Various featurettes

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” may not have aged particularly well but the film still remains an iconic classic. In 1937 a film like “Snow White” had never been seen before; the detail was positively breathtaking and using rotoscoping (a technique where you animate over live action footage essentially using the “live” person as your guide on movement), the use of three pane animation to include additional depth and detail and the colorful landscape all made “Snow White” the gold standard when it came to animation. Since feature film length animation had NEVER been done before Walt Disney broke another barrier long believed to be impossible to break—to get children and their parents to sit for a full length animated feature film. ***

It wasn’t an easy road. If the film had flopped, Disney would have lost just about everything. Every feature film the studio made until the 50’s had an element of struggle to it but “Snow White” because it broke the mold of what animation SHOULD be vs. COULD be altered the landscape of American film. Without Walt Disney’s vision entertainment would a very different breed today. Pixar couldn’t have existed without the concepts that Disney pioneered—to show the same artistic and commercial vision in animation as existed for live action film. ---

Image & Sound:

Disney does a marvelous job of restoring the film. It’s never looked better and I doubt that even prints from 1937 ever looked this clean, rich and with such depth when shown in theaters at the time. Clarity and detail are both remarkably good here. Presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, the film benefits from Disney artist Tony Bluth’s use of customized “borders” that fill out the image on the screen and while some fans won’t appreciate this it will prevent younger fans from asking why the screen hasn’t been filled. Essentially this creates a “picture window” through which viewers can watch the classic film and, perhaps, not be as distracted by the edges of the frame being “black”. For those who don’t want to watch it with “Disney View” you have the choice of doing so. It’s the best of all possible worlds for both classic animation fans and children new to the film. For those who purchased the Disney reissue of “Pinocchio” on home video this should be familiar as this technique was pioneered for that film’s home video high definition release and DVD reissue. ***

Audio sounds terrific as well. Disney has always been something of a pack rat as a studio (a bit ironic given the company’s later chosen mascot of Mickey Mouse)so we have a lossless 5.1 mix that takes advantage of the fact that the original sound reels STILL exist. “Snow White” will never sound as good as a contemporary film but it sounds exceptional for a film made in 1937 when “talkies” were hardly a decade old. ---

“Snow White” could have been released with just a small make up bag of extras. Instead, we get a medicine cabinet full of extras here; “Backstage Disney” allows us to hear the animators, archival transcripts focusing on the production of the film, rare behind-the-scenes footage of Walt and his animators working on projects and archival photos. ***

Probably the best and most memorable special feature here was developed by Hyperion Studios which creates virtual tours. This virtual tour allows fans to be taken to the Disney studio in 1937 to see the conception, development and production of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. It’s a very cool special feature. ***

We also get the iconic “Magic Mirror” as a guide taking us through the Diamond Edition of the film. Using current Blu-ray technology our “host” can keep track of where viewers left off, what they’ve watched and make suggestions for what to watch next based on what has been watched by viewers. ***

“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall” is a BD-Live feature that through the use of questions allows the viewer to discover their “inner princess”. ***

“What Do You See?” is an interactive visual puzzle game allowing viewers to unscramble images. *** “Jewel Jumble” allows players to put jewels from the Dwarfs’ mine in the appropriate order to win the game. ***

“Scene Stealer” allows viewers to upload a personal photo and allows them to experience life as one of the seven dwarfs on screen. ***

For parents Disney also provides a DVD version of the film that they can take on the road to keep the kids entertained either in the car or any place they might be staying. It’s a nice extra also since kids often can be a little bit hard on home video discs. ***

Things are rounded by trailers for various upcoming and current Disney projects and these can be easily skipped. ---

Final Words: