Blu-ray/DVD Combo with DVD Packaging / Platinum Edition
Disney / Buena Vista | 1937 | 83 mins. | Rated G
As America’s first full length animated film, 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will always hold a special and significant place in the annals of film history. Now that Snow White is a beloved classic, it’s easy to forget how much of a risk the Walt Disney Company took in making the film. Though Disney had won the animated short Oscar for five straight years prior to the release of Snow White (and would win three more before being dethroned), few thought there was much demand for a full-length animated feature, going so far as to call the project “Disney’s Folly” while it was in production.
Despite objections from his brother and business partner Roy and skepticism from his wife Lillian, Walt Disney soldiered on. When Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered on December 21, 1937 after three years in production, it was clear Walt Disney had a major hit on his hands. The film was put into general release in the United States on February 4, 1938, and it went on to become a major box-office success, becoming the highest grossing film of 1938 with international box office sales of $8 million during its original release.
Like the recently released The Wizard of Oz, almost everyone knows the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The film tells the tale of a young maiden (voiced by Adriana Caselotti) who’s so beautiful that she incures the wrath and hatred of her stepmother (Lucille La Verne), an evil queen with a penchant for dark magic. After fleeing her stepmother’s kingdom, Snow White stumbles upon the woodland cottage of seven diminutive men—Sleepy (Pinto Colvig), Sneezy (Billy Gilbert), Happy (Otis Harlan), Bashful (Scotty Mattraw), Grumpy (Colvig as well), Dopey (Eddie Collins), and Doc (Roy Atwell)—who agree to take her in. They quickly become enamored with their new houseguest. She cooks, cleans, and gives them everything a mother would, if they had one. Unfortunately, her stepmother learns the girl is still alive, and sets out to get her revenge. After disguising herself as a decrepit crone and tricking Snow White into eating a poisonous apple, the beatiful girl lies dead. However, the dutiful devotion of her new dwarfen friends and the arrival of a Prince (Harry Stockwell) may help the slumbering girl escape her eternal sleep.
The script is credited to eight different writers: Ted Sears, Otto Englander, Earl Hurd, Dorothy Ann Blank, Richard Credon, Dick Rickard, Merrill De Maris, and Webb Smith. In many cases, that leaves you with a story that goes in a lot of different directions with no particular point or purpose; that is certainly not the case here. These individuals were able to weave the melodramatic evilness of the Queen and her unstoppable desire to destroy her stepdaughter with moments of subtle humor and occasional outright frivolity.
Aiding things tremendously is the superb voice casting. While it’s true Adriana Caselotti’s voice can sound a bit shrill at times, her soprano style is steeped in the thirties, when beltish singers like Deanna Durbin (to a lesser degree, Kay Thompson), were all the rage. There’s no question though that her voice has a sweet, soft and naïve quality that makes it just right for the part of Snow White. As her polar opposite, Lucille LaVerne has the right amount of cruelty as the mad Queen and her s hag counterpart. Famous for his long take sneezes, Billy Gilbert was perfect casting as Sneezy, and all of the other voice actors for the dwarfs etch wonderful characters with a limited number of spoken lines. Harry Stockwell’s Prince gets the least development (even the huntsman is a stronger character) by the animators, but he certainly handles the Prince’s “One Song” with the appropriate ardor.
Of course, Uncle Walt himself deserves a great deal of credit for putting Snow White together. He understood that feature length animated films could have an audience before anyone else did. Further, when you consider Snow White was made in 1937, every animator involved was doing something innovative that helped to contribute the amazing animation and CGI capabilities we have available today.
Presented with an incredible 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer, the Blu-ray edition of the film is a sight to behold. Colors are bold and rewarding, black levels are deep and inky, and contrast, in spite of some wavering attributable to the original animation cells, is strong and stunning. Detail is equally exceptional, revealing every stroke of its painters’ brushes, every stutter in the lineart, and every errant flick of its artists’ pens. Sharpness is dependent on the source itself — several shots are soft by today’s animation standards — but a comparison to previous DVD releases of the film showcases the staggering improvements the image has undergone.
