Kittie Lacey is the best hairdresser in all the land, as well as its hero and therapist, apparently, and her salon also serves as a comfy, friendly place to hang out.
Kittie offers to hide the princess in her salon, and fixes her a disguise (mainly purple hair) as her assistant. Soon the queen, also disguised as an old beggar woman, finds Snow White, whose munchies for apples sign her death warrant and she bites into the queen's poison apple and falls, seemingly dead.
An upset Kittie asks the magic mirror who the best doctor of them all is, and it is Dr Charming of Dr Charming's Surgery, who Snow White has always fancied. Fancy that!
Kittie tells Mr Gingerbread Man - first active role no. 2! - "Please hurry and fetch Dr Charming. Run, run, as fast as you can!" Dr Charming - who is a POC to Snow White's snow-skin - along with his pet cat assistant, lifts Snow White, and she coughs out the apple piece and wakes up. He recognised her all along, and weeks later the two marry, once Snow White is safe at last, as the wicked queen is marched to the top of a hill and down again by the Grand Old Duke and all the king's horses and all the king's men.
The seven dwarves are a band, Doug & the Delvers, and they play at the wedding. Snow White's friend Kittie Lacey is "on hand to make sure Snow White [is] the fairest of them all."
A bit of a shallow and empty ending, all things considered.
Still, 'The Fairytale Hairdresser and Snow White' is a fun, funny and cute fairy tale retelling in picture book form. This series really does love to focus on and support female friendship and bonds. Kittie consistently goes above and beyond to help others, especially other women.
The wicked queen is comical and genuinely funny here, and I like her design. Although, as I said in my review of 'The Fairytale Hairdresser and Cinderella', why are there so many branches of royalty in this fairy tale land? There are a lot of queens, kings, princesses and princes around, with not much in naming conventions to differentiate them. Where do they each rule? Why is it always "the palace", without stating which palace it is? And don't people get Dr Charming and Cinderella's Prince Charming confused? Why more than one Charming? Is Dr Charming a prince, like every other human male in the series?
Okay, I am overthinking a children's picture book series, even a funny one. For the sake of my sanity, I'll stop now.
I'm pretty sure the dwarves are queer-coded, too.
By now I'm certain that Kittie Lacey isn't supposed to be straight, either. She never has an explicit love interest, and she is closest to the girls she helps out. She doesn't merely style their hair and dress them up (though that in itself is a clear indication of "likes girls") - she comforts them, hugs them, dances with them, gives the gifts, calls them "love". She is so warm, loving and endearing towards women.
Or maybe Kittie is just that friendly, kind, and caring towards people and fairy tale characters. She is a matchmaker, on top of everything else.
Cameos include: Humpty Dumpty (to go with all the king's horses and all the king's men), Goldilocks, Mother Goose, Hansel and Gretel, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the White Rabbit, Rose's fairy friends, the Three Bears, the Three Pigs, Old Macdonald, Mr Wolf the optician, Little Miss Muffet, and more.
Colourful fun!
Final Score: 3.5/5
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