“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Diamond Edition” Blu-ray Review
The Disney animation library is one of the most popular in the world. Ask any kid in the US to name a Disney film and they would be able to blurt some title out with relative ease. This is in massive thanks to Snow White, which was one of Disney’s earliest and most successful films to date. The story is now considered an absolute classic among…well, pretty much everyone and chances are you watched it growing up as a kid…repeatedly. With the advent of the home video market the exposure to the story as only grown and Disney continues their Blu-ray releases of classic films with Snow White debuting in full HD and 7.1 surround as part of Disney’s Diamond Edition line of classics.
Synopsis
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the time-honored story of a beautiful princess whose blossoming beauty disturbs her stepmother the Queen. Each day the Queen asks a mysterious magic mirror the quintessential question: “mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all.” As long as the mirror answers the Queen’s name, all is well. However, when one day the mirror replies with Snow White’s name, the evil Queen begins her quest to kill the young girl, so she may once again be “the fairest of them all.” Snow White’s escape from the evil Queen’s plan leads her deep into the forest and to a small cottage where she meets, in one of the most famous scenes in motion picture history, the Seven Dwarfs. Once “off to work” they go, the wicked Queen persuades Snow White to take a bite of a poisonous apple that places a powerful sleeping curse on the young beauty. Heartbroken, the dwarfs make a glass coffin for their friend, because she is too beautiful to bury. Only when a handsome Prince – who had previously fallen in love with Snow White — finds her and kisses her, does she awaken, “to live happily ever after.”
I’m sure I’ve mentioned before how while growing up I watched the Disney films relentlessly. Oddly enough Snow White wasn’t one of them, but that was honestly more to do with my gender than anything (though that doesn’t explain Little Mermaid…). Still, while I wasn’t crazy for the film in my youth, watching it now as an adult just allows me to appreciate all the more. It’s a surprisingly dark film at times and also quite twisted when you analyze it, but that’s what’s so great about Disney’s films (for the most part, anyway)—they’re so chock full of situations that both adults and children can enjoy with extreme ease.
Take, for instance, Snow White’s arrival in the woods. Someone is meant to kill her and return her heart to the Queen in a jeweled box. As a kid you don’t really bat an eyelash at this sort of thing but now if an animation studio tried to get away with the same thing they’d be met with parents revolting. Double standards are rampant in the animation genre, however, so that’s not entirely surprising; rewatching Pinocchio for the first time in several years resulted in the same reaction as well. It’s just an interesting area to explore with these films as they touch upon elements that we wouldn’t dare of inserting into a modern cartoon.
Not that it matters anyway. The way these older cartoons were done was executed with such finesse and elegance that trying to replicate it today would just backfire immediately. They were simpler times and even this film added in and removed some of the darker elements of the story (something about the Queen dying with hot iron shoes on), so it’s not like they didn’t recognize how violent some of the imagery would get if it were to be animated.
Speaking of animation…can I just say that there really is nothing quite like a classically animated movie? The animation in this film is still such an amazing feat that I’m astonished something like this was able to be made by hand. The movement of the water and just how real it looks to begin with is just an amazing sight to behold and seeing it now in 1080p? Ridiculous. I’ve often been a fan of older animation for exactly the reasons that Snow White shows off here.
In the end there’s only so much to discuss about this classic. It’s Highly Recommended, as almost all classic Disney films are, and I am just really astonished by how polished the animation still looks to this day.
The Blu-ray
Confusion alert! Disney is doing another “Blu-ray first” in that they’re releasing only the three-disc Diamond Edition on Blu-ray first (not that it matters as there is a DVD of the film included as well), with the DVD edition arriving a month or so later. This will confuse consumers I’m sure, but to add to that confusion Disney is also releasing the Blu-ray edition in two different forms of packaging. One is the standard Elite Blu-ray style case with the cover you see at the top of this review and the second is packaged in a DVD Amaray case that you see to your left. My review copy is of the one on the left so when it arrived I was naturally confused—even moreso when I opened the casing to find that all of the inserts were made for a Blu-ray case, as they’re much too short to fit between the double prongs of the DVD case. Not a huge deal by any means but a giant mess that will either confuse or tick consumers off (more likely both will occur). But in the end it doesn’t matter as a DVD edition is included anyway, so that anger will be short lived (until they find out the DVD is exactly like the 2001 release they may be upgrading from).
You know that hazy, grainy look that you often have in your head of old animated films that you watched as a kid? Well…that doesn’t really exist here anymore. The transfer for Snow White is so clean that it may as well be a modern production. Sure, lines are a bit thick and the frames aren’t quite as crisp as a newly minted production, but in terms of colors and the definition of the characters? This transfer is just jaw droopingly awesome. The AVC encoded feature is nearly flawless; there are minor instances of cel damage/noise, but they float by so quickly that it’s barely even worth mentioning. Aside from those minor instances, the transfer here is simply one of the best I’ve ever seen and a beautiful example of the benefits of Blu-ray.
