The American Dream: Walt Disney’s Fairy Tales

The relationship between the Disney and fairy tales is well known, stemming primarily from Disney’s first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Snow White elevates the importance of character; the triumph of the ordinary hero and the desire for relief from a current setting. Borne out of the Depression culture in the 1930s , these tenets are central to the narrative of the American Dream and feature in all of Disney’s fairy tales. However, mirroring socio-cultural change within American society, Disney’s fairy tale princesses and villains are now more emotionally complex, and the nature of the ‘happily ever after’ has shifted, evidencing a transformation in Disney fairy tale narratives.