Actually:It’s both “Mirror, mirror, on the wall…” AND “Magic mirror, on the wall..”
In the 1937 Disney classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the Evil Queen utters the famous line “Magic mirror, on the wall – who is the fairest one of all?”.
It has not been changed or edited since its original release. There is no credible evidence to support that it has. The mirror’s persona in the Disney adaption is named, “Slave in the Magic Mirror”, hence why the Evil Queen refers to it as the “magic mirror”.
That being said, like many Mandela Effects, this common misconception and misquoted line has perpetuated itself deep within our culture. There’s even a movie 2012 entitled “Mirror Mirror” staring Julia Roberts. How can this be? Well, before we dive into the possible explanations, you can save yourself the trouble and understand that in the original Brothers Grimm story (translated into English), it is indeed:
Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?
Hundreds of sources of “Mirror, mirror” exist in our culture today because of the original story/translation. Disney simply made their own version of it. They took creative liberty on a lotof things in the movie, least of which involves the dialog. The original story is very short and Disney heavily expanded on everything.The “Magic Mirror” itself is also referred to as “Slave in the Magic Mirror” or “Spirit of the Magic Mirror” in their version of the lore/story.
MyExperience
I, like many others also believed “mirror, mirror” to be correct. It’s the version of the phrase that I always said when referencing it. This Mandela Effect is unique in away because in this case, it’s actually correct orincorrect, depending on the context. Both “magic mirror” and “mirror, mirror” are correct depending on the source.
My first introduction to this being related to the Mandela Effect was through the Subreddit in this post titled “Mirror, mirror on the wall …“.
Possible Explanations
As mentioned above, this one is pretty shut and close; unfortunately that doesn’t stop people from continuing to insist that the Disney movie was also “mirror, mirror”. It’s just not the case. It’s verifiable, it’s proven, it’s FACT. Memory isnone of those three things.
So, in closing, the most logical explanation is the following:
The original story contains “mirror, mirror”, which hundreds of other sources draw from, where as, the Disney movie uses their own spin on it with “magic mirror”. Even if your only notable exposure to this line is the Disney film, the overwhelming amount of other examples, sources and pervasivenesswithin our culture all point to “mirror, mirror”.
It leads me to believe that this Mandela Effect is simply a combination of several different factors including (but not limited to): misinformation effect, confirmation bias, misattribution of memory and simply, misconception. It could almost match every generalcommon explanationfor Mandela Effects.
The age and sound quality of the Disney film is also questionable; if you were told it was “mirror, mirror” before watching the Queen’s mirror scene, you could almost hear it as “mirror, mirror” instead of “magic mirror”. It’s quite hard to make out, even on the best quality versions of the movie.
AdditionalReferences
Many have been quick to cite several other Disney-branded effects with “Mirror, mirror, on the wall” mentioned. There have also been some spotted with the Disney known, “Magic mirror”. Not limited to, but including the following:
Unfortunately theseobjects muddy the waters even further, but leads to some possible correlations to Disney staff throughout the years since the original film. Why is it significant that the 1948 book (citing the original 1937 date) has the film’s version of the text in it? Because it’s possible some of the original writing staff helped to produce some of the early merchandise for the movie. They would know the source the best.
Note how the 1973 book shows the text like:
Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who is the fairest of us all?
This is exactly how it was formatted in the original Brothers Grimm story(although text is slightly different from that source). It’s possible they used the original as a source, rather than the movie. This is possible, because, in the movie, it is also:
Magicmirror, on the wall,
Who is the fairestone of all?
They got both lines wrong!
Unfortunately again, this is all speculation as no information has been ever released been on why Disney made the original text change, or who worked on any of these products shown.
Basically, it’s proof of nothing except for different people, either making mistakes, or intentional changes. Nothing can be assumed.
