Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [DVD]

Disney's first "Platinum Edition" DVD is a terrific 2-disc set that every DVD fan should keep for all eternity. (I received an early, free copy from Amazon which allowed me to review it before the Oct 9th release date. This is a promotion by both Amazon and Buena Vista.) The THX-certified video transfer of the movie is blemish-free, almost always sharp, and has only an occasional softness perhaps due to age. Colors look splendid. The sound is clean and without a scratch, although some dialogs lack detail. The 5.1 audio remix provides mildly effective separation and bass for the background music. Otherwise, it is neither better nor worse than the included original mono soundtrack.The supplements on the first disc includes a 40-minute retrospective documentary that actually serves as a nice introduction of the supplements on the second disc. For nearly every aspect mentioned in the documentary, the extras on the second disc cover at length. There is an audio commentary track by historian John Canemaker that includes contemporary recordings of Walt reminiscing about the difficulties and fortunes during the making of the film. The commentary reveals that Deanna Durbin was once considered for the voice of Snow White, but she was deemed "too old". Canemaker, besides introducing each of Walt's recordings, also provides excellent scene-by-scene analyses. After the movie is over, Michael Eisner introduces Barbara Streisand's decidedly more mature rendition of "Somewhere My Prince Will Come". The first disc also includes four games -- two for set-top players, two as DVD-ROM content.The second disc contains a large amount of archival material of the movie. There are over 400 stills (all high-quality scans) of pencil tests, backgrounds, layouts, character designs, photos of the voice talents, photos of the production, the premiere, the 1937 pressbook, merchandise, and posters. There are quite a bit of video content as well. Notable is a new, nicely conceived, 40-minute segment called "Disney Through the Years"; it chronicles SNOW WHITE's theatrical releases in every decade (all trailers are shown) as well as Disney's accomplishments through the years. There are the original credit sequences with the RKO logo. There are deleted scenes that were fully animated and dubbed, one of which is a spectacular soup-eating scene. There are scenes that were conceptualized but were abandoned before animation, such as a dream sequence for one of Snow White's songs. There is a segment about the film's restorations in 1987, '93, and 2001. There are also vintage video of voice actors, models for live action references, techniques used in animation (two excerpts of Disney's "Tricks of our Trade" TV show are included).And there is more! There is a half-hour live radio broadcast of the film's premiere in which many celebrities are interviewed. There is another half-hour radio program in 1938 in which several songs from the movie are performed. There are two 4-minute radio interviews of Walt Disney by Cecil B. DeMille, one of which was recorded on the eve of the premiere. There are eight radio commercials from the 50s and 60s. There are recordings of two deleted songs, one of which, we are told, were only recently discovered in Disney's archives. There are also text screens about the film's production and Walt's life and career. A nice inclusion is the English translation of the Grimms Brothers' "Snow White."Future Platinum Edition DVDs will include BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN, THE LION KING, BAMBI, THE JUNGLE BOOK, CINDERELLA, THE LITTLE MERMAID, LADY AND THE TRAMP and 101 DALMATIANS. It disappoints me that DUMBO will not be a Platinum Edition (it will come out Oct 21st as a "Gold Edition" DVD). It irks me even more that only one Platinum Edition DVD will be sold each year for only a limited time; thereafter it will be put on a TEN-YEAR moratorium. This will no doubt lead to buying frenzies, so run, don't walk, to your nearest personal computer and order this SNOW WHITE DVD right away. I do not oppose releasing one Platinum DVD per year, since I understand it takes time and care to produce these great discs. But I do oppose Disney's long-standing policy of putting their video releases on moratorium for long, long periods. Their rationale has been that if people own the movie on video, they may not want to see it in theaters. Not true. Seeing this spectacular SNOW WHITE DVD has actually increased my desire to see the film in a theater.

The Blu-ray release of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is one of the slickest releases in Blu-ray history so far. It excels on every count: packaging, visual and audio presentation, the amount and depth of extra features and and all of the above at a retail price below most much less ambitious Blu-ray titles.I will briefly justify why I believe that this is a 'must have' 5-star for anyone who who watches or has kids who watch Disney animations.PACKAGINGOnce you remove the 3-D sleeve, the solid plastic (unlike the more recent 'cheap' Blu releases, this case does not have holes punched in it to save a penny or 2) you will find a Blu-ray guide attached to the inside front cover. The 'navigational overview' tree of the 2 Blu-ray disks is actually needed do to the almost baroque layout of features with some, such as the Hyperion Studios extra found on the Bonus disk with dozens of subfeatures within the feature. The inside cover itself lists the 27 movie 'scenes'.There are 3 disks:- The Feature Disk has the 84-minute movie plus a host of extra features.- The Bonus Disk has even more extras including the already mentioned 'Hyperion Studios'.- The DVD Feature Disk has the full movie once again.VISUAL AND AUDIO PRESENTATIONObviously, the original is greatly cleaned and enhanced to take advantage of Blu's 1080p superior resolution but that's not all.The optional DisneyView mode would make watching more enjoyable by filling the right and left side bars (the original is in a 3x4 format) with a static filler that changes with each scene matching the scene's own background, creating the impression that one is watching a 'wide screen' movie.Most of the extras are shot in uncompromising 1080p resolution.The highest audio resolution is 7.1 DTS HD Master Audio with 5.1 surround available for French and Spanish. The original soundtrack is also included for reference.An audio commentary track is available on the Feature Disk.EXTRA FEATURESThey run the whole gamut. The Feature Disk has the expected and inevitable - but in this case with a twist - 'deleted scenes', several 'remote control games', a music video of 'Some Day My Prince Will Come' and a 'Princess and the Frog' sneak peak.The Bonus Disk has two main section.There's the 'Classic bonus features' that has content we would normally expect on a bonus disk - Heigh-Ho Karaoke sing-along, Dopey's Wild Mine Ride, Disney Through the Decades, Animation Voice Talent.And then there's the absolutely amazing Hyperion Studios feature. It must be the most innovative 'bonus' making this purchase worth it for anyone who may already have the movie on DVD. Architected more or less like a hypertext document, it allows the viewer to freely jump in and out featurettes dealing with the history of Disney, the animators, the making of various aspects of the movie, the cultural impact of Snow White and of Disney. And the above are put together with historians and some of the original animators talking, original story boards, full-length, uncut Disney 'shorts', reconstructed and re-enacted Walt Disney and animators commentary to specific scenes and their thoughts and views as the scenes were developed... like I said, simply amazing if you add the never-before-used interface and you consider the extra-crisp quality of the entire presentation.MY CONCLUSIONI already stated it in the second paragraph of this review: if you are into animation and Disney, get it without hesitation. It's a steal.