# Snow Whites' eyes, blue to brown, why?



## Ross Hack

Dear whoever can answer this question or put me in contact with an official response:

I was recently in a retail store in the Czech Republic and saw the video of Snow White playing on a television for the customers.  I was with a friend who was  visiting from The States.  He told me that the new redigitilized version of Snow White has been altered a little.  After he said, "take a look at her eyes", I did.  They changed her eyes from blue to brown.  I want to simply ask, "Why"?

Can anyone tell me truthfully or know who I would ask through email officially.  I'm a university student and I'm doing research on this.  I'm very interested in this and I'm determined to find out, "Why?".

Thank you for any help you can give,
ROSS


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## meeko_33785

I truthfully cannot recall Snow White's eyes ever being blue, except for in some merchendise. In a whole, he brown eyes match better with her darker hair, whereas Cinderella and Aurora have blonde hair and blue eyes. If you really want to find out for sure, you would always write to Dave Smith, the keeper of the Disney archives, who has a colulm for answering questions like that in the Disney Magazine.


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## Janet2k

The "official" Snow White website shows her eyes as brown: http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/snowwhite/index.html


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## Ross Hack

I see that the official Disney site shows her eyes as brown, but my question is if her eyes were orignially blue.  I'm very suprised that no one knows for sure the color of the eyes of the origial Snow White, one of the most popular Disney characters of all time.  After the weekend I still haven't gotten one confident reply of a knowable answer.


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## All Aboard

> After the weekend I still haven't gotten one confident reply of a knowable answer.


Geez Ross, seems you are taking us to the woodshed over this issue.

I'll see what I can do about "confident", I'll leave "knowable" to somebody else.

As to the "original"; I'm sure that you know that Snow White was not created by Walt Disney. Like Sleeping Beauty, Snow White was one of the classic fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.

Snow White (in her Disney incarnation) has brown eyes. They've never changed since her 1937 release.

I'm not sure what color old Jacob and Wilhelm intended for her eyes, but I imagine there is some original artwork to go along with their tale. Perhaps you could drum some up with a hearty internet search.


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## Sarangel

> After he said, "take a look at her eyes", I did. They changed her eyes from blue to brown.


  What evidence can you cite that indicates her eyes were originally blue?  Frankly, I can't recall either way, but it seems like a silly thing to change...

Sarangel


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## JeffJewell

...that this "research" has nothing to do with a change in the movie and a lot to do with Bulletin Board posts?

"Rorschach," indeed.

Jeff


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## tima 1

In 1954, at age seven, I saw the original film version of Disney's 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'.  Snow White's eyecolor in the movie was BLUE, I repeat, BLUE.  PERIOD.  END OF STORY.  This is a memory that has stayed with me all of my life because up until I saw the movie, I had disliked the fact that I had the unusual combination of black hair and blue eyes.  After seeing the movie, I became proud over my sharing the same coloring as the film's central heroine.  It was later on, sometime in the late 1970s to early 1980s when Disney changed Snow White's eye color from blue to brown.  This was probably done for marketing purposes, which, in my judgement, were questionable at best.


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## doconeill

Nothing like a newbie poster digging up a 7 year old thread...

So I was curious. I did a number of searches, and the only reference to Snow White changing eye color I could find is THIS THREAD. I would expect more of an uproar given the way people think of "revisionism" on movies (Greedo shot first!).

Now, in the original Grimm tale, I believe it is explicitly stated that her eyes were blue.

So I got to thinking, where could I find what should be an untouched image of Snow White from Disney that would pre-date the supposed change? Then I remembered a post on another forum about a claimed rejection letter from 1938 on Snow White stationary. I have no idea if the the letter is authentic - it looks well preserved and seems to be real. You can find the image here.

This does appear to in fact be the stationary used at the time.

So I threw the hires version into an image program I used, and blew it up, looking at the pixels of the eyes.

There is nothing there to indicate that the eyes were ever meant to be blue. The RGB values indicate a brown to grey color.

Now this isn't meant to be any sort of proof - but it a data point that does seem to indicate that the eyes were not blue originally.


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## PoohsFan1

Man, this sounds like it could be an episode of "Cold Case Files"


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## rantnnravin

doconeill said:


> So I threw the hires version into an image program I used, and blew it up, looking at the pixels of the eyes.



