The Magic Mirror is a mystical object that is featured in the story of Snow White, depicted as either a hand mirror or a wall-mounted mirror. The mirror has been interpreted as the voice of Snow White's father, who is judging between the beauty of his wife and daughter.
Fairy tale The Magic Mirror belongs to the Evil Queen, who constantly asks itusually in a rhyming phrasewho is the fairest in the land. When the mirror eventually identifies her young stepdaughter Snow White as the fairest, the Queen jealously tries to have her killed, first via her huntsman, then several personal attempts concluding with a poisoned apple. The mirror is key to her plots; it tells her Snow White's location, and after each attempt, she checks with the mirror and is again told that Snow White remains the fairest. At the very end, when Snow White is married, the mirror tells her that the young queen is the most beautiful. The Evil Queen is terrified, but her jealousy drives her to attend the wedding where she finds that the Prince's bride is Snow White. She is caught trying to cause discord and the Prince had her dance in red-hot iron slippers until she drops dead.
Analysis In other versions of the tale from around the world, a person, an animal, or the moon may play the same role as the magic mirror, informing the villain that the heroine is more beautiful. The mirror has been interpreted as the voice of Snow White's father judging between the beauty of his wife and daughter.
Modern adaptations
Disney Disney's Snow White franchise
The Magic Mirror appears in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, voiced by Moroni Olsen. This version contains an imprisoned spirit resembling a drama mask who is referred to as the Slave in the Magic Mirror. In his first appearance in the film, the Evil Queen consults with the Magic Mirror to ask who the fairest one of all is. The Magic Mirror tells the Evil Queen that she was the fairest one of all; however, while she is beautiful, a fairer being exists. When the Queen angrily asks for the girl's name, the spirit describes her, making it obvious to the Queen that Snow White is the one being referred to. The Queen orders her Huntsman to kill Snow White and bring back her heart. Later that evening, when the Evil Queen asks the Magic Mirror who the fairest of them all is, the Magic Mirror tells her that Snow White was still the fairest of them all. Though the Queen at first believes the spirit to be incorrect and showed it the heart in question, she is told that she holds the heart of a pig and that Snow White still lives in the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs.
The Magic Mirror appears in the Disneyland attraction Snow White's Scary Adventures, voiced by Tony Jay.
The Magic Mirror appears in the animated series House of Mouse, voiced again by Tony Jay. It is seen in the lobby of the club, answering questions from the guests and giving advice to the staff members. In the episode "House of Magic", Daisy accidentally makes the guests disappear, causing Mickey to turn to the Magic Mirror for information on how to undo the spell. When the Magic Mirror gives a cryptic answer, Mickey asks him to repeat it again in a way he can understand it. The Magic Mirror tells him to check the prop basement for anything that can help them. As Mickey leads the staff to the basement, the Magic Mirror states that nobody wants to hear his cryptic answers anymore.
The Magic Mirror appears in Fantasmic!, with Tony Jay reprising the role.
The Magic Mirror appears in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, voiced by Corey Burton. The Magic Mirror first appears in Terra's storyline. As in the original film, it tells the Queen that Snow White is fairer than her, but also that Snow White's heart is a pure light that shines bright. The Evil Queen promises Terra that he can use the Mirror to find Master Xehanort if he brings her Snow White's heart. Terra refuses, telling her that, unlike Snow White, she has much darkness in her heart. The Evil Queen, insulted and outraged, commands the mirror to destroy Terra, but it refuses, saying it can only answer questions. The Evil Queen's increasing rage causes the Magic Mirror to have a potion slammed on its face, sucking Terra in and fighting him. However, the Spirit of the Magic Mirror is defeated and releases Terra. The Evil Queen reluctantly has the Magic Mirror tell Terra where he can find Xehanort; it tells him "Beyond both light and dark he dwells, where war was waged upon the fells." Upon learning this information, Terra leaves and is directed to the Keyblade Graveyard. The Magic Mirror later appears in Aqua's storyline. As Aqua looks for a cure for Snow White in the castle, the still-possessed Magic Mirror drags her into the mirror for a fight, but Aqua manages to defeat the Spirit of the Magic Mirror and is released. The Magic Mirror states to Aqua "The Queen is gone, my service done. Adieu, oh victorious one." before leaving the mirror and disappearing, causing it to become a normal mirror.
In the Disney Channel original movie Descendants, the Evil Queen has retained the Mirror after her exile to the Isle of the Lost, reduced to a small hand-mirror that is passed on to her daughter Evie. However, it is still controlled by rhymes spoken by the user and does not have an inhabitant in it.
A version of the Magic Mirror appears in The 7D, voiced by Whoopi Goldberg. This version is female and serves Queen Delightful of Jollyland.
The Magic Mirror appears in the live-action Snow White film, voiced by Patrick Page.
