Wikia

The Forest

Background Information
Feature films	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Television programs
Video games	Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Park attractions	Snow White's Scary Adventures
Designer	Albert Hurter Ferdinand Hovarth Gustaf Tenggren
Inspiration	Art by Gustave Dore and Arthur Rackham
Other Information
Other names
Location
Ruler(s)
Owner(s)
Inhabitants	Forest Animals Vultures
Visitors	Humbert the Huntsman, Snow White, The Queen, The Prince, Terra, Aqua, Ventus
Final state

[Source]

The Forest is a location featured in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Humbert the Huntsman, at the Queen's orders, leads Snow White to a secluded glade in the forest, where he intends to kill her; however, he shows mercy and pleads that the princess flee. As Snow White runs through the forest, it appears to become hostile towards her; an owl screeches at her, trees resemble leering faces, branches become talons snatching at her dress and floating logs become crocodiles snapping at her heels. After collapsing in fright, Snow White encounters the forest animals, and the forest seems less scary to Snow White, now that she has friends with her. They take her to the Cottage of the Seven Dwarfs. The dwarfs return home from a day at their mine and, taking pity on the princess, allow her to stay.

The Queen, after transforming into the Witch, leaves her castle and, that night, makes her way through a barren, rocky area of the forest to the cottage in order to kill Snow White herself; on the way, she is noticed and followed by two sinister vultures. After the dwarfs leave for the mine, the Witch approaches the cottage and succeeds in poisoning Snow White; however, she is then chased by the dwarfs and animals through a hostile, rocky landscape while a storm rages. Reaching a cliff, the Witch attempts to crush her pursuers with a boulder, but is thwarted by a thunderbolt which throws her (and the boulder) to the rocks down below. Snow White is placed in a glass coffin, in the middle of a peaceful glade, where she is resurrected by the Prince's kiss.

Development

Like all visual elements of the film, the forest was designed primarily by Albert Hurter, who, it was felt, was the only artist able to depict the fairytale landscape Walt Disney desired; rocks, as designed by any other artist, were "not fairy tale types of stuff".^[1] Designs for the forest show the influence of Arthur Rackham, whose famous depictions of dryads and other tree-like creatures are likely to have inspired the faces Snow White sees as she flees in terror.^[2]

The sequence, which, along with the Queen's transformation, was originally cut from the film by UK censors, relied primarily on staging rather than character animation^[3] to engage audiences. Ferdinand Hovarth drew many sketches for the sequence, and was responsible for the crocodile-like logs; among Hovarth's ideas not used in the final film is Snow White's fear taking the form of a gigantic, spectral wolf, which pursues her.^[1] The forest as it appears in Snow White's nightmare, and in the sequences with the Witch and Vultures, was partly inspired by the etchings of Gustave Dore, which feature similarly knarled, twisted trees and rocky landscapes. Walt Disney stressed that the forest should appear differently as the Witch moves through it in order to stress the differences between the Queen and Snow White.^[2]

Trivia

Early trailers of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep show Terra fighting an Unversed near the cottage. However in the final product, He doesn't venture beyond the area where Snow White is picking flowers and only journeys to the Queen's Castle.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 John Canemaker, "Before the Animation Begins: The Life and Times of Disney inspirational Sketch Artists" (Hyperion, New York, 1999) ISBN 0-7868-6152-5
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Robin Allan, "Walt Disney and Europe" (Indiana University Press, Indiana, 1999) ISBN 0-253-21353-3
↑ Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation (Disney Editions, Italy, 1981) ISBN 078686070-7