The Queen has since been voiced by Eleanor Audley, June Foray, Janet Waldo and Susanne Blakeslee, among others, and was portrayed live by Anne Francine (musical), Jane Curtin (50th anniversary TV special), Olivia Wilde (Disney Dream Portraits), Lana Parrilla (Once Upon a Time), Kathy Najimy (Descendants), and Gal Gadot (Snow White).

After observing the handsome young unnamed prince named from another kingdom singing a love song to Snow White, the proud Queen Grimhilde falls in a jealous rage.

The ingredients for the Peddler Disguise potion calls for Mummy Dust to make her look old, the Black of Night to shroud her clothes, a Hag's Cackle to age her voice, the Scream of Fright to whiten her hair, a blast of wind to fan her hate, and a thunderbolt to mix it well.

"[22] Disney further developed the main plot himself (Ollie Johnston said the film's story was based on the idea that the Queen's character was going to murder "another drawing" and Disney decided to make it appear believable[23]), finding a dilemma in the characterization of the Queen, whom he envisioned as a mixture of Lady Macbeth and the Big Bad Wolf,[24][25] and decided to set on "a high collar stately beautiful type"[26] whose "beauty is sinister, mature, plenty of curves – she becomes ugly and menacing when scheming.

[8][34] Her costume and figure may have been inspired by a column statue at the Naumburg Cathedral depicting Uta von Ballenstedt, the wife of Eckard II, Margrave of Meissen who was widely regarded as the most beautiful woman of Medieval Germany.

"[42] The character, however, turned out to be especially problematic for the animators, as she had to be "regally beautiful, with confined but graceful movements," and "the experiments on her lovely cruel mouth and eyes alone represent drawings enough to fill a paper house.

[57] The character's foreign dubbing voice actresses included Cristina Montt in Chile; Mirela Brekalo in Croatia; Jiřina Petrovická in Czechoslovakia; Clara Pontoppidan, Kirsten Rolffes and Lise Ringheim in Denmark; Rauni Luoma and Seela Sella in Finland; Adrienne D'Ambricourt and Claude Gensac in France; Dora Gerson and Dagny Servaes in Germany (Gerson also in the Netherlands); Ilus Vay in Hungary; Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir in Iceland; Abha Parmar in India; Tina Lattanzi, Dina Romano, Benita Martini and Wanda Tettoni in Italy; Tanie Kitabayashi in Japan; Blanca de Castejón and Cristina Montt in Mexico; Astrid Folstad and Bab Christensen in Norway; Danuta Stenka in Poland; Svetlana Smirnova and Zinaida Sharko in Russia; and Helena Brodin, Hjördis Petterson and Lil Terselius in Sweden.

[62] The film's 1936 press book describes the manner of her death as inspired by what the company fancifully claimed was the Queen's invocation when she had sold her soul to the evil spirits in exchange for her dark powers, supposedly present in "famous folk lore" of German peasants that the Grimms obtained their story from (in what the book claims as a translation to English: "If I had to keep my vow / That I take and swear to now, / May the vultures, wolf and bear / On my body feed and tear / Mock my agony and groans / Rend the red flesh from my bones / Where the dark pine branches wave / Be this wilderness my grave!").

[63] The original outline of the story featured another attempt by the Queen to kill Snow White, using a poisoned comb, an element taken from the Grimms' version of the tale (the Dwarfs would arrive in time to remove it).

[67][68] The envious Queen would also decide to take possession of Snow White's attractive young suitor, the 18-year-old[16] Prince (described in a press kit as "every woman's dream man"[44]) for herself, offering him an opportunity to share the throne with her through a marriage.

She then makes her way to the Dwarfs' cottage with the poisoned apple, while birds and forest animals were to help the Prince escape the Queen's minions and find his horse as would race to try and save Snow White.

[85] The Evil Queen is one of the "favourite" villains included in Magic Kingdom Park's special pre-parade procession "It's Good to be Bad" a night before the annual Main Street Electrical Parade.

In 2010's video game Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, the Queen (voiced by Kyoko Satomi in Japanese and Susanne Blakeslee in English) appears in the Dwarf Woodlands world.