Once Upon a Time In Once Upon a Time, the Magic Mirror was originally a genie (Giancarlo Esposito) whose lamp was discovered by King Leopold. Leopold feels no need to wish for anything and uses the first and second wishes to free the Genie from the lamp and giving the third wish to the Genie. The Genie expresses the desire to find true love, so Leopold takes the Genie to his castle, believing that he can find true love there. He falls in love with the King's wife Queen Regina and gives her a hand mirror. The King reads in the Queen's diary that she has fallen in love with the man who gave her the hand mirror and asks the Genie to locate him. The Queen is then locked in her room to prevent her from leaving the King. To free her, her father has the Genie bring her a locked box, which turns out to be filled with poisonous vipers from Agrabah that the Queen intends to use to kill herself. The Genie instead uses the vipers to kill Leopold and allow the Queen to be with him. She tells him that, since the vipers were from his country, the guards will find out that he was the murderer and flee. Realizing that the Queen never loved him, he uses his wish to be always with her and to never leave her sight, trapping him in the hand mirror. As a spirit in the Magic Mirror, he is able to move between and see through all other mirrors in the Enchanted Forest, and is used by Regina to spy on and locate others.
In Storybrooke, he is Sidney Glass, a reporter for Storybrooke's newspaper The Daily Mirror. On Regina's request, he researches Emma Swan's past to help Regina expel her from Storybrooke. After Graham's death, Regina attempts to appoint him sheriff, but the wording of the town charter calls for an election. He loses the position to Emma and, after Regina has him removed from the newspaper staff, he goes to Emma, claiming that he wants to expose Regina for being a corrupt person. The exposé reveals Regina's attempts to improve the community; despite this, Sidney tells Emma that he will help her take down Regina, but it is revealed that he is secretly in league with Regina, who is using Emma's trust in Sidney to gain leverage over Emma. Emma later learns that he planted a bug in a vase glass after it is used to tip off Regina upon discovering a key piece of evidence that would have cleared Mary Margaret Blanchard of Kathryn Nolan's murder. Emma confronts Sidney and realizes that he is in love with Regina, but presses him to help defeat Regina. However, after Kathryn is found alive, Sidney falsely confesses to kidnapping Kathryn and framing Mary Margaret so that he could "find" Kathryn and become famous. Later, a cell labeled "S. Glass" is seen in the hospital basement's psychiatric ward; the same name is visible on a door in the first-season finale, suggesting that Regina had locked him in the Storybrooke Hospital's psychiatric ward after he confessed to the kidnapping. In "A Tale of Two Sisters", Regina frees Sidney Glass from the psychiatric ward to be her Mirror again, enlisting him to help get rid of the people that are in the middle of her happiness. Regina temporarily places Sidney in the mirror to find the exact moment in which Maid Marian was apprehended by Regina's men. Regina later consults with Sidney on how to change fate, telling him that the villains in the book do not get a happy ending and wanting him to find the writer of the book so that she can change the story and allow the villains to get their happy endings. In "Breaking Glass", Regina has Sidney Glass look for the Snow Queen's hideout to force her into thawing Maid Marian from her freezing spell. When Emma arrives wanting to know where Sidney Glass is, Regina states that she is too busy to tell her where Sidney Glass is. Sidney later reports to Regina about where the Snow Queen is hiding out after his failed attempt to get leverage on Regina. Using a compact to remain in contact with Sidney Glass, Regina heads in the direction of the Snow Queen's hideout and later admits that Sidney was in the mirror. Upon strong winds reaching Emma and Regina, Sidney reveals the Snow Queen had swayed him to her side as Elsa's ice bridge breaks. After Emma and Regina defeat a large Viking made of ice, the Snow Queen takes the compact and retreats. At her hideout, the Snow Queen frees Sidney from the mirror, as she wanted the mirror that he was trapped in, which contains dark magic, to go with the mirror that she is putting together. Before declaring Sidney free, the Snow Queen advises Sidney to get a warm coat since it is "going to get cooler around here."
Other appearances The 10th Kingdom In the TV miniseries The 10th Kingdom, a magic mirror is a key element of the plot, as protagonists Tony and Virginia Lewis travel from New York into the fairy-tale realm via a traveling mirror. After they subsequently lose the mirror, they spend the rest of the series searching for it while their enemy, the evil Queen and protégé of Snow White's deceased stepmother, spies on them using other magic mirrors. The travelling mirror that brought them to the world is destroyed in an accident, but an old mirror referred to as Gustav, which can only communicate and respond to queries made in rhyme, reveals that there were two other travelling mirrors made, with one sunk at the bottom of the ocean and the other in the possession of the Queen. Following the Queen's defeat, Virginia returns to New York through her travelling mirror, while Tony decides to remain in the fairy-tale realm to enjoy his new status as a hero.
Broom-Stick Bunny In the Warner Bros. cartoon Broom-Stick Bunny (1956), Witch Hazel uses a magic mirror that assures her she is the ugliest one of all. Bugs Bunny then shows up dressed in a Halloween costume, which fools both Witch Hazel and the mirror.
Faerie Tale Theatre The mirror in Faerie Tale Theatre was portrayed by Vincent Price, whose face appeared as if mounted on the top of the mirror; in reality, Price stuck his face through a hole. This mirror, as did all of the Queen's other mirrors, turns black after she learns that Snow White was alive.
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