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Author
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Topic: Snow White BD Review
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted October 07, 2009 10:11 AM
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Blu Ray Disc Diamond Edition
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has been available on super 8mm for a very long time, both in excerpt form as Whistle While You Work and The Dwarfs Dilemma and as the full length feature from Derann. As we all know, the quality of Derann’s super 8mm Disneys is superb with very sharp imagery and rich colors that make them a joy to watch. Now comes the release of Snow White for the first time in high definition blu-ray, available in a 3 disc Diamond Edition package for $24.99 at Wal Mart and Target. There are also other packages available with additional supplemental material, topping out at $159.99 for the sumptuous deluxe package which is packed with memorabilia on everything related to Snow White.
It has been quite a while since I have seen Snow White in its entirety so I was really looking forward to viewing the new blu ray release. Well it did not disappoint. In every respect this is a wonderful, wonderful film, and clearly deserves its recognition as Disney’s masterpiece and one of the greatest films ever made. Yes, it’s a fairy tale, but so well told and executed that you really get involved with the characters. It does not surprise me at all that at the Hollywood premiere macho stars, such as Clark Gable, were weeping at the end of the film. And I had forgotten how wonderful the music and the songs are in this film – possibly the best of all the Disney films.
The Blu ray disc can only be described as stunning in every way. The image is beautifully clear and bright, the blacks are inky black, and the color is sumptuous Technicolor. Every frame is a gorgeous painting and its like looking at the original cell art. Disney have obviously lavished great love and care on this reference quality restoration. There has been no image cropping, its still exactly 4:3 format as in the original, and digital noise reduction has been minimized with film grain still discernible. There are no image artifacts that I could see, and no jaggies or artificial edge enhancement. In other words it just looks like a beautiful pristine film print. The sound is wonderful with plenty of richness and depth and even a little stereo separation has been introduced to enhance the listening experience, although you can default to the existing mono sound if you want to.
The second disc is loaded up with extras, including the slightly creepy magic mirror host that helps you find your way around, and somehow learns your viewing preferences and makes suggestions about menu options. There is a great documentary about the making of Snow White and a terrific interactive tour of Disney’s Hyperion Studio where you can visit each department of the studio and see movies and stills including many full length Silly Symphonies all in High Definition.
The third disc is a standard definition DVD of the movie.
This latest release of Snow White is simply a must have for any film collector, even if you are lucky enough to own a super 8mm print. Even if you just buy the DVD package, Disney has thrown in a Blu ray disc for future use. This Blu Ray disc is reference quality HD, superb in every way. It is impossible to find fault with it.
Walt would have been so proud of this one.
***** out of *****
[ January 27, 2010, 05:42 PM: Message edited by: Paul Adsett ]
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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted October 07, 2009 06:44 PM
Nice review Paul. I have a question though. You were saying that it is as its original aspect ratio.
Is the image cropped a little from the sides to give that nearly perfect square image of the the cinema of 1937? The standard
TV size (of the past), while close to the original ratio, still cut off a little from the top and bottom.
There were some Looney Tunes released some while back with that perfect "window boxing" giving the complete image, but I haven't seen many others released that way.
It's not a big thing, but with such a great restoration, I'd love to hear that Disney took the same care with Snow White, that MGM took with giving viewers the original look of Cinerama on "How the West was Won".
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted October 09, 2009 08:21 AM
Chris,
I agree with you about the cover artwork. I don't know how this film will be marketed in the UK, but here all the stores are carrying two versions of the film - a 2-disc blu-ray package that also includes the DVD of the film, and a 1-disc DVD package that also includes a blu-ray disc of the film and a blu ray disc of extras - but either way you get exactly the same thing! , the only difference is the external box, one being a normal BD case and the other being a normal DVD case. The other difference is the cover artwork, and the DVD artwork is I think a lot nicer being more traditional Snow White. Talk about confusing the public - I spent 15 minutes at Wal Mart trying to figure out what was different between the two options, and there is no difference except the clamshell case! Even if you buy the DVD package you still end up with two blu-ray discs thrown in! Pretty good deal.
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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted October 09, 2009 09:10 AM
I looked at that link for the review. Is that the same site that the "Wizard of Oz" review was on? I was hoping to see some actual screen captures from the film to see just how good the restoration was.
From what they talked about in the extras, most of what is there is on the two disc DVD version put out some years ago, with the exception of the extra silly symphonys, minus, "Goddess of Spring" which was released on the 2 disc DVD years ago.
Hee hee ... I wonder what Disney is going to do when there are no more advanced formats to release they're films in? Come to think of it, as long as there is some unused song in the archive or scrap of paper lying around, they will continue to re-release they're films.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted October 09, 2009 02:05 PM
Thanks Kevin ...
You really do have to marvel at just what is possible in film restoration these days.
If I may, I noticed on that website, that at times, the DVD version outshined the BR. The BR was slightly sharper, but in a few cases, the facial tones looked slightly off on the BR screen capture, while the earlier DVD had better facial tones. This could be due to loss of color from screen capture to website however, but I assume that the same program was used for both the DVD and BR captures.
Still, a fine job.
The film, above all others, that I would really LOVE to see completely restored and put out on DVD (or BR, hey, sooner or later I'll probably plunge into it, just for specific titles)
is ....
"Chimes at Midnight" (also called "Falstaff")
The last great film by Orson Welles in the late 60's. It was a great compilation of the charatcer "Falstaff" from Shakespeares collected works, as Falstaff appeared in a number of his plays, if I remember correctly.
You could see a lot of Orson Welles own feelings about himself in his performance. A great movie.
[ October 09, 2009, 04:06 PM: Message edited by: Osi Osgood ]
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted November 29, 2009 01:45 PM
There is a lot of truth in what you say Stewart. For example, this past Friday I decided to show Meet Me in St Louis for our after dinner Thanksgiving film. I have it both on DVD and also on super 8mm so I had to choose which way to show it. The DVD is excellnt quality, but so is the super 8mm print, with superb contrast and rich color. Well, I elected to show it on Super 8mm because it somehow seems to be a more satisfying viewing experience.
I don't have the full length super 8mm Snow White print, but I know if I did, I would probably be watching the S8 print more often than the Blu Ray, for whatever reason.
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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
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from my chief financial advisor "the wife" to buy a Blu-ray player as there was a special on at a local store of heavily reduced Panasonic players. One of the first discs I watched this week was "Snow White" its certainly very good, one thing that did impress me while watching it was the use of "Disney View Presentation" not only does this take care of the black bars at either side but really looks good on a widescreen 16:9 TV the watercolours are by artist Tony Bluth. The "Disney View" feature and "its optional" is also on "Pinocchio Blu-ray" by the same artist his work matches in really well with the film.
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