Warning: This article includes minor spoilers for Disney’s Snow White (2025)!
The live-action remake of Snow White might have made some daring choices, like getting rid of Prince Florian, but they would never have even considered using one dark (yet surprisingly sound) theory about the original 1937 film. Live-action remakes of Disney animated movies seem to be the focus of the production company, and the most recent addition is Snow White. Based on the first feature-length animated Disney movie, the movie tells of a young princess named Snow White who’s fleeing from the Evil Queen – her stepmother who wants to kill her – when she meets seven dwarfs in the woods.
While Snow White made some big changes that modernized the story, it maintained the hopeful, optimistic spirit that most people take away from the 1937 film. However, that understanding of the animated film might be unwarranted. One detail from the original Snow White movie has changed the way I see the movie forever, and I’m not the only one. If a dark theory going around the internet is true, Snow White might actually be ᴅᴇᴀᴅ at the end of the original movie – something the live-action movie never would’ve considered replicating.
The Onscreen Text In Snow White Says She’s Beautiful Even In Death
The Text Could Reveal A Shocking Truth About Snow White’s Ending
The animated Snow White movie uses written words on тιтle cards to tell the story, making the text just as integral to the story as the scenes. One тιтle card towards the end inspires a dark theory that even the live-action movie wouldn’t consider. After the dwarfs find Snow White unconscious, the written text reads that she’s “so beautiful, even in death, that the dwarfs could not find it in their hearts to bury her…” This text could be referring to the curse being called “Sleeping Death,” or it could reveal that Snow White actually died from eating the poisoned apple.
Most kids wouldn’t want to find out that their favorite Disney Princess actually dies in the end, as that defies the very Disney idea that happily ever afters exist.
The latter is so unbelievably dark for a Disney animated movie that I could never see them confirming it. Even The Black Cauldron, arguably the darkest Disney animated movie, has a happy ending. The closest thing I’ve seen to a sad ending in their animated films is The Fox and the Hound, which is bittersweet rather than entirely depressing. I couldn’t even see the live-action remake going in the death direction, either. Most kids wouldn’t want to find out that their favorite Disney Princess actually dies in the end, as that defies the very Disney idea that happily ever afters exist.
Snow White’s Death In Disney’s 1937 Movie Fits With The Brothers Grimm Story
The Original Fairytale Is Much Darker Than The Animated Disney Movie
Although it seems out of place for a Disney animated movie (and even the live-action remake), the theory about Snow White’s death in the 1937 animated movie fits well with the source material. The Brothers Grimm story is pretty bleak. Snow White is only seven years old when her stepmother orders the huntsman to murder her and cut out her lungs and liver. She’s forced into servitude by the dwarfs. Rather than falling into a cursed sleep state, they overtly say that she dies from eating the apple. She nearly dies twice before that, too.
Then, the prince, who has never met her before the ending, literally tries to buy her from the dwarfs. Ultimately, Snow White only comes back to life when the piece of poisoned apple in her throat dislodges. Given the source material and the other fairytales that inspired Disney princesses, Snow White dying in the animated movie wouldn’t seem entirely out of the realm of possibility.
How This Snow White Detail Changes The Original Movie’s Ending
The Ending Of The 1937 Snow White Has A Different Meaning
If Snow White dies when she eats the apple, the entire ending of the original Snow White has a different meaning. The story would be about her dying and going to the afterlife. The prince would be the happier, less scary version of the Grim Reaper. He could have visited her prior to her death, knowing it was coming, to make her more comfortable with him. Alternatively, death could have taken the form of the prince she met earlier in the movie.
If he’s taking her soul away, many parts of the ending fall into place. Snow and the Prince’s choice to leave the dwarfs would make more sense. They’re going to the afterlife, where the living can’t dwell. Her tearful goodbye seems appropriate if she could never come back to see them again. They also leave on a white horse. In the Book of Revelation, death rides a pale horse, which Walt Disney probably would’ve known based on his religious affiliations. Moreover, the gold glowing kingdom made out of clouds at the end seems like a thinly veiled allusion to heaven.
This interpretation of Snow White would make the live-action remake more different than most people recognize. At the end of the live-action Snow White, she takes back her kingdom with the man she loves and her people by her side. It’s a traditional happy ending. Meanwhile, if the dark Snow White theory is correct, the murderous Evil Queen is still in charge of the kingdom, and Snow White is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.
