The Legend of Snow White (白雪姫の伝説 Shirayuki Hime no Densetsu in Japanese, La leggenda di Biancaneve in Italian) is a 1994-1995 Japanese-Italian co-production anime based on the Grimm Brothers' most famous fairy tale, Snow White. It considerably expands Snow White's story over its 52 episodes, adding Fantasy elements much beyond the basic Fairy Tale scope.
It's a lovely day in the kingdom of the Emerald Valley, a beautiful princess is born. Her parents, King Conrad and Queen Isabelle, name her Snow White. The little girl grows loved, happy and healthy, and she is offered three pets on her fourth birthday: a puppy, a cat and a dove. Soon, however, Queen Isabelle falls ill and dies.
King Conrad marries Lady Chrystal and makes her the new Queen. Queen Chrystal turns out to be not only an evil, selfish, ambitious step-mother, she also practices the black arts of witchcraft. After the King departs for war, she makes Snow White's life a hell as she is jealous of her famed beauty after her magic mirror told her Snow White is the most beautiful woman in the whole kingdom.
Thanks to Queen Chrystal's huntsman being unable to follow the order to kill Snow White, the princess flees in the forest and ends up in a cosy little cottage, which is home to seven dwarves. She befriends them and eventually makes their life happier, gaining trusted allies to protect her from Queen Chrystal's wrath.
Not to be confused with The New Legend of Snow White.
The Legend of Snow White provides examples of:
- And Now You Must Marry Me: The introduction of Gobby the Goblin Prince sees him imprison Snow White to force her to marry him. But by the end of the episode he sets her free and undergoes a Heel–Face Turn.
- Death Is a Sad Thing: Unlike in most versions of the tale, Snow White's mother dies when she's four years old instead of in childbirth, leaving little Snow White to learn what death means. Her father and nurse find her packing a suitcase one day to go visit her mother and are forced to explain that she can't be visited and is never coming back.
- Defrosting Ice King: Woody the carpenter dwarf toward Snow White, in a similar vein to Disney's Grumpy – even though Goldie is the main grump of the dwarves, he warms up to Snow White more quickly.
- Dub Name Change: In the English dub, the dwarf who can talk to animals has his Meaningful Name changed from Pet to Vet, and the name of Snow White's Missing Mom is changed from Queen Isabelle to Queen Rosebud.
- Expy: The little people family Cathy belongs to are clearly based on The Borrowers, as they live by "borrowing" stuff to the humans (dwarves here) without permission. They give it back to them when it's of no use anymore.
- Forced Transformation: In one episode, Snow White's pets accidentally turn her into a rabbit with magic dew that they think will just make her understand their speech.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Queen Chrystal is both a Wicked Stepmother and Evil Sorceress.
- The Good King: King Conrad is the respected ruler of his kingdom, and he and Queen Isabelle are genuinely Good Parents.
- Grand Theft Me: Several times.
- The genie Mylarka takes control of Snow White's body to try to reach her lover Speck, the spirit of the magic mirror.
- The evil fog spirit Ronny takes control of all the goblins except Gobby to try to destroy the dwarves and bring Snow White to Queen Chrystal.
- Queen Chrystal isn't actually Queen Chrystal, but a demon who stole her body. And now wants Snow White's.
- Heel–Face Turn: Except for the fog monster Ronny and the Big Bad demon, all the characters who start out as antagonists end up becoming friends to Snow White and the dwarfs. Even Queen Chrystal.
- Official Couple: Snow White and the Prince live happily together after in the end.
- Our Elves Are Different: Elves are tiny winged beings, like fairies but smaller, who hatch from big rainbow-colored eggs, live near water and have water-based powers.
- Our Fairies Are Different: Fairies are child-sized winged females, sometimes with with insect-like antennae, who each have a specific power that they need to discover for themselves. Snow White and friends meet two: Mylfee the Wind Fairy and Flora the Flower Fairy.
- Our Goblins Are Different: Goblins are fire spirits, who look similar to dwarves only beardless and with reddish triangular noses. Also unlike dwarves, they have both males and females, and a more hierarchical power structure too, with Prince Gobby at the top.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Samson the huntsman spares Snow White's life and becomes her ally because she reminds him of his daughter Louisa, who was killed by a bear long ago.
- Please Wake Up: Snow White's father does this when her mother dies in the first episode. His shouting his wife's name in anguish from offscreen confirms that the queen is dead.
- Parental Substitute: Snow White's nurse Molly is her loving mother figure through her childhood. Unfortunately, her attempts to defend her from Queen Chrystal's abuse get her banished from the castle. Snow White eventually finds her, though, and she, Samson the huntsman and two of the dwarves spend a few episodes living with her while hiding from the queen.
- Solid Clouds:
- The Ice Queen's kingdom turns into clouds after its collapse, and Snow White and the dwarves stand on them without falling.
- After the dwarves' magic ribbons enhance its powers, the Fog with Seven Colors becomes like a hard wall to any outsider with bad intentions.
- Some Kind of Force Field: The "Magic Filter of the Fog with Seven Colors" prevents curses and malefic beings from entering the forest where the dwarves and Snow White live. It prevents Queen Chrystal's Magic Mirror from seeing Snow White, but her pet bat still finds a way to get through it.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Vet the dwarf.
- Taken for Granite: Jonas the magician can turn anything to stone with his Magic Staff. Queen Chrystal has her bat pet steal the staff, and uses it as one of her ultimate attempts to get rid of Snow White, and to one of the scariest extents of the trope ever. She turns the forest and half of the kingdom into stone, and not just living beings, but everything from ground to trees. Only flying beings that have no contact with the ground can escape the curse.
- Team Pets: Milk the dog, Pocket the cat and Cucu the dove, Snow White's pets who join her at the dwarves' cottage after they escape from the queen's castle.
- That Poor Plant: Queen Chrystal convinces Jack he's actually evil and tasks him with delivering a bouquet of poisoned flowers to Snow White. When he can't go through with it and drops the bouquet on the forest floor, all plant life within a few feet of it withers and dies.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: Some of the situations Snow White and the dwarves find themselves confronted to fall in this category, adding nothing much to the main plot.