Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow white was the first Disney princess. She was actually more than just the first princess, she was the star in the first of Disney's feature length films (1937) followed by Pinocchio (1940) then Fantasia (1941). Like with all the Disney princesses, the original story was changed somewhat. In the original the queen has 2 failed attempts at killing Snow White, before she succeeded with the poison apple, however in the film she only tries to kill her once. In the original she seems really young, I've seen a range of ages all really young, in the film she is around the age of 14 - a bit young to be marrying off?

The main thing I have noticed with the older princess movies in particular is they seem to fall in love a lot quicker. Snow White barely knew the prince, she'd only met him once and already he was "true loves kiss", not very realistic. The newer films seem to start with two people who are not particularly keen on one another, but get to know each other, then fall in love. 

Perhaps it's to do with the time the movies were made, or perhaps they wanted to stick more towards the original story line, or at least as much as possible. I think the criticism Disney faces from feminist groups may explain the change in tone. It took me a while to realise that this film was produced and released 2 years before the world war. Another notable thing is that many people married young and after a short amount of time, around the time the film was made - this was actually a common practise. In fact it was still a common practise when my grandmother married, she married my granddad soon after having met him (a few months).