"Is that thing turbo-charged?"


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## Disney Brat

Every time I recall seeing Snow White, her eyes have been brown.  But today my daugher brought home a book from school called (Walt Disney Productions presents) Snow White Helps the Seven Dwarfs, its copyright date is 1980, and Snow White indeed does have Blue eyes in that book!  The only reason that it stuck out to me is because of this thread...so I thought I would add what I had seen.


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## SueM in MN

I can say for sure that Snow White's eyes have always been brown in the Disney movie. (I can't speak for the 1980 book where an illustrator apparently changed the color to blue).

I have a book titled Disney Animation: the Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson, printed in 1981. There are 3 color pictures of Snow White in it where you can see her eyes. In all the pictures, her eyes are brown.

I have another book titled Disney's Art of Animation by Bob Thomas, dated 1991. It has one chapter on Snow White, with 6 color pictures where you can see her eyes. All show brown eyes.

The book that shows for absolute sure that her eyes were brown is a 194 page book just about Snow White published in 1994. The title of the book is Walt Disney's Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs: An Art in Its Making. The whole book is in color, with many pictures of the original cels and production artwork from the movie. In every picture where you can see an eye color, her eyes are brown (kind of an amber color, not real dark brown).
This is a picture from the 1994 book of one of the pictures of an original cel from the movie. 




I have seen an original Snow White cel in person and it does match this picture.


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## SueM in MN

SueM in MN said:


> The book that shows for absolute sure that her eyes were brown is a 194 page book just about Snow White published in 1994. The title of the book is Walt Disney's Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs: An Art in Its Making. The whole book is in color, with many pictures of the original cels and production artwork from the movie. In every picture where you can see an eye color, her eyes are brown (kind of an amber color, not real dark brown).
> This is a picture from the 1994 book of one of the pictures of an original cel from the movie.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I have seen an original Snow White cel in person and it does match this picture.


an explanation of what a 'cel' is in case some don't know - it is the original artwork that the film was photographed from. Individual hand painted pages of celluloid were photographed one by one in front of a backround to make the movie.
So, the cels are not just artwork of the time; they were the artwork of the movie. 

Here's a picture of an original cel from the same scene from the auction site that sold it at auction:





And another cel picture from a US Library of Congress exhibit:





And, this picture of a cel was from the 70th anniversary of Snow White's creation.


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## andy hickes

When I last went to see Snow White in the theater, maybe 10 years ago,
I was shocked at the saturation.  It was beautiful but the blacks were definitely blacker and all the other colors defintely more saturated than I remembered possible.  I work in
digital color (my website rendering.net) so I recognized it quickly and know how easily it can be done.  I never read anywhere that it had been "changed" in any way except
"restored".  The color of the eyes I cannot comment but changing them and changing them back again is easy digitally.  Concerning saturation the original cells were acetate painted (I assume with gouache paint) on the reverse side.  These were laid over stationery backgrounds that had been painted in watercolor.  Watercolor is not be as saturated as gouache painted on reverse acetate.  See attached cell photos vs restored frames. Looking at some of the recent frames it is obvious all the colors-watercolor and gouache-have been saturated when it was "restored".
I looked at the time for any mention of saturation enhancement knowing how easily it could have been done, but it was totally absent from any public copy I could find.  I think it was an "improvement" kept quiet not to open a can of worms.  And I thought the change was strikingly beautiful.  I do not think it is what original movie goers saw though.  I can understand concerns about lost subtleties.

unfortunately I don't know how to submit attachments to show comparison.
Look at previous post of actual cells and compare to Amazon's product description for
blue ray version.


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## dgundry

Well, gang, let's defrost poor Walt's head and ask him ourselves!!!!!


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## doconeill

dgundry said:


> Well, gang, let's defrost poor Walt's head and ask him ourselves!!!!!



For a 10 year old thread where all the available evidence says they've always been brown?

Let's let him rest...if someone wants an official Disney answer, submit it to the Ask Dave (Smith) column in the D23 newsletter...


