Story
In the opening animated segment, the Queen (Julia Roberts) begins by telling us the story of Snow Whites birth (throwing in some sarcastic comments with modern day slang). Her mother died. She was spoiled, and the kingdom was a very happy place. Her father was grooming her for the kingdom, when he met the Queen. They got married, but he had to go away. He gave Snow his dagger, and rode off into the woods, and was never seen again. Snow White searched for him, devastated that he wasnt found. Now she is at the mercy of the Queen.Present time. Ten years after the King vanished in the Dark Woods without a trace, Snow White (Lily Collins) talks to and plays with the birds. She has never left the castle. Downstairs she hears music. The Queen is sitting on her throne, and it looks like shes playing chess with her servants by using them as human pawns and she is playing with her top minister known only as the Barton (Michael Lerner). One servant named Brighton (Nathan Lane) steps forward to tell her that the kingdom is close to being destitute. Snow White comes downstairs, from the bedroom she seems to live in, to ask the Queen if she can attend the gala since it is her 18th birthday. The Queen considers it, admitting that Snow didnt do anything wrong; however, Snow is just so irritating! She doesnt care if its her 100th birthday, she better never sneak down again.Cut to the woods. Two men are riding their horses, talking about the adventure they are on and have been on for months. The men are Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) and his valet Charles Renbock (Robert Emms). They stop for a rest when a group of bandits in masks and walking on stilts attack them with swords. It turns out they are dwarfs, which makes the two men laugh. Their stilts shrink down like accordions, and the men refuse to fight them because it would be too funny. However, the dwarves are after their gold, and they take it.Back at the palace, the servants help Snow White celebrate her 18th birthday. One woman, Baker Margaret (Mare Winningham), speaks up, telling her that she knows she will one day take back the kingdom, which is why she has stuck around all those years. She gives Snow White the dagger she received from her father all those years ago as a gift. Snow White decides she is going to leave the castle, after the encouragement of the servants, and does so causing the guards to question if thats even allowed.All of a sudden we hear those famous words spoken by the Queen Mirror Mirror on the wall except the difference is, she walks into it. When she comes out she is in a new place in another dimension where she is in a small hut on a vast lake. She talks to another version of herself in the mirror, discussing marrying the Baron. The mirror tells her to marry someone rich, for one day she will ask Who is the fairest of them all?While walking in the snowy woods, Snow White comes across the two men, who are now stripped to their underwear and hanging upside down from a tree. She decides to release them. It almost seems to be love at first sight for her and one man, Prince Alcott, but he declines the offer to travel with them.Back at the palace, the Queen is trying on shoes when she is interrupted by Prince Alcott and Charles (both of them still only partially dressed in their undergarments). The Queen has never heard of his kingdom before and organizes a ball very quickly to impress him. Her plan is to marry the prince, however, she is reminded by Brighton that they have no money to pay for it. She doesnt care that people are starving however and does whatever it takes to throw the ball.Snow White is wandering in the streets of the village where she sees children and adults begging for food and money. She is shocked, since the last time she saw the town, when she was a child with her father, the land was plentiful. Brighton comes into town and puts up a notice that there is to be more tax collection. He tells them that the money is being used to keep a terrible beas
