The Movie
Without realizing it, Walt Disney was able to establish--with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs--the formula for family films that would guide his company for the better part of a century. Then again, maybe he knew exactly what he was doing: After all, the guy was a genius. Who else could have conceived a feature-length Technicolor cartoon that would draw in moviegoers of all ages, and find a way to get it made in an industry that dismissed the whole endeavor as folly?
Using every trick in his arsenal; music, humor, character and more; Walt and his team of pioneers created a blockbuster of entertainment still ranked as one of the most popular films of all time. Snow White, the very first Disney Princess, charmed not only seven little miners, but in her plucky determination to flee a homicidal witch of a stepmother and somehow find true love, she continues to enthrall generations of fans.
The Picture
We are invited to watch in the original 4:3 or in "DisneyView" with the usually black vertical bars on either side of the movie filled in with custom paintings by Toby Bluth (with video/text explanations) to achieve the HDTV screen's 16:9 dimensions. I found the images to be appropriate, not at all distracting, like a subconscious extension of the scene itself. The secret is transparent watercolor, which is the same medium used for the animation backgrounds, which reproduce in all of their light, airy delicacy on Blu-ray. In fact, the nuance of the artists' paint is visible in almost every shot of Snow White.
The image is impossibly clean, with no noise, no evident grain. Colors really pop here: I won't call them "bold," the palette is more subdued than that, but they are strong, with a wide range of hues in a single shot. For a treat, take a gander at the witch's basket of apples, and did we even know before that Grumpy's tunic was magenta? Their seven outfits against the sunset at the close of "Heigh Ho," then the shift during the fade-out at the end provide a feast for the retinas. We can now discern the tiny dot of Snow's nose pressed against the glass of the dwarfs' cottage, and I'd heard that one animator's sole job was to apply Snow's "makeup": That effort, 72 years ago, is certainly paying off now. I noticed a few focus anomalies, likely owing to the digital restoration, but these are not a dealbreaker.
The Sound
The new DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 channel remix is being billed as "Disney Enhanced High Definition Sound," and is not likely to enrage the purists. The balance is decidedly front-heavy but with undeniably high fidelity, without the harshness or limitations we would expect from music recorded in the 1930's. Sometimes a trace of the vocals will blend with the orchestra and extend into the rears for a bit more presence, or as the intensity of a scene builds, the mix might expand to encompass the surround channels, but in general this is an extremely restrained re-imagining, with few instances of directionality.
The surround track's enhancement is much more evident when we compare it to the restored original mono track. Thunder frequently rocks with room-filling bass however, and subtle cues are used to make the dwarfs' mine seem more real, while woodland friends might assemble quietly all around us, too. The modern fullness of the soundfield is ultimately most notable in the rainy climax. Dialogue, particularly the dwarves', could be a tad clearer.
The Extras
"Backstage Disney: Diamond Edition" kicks off with "Snow White Returns," a reconstructed storyboard presentation of a possible sequel that never was, hosted by Lion King/Beauty and the Beast director Don Hahn (nine minutes, HD). Two deleted scenes dropped from Dwarfs but considered for inclusion in Returns--the Soup Eating Sequence and the Bed Building Sequence, ten-and-a-half minutes total, in HD--are shown in their entirety.
Someone named Tiffany Thornton belts out "Some Day My Prince Will Come" in her standard-def music video, three-and-a-half minutes. Four BD-Live-powered family games are also supplied. Mirror Mirror on the Wall tested to see which princess I am (Belle, if you were wondering), with a special reward at the end; "What Do You See?" is a timed challenge to decipher distorted images; Jewel Jumble is all about catching and matching; and Scene Stealer lets us insert ourselves into a Snow White music video, after we upload our photos at www.disneyscenestealer.com. All four are in HD.
Over on Disc Two, "Hyperion Studios" is the masterstroke in this new Blu-ray edition, a vast interactive treasure trove of still art, audio interviews and video clips, even complete cartoon shorts used for illustration. When woven together as they are here, these media work to tell the story of how Walt's original movie studio ran, and how Snow White was made. This feature is presented in high-definition, but it's self-guided so there is no set running time, just be sure to leave yourself a good hour or two. Also new is "The One That Started It All" (17 minutes, HD), gushing over the significance of movie's groundbreaking achievement.
Also on Disc Two, archived from the Platinum Edition DVD, are "Animation Voice Talent" (six minutes, SD) and the still-fun Dopey's Wild Mine Ride game, approx 28 minutes if we play straight through. The informative, star-studded "Disney Through the Decades" now runs 42-and-a-half minutes total, mostly SD, with multiple Snow White trailers, a just-added HD introduction and new-millennium update. The "Heigh Ho" karaoke and sing-along are three minutes each, both upgraded to HD. Also, back on Disc One, the DVD audio commentary is introduced by Roy Disney, hosted by Oscar-winning animator John Canemaker, but it's really all about Walt, edited together from relevant interviews he gave over the years.
Not really an "extra" but worth calling out, the menus are quite sophisticated, as the Magic Mirror knew the time of day, the weather outside, and the fact that this was my first viewing. Not for nothing, he's kind of a wise-ass, and he really wanted me to visit "Hyperion Studios."
Final Thoughts
Disney apparently loves high-definition, and thankfully high-definition loves Disney Animation. Snow White and Blu-ray are a match made in heaven (all we need is some red in there to make it patriotic, too), and only the hardest of heart will could pass up this gorgeous package.
DEAL ALERT! For a limited time, order one of the Snow White Blu-ray sets on Amazon.com, then use promotion code snowhite at checkout to receive a $10 instant discount.
Product Details
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