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## gary403




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## Jaxxcorb

It's funny that I would be searching this same question! I just had my first child this year, which has obviously directed my attention to the old classic Disney movies I so fondly remember. Strolling through the toy aisles it struck me funny that snow whites eyes were brown! I had always remembered them blue. People are usually attracted to similar looking people, and Snow White was the Disney character I had associated with because of hair and eye color. 
After reading through these posts, it appears that most of the evidence points to brown eyes being correct however I still have a feeling that they must have been blue at some point for me to have these memories.
It's obviously not a big deal what her eye color is but when your memory is showing you something different from reality...it make you wonder.


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## DPCummerbund

Wow, a twelve year old thread - I didn't know that DIS threads that old could still be revived! Most websites archive threads after a few years & they're considered "closed", but clearly that is not the case with the DIS. 

I'd like to point out that the OP, who was a college student when this was first posted, is now middle aged!


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## Castle2Castle

Jaxxcorb said:


> After reading through these posts, it appears that most of the evidence points to brown eyes being correct however I still have a feeling that they must have been blue at some point for me to have these memories.
> It's obviously not a big deal what her eye color is but when your memory is showing you something different from reality...it make you wonder.



I'm not sure how reliable childhood memories really are when it gets down into details like that. Throw in the ability of kids to impose their own "realities" at that time with coloring books and it would be understandable how it could be inaccurately "remembered".


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## tobikaye

I know I have always remembered them as brown, as shown in the below links, but I think there has been some promotional items put out with the wrong eye color.  The original Disney movie version was brown.

Image of the Original Theatrical Poster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Snow_White_1937_poster.jpg

Production Cels that have been auctioned: http://www.animationsensations.com/disney/production-cells/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-1937?p=3


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## DisLUV

I like how every person who posted that Snow White had blue eyes only posted once and only to say they were blue... sounds like the same person to me!!


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## Granny square

DisLUV said:


> I like how every person who posted that Snow White had blue eyes only posted once and only to say they were blue... sounds like the same person to me!!



lol in 2001, 2009, 2012 and then this year. Persistence.


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## twinsouvenirs

DPCummerbund said:


> Wow, a twelve year old thread - I didn't know that DIS threads that old could still be revived! Most websites archive threads after a few years & they're considered "closed", but clearly that is not the case with the DIS.
> 
> I'd like to point out that the OP, who was a college student when this was first posted, is now middle aged!



I am only chiming in to say I love your avatar. 

My other HIGHLY relevant contribution is that Charlese Theron was an exceptional wicked witch.


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## All Aboard

Indeed, old. I haven't been on the DIS in quite some time and decided to check out the Rumors Board. I was very surprised to see an indicator that showed I had posted to the thread at the top of the list.

Wow, 12 years ago. I, of course, have no recollection of typing those words.


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## sweetdana

I  met her in person..  (Akershus)  Her eyes are brown.. 


Questioned .. solved..


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## mrsR123

Holy Happy Haunts! 

I thought JJewell and Sarangel were abck until I looked at the dates.

Don't get a person's hopes up like that.


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## Mouse14

Just to add my chime in.... I recently aquired  a book copyrighted in 1962 titled "Walt Disneys Story Land. 55 favorite stories adapted from Walt Disney films".

 Take it for what it's worth but in this book her eyes are blue. With image copy rights dating back to 1936....


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## SueM in MN

Again?

Here is a link to more original production animation cels from when the movie was made in 1937.
http://www.animationsensations.com/disney/production-cells/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-1937?p=1
http://www.animationsensations.com/disney/production-cells/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-1937?p=2
http://www.animationsensations.com/disney/production-cells/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-1937?p=3
http://www.animationartgallery.com/adisneyartsnowwhitecels.html

All with brown eyes.


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## AliceandAriel

Mouse14 said:


> Just to add my chime in.... I recently aquired  a book copyrighted in 1962 titled "Walt Disneys Story Land. 55 favorite stories adapted from Walt Disney films".
> 
> Take it for what it's worth but in this book her eyes are blue. With image copy rights dating back to 1936....



Pictures, by chance, you'd like to share?

Having watched Snow White countless times as a child, I can say I've never seen her with blue eyes. Brown only. Funny how the only people who say blue carry no proof, but those who combat with brown carry proof.


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## Mouse14

AliceandAriel said:


> Pictures, by chance, you'd like to share?  Having watched Snow White countless times as a child, I can say I've never seen her with blue eyes. Brown only. Funny how the only people who say blue carry no proof, but those who combat with brown carry proof.



