precipice and sending her evil majesty falling to her death. As the dwarves look wide-eyed over the cliff's edge, the vultures fly past, to pick at the evil queen's remains.

Powers and abilities

The Queen possessed dark powers and knowledge, including the ability to summon wind and lightning. She also had access to a wealth of potions and spellbooks in a secret laboratory beneath her palace. Despite widely being regarded to be a Witch, the Queen didn't exhibit any powers beyond her use of potions and magical amulets, meaning that she may just be an alchemist of some description.

In a cut version of "Snow White", the Queen captured the Prince and held him captive in her dungeons where she made skeletons dance and torment him. This scene didn't make it into the final cut but did provide an inspiration for a scene in the Disney adaptation of "Sleeping Beauty".

Influences

Walt Disney Studios allegedly used Gale Sondergaard as the main inspiration for the Wicked Queen. Her appearance was supposedly inspired by the Helen Gahagan character in the film "She" (1935).
Walt Disney himself described the Queen as "a combination of Lady Macbeth and the Big Bad Wolf."In Italy she is called Regina Grimilde (Queen Grimilde)

The Queen had an influence on the creation of the subsequent iconic Disney villainess, Maleficent, the main antagonist of "Sleeping Beauty". Both were tall, dark and haughty females with deep voices, sadistic tendencies and pet ravens although Maleficent's raven, Diablo, featured much more prominently than the Queen's who actually appeared to be afraid of its mistress.

The character Yzma from "The Emperor's New Groove" has many similarities to the Queen including a penchant for alchemical spells, a tall, thin demeanour and a fondness for the colours purple and black. Both are also extremely vain and have secret laboratories beneath their respective palaces.

Queen Narissa, the villainess from the Disney film "Enchanted", is a combination between Maleficent and the Queen. Her physical appearance is very similar to the Queen's and like the Queen she exhibits the ability to transform into an old hag and an affinity for poisoned apples.

Other appearances

* Disney's version of the Queen is still one of the most popular movie villains to date. She would go on to make frequent appearances in Disney comics, where, under the alias The Witch, she regularly antagonized Disney characters like Li'l Bad Wolf, Chip 'n Dale, and Tinkerbell. {In one comic story she tries to get rich by turning Pinocchio into gold and tricks two of Donald Duck's nephews into becoming apples-in the end she is temporarily turned into gold herself and our heroes are restored to normal}. There was even an Italian story explaining how she had survived her apparent death in the movie, and why she couldn't change back to her normal self. She appear in Disney italian comic stories in eache her version where is called Grimilde.
* A Brazilian story named "O Feitiço Virou Contra a Feiticeira" featuring Magica De Spell shows Magica trying to use The Witch's apples to put Scrooge McDuck and everyone else in the Money Bin to sleep so she could easily steal the Number One Dime. The apples were left at the bin's door, but Scrooge decided to sell the apples rather than eating them. Searching for consolation after defeat, Magica visits Mad Madam Mim and they eat a pie. They both go to sleep after she tells Magica she made the pie with apples bought from Scrooge's nephews.
* In a portion of the Disney film that was never completed, the Evil Queen was to have captured the Prince who wakes Snow White. In this scene, she was also to have made the skeletons in the dungeon dance in order to frighten him. This would later inspire the dungeon scene in Sleeping Beauty when Maleficent mocks Prince Philip.
* In both versions of the nighttime show Fantasmic! in Disneyland, the Queen plans to get rid of Mickey Mouse by changing his dream into a "nightmare Fantasmic." She mixes a spell and becomes the Witch in a similar way to the movie. She calls on a host of other villains, including Ursula, Cruella de Vil, Scar, Judge Claude Frollo, Jafar, Hades, Chernabog, and Maleficent. Eventually, Mickey destroys all the villains and the Queen is the last to be destroyed before Maleficent completely dies.
* The Evil Queen also appears at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as a meetable character.
* The Evil Queen was featured in the Disney Interactive game, Villains' Revenge as one of the four primary villains who had altered the endings of their stories. She put the seven dwarves and Snow White to sleep and change the Dwarves' cottage into a giant apple-like house. The player had to mix potions to free the prince so the story could be complete. The queen returned again and battled the player, firing magical spells. After losing to the player, she retreats into her house where she realises how ugly she is in her disguise and perishes, breaking her magic mirror.
* Except for an image which shows her as the hag on the Snow White podium, The Queen is one of the few major Disney villains that do not appear in the Kingdom Hearts series in person. Other major villains that do not appear in the series whatsoever include Cruella de Vil, Lady Tremaine, Gaston and Shere Khan. She may appear in the Upcoming game, Birth by Sleep due to her world making it's first appearance.