Snow White‘s transfer doesn’t exhibit any significant artifacting, banding, aliasing, or distracting digital tampering. The image is clean, offering stable lines and uncluttered fills in each and every scene. The Blu-ray transfer offers a lovingly restored look at a time honored classic.
Snow White also receives a fabulous audio restoration with a 24-bit DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track; one that captures the tone and tenor of the film’s recordings and gives its original mix a notably authentic facelift. Disney pays the utmost respect to the film’s sonic roots, relegating the LFE channel to a support role and granting the rear speakers a more subtle role in the proceedings. Voices are clear and intelligible, the musical score is rich and robust, and the songs sound better than ever. Directionality is limited but pans are smooth, creating a front-heavy but effective experience. There are sequences that pack an unexpected punch — primarily those that occur during a third-act thunder storm and subsequent chase scene. As an added bonus, the studio has also included a restored version of the film’s original mono track (albeit via a 192kbps Dolby Digital mix), meaning fans will be able to hear Snow White as it was first heard.
The 3-Disc Blu-ray edition’s slate of special features is impressive:
Audio Commentary (Disc 1): Film historian John Canemaker helms a fascinating commentary culled from interviews with Walt Disney himself. While Disney’s reflections run the gamut — detailing the hows and whys of the production and the hard work that went into every frame of the film — it’s Canemaker who glues it all together with insightful observations and engrossing dissections of Snow White‘s influence on animation, its impact on cinema, and its enduring legacy. This is a must-listen for film students.
Hyperion Studios (HD, Disc 2): is an interactive tour through Disney’s animation studio which was in use during the making of Snow White. There are 13 sections of the facility, and in each section, the user can branch off to see featurettes on the work done on Snow White in various phases of the facility including the Story Room, the Music Room, Layout, Art Department, Animation Department, Live Art Reference, The Sweat Box, Ink & Paint, Camera Department, Soundstage, and Walt’s Office. Not only are each of the departments explained with an interesting and informative featurette using a mix of vintage recordings and film clips and also modern Disney artists talking about their “forefathers” at the studio, there are also more than a few delightful examples of the work done in these discussed departments. For example, after the discussion of the multiplane camera, a screen lowers and we’re treated to the first animated short where it was used, the Oscar-winning The Old Mill in glorious 1080p. A discussion of Technicolor leads to the first Oscar-winning Technicolor short Flowers and Trees also in 1080p. The Soundstage office shows us the first synchronized cartoon short Steamboat Willie, all in 1080p. There is also a handy index you can jump to that makes sure you’ve seen all of the dozens of featurettes and shorts included in this amazingly informative section. The disc records which featurettes you’ve watched on a checklist so you can see what you’ve seen and what’s still waiting to be viewed. Very interesting stuff
Classic DVD Bonus Content (Disc 2): “Disney Through the Decades” (SD, 36 minutes) is a rather promotional documentary about the studio’s rise over the decades, “Animation Voice Talent” (SD, 6 minutes) focuses on Snow White voice actress Adriana Caselotti, “Dopey’s Wild Mine Ride” is an interactive game, and “Heigh Ho” is a karaoke feature.
Snow White Returns (HD, Disc 1, 9 minutes): Ever wonder why Disney didn’t make a sequel to Snow White? Find out why.
Deleted Scenes (HD, Disc 1, 11 minutes): Two sequences that were cut from the film, one involving soup and the other involving the construction of a bed.
Family Play (HD, Disc 1): A collection of interactive games and activities that includes a personality quiz called “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall,” a kid-friendly guessing game called “What Do You See,” a “Bejeweled” knock-off called “Jewel Jumble,” and a BD-Live activity called “Scene Stealer.”
Music Video (HD, Disc 1, 4 minutes): A music video for Tiffany Thorton’s rendition of “Some Day My Prince Will Come.”
The Princess and the Frog Sneak Peek
(HD, Disc 1, 8 minutes): An extended preview of Disney’s upcoming animated feature, The Princess and the Frog.
Standard DVD Copy of the Film (SD, Disc 3)
BD-Live Functionality
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