Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs / Referenced By

Being cornerstone in the history of animation, Disney's first animated feature has had its share of parodies and tributes in media. For the Referenced by... page for the tale the film adapts see Snow White.

Examples:

open/close all folders

Advertising

A Duracell battery commercial from 1989 parodies the film's climax with a fairy tale called "The Sleeping Princess", by having the titular princess sleep in a glass case for four years, and be awakened by a prince.

Anime

Doraemon: Nobita and the Galaxy Super-express: One of the many worlds explored by the Galaxy Express is the Fairy-Tale Planet, where Shizuka gets to partake in a Fractured Fairy Tale version of Snow White... among six other participants. Shizuka's Snow White outfit in the manga is clearly based on the Disney adaptation instead of the fairy-tale, puffy sleeves and blue cape included.

Asian Animation

Bread Barbershop: In "Bread and Baguette, Part 2", after Bread's barbershop goes out of business, Choco, his cashier, gets a job at an amusement park called Bakery Land and greets guests as they arrive. Her mascot clothing is the same as the clothing worn by Snow White.
In episode 47 of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Mighty Little Defenders, Weslie and Wolffy are trapped in a fairy tale world and see Snow White, who has eaten the poisoned apple and fallen unconscious. She's wearing the blue and yellow dress she wears in the Disney film.

Comic Books

Lucky Luke: In the album Bride of Lucky Luke, there's the whole arc with the kidnapping of Jenny O'Sullivan by the Dalton brothers, which directly references the Disney film. While being captive, Jenny has the Daltons clean up their hideout and do menial tasks. Jenny, Jack, William and Averell sing "Whistle While You Work" while working. Finally, Jenny outright nicknames Joe "Grumpy", and he acts quite like Grumpy too in reaction to the menial tasks and the dominance of Jenny over his brothers.

Comic Strips

Off the Mark:
Sherman's Lagoon: This strip has Sherman singing "Heigh-Ho". When Ernest asks why, Sherman admits that he ate a dwarf the other day.
Mutts: This strip has a shelter worker telling Tom-Tom, one of the cats there, that "someday your prince will come." Tom-Tom replies, "I'd settle for a happy peasant."
Pearls Before Swine: This strip has Rat telling Goat that when people bore him, he distracts himself by trying to remember the order that the Seven Dwarfs marched in.
In For Better or for Worse, when a young April is having trouble going to sleep, Elizabeth tells her to pretend she's Snow White sleeping in the glass case the Dwarfs made for her.

Films — Animation

At the end of The Lion King 1 ½, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are among the many Disney characters who enter the theater to see the titular movie after Timon's mother rewinds it.
In Oliver & Company, during the film's climactic rescue, Dodger tells Tito to hotwire a winch to snag the chair Jenny is tied to. When Tito refuses at first due to the many times he's been electrocuted, Georgette encourages him, and he sings "Heigh-Ho" before doing so.
Ralph Breaks the Internet: Snow White and Grumpy appear in Oh My Disney.
Robin Hood (1973) reuses some animation from the film. One scene in the "Phony King of England" song has Maid Marian dance with some of the film's characters just like how Snow White dances with the Dwarfs.
Snow White and the dwarfs appear briefly in Shrek. Snow White becomes a supporting character in Shrek the Third, where she leads an assault on Prince Charming by summoning woodland creatures to the tune of "Immigrant Song".
- In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, a bandolier of poisoned apples can be seen in Jack Horner’s arsenal of magical weaponry.
Wish (2023): Given that the film is a celebration of Disney's 100th anniversary, there are multiple references to the studio's first feature.
- The film opens with the words "A Walt Disney Feature Production" superimposed over golden curtain, mimicking the film's own opening. The font for the end credits is also taken from it.
- Asha's seven friends are all based on the Seven Dwarfs. Each has a name that starts with the first letter of the corresponding dwarf's, similar clothing with a similar color scheme, and a similar personality. To wit: Dahlia is Doc, Gabo is Grumpy, Simon is Sleepy, Hal is Happy, Safi is Sneezy, Bazeema is Bashful, and Dario is Dopey.
  Gabo: Now you know why I'm grumpy!
- A wishing well at Asha's cottage alludes to the one Snow White wished into.
- As Magnifico is sucked into his staff, his face resembles the Slave in the Mirror for a single frame.