I love your attitude towards those who say against you... I'd be glad to post a picture if it for you... Im at work so give me a couple min- hours...   

How ever either way I don't really care wether it's blue or brown, it dosent make a difference to me. All I can say is what I have in front me...


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## Mouse14




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## doconeill

The older copyright dates are at least for the story, not necessarily the imagery in it, so it is difficult to tell how old the imagery actually is. They are hand drawn, however, and not direct from the cels. The artist could have made a mistake, or a conscious change, authorized or unauthorized.

However, if these changes were prevalent, it could explain why people believe her eyes were originally blue, but does not mean they were ever blue in the movie.


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## ThurlFan

So how come no fuss over the color change in her hair ribbon (blue instead of red), collar (orange instead of white) or her sleeves (pink accents instead of red)?  

But in all seriousness, I'm curious about that copyright page.  Does the word "adapted" appear in the credits for Snow White as it does for some of the other stories?  If so, that's an indication that the artist may have added their own interpretation of the character's looks - as they appear to have done with the other elements I mentioned above.


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## Mouse14

ThurlFan said:


> So how come no fuss over the color change in her hair ribbon (blue instead of red), collar (orange instead of white) or her sleeves (pink accents instead of red)?  But in all seriousness, I'm curious about that copyright page.  Does the word "adapted" appear in the credits for Snow White as it does for some of the other stories?  If so, that's an indication that the artist may have added their own interpretation of the character's looks - as they appear to have done with the other elements I mentioned above.



Adapted does not appear in the copyright section


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## ThurlFan

So we know this much:

In the 1937 theatrical feature, Snow White had brown eyes (original artwork still exists to back this up).

In 1962 Disney and Golden Books produced a work depicting a non-standard Snow White with changes to colors in her eyes and costume (images from actual book provided by Mouse14).


Extrapolating from there... Because children's books tend to get handed down from one generation to the next, this could explain why a number of people would have first come to know Snow White as having blue eyes.

What we don't know is whether the blue eyes in the book were intentional (i.e. Disney-mandated change in the definition of Snow White's appearance), an illustrator's interpretation, or a printing/inking error.

I think to really get to the bottom of this, we need archivist extraordinaire Dave Smith


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## doconeill

ThurlFan said:


> So we know this much:
> 
> In the 1937 theatrical feature, Snow White had brown eyes (original artwork still exists to back this up).
> 
> In 1962 Disney and Golden Books produced a work depicting a non-standard Snow White with changes to colors in her eyes and costume (images from actual book provided by Mouse14).
> 
> 
> Extrapolating from there... Because Golden typically produced massive quantities of their board-backed titles (and that children's books tend to get handed down from one generation to the next), this could explain why a large number of people would have first come to know Snow White as having blue eyes.
> 
> What we don't know is whether the blue eyes in the book were intentional (i.e. Disney-mandated change in the definition of Snow White's appearance), an illustrator's interpretation, or a printing/inking error.
> 
> I think to really get to the bottom of this, we need archivist extraordinaire Dave Smith



Dave retired... 

What's also intriguing is that Disney is usually VERY strict on depictions. It seems unlikely they would have authorized a change and not kept with in in later depictions, but it is VERY unlikely they would allow an unauthorized change, especially through multiple printings.


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## si-am

In a related question, I've always wondered why Sleeping Beauty's eyes appeared brown in the original cartoon but later changed to blue in more recent depictions.


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## Horace Horsecollar

doconeill said:


> What's also intriguing is that Disney is usually VERY strict on depictions.


That's very true today.

But the book in this thread is from more than a half century ago. There was a time when Disney output did not have to be approved by a small army of branding specialists and lawyers.

Judging by how far back the copyrights go, my guess is that early versions of the book relied on black-and-white line art. As color printing became more commonly available in the 1950s and 1960s, the publisher of the licensed book had an artist (not necessarily a Disney artist) apply color to the illustrations, without using official model sheets. And in that era long before Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, or even VHS tapes, the artist also had no easy way to screen the movie to check colors. Of course, there was no Internet either. So the artist guessed. Or the artist may have referred to another book that did use the proper color palette. In any case, Snow White's costume colors and eye color do not match the movie.


