This plot point, in the December 26, 1934 skeleton continuity, involved the Queen’s imprisonment of the Prince when she discovered him singing the praises of Snow White. She sets out to frighten him with a macabre puppet show featuring the skeletons of her former victims. As she departs to kill Snow White, she floods the dungeon to drown him. It remained in development until September 1936, when it became clear that the complexity of the Prince’s animation required a simpler story. Nevertheless, the young man’s adventures can still be found in the version published as a comic strip. Of course, this concept eventually was used by Walt Disney in Sleeping Beauty, where Prince Philip was indeed imprisoned by Maleficent.
If we are to believe the production documents, as well as the comic book adaptation of the film, the Prince’s escape, aided by birds, was to take place just after sequence 11B, and before sequence 13A. This was probably sequence 12, a number absent from the sequences finally retained, although this number does not yet appear on any of the documents I have been able to consult.
Production information
Sequence number: Unknown
Date of deletion: September 1936
The sequence was deleted before the animation stage.
Concept drawings
Here are some drawings of the scenes where the Prince is captured and chained in the dungeon, and of the Queen who begins to flood the premises before setting off to kill Snow White.