Films — Live-Action

9 to 5: Violet's Imagine Spot of how she would kill Mr. Hart has her dressed as Snow White, being helped to poison his coffee by animated woodland critters.
Annie Hall: Alvy remarks that he had a crush on the Wicked Queen. This is followed by an animated scene of the two of them together.
Carry On Emmannuelle: Leyland compares the sight of Emile and Emmannuelle in bed together to "Snow White meets The Incredible Shrinking Man".
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022): Sneezy is one of the Toons that have been kidnapped and "bootlegged" by the Valley Gang.
Citizen Kane: Word of God said that the opening zoom-in on Xanadu was modeled after the opening shot of the Queen's castle.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Wanda-838's two sons are shown watching Snow White in the climax when America Chavez creates another portal to their reality. This is quite fitting, considering Wanda-616 is basically an evil witch at this point.
Gremlins:
- In the first movie, some Gremlins break into a movie theater, turn on Snow White, and sing along to "Heigh-Ho".
- In Gremlins 2: The New Batch, a projectionist reports of Gremlins breaking into the projection room, and trying to force him to play Snow White.
Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird: When Big Bird lives with the Dodos, he tries to play pretend with Donnie and Marie, specifically having himself play Snow White, and Donny and Marie as the dwarfs, leading to this exchange;
Big Bird: Let's play make-believe. I'll be Snow White.
Donny: But you're not Snow White.
Marie: You're bright yellow!
Donnie: Yeah!
Big Bird: Well, and you can be the Seven Dwarfs!
Donny: But we're not Dwarfs!
Marie: We're... birds!
(Donny and Marie laugh.)
Big Bird: I said we could just make believe, you know, pretend, use your imagination!
Donny: Oh, okay. I'll pretend I'm Donny!
Marie: And I'll pretend I'm Marie!
Vanilla Sky: David calls the board members of the media conglomerate he runs "The Seven Dwarfs".
Who Framed Roger Rabbit:
- Word of God is that Judge Doom's weasel henchmen were conceived as evil counterparts to the Seven Dwarfs.
- The Dwarfs, Snow White and the Queen are briefly seen in the Toontown sequence.
- Dopey appears among the crowd of Toons in the final scene.
In Hold On! (1966), Cecilie tells Lindquist a made-up story of Herman singing to the birds and squirrels in a forest. Lindquist is skeptical, saying it sounds like something from a Disney movie he saw once.

Literature

In I Think I Love You, Petra thinks that her pale skin and dark hair makes her look like Snow White in her glass coffin.
The Discworld dwarfs sometimes have names like Doc or Bashfulsson. They also have a tendency to sing "Hi-ho!" underground.

Live-Action TV

The The Brady Bunch episode "Snow White and the Seven Bradys" has the family put on a play of Snow White for the children's retiring teacher. While the play isn't an adaptation of the Disney version, they utilize some Disney exclusive elements like the names of the dwarfs and the Queen only attempting to kill Snow once with the apple.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: In "Josh Is Going To Hawaii!", Rebecca finally realizes how much harm she's been causing the people around her and has a fantasy sequence featuring herself as an "evil witch queen" (who bears a striking resemblance to the Evil Queen's "old hag" disguise) and her romantic rival, Valencia, as a Princess Classic who speaks in a manner similar to Snow White.
Full House:
- In "Just One of the Guys", the girls' cousin Steve (guest star Kirk Cameron) tends to baby Michelle asking her, "Are you hungry, sleepy, grumpy...Bashful, Dopey, Sneezy, Doc?"
- In "The Seven-Month Itch, Part One", after some fog causes the plane flight and Stephanie's first trip to Disneyland to be cancelled, Danny tries to cheer her up and get her mind off of it, only to inadvertently remind her when he mentions her feelings like "grumpy" and "sleepy".
- Snow White is prominently featured in the two-part episode "The House Meets the Mouse".
The George Lopez Show: In "God Needles George", Benny tells George that the "Disneyland" she took him to visit as a kid was really a church carnival. When George claims that he saw Disney characters, Benny counters, "Those dwarfs you were hugging? They were just dwarfs."
On How I Met Your Mother, Robin is said to have a problem with the Dwarfs, specifically Doc. "He has a medical degree. Why's he hanging out with a bunch of miners?"
In the Yes, Dear episode, "Who's on First?", when Kim and Greg attempt to potty-train Sammy, they let him pick out his first pair of big-boy underwear. Sammy picks a pair of Snow White panties, much to Greg's disapproval, leading to this exchange:
Kim: He likes to watch Snow White.
Greg: Well, could you throw in a Batman tape every once in a while?
Young Sheldon: In "Bible Camp and a Chariot of Love", when asked to name the 12 Apostles, Billy Sparks names the seven Dwarfs instead.

Puppet Shows

This was spoofed by a few Muppet sketches on Sesame Street, notably in one of Kermit's news flashes.
Kermit: Dulcy, we got the wrong dwarfs again!

