Enchanted Tales: Snow White & Princess Castle

PreS-Gr 2—This cartoon version of Snow White opens with the heroine's mother pricking her finger and beginning to bleed. She picks up a bloody bit of snow, expressing her ultimate wish that her daughter will have skin as white as snow and lips as red as blood. As disturbing as this is, the tale goes on to feature bullying, several attempts at murder, and many poor decisions made by Snow White. Eventually, the evil stepmother succeeds in fooling the extremely gullible Snow White and puts her in a magical coma. Luckily, this evil spell is broken when Prince Charming creepily kisses what he thinks is Snow White's corpse. In "Princess Castle," seven-year-old Claire is left to babysit her infant sister. Instead of watching the baby like her mother irresponsibly instructed, Claire daydreams about losing her sister in a fairy tale. In this fairy-tale world, Claire teams up with a prince to rescue her sister from an evil queen. The plot is ridiculous and bizarre, from a neglectful parent to a kidnapping wicked queen. At one point, Claire sings a song to help her little sister fall asleep, but the voice that comes out of her mouth is clearly that of a grown woman. The animation in both stories is lackluster, with the most basic of images and colors. The dialogue in each is silly and often campy. Very young viewers who are looking for any kind of princess story may enjoy these, but there are better films available in this genre.—Jenny Ventling, Greene County Public Library, OH