You would imagine a film this old to have an equally as old sounding audio track. This is still the case, but Disney did their best work to breathe life into the old Mono track that originally accompanied this film in theaters (and which is also included here for those who want to hear it) with the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track. Subwoofer and surround output are admittedly limited, but it still spreads throughout the room fairly well. Not an absolutely sonic mix by any means, but one that is definitely pleasing to the ears.
Moving onto the extras it should be noted that while there is a healthy mixture on tap a few of the original 2001’s DVD release extras did not get ported over. I don’t have the original release so I can’t do an exact comparison, but around an hour’s worth of bonus features are missing for whatever reason. Not a huge issue in the grand scheme of things as you’ll see from the giant list of extras below, but still disappointing nonetheless. But hey…maybe you could just package up the 2001 and 2009 releases into one big mega package on your shelf.
Blu-ray™ Bonus Features
• Magic Mirror – Using the latest in Blu-ray technology, the iconic magic Mirror guides the audience through the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Diamond Edition features with ease, serving as the host for an incredibly immersive experience. The Mirror will recognize viewing patterns, knows where the audience has left off and will even suggest where to navigate next. This marks the first use of this technology in a Disney Blu-ray release and provides viewers with the control to personally create a customized Snow White experience
• DisneyView – Disney’s pioneering animated feature is brought to the modern era of widescreen high definition viewing by allowing the user to expand their viewing experience beyond the original aspect ratio of the film. Utilizing Disney Blu-ray technology, acclaimed Disney artist Toby Bluth was able to draw beyond the borders of the classic full frame cinema and fill the otherwise dark edges of the screen with beautiful custom imagery, giving audiences a new view of the animated classic favorite.
• About Toby Bluth – Disney artist Toby Bluth tells how the movie inspired him to create the superb DisneyView art.
• Audio Commentary with Walt Disney, hosted by John Canemaker
• “The Princess and the Frog” Sneak Peek
BACKSTAGE DISNEY: DIAMOND EDITION (Disc 2)
• Snow White Returns – Newly discovered storyboards suggest a brand new Snow White featurette that never got made. For the first time, current Disney animators show how this short story would have played.
• Mirror, Mirror On The Wall – Through BD-Live, this mirror can find the secret princess inside each viewer, then create for them a personal message from their favorite princess who will call them on the telephone.
• Hyperion Studios – Audiences are digitally transported to 1937 to discover first-hand Hyperion Studios, the original studio Walt Disney himself built where Snow White was conceived and developed. Viewers will virtually walk the halls of this historic landmark, experiencing life at Hyperion Studios in the 1930s. This amazing “Backstage Disney” feature contains newly dimensionalized archival photos, never-before-heard animator recordings, archival transcripts and rare footage of Walt himself revealing how Disney’s gifted filmmakers crafted the very first animated feature.
• The One That Started It All – This featurette reveals how Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs forever changed the world of movies and the world at large.
MUSIC & MORE
• “Someday My Prince Will Come” – Music video by Tiffany Thornton
FAMILY PLAY (GAMES & ACTIVITIES)
• What Do You See? – To win this exciting interactive game, players must untangle scrambled
images.
• Jewel Jumble – Players put jewels from the Dwarfs’ mine in the proper order to win this
game.
DVD Bonus Features
• Audio Commentary with Walt Disney, hosted by John Canemaker
• “The Princess and the Frog” Sneak Peek
• Snow White Returns – Newly discovered storyboards suggest a brand new Snow White featurette that never got made. For the first time, current Disney animators show how this short story would have played.
• The One That Started It All – This featurette reveals how Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs forever changed the world of movies and the world at large.
• “Someday My Prince Will Come” – Music video by Tiffany Thornton
• Dopey’s Wild Mine Ride – An interactive set-top game for the whole family
• Animation Voice Talent
• Disney Through The Decades – A series of video segments with celebrity hosts
• “Heigh-Ho” Karaoke Sing-Along
• Dylan & Cole Sprouse: Blu-ray™ Is Suite!
• Learn How To Take Your Favorite Movies On The Go
As you can see there is a giant list of extras to delve into here and most of them are all in HD. The few that aren’t are filed under the DVD disc of the set.
Overall this a superb release and while it’s marred slightly by the lack of extras from the 2001 release, we really didn’t lose much content wise as it was replaced with a healthy list of other extras. Highly Recommended to add to your collection, as even as far as double dips go this one is certainly worth it.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Diamond Edition arrives on Blu-ray on October 6th and on DVD on November 24th.