Video Games

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the Prince's Tunic features the blue, red, and gold color scheme of the prince's outfit in Snow White, and also has the same puffy white sleeves and a brown belt.
In Banjo-Kazooie, Grunty's reason for kidnapping Tooty for her beauty is similar to the Evil Queen's motives, and her first lines in the game are even a parody of the Queen's famous "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?". Like the Evil Queen, Grunty falls to her doom and gets crushed by a boulder at the end of the game (though unlike the Evil Queen, Grunty survives).
In the Bonkers Licensed Game for the Sega Genesis, Snow White's apple is one of the five treasures at the Toon Museum that Bonkers must protect from Harry the Handbag and his gang of Raccoon Thieves.
In Castle of Illusion, Mizrabel's character model is based on the Evil Queen—both in her "hag" guise when she's old, and in her normal incarnation when she's becoming younger in the final battle. The remake takes it further by having her say she wants to be the fairest one of all.
Cuphead: A live-action storybook cutscene resembles the same cutscene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, from the part where it opens at the very beginning, all the way to the closing end of the story.
In the Jeopardy! Licensed Game for the NES, the "Frosty Flicks" category erroneously has "Snow White" as the correct answer to the following question; "In a Disney cartoon, she falls under the evil spell of Queen Malificent".^note
In LEGO Dimensions, the Gremlins Adventure World has a puzzle in which the player must explore the movie theater, and turn on Stud Silver and the Seven Microfigures^note.
The Wicked Queen (in her hag form) appears as an enemy in Mickey Mouse II for the Game Boy.
Twisted Wonderland: The dorm Pomefiore is explicitly based on this film, with the leader Vil Schoenheit based on the Evil Queen and vice-leader Rook Hunt based on the huntsman. The dorm is said to be the first founded in the school, likely referencing the fact the film is the first Disney Animated Canon film.
In World of Illusion, the “Heigh-Ho” theme music from the movie plays whilst going through the spider-filled cavern. Also, given the glimmering gems in the background, the level is based on the mine the dwarfs work in.
A quest in The Witcher 3 has Geralt encounter a band of dwarves who stole a boat. Besides having similar colour schemes as the Disney dwarfs, Gaspard, one of the dwarves, even directly introduced himself by his nickname "Sleepy" during a dialogue tree in "The Isle of Mists". Ciri would later be found unconscious in a shack where the dwarves reside, and wakes up in a similar manner as in Snow White.

Web Animation

In Black Rhino Ranger's short "Take Out the Turkey", Trigger Happy sings "Heigh-Ho" on his way to hunt a turkey.

