User Reviews

This is not really a movie. It's a two-minute short produced for Dutch theme park De Efteling, and featured in its own tiny castle at the park. It features the troubles of Snow White's stepmother (she of fairytale fame) in killing off her dear relative.

For what it is, this is a moody and creepy piece of work, finely acted by Marianne Vloetgraven (with the help of clever makeup and special effects) and directed by Dennis Bots, who previously made the Efteling-inspired student film 'Hugo' (1996). The film can only really be done justice when projected in its own building, which is probably also the only place you will see it.

This movie is part of a fairytale portretted in the Efteling (which is an amusementpark in the Netherlands). In the Efteling they build a small castle and a cave, in the cave lies snowwhite in her glass coffin, and in the castle you'll find the mirror of the evil stepmother of snowwhite. In the castle you'll hear a man telling the story of Snowwhite and when he's saying that the Queen is going to her room to ask the mirror if she's at last the fairest of them all (She has just been told that Snowwhite is dead), the wind starts to blow in the castle (ok, it's just a ventilator or something, but who cares :-)) and the mirror turns out to be some kind of tv screen (don't know much about the technique and stuff) and you'll see the queen in the mirror (like she's in front of it) asking "Mirror mirror on the wall, now who's the fairest of them all?" (in Dutch of course, after all it's in a Dutch amusementpark). And when the mirror answers that altough she is beautiful, Snowwhite is thousand times more beautiful. When the Queen hears that, she transforms to the ugly witch she actually is and screams in unbelief "No that can't be true, you have to be mistaken!! Snowwhite is DEAD, do you hear me, she's DEAD!!! It can't be true, Revenge, Revenge, Revenge" and then the mirror 'explodes' and you can hear the mirror say that snowwhite now lives with the seven dwarfs... The transformation off the queen is beautiful but scary, especially for the small kids. Finally a fairytale like they should be (and like they were in the beginning) scary! I just love it, and I almost always go to the castle when I visit the Efteling

"Snowwhite" is produced by the Dutch themepark "De Efteling" as a very powerfull visual and audial effect in it's Fairy-tale wood. Up entrance of a small castle in the wood visitors see a beautifull mirror hanging on the wall and hear the story of Snowwhite. Then suddenly the mirror starts to do it's trick: We see the evil stephmother standing in front of the mirror (The mirror is a highly sophisticated plasma screen) asking it who is the prettiest in the land. When the mirror tells the stephmother that it's not she but Snowwhite who is the most beautifull person in the land, the stephmother becomes MORE than angry. With powerfull and scary soundeffects and light effects all alround the castle the morphs into a mean old witch and shouts that it cannot be true, and that "Snowwhite is DEAD!" (After all, she thought she'd just taken care of that...). Her anger is to much even for the poor honest mirror and it cracks when the witch lays here hand on it's surface. With a loud boom and a flash of light the mirror changes it's view and we see the wonderfull Snowwhite living happily with the Seven Dwarves.

The entire show lasts for something close to two minutes, and it is without a doubt one of the best visualisations of a fairy tale in a themepark anywhere in the world. Marianne Vloetgraven does an excellent job as a witch. De Efteling's Snowwhite goes fare beyond the standard Disneyfication of stories by presenting the story to kids and parents in all it's evil glory. The Mirror is a wonder of technique. It can talk, has beautifull glowing gems around it and the projection looks very realistic. The entire show is in some kind of cool Dolby Digital Surround, and the added theming by the castle and extra effects (like wind and light) add to the total experience. Great work. I love every second of it. Snowwhite is real magic.