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Snow
White
and the Seven Dwarves
Diamond Edition
Once again, I'm going to have to say that
if you're an animation fan, Blu-ray is a logical way to
go. With Disney's Snow White and the 7 Dwarves Diamond
Edition, the definition is almost too good. It's not that
the cracks are showing, but you can really see the fine
line work in ways you can't even on the previous DVD Platinum
edition, and that was one heck of a restoration.
To prove that to myself, I didn't just
believe my five year old who by merely looking at the box
said "�this Snow White looks better." I did a side by side
comparison, watching the same sequences on both digital
restorations. Blu-ray wins: cleaner lines, brighter colors
and a deeper palette.
That adds up to restoring a true classic.
While perhaps not as strong as Pinocchio, which may
really be the studio's masterpiece, Snow White and the
Seven Dwarves isn't just a cinematic milestone; it still
stands up as a piece of entertainment. True, Snow White
is a little bit, um, trilly, and I've never trusted how
pink the Prince's lips are, but the Dwarves themselves and
the Evil Queen remain movie classics. In addition, the studio
has used the technology to create an interactive branching
documentary about Hyperion Studios, Walt's stomping grounds
in the thirties, where Snow White was created, and
the legendary sweatbox was born. Through recreations of
transcripts and audio recordings, this extra puts you as
close to being there as possible. Whoever their Disney impersonator
is, he's truly impossible to tell from the real thing, and
for history-minded Disneymaniacs, this is an invaluable
feature.
Another piece of history includes snippets
of development for a sequel. This may seem heretical, but
it shouldn't come as a surprise unearthing. Throughout the
forties and fifties, the Disney company toyed with storylines
continuing the saga that eventually appeared in children's
books, comic strips and marketing.
For kids, the disc includes a load of games.
Again, with the Blu-ray technology they can move past simple
trivia and into rudimentary videogame styles, here offering
a Dopey-hosted variation of a game that looks suspiciously
like Bejeweled, and is an obvious fit with these characters.
The Diamond Edition offers everything the
Platinum Edition had and more, so if you're upgrading, you're
not going to lose any materials that you enjoyed from that.
Blu-ray also allows for a smoother interface with the Magic
Mirror, a clever menu bit from the Platinum re-envisioned
here.
However, Disney seems to be aware that
people aren't adopting Blu-ray in the way the industry had
hoped. The marketing here reverses strategy. For several
months they and other companies included regular DVD versions
of the film, a clever way to ease people into the transition.
Here the inner package is essentially the same - one regular
DVD with Snow White and six minutes of the Princess
and the Frog, then two Blu-ray discs with the movie
and extras.
But on the package Disney sent, the box
touts this as a DVD with bonus Blu-ray discs included, a
clever switch that may sucker a few people in. Don't worry,
casual consumer, you'll still get a playable movie, but
the really cool stuff is on those other discs.
I'd say it's a trick almost worthy of the
Evil Queen, except that it's worth it.
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