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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 Although it has been superseded by all of the films that have come after it.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.