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## Postal68

tima 1 said:


> In 1954, at age seven, I saw the original film version of Disney's 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'.  Snow White's eyecolor in the movie was BLUE, I repeat, BLUE.  PERIOD.  END OF STORY.  .



Thanks for the "facts" because we all know how exact your memories of 20/30/40 years ago are


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## doconeill

Postal68 said:


> Thanks for the "facts" because we all know how exact your memories of 20/30/40 years ago are



Aside from the fact that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was actually released in 1937, it was 17 years later that they saw it...so I doubt it was technically the "original" film - and if it was, the colors could have faded.


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## Horace Horsecollar

tima 1 said:


> In 1954, at age seven, I saw the original film version of Disney's 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'.  Snow White's eyecolor in the movie was BLUE, I repeat, BLUE.  PERIOD.  END OF STORY.


Walt Disney's first animated feature, _Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs_, was released in 1937 and re-released theatrically in the United States in 1944, 1952, 1958, 1967, 1975, 1983, 1987 and 1993. For each release, new prints were made from original masters (Technicolor or internegative).

_Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs_ was not shown in U.S. theaters in 1954.


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## Mouse14

Bottom line is I don't think any of us has any way to figure out which is the true original color.... We can all agree that it's a Disney Classic tho


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## ThurlFan

Mouse14 said:


> Bottom line is I don't think any of us has any way to figure out which is the true original color.... We can all agree that it's a Disney Classic tho



Well, actually we do (at least as far as Disney's Snow White). Just look at the many surviving pieces of original artwork that were used to produce the film...brown eyes.


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## Yellowstonetim

Mouse14 said:


> Bottom line is I don't think any of us has any way to figure out which is the true original color.... We can all agree that it's a Disney Classic tho





ThurlFan said:


> Well, actually we do (at least as far as Disney's Snow White). Just look at the many surviving pieces of original artwork that were used to produce the film...brown eyes.



Why can't we know?  The movie and original artwork to create the movie exist.  Filmmakers restore they don't change.  Memories change and can even be altered. And obviously all other mediums: subsequent books, paintings, or whatever are not authoritative, they are derivative. I would trust the film itself.


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## doconeill

Well, the Ask Dave column is still active on the D23 side of things, so I asked if Disney ever produced or authorized material where her eye color was blue.


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## Queenofspoons

Mouse14 said:


>



Everybody is making a fuss about an Illustration that gives Snow White Blue Eyes, I've seen old kids books that used to make Wendy from Peter Pan a blonde instead of a Brunette. I'm pretty sure they are brown eyes.


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## Silock

This is all FP+'s fault.


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## Robbi

The movie cels fromSnow White show her with brown eyes. She was my favorite princess because she was a brunette with brown eyes like I was. C


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## Yellowstonetim

Silock said:
			
		

> This is all FP+'s fault.





Grab the pitchforks, I'll get the torches!


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## Yellowstonetim

doconeill said:
			
		

> Well, the Ask Dave column is still active on the D23 side of things, so I asked if Disney ever produced or authorized material where her eye color was blue.



Why did you do that!? He might give us a definitive answer and then what will we argue about? Oh wait, we could argue about if he's right, if he REALLY answered, or about whether or not he is part of the Illuminati's Brown eyed Snow White conspiracy! 

P.S. Arguing about the color of Snow White's eyes has to put us all in the top 10 of, "You might be a Disneyholic if..."


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## Emily ryan

I would watch Snow White everyday as a child. I am not kidding it was my favorite movie. I was always disappointed that I could not fully relate to her because her eyes were blue and mine were brown. When I recently watched the VHS I couldn’t even keep watching because it was so weird to see her eyes brown.


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## Emily ryan

Weird how this all started in 2012. Maybe the world did end and we just didn’t know.


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## DuskKodesh

This thread is old enough to vote.


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## doconeill

doconeill said:


> Well, the Ask Dave column is still active on the D23 side of things, so I asked if Disney ever produced or authorized material where her eye color was blue.



I hate being "that guy" given this thread is almost graduating from college...but something reminded me of this thread, and the fact that I asked "Ask Dave" way-back-when. I don't know when it got answered, but it did:



> A: Snow White’s eyes in the original film were brown. It is possible that in later uses—movie posters, books, merchandise, etc.—that she might sometimes have been given blue eyes.
> 
> Dave Smith


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