[164] She has appeared in the comics of many characters, including Daisy Duck's nieces April, May and June,[165] the Beagle Boys,[166] Br'er Rabbit,[167] Chip 'n Dale,[168] Donald Duck & Mickey Mouse,[169] Goofy,[170] Huey, Dewey, and Louie,[171] Jiminy Cricket,[172] José Carioca,[173] Mickey & Minnie Mouse,[174] Li'l Bad Wolf,[175] Tinker Bell,[176] and the Three Little Pigs,[177] as well as her fellow Disney witches such as Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone,[178] Witch Hazel from Trick or Treat, and Magica De Spell (especially in Brazilian comics).

"Snow White and the Shattered Mirror" (Biancaneve e lo specchio infranto)[227] has the old Witch, terminally ill, discover she has only one day to live, but she refuses to accept her destiny and finds a way to conquer death.

In this story, Grimhilde (Grimilde) enlists the aid of her great admirer and past suitor, the evil King Arbor of Vegetalia, in a plot to use a magic crystal device to swap her old body with Snow White's.

The uneasy relationship between Grimhilde and Abor continued in "The Seven Dwarfs and the Fountainhead" (I Sette nani e la fonte meravigliosa),[235][236] in which she desperately attempts to regain her youth, but instead only turns into a childlike version of her Witch form for a short time.

[239] In "The Seven Dwarfs and the Wolf's Cliff" (I Sette Nani e la balza del lupo),[240] she sends a gang of three bandits named Bragia, Sghembo and Schidione to kidnap Snow White.

In Scarpa's three-part "Snow White and the Green Flame" (Biancaneve e verde fiamma),[228][242][243] the Queen proudly flies on a broom to the great gathering of witches, expecting to be celebrated, but is met with a very different welcome: the other attendees scorn her and declare that her shameful inability to deal with just a little girl and a few dwarfs has disgraced them all, and for this she should be punished according to the laws of Hell.

With now greater powers and the help of seven evil dwarfs she attempts to eliminate her hated rival once and for all, but instead ends up burning all of her vital energy and Oren arrives to inform her how she has destroyed herself with her own hands.

"The Seven Dwarfs and the Christmas Fairy" (I Sette Nani e la fatina di Natale) presents a scenario in which the Queen successfully casts a forever-sleep enchantment on Snow White once again, but this time the curse is perfected as to not be broken by an awakening kiss.

Snow White appears and agrees to sacrifice herself to save them, but Kilala stops her at last moment before she can eat a poison apple; Rei then attacks the Queen, who falls into her cauldron, turns into a vulture, and flies away in a defeat.

An almost entirely alternate take on the character of the Evil Queen is Regina Mills, the main antagonist in the first season of the 2011 ABC live-action TV series Once Upon a Time, where she is played by Lana Parrilla.

The image of the wicked Queen (initially conceived as a raven-haired glamour girl, and the epitome of late-1930s sophistication) who drinks an aging potion and then shrivels, sprouting warts and claws, turning before our eyes from a sexy, voluptuous creature into a frightening old crone, must leave as powerful an impression on the audience as Snow White's chirpy femininity.

"[293] Jim Lentz, Director of Animation Art at Heritage Auctions, said in 2015: "The Evil Queen is, to this day, one of the great villains of cinema, and she was at her terrifying best when she became the Old Hag and set off to destroy Snow White.

[note 3] According to Maria Tatar, an academic specializing in children's literature, the film turned "the evil queen into a figure of gripping narrative energy and makes Snow White [the character] so dull that she requires a supporting cast of seven to enliven her scenes.

Ultimately it is the stepmother's disruptive, disturbing, and divisive presence that invests the film with a degree of fascination that has facilitated its widespread circulation and that has allowed it to take such powerful hold in our own culture.

"[309] Alan Charles Kors and Edward Peter credited the Queen's character's influence in changing the popular visual image of witches in film and other fiction as specifically female, more often young and attractive than old and ugly, and dressed in a characteristically defining costume.

"[56] Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty inherited a number of characteristics from the Evil Queen, including the cowl, high collar, billowing cloak, arched eyebrows, cruel lips, and raven familiar.

The settlement specifically stated there could not be a "wicked witch" character appearing in the film, which instead was made to feature the Queen's brother in a vendetta to avenge her death, and the title was changed from Snow White in the Land of Doom to Happily Ever After.