I was absolutely ecstatic to receive a preview copy of the Blu-ray
edition of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES. This is one of those films
whose importance in the history of the movies is simply impossible to
over emphasize. While Disney had been one of the most important
animators of the thirties, but by no means the only one. The Fleischers
were doing a string of utterly delightful short films as good or better
than what was happening at Disney, not merely with
cold case dvd box Betty Boop and
Popeye but a number of superb cartoon fantasies. What separated Walt
Disney from his fellow animators was producing a feature length animated
film. As has been recounted in a number of works on SNOW WHITE, many
thought this was an incredibly Quixote film to make. Most felt that it
was going to be a failure, that most people would not be willing to sit
through a long color. Some of the reasons strike us as silly, e.g. that
the bright colors would hurt the viewers eyes after a while and they
would leave to rest their eyes. (This may sound silly, but remember
that in the years that this was being made, from around 1933 through
1937, most studios had only one or two color cameras - e.g., when Orson
Welles was making CITIZEN KANE, RKO offered him one of their few color
cameras, but he turned it down, preferring to do the film, but the offer
showed how important the film was to RKO.)
Luckily, SNOW WHITE was a huge hit (unlike the next few Disney
feature length films, which turned a profit, but only a minor one). And
it is easy to see shy. The film is a technical marvel. Although it
has been superseded by all of the films that have come after it. What
is astonishing is how close to perfect the film is in every aspect.
The film looks absolutely spectacular on Blu-ray. The colors have
never looked better, but the real improvement is in the sound, which is
crisper and fuller than ever before. It has been reedited for
compatibility with surround sound. I've always loved SNOW WHITE, but I
don't know that I've ever been as delighted watching it. I'd seen it a
couple of times in theaters as well as on VHS, but those prints were
usually somewhat worn. (Several fellow students and I went and saw this
at a college film society; one of the students was the daughter of a
major member of the Disney studios, a man who wrote screenplays for
several of the major studios, designed some of Disney's major
characters, and directed several films.) The print here is not only
perfect, a high def TV with a Blu-player and surround sound makes
possible a viewing experience never before possible.
SNOW WHITE features one of my favorite sequences in any Disney film.
The Huntsman has been ordered to kill Snow White and to that end he
approaches her in the woods. At the last second he is unable to carry
his task out. Instead, he warns her that her life is in danger and that
she must flee to save her life. So she runs immediately into the
forest, where her terror turns everything she sees into a threat. Logs
in a pond appear to her as alligators. Tree limbs are the arms of
monsters who are trying to snag her. Tree trunks appear to be ghouls.
Finally, in exhaustion she collapses in a small clearing, where menacing
eyes look out upon her. As she calms down the eyes are revealed to
belong to bunnies. And deer. And chipmunks. Quail. Sparrows.
Bluebirds. It is a wonderful sequence, as Snow White's imagination
transforms the world into a savage and menacing place.
One interesting feature of the disc is the so-called Disney View
option in watching the movie. You can either watch it in the original
4:3 ratio with black on each side or you can use
dexter box set the Disney View option,
in which animator Toby Bluth (brother of Don Bluth) provides frames on
each side of the image. I was a bit dubious about this before trying
it, but I have to confess that I like it a great deal. I like that this
is entirely optional. I liked the results quite a bit, but I could
understand if someone else did not. The effect is very much like in
older theaters where large curtains were opened just far enough to
reveal the screen. If you don't like it (my daughter and I both loved
it), just opt for the 4:3 version.
This Diamond edition does contain three discs. The first is a DVD
copy of the film. The second is a Blu-ray copy. The third is a Blu-ray
bonus disc with both extras produced exclusively for this Diamond
Edition and features that were produced for the previous DVD version of
the film. There are so many extras that it is difficult to list them
all. There are a great number that are intended for small kids and I'm
going to pass on these. I have close to no interest in those so I'll
focus on the ones that I find especially interesting. One especially
interesting feature deals with what was intended as a sequel to the
feature film, a short that was worked on but not completed, a project
entitled SNOW WHITE RETURNS, in which the Seven Dwarves make a new large
bed for Snow White. I loved the feature on Hyperion Studios, where you
got to go on something of a virtual tour of the site where SNOW WHITE
was produced. You see period photos of the various parts of the studio
with interview clips from some of the people who worked there.
Given the excellence of the film, the double versions, the large
number of special features, and the historical importance of the film,
this Blu-ray/DVD set is very nearly a perfect release. Some Disney
films (like the recently released PETE'S DRAGON) I can only recommend
for small children. But this is a film just about everyone should own.
If you have small children, you need it for them. If you are a student
of the history of film, you need it for the important role it played in
the development of the medium. And if you are a fan of great
animation, you need it because this is the film that gave birth to the
animated feature film. And on top of this it comes at a really decent
price. This disc definitely falls into the "
little house on the prairie complete dvd set Must Own" category.
By the way, not only did the film through its huge success make
possible all future feature length animated films (though it is
fascinating that other studios didn't immediately attempt to emulate
Disney - both MGM and Warner Brothers had great animated departments
that combined with the resources of the main studio might have been
capable of making a feature length film), it inspired one live action
film. Howard Hawks directed BALL OF FIRE, based on a Billy Wilder and
Charles Brackett screenplay. In that film seven stuffy scholars engaged
in writing an encyclopedia and living together in a Manhattan mansion
provide temporary sanctuary to a gangster's moll on the run (played
wonderfully by Barbara Stanwyck). The film has also entered our
consciousness in ways that make possible other narratives. For
instance, Snow White's singing to birds has been parodied in a variety
of films, most memorably in SHREK (where Princess Fiona's warbling
causes a bird to explode) and in Disney's own brilliant live action film
ENCHANTED. And it has become customary to refer to various people by
the names of one or another of the Seven Dwarves.