15

This is a film scene which has stuck with me for over 20 years since seeing it as a child. Unfortunately, due to the long time since seeing it - the exact details are hard to recall perfectly.

The scene that has stuck in my mind is:

  • There is a big royal party of some kind, lots of fancy dress, but all the colours are washed out and dusty. It had a distinctly sinister vibe.

  • There are stone statues of "dwarfs"/created from small-people.

  • The guests bowl balls at them as if they are bowling pins, when they are hit - they distinctly explode in grey/stone dust. From what I remember, it makes a point of showing these statues being destroyed, while everybody is laughing/having fun.

With these possible details which unfortunately, may be misremembered as it's been so long:

  • I think the main character (or one of them) was also a dwarf/small-person. Hence how much more sinister it all was.

  • The statues I think were originally living people, turned to stone. But it could be that they were actually just statues.

  • I think the main character wanted to undo some spell to turn them back to human form.

  • I think the antagonist may have been a female witch of some kind.


When I saw it, it was on British TV at some point in the mid-late 90s (or very early 2000s at latest). But I'm confident it was created in the 80s or 90s at latest, given what I remember of its production quality. It was a live action film.

Although I remember it being distinctly disturbing as a child. I'm not convinced it wasn't aimed at children. It was no more disturbing than "The Witches" - and was vaguely similar in terms of the film quality (although this may have been my TV).

4
  • 3
    In *The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe", the White Witch turns her enemies (including some dwarfs) into statues. There have been several TV adaptations, the latest being from BBC in 1988. I don't, however, remember the statues being used for bowling pins. Nov 19, 2018 at 12:51
  • 1
    Weirdly, I think I can recall something similar to this, too. I'm thinking Alice In Wonderland, but that can't possibly be correct.
    – Mikasa
    Nov 19, 2018 at 18:08
  • 2
    Animated or live action? Nov 19, 2018 at 22:44
  • 1
    @JackBNimble It was Live Action (sorry for missing that)
    – Bilkokuya
    Nov 20, 2018 at 10:09

1 Answer 1

8

The Hallmark Entertainment movie Snow White The Fairest of Them All includes a scene where the evil queen hosts a dinner-party where bowling with petrified gnomes as bowling pins was part of the entertainment.

The movie is a re-imagining of story of Snow white where the dwarves are magical creatures that represent everything that comes in groups of seven, like the days of the week or the colors of the rainbow. The dwarves wanted to find out where all the gnomes in the forest had gone to, only to discover that an evil witch had petrified them all out of spite. One of the dwarves, Sunday, tried to save the gnomes, but was petrified himself and taken by the witch, rendering the rest of the dwarves powerless. The witch later married Snow White's father and became a queen, but she decided to keep the gnomes and the dwarf as decorations in her garden.

When Snow White grew up, she was always lonely so she used to pretend the dwarf statue was her friend. This amused the queen, so when a prince showed up to court Snow White The queen held a dinner party where the guests bowled with garden gnomes as pins. Snow White too wanted to try at first, but when she saw the setup she was horrified and fled.

Later in the movie when Snow White lives with the dwarves she decided they have to save the gnomes from the castle. With the dwarves help they infiltrated the castle, but it all failed and more dwarves got petrified.

The movie has a quite dark tone with gnomes getting killed, people turned to animals or trapped in mirrors, and a deformed genielike creature called Greeneye as the source of all the magic of the mirror. When I watched it in the early 90s, it found it quite disturbing.

1
  • 1
    This is absolutely the movie I've been hunting for, I can't say how much I appreciate this (over the last few years had got to the point I was wondering if I'd just made it up). No idea how you managed to find this, you're amazing.
    – Bilkokuya
    Nov 26, 2018 at 10:02

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.