Ninety-nine percent of all myths, fables and folk tales are reconstructions of original stories from way back in the fog of prehistory. We have been telling these same stories ever since. Sure, we lost the gods thing, but gave ourselves super heroes instead.
Back in my university days, in both my mythology and writing classes, my classmates and I would quip that there are only 8 story plots available to any writer.. Some said, no, there are 12. Whatever. The thing is that all we do when we write a new story, is to rehash an old story. Everything from the boy loves girl, gets girl; girl loves boy, boy dies in the war; good kid becomes a hero; a god suffers for the betterment of humanity; a young person goes on a hero’s journey; a fatherless boy finds his father; a young man kills his father, marries the widow, his mother; a young person refuses to compromise his values, and so forth. It’s all a mix and remix.
The plots, however, are the entertainment feature in what is meant to be a learning experience. To be succinct, stories are teachers. The teaching end of it lies in the theme. What is the story really about? The boy kisses a girl, or the inner working on why the boys kisses her?
Here’s an example. Snow White. Originally titled Little Snow White by the Brothers Grimm. Disney made it into a charming animated film back in 1937. Disney is about to release a new, live action, version on the 21st of March. Before I get into the issues I have with Disney and both the animated and live-action versions, let’s examine the story. The Grimm’s story, not the movies.
If you have read the 1815 edition, which is the first published edition of the Brother’s story collection, good for you. You know the first edition is a bit different than the second edition of Snow White. The second Brothers Grimm makes the mother a step-mother. Disney also used that second edition in his 1937 film. The story gets the romantic treatment when the prince is made the rescuer. In the original, it is the bio mother who attempts to kill her child. The prince? He’s rather passive and obsessed. He does not kiss Snow White and wake her. So what is the theme, or themes of Snow White? The destructive, smothering mother who does not want to see her child grow up, and the importance of ordinary people in saving this girl’s life.
The Celts also have a version of this story, titled Gold-tree and Silver-tree. The plot line also features a gorgeous princess and her jealous mother who attempts to kill her. That theme is the same. The saviors in Snow White are working men, and in Gold-tree and Silver-tree, it's a smart woman. In both stories, the titled leaders are either absent or ineffective.
I hear you, you just asked me if I am serious about that theme; smothering mothers and the unexpected heroes? Yes. Which means these are not really love stories. They are horror stories. About narcissist mothers who turn psycho. What else do you call a “wicked mother?” The question is, who will rescue these princesses? A prince is what Disney tells us in his 1937 animated film. But this is not what the Grimm’s tell us. Nor is it in the Celtic narrative. No princes come to the rescue. And that is the message of the story. Depend on working people to see you through bad times.
I address this issue because both these stories are in my book, Leadership in Literature. Ergo, I’ve done a deep dive into them. And now Disney is releasing a new Snow White. So it caught my interest.
You may have heard that there is a big hullabaloo about this new production. All sorts of nasty things have been said about it, without anyone having seen the film yet. For those of you who have not followed this madness, the film is live action, not animated. It has cast Rachel Zegler, in the title role. This is one of the controversial points. According to some complainers, Zegler is not white enough to play Snow White. Nor have they whitened her up through make-up or digital effects. However, I don’t think that is the real problem. Fact is, Zegler is a real American girl, and a musical theatre artist. So I think the naysayers are missing something here. But so too is the production team. More on that below.
Secondly, you know a production is in trouble when it takes too long to “get it right.” The opening was postponed twice. Rumor has it that the film is too “woke.” Well, we all have to wait and see about that angle. If any of us decide to see the film.
It is true that Zegler is a typical progressive in an industry full of progressives. There’s a big yawn right there. Actors that become too vocal about their political leanings cannot be separated from their politics. And that is downright dumb on their part. This film should be a no-brainer, that folks will want to see it. However, if the progressives have thickened it with a “message” that makes it sluggish, it is bound to fail. Because no one wants to be preached to in a movie.
Disney has grown silly about this. Maybe it would help them if they moved out of California, because the Disney people need to understand that most of their customers live outside of that progressive state. They want to see an engaging story. If they want to hear a sermon about their shortcomings, they can go to church.
That said, I have issues with the way Disney treated the story back in 1937. Disney was a romantic. Therefore, his crew, the folks who wrote the script, missed the point of the tale. The heroes in this story are the nine working men, seven that are little men, in stature only, plus the huntsman, who cannot bring himself to kill Snow White, and, the workman in the prince's castle, who is the guy that actually wakes the princess up. That is so much more interesting than some pasty prince kissing a beautiful princess. And presto, they live happily ever after. How dull is that?
The Grimm’s ending shows a sense of humor. More of that, please.
You see, I am a big fan of working men, and working people in general. This is a theme I have visited before, in The Builder’s Daughter, and in An Homage to Engineers. These are the folks who built, in the 13th century, and then fixed, in the 21st century, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. No princes were involved.
Learning about leadership from classic stories is a very fine way to explain just how leadership actually works. Leadership in Literature doesn’t flinch when it comes to the facts, the truth, that some leaders are evil, like the queen mother, but that doesn’t mean they are any less effective. The evil queen in Snow White is an excellent example about an effective leader who is a bad person. On the other side of this story, you will learn that the prince is quite ineffective. It is Disney’s scriptwriter that made him a darling of a man.
This is not about not liking princes. The point I make here is that not all princes are effective leaders. A prince needs to know more than how to kiss a princess.
I read Little Snow White in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Grimm Brothers. So I know what Disney did. They kept the core of the story, but stepped back from the real heroes. The dwarfs were turned into cute caricatures instead of the courageous and compassionate men they are. In the 2025 version, no small men actors are cast as the dwarfs. They are CGI generated. You got that right, no actors were hired to play these characters.
Another bad call by the production team. Say, didn't the big Hollywood strike have to do with this very issue; of using generated images instead of real actors?
The Gold-tree and Silver-tree story is from the book, Celtic Fairy Tales by Jacob Joseph. It too is a horror story. No one has made this into a movie. Too bad. Because it too tells us a story about an effective, but evil, leader, who attempts to murder her daughter. There is a more active father in this story, but he too is ineffective when dealing with his wife. Gold-tree, the daughter, is married off to a young king, but her mother manages to kill her anyway. In this story, a highly competent woman saves Gold-tree, and kills her evil mother. She is a superhero!
That is the problem I have with productions from Disney, in that they turn these stories into romantic idiocy when they cut out the important stuff. Like who actually rescues these two princesses. Why is it that an extraordinary, ordinary person cannot be front and center?
As I retell the stories in the book, I put these awesome people in the middle of the action; Where they belong.
Half the stories in Leadership in Literature feature a woman who is badass. And these outstanding characters have been ignored by Hollywood and other production teams around the world. For some reason, folks in the movie business may talk a good game when it comes to women as leaders, but disappear when it is time to walk the walk.
Why is that? Where are the women characters who are simply smart and competent, and take care of business without being exaggerated or snarky? They kill the killer, and then take care of the next customer.
Leadership in Literature will be published before the end of the year. No exact date as yet.
Let me know if you see the new Snow White.
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