Here's more on the 2 Snow White films: http://www.afi.co...

Here's more on the 2 Snow White films: http://www.afi.com/drop/AF/cover.html

A recent post by Ryan Dixon on Scriptshark.com, a popular blog for television writers, calls updating myths and fairytales "one of the hottest trends in the search for the next…'tent-pole.'" Dixon points out that "one of the more popular devices is to tell these well-known stories from the point of view of another character" and attributes this technique to Gregory Maguire, author of the novel upon which the Broadway musical "Wicked" is based. Another explanation for fairytales' popularity is the fact they are in the public domain – the perfect legal environment for a creative free-for-all.

It seems clear as a glass coffin that the Snow White story engages artists and audiences alike. And, while Disney and Singh and Sanders and Sondheim and Lapine and all the other artists who have offered their variations on this tale of good vs. evil may have something unique to share, perhaps the real basis for Snow White's popularity is that millions more consider the work to be their own, the story their parents read aloud to them at bedtime, the one that filled their dreams.

In this digital age does Snow White's return herald a new era of more intimate human connection? Or have social media created a new, exponentially greater oral tradition, where new Snow White postings on Facebook and Twitter become fair game for comment and new twists to the story emerge, recombine and go viral? Two explanations, both plausible. The Brothers Grimm would understand and, one suspects, approve.