The Story Behind Snow White's Prince...Buckethead?
Today I have some interesting details to share with you on the history of the Prince from Snow White…Prince Charming…or rather Prince…Buckethead?
Yeah, you may not have heard of that nickname before now, but we are definitely going to chat about that in just a bit. So, stick around for the history of Prince Charming surrounding Walt Disney’s 1934 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
It is no surprise that Disney films have often gotten some criticism for having flat princes without much character development in their few scenes. I personally have found that some of my favorite princess films actually have a well-developed princely character as well. I’m thinking the Beast…Flynn Rider…Aladdin…John Smith…. So many of them that for the most part came later in Disney’s movie-making history.
We all like to see characters with depth and uniqueness. Often the princes in Disney films were under-developed and thus, underrated. The film Snow White really did lack this, but as I have researched this subject, I have found that this was not the original intention of the story developers and animators.
Development on Snow White
Back in 1934, no one had created a feature length film in animation. It was an entirely new field—one of which Walt Disney was bravely willing enough to try.
With this in mind, many of the animators were venturing into new territory. They were highly aware that audiences could quickly disengage from a bunch of drawings playing on a big screen for over an hour. These drawings had to be spectacular and the story had to be compelling.
So, to start with a compelling story…and to introduce some of our main characters:
We have our heroine, a lonely but optimistic orphan, her evil stepmother of a queen who is originally looking for someone to love and marry her, and a prince from a neighboring land who is looking for his future queen. Walt had intentionally included the prince earlier in the story than the Grimm brothers had, since he originally only showed up randomly at the end of the fairy tale.
The story involving Snow White was pretty much solidified. However, this original treatment of the story had the evil queen seeking to not only be the most beautiful in the land, but have someone see her as the most beautiful and to marry her. Her eyes were set on the prince.
The prince was seeking to have a wife who would help him rule the land. He had heard tell of Snow White and that she lived in a neighboring land. He ventured away from his castle on a journey to meet his love.
It was upon entering the kingdom that the prince would meet Snow White. There is actually a 1938 comic that details this meeting, though I’m not 100% sure that this is how it would play out in the original story treatment. What is interesting about it though is that this comic was already in production before the film debuted. So, since we know that the prince’s tale was different throughout the story-writing process, could it not be that this comic just might show a bit of that difference?
This comic had a scene where Snow White was cleaning and daydreaming about meeting a prince. She forms a scarecrow-like man and places a bucket on top for his head—naming him her Prince Buckethead. The prince appears from behind and says that he doesn’t mind the nickname at all. This whole interaction creates an endearing first interaction.
Back to the concept story…The queen would immediately become jealous that Snow White, whom the Magic Mirror had already declared was more beautiful than she, had won the prince’s favor. It was this motivation, tied with that of wanting to be the most beautiful, that would cause her to send huntsman to kill Snow White.
The queen proposes marriage and the prince refuses. I don’t blame him. The angered queen orders him to be taken to the dungeon until he chooses to accept her proposal, simultaneously ensuring that the prince will not try to save Snow White from the huntsman. He is restrained in the dungeon next to skeletons of a former Prince named Oswald. Is this supposed to be some callback to Disney’s first main character—Oswald the Lucky Rabbit?
As a quick side note: For those familiar with the former Snow White and Her Scary Adventures attraction at the Disney parks… These dungeon scenes explain the ride taking SO much time in the queen’s dungeon, as much of the movie was going to take time in the dungeon amongst the skeletons. For more on that, there is a segment about it in our previous video on Disney dark rides.
Meanwhile, the princess has escaped to the woods and eventually to live with the dwarfs. Here, she sings “Someday My Prince Will Come” which actually had a dream sequence attached to it where Snow White would daydream about marrying the prince. Apparently the story sketches were combined into a short segment set to the song back in 1987 and shown at an event with guests and the animators. I wish I could find that, but alas, it has fallen into the void of Disney history.
If that wasn’t scary enough, as soon as the queen discovers the Snow White escaped, she hatches a plan to poison the princess, telling the prince of her plan and that only true loves kiss will wake her. She casts a spell to turn herself into an old hag and then FLOODS THE DUNGEON. This may seem a bit contradictory if the queen wanted to marry him, but it makes sense when you consider that she knew true loves kiss would awaken Snow White. Again proving the point that she cared more about securing her status as the most beautiful than loved.
As with so many Disney films, birds would come to rescue the prince. Freed from the dungeon, he fought his way out of the castle by way of dueling with the guards, swinging from chandeliers, and all sorts of general action hero-ness.
The prince, with the help of the animals, finds his way to Snow White. Rather than him kissing someone who had died as thought in the movie, he knows in this version that she is merely asleep and true love’s kiss will wake her. This makes that whole scene comes together much better and I wish it had stayed.
Why the Change?
The problem that the animators ultimately could not solve was how to animate a convincing male hero. They tried repeatedly and were just not satisfied with the outcome. The testing and reanimating was costing the studio more money and Walt deciding to lessen the Prince’s appearances in the film, focusing more on Snow White and her story.
After the success of Snow White, Walt put his artists back into school. He details that this allowed the animators to perfect their techniques and move on to even more techincally testing areas in animation.
The talents of the animators continued to grow in their new artform. Eventually, they got around to trying a prince again with the film Cinderella. And even more so, as many who love Disney know, a good idea never dies in the Walt Disney Company. By the time of Sleeping Beauty, the animators took another go at animating a convincing prince and pulled from their old stories to bring this prince to life. From the fun interactions with the horse before the prince meets the princess to the scene in a dungeon and the dance in the clouds, the animators finally got their scenes up on the big screen for audiences to experience.
And there you have the backstory of the Prince and his nickname of Prince Buckethead. So many interesting details there that I hope you enjoyed. Let me know what you thought in the comments.
And you if you have any idea where I can get my hands on that 1987 showing of the “Someday My Prince Will Come” segment…by all means reach out. I would very, much love love love to see that!
For More Like This:
History of Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage
Ken Anderson’s Dark Rides at Disneyland
Eleanor Audley: The Voice Behind Madame Leota, Lady Tremaine, and Maleficent