Western Animation

The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode, "Sonically Ever After" parodies the fairy tale as "Snow Height and the Seven Squatty Guys", with Snow Height resembling a taller and uglier version of the Disney incarnation of Snow White. Instead of being the fairest in the land, Snow Height is the tallest.
The Animaniacs (1993) episode "Cute First (Ask Questions Later)" acts as an unofficial sequel of sorts to the film, where Snow White is now the villain because Dot Warner is now the cutest in the land. Because it is a fabulously cheap cartoon, there are two dwarfs instead of seven.
Arthur: In "Arthur meets Mister Rogers", Arthur, embarrassed to be seen with Fred Rogers in public, disguises himself and D.W. in long beards. D.W.'s itchy beard makes her sneeze and Arthur acting weird trying to pretend nothing's wrong. Buster encounters them without recognizing Arthur and D.W., and asks Mr. Rogers how he knows Dopey and Sneezy.
Garfield and Friends: The two-part U.S. Acres short "Snow Wade and the 77 Dwarfs" is a parody of the film.
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: In "Nursery Crimes", Billy and Mandy get sucked into a fairy-tale world, and Mandy encounters Snow White and the disguised Queen while searching for Billy. The Queen absent-mindedly eats the apple and knocks herself out before getting beaten by the dwarfs.
Family Guy: In the Disney-fied universe from "Road to the Multiverse", Lois is depicted as being similar to Snow White, while Herbert is depicted as an old hag offering an apple.
Goof Troop: In "Midnight Movie Madness", Max tries to convince Goofy to let him see a horror film called The Mutilator. Goofy objects, telling Max "Remember that old witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Ah-hyuck! You were so scared, you had hiccups for a week!"
Looney Tunes:
- In The Lone Stranger and Porky, the Lone Stranger talks to his Indian friend Pronto through a television/mirror, asking "Magic mirror on the wall, who needs my help most of all?"
- The infamous short Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs is a jazzy version of the story with an African-American cast.
Mickey Mouse (2013): The episode "Wish upon a Coin" specifically spoofs the "I'm Wishing" song.
Mike, Lu & Og: The episode "Sleeping Ugly" has Queeks accidentally awaken an ugly princess with a kiss. Her dress is even styled and colored like that worn by Snow White.
In the Muppet Babies (1984) episode, "Snow White and the Seven Muppets", after seeing Snow White, the babies put on their own play, with Piggy and Skeeter competing to play the lead role.
Pinky and the Brain: In "Pinky and the Brain... and Larry", Pinky's answer to the episode's Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering? gag is, "I think so, Larry... and, um, Brain... but how can we get seven dwarves to shave their legs?"
The Powerpuff Girls (2016): The episode "Once Upon a Townsville" which is a spoof of fairy tale princess archetypes has Mama Witch's Poison Apples stand say it was established in 1937, the year Disney’s version came out.
Robot Chicken
- A sketch from "Punctured Jugular" has Snow White awaken when the Seven Dwarfs arrive home. When she sees the Dwarfs, she charges them $10.00 each to sleep with her, and $100.00 for all of them to do it at once. The Dwarfs are more than happy to pay her.
- A short sketch from "Joint Point" has a prince kissing a sleeping princess, after which a bluebird repeatedly yells, "Date rape!"
- A sketch from "Stone Cold Steve Cold Stone" has the Evil Queen in her hag guise offer Snow White an apple, only for Snow White to ask her if the apple is organic, as she refuses to eat apples unless she knows it's free of hormones or pesticides. The Evil Queen then stabs Snow White to death.
- A later sketch from the same episode has the more "traditional" Disney princesses, Snow White included, going to war against the more "progressive" princesses.
- A sketch from "May Cause Bubbles Where You Don't Want 'em" has the Evil Queen asks the Magic Mirror who the fairest of them all is. The Magic Mirror tells her "Big Butt Mary in Rivertown", to which the Evil Queen replies "My god, it's magnificent!"
Rugrats (1991):
- In the episode, "Grandpa Moves Out", Tommy and Angelica have to stay in the lobby with Mildred, Flushing Waters' resident surrogate grandmother while Stu, Didi, and Drew visit Lou. Mildred shows Tommy and Angelica pictures of her seven grandchildren, who apparently were named after the Seven Dwarfs. She remembers the names of the first six (Doc, Happy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Dopey, and Bashful), but forgets the name of the seventh. When Angelica asks her, "Sleepy?", Mildred misunderstands and falls asleep.
- The first of the two Direct-to-DVD "Tales From the Crib" specials is a parody of the film, with Susie in the role of Snow White, Angelica in the role of the Evil Queen, and Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Dil, Kimi, and Spike in the roles of the Seven Dwarfs.
In Runaway Brain, Mickey is playing the video game version, featuring Dopey and the Evil Witch. The score also includes part of "Whistle While You Work."
The Simpsons
- In "Selma's Choice", the kids go to Duff Gardens and meet "the seven Duffs": Edgy, Dizzy, Surly, Tipsy, Queasy, Sleazy and Remorseful.
- In "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds", the names of some of Santa's Little Helper and She's the Fastest's puppies include "Sleepy", "Dopey", "Grumpy", and "Grumpy II".
- The second segment of "Four Great Women and a Manicure" parodies the Snow White story. To avoid comparisons to Disney's version, Lisa gives her own names to the dwarfs: Hungry (Homer), Crabby (Moe), Drunky (Barney), Greedy (Mr. Burns), Lenny, Kearney and Doc-tor Hibbert.
  "Ho-Heigh, Ho-Heigh, it's time to say goodbye. If Disney sues, we'll claim fair use."
- The Couch Gag for "Fland Canyon" is a tribute to the films of Walt Disney, with Marge's scene being a parody of Snow White.
Steven Universe: In "Back to the Moon", Steven names the leader of the Ruby squadron "Doc".
Trollhunters: Claire's Juliet costume in "The Battle of Two Bridges" bears a strong resemblance to Snow White.
VeggieTales: In the Silly Song "Dance of the Cucumber", Junior Asparagus (who is wearing Mickey Mouse ears) asks his father to take a picture of him with Larry. He tells him to make it quick, because "I think the dwarfs have your mother confused for someone else."
In the very first Wacky Races short, "See-Saw to Arkansas", the Ant Hill Mob disguise themselves as the Seven Dwarfs, and the first person who encounters them is Penelope Pitstop, to whom Clyde gives complicated directions. When Dick Dastardly catches up to them, he says, "I'm Snow White. So tell me where the highway is!"
The Yogi's Treasure Hunt episode "Snow White and the Seven Treasure Hunters" has Penelope Pitstop as Snow White.
In the Yogi Bear short "Snow White Bear", Jellystone Park is visited by the dwarfs, who seem to lack any sense of direction, as well as by Snow White herself and the queen.

Referenced By / Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Examples:

Previous

Index

Next

Referenced By / Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Edit Locked

Examples:

Previous

Index

Next