Continuing from yesterday's post regarding the Queen's transformation scene in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), once the lightning has activated the potion, and the Queen sees her reflection in the glass, the scene moves into it's second act. A forbodingly quiet change happens in the music as everyone draws their collective breath anticipating what's going to happen next. The Queen drinks the potion, drops the glass, clutches at her throat and immediately goes into soft focus as the room begins to spin around her and the physical transformation begins to come over her, first causing her hair to erupt free from her hood before turning white. Then her hands turn skeletal before our very eyes, their emaciated aspect emphasized by the bolts of lightning which give us an x-ray view of what lies beneath her skin, all accompanied by the special effects animation of Andy Engman.
At this point we've seen enough to prepare us for the full horror of the Queen's new look, but the film teases us some more by at first only showing a shadow of her arms difused by rising bubbles, then a hunched, cloaked figure. As she turns, her robed arm covers all of her face except one bulging eye and an eyebrow. Before we can study this for too long, she drops the arm and practically fills the screen revealing her full hideous face which shocks the raven into a dead faint into the hollow inside of a human skull. Again the music, sound effects, art direction, animation and voice talent of Lucille La Verne come together to deliver a mesmerizing scene.
You can watch the entire transformation sequence here.
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