"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

[Graham Ritchie]

Released by RKO Pictures world premiere December 21, 1937, this film was always going to be popular if it was ever to be released onto Super 8 full length. Thanks to Derann films they got the rights from Disney to do just that.

When you look back to the 1970s or 1980s, the very thought that "Snow White" would ever get released full length onto Super 8 would only have ever have been a dream. Last Week I did screen the Super 8 that I bought from Derann many moons ago. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a classic film, and well worth getting a print, both picture and sound are very good The one thing I could never understand, was how it ever got a "G" rating?, that old witch is bad news, should have been a R18

Anyway some screen shots from last week using the mighty GS1200 .

[Osi Osgood]

I'm surprised that no one has ever done a review of this! I mean, I have this same Derann film myself! Did yours come with the original trailer and rerelease trailer at the beginning, before the feature begins? I LOVE that original release trailer with a young Walt Disney talking about the seven dwarves! The only issue that I have with this Derann release, is that the audio is very fuzzy, not clear at all. I am tempted to do a rerecord of it. Thank you for the review!

[Rob Young]

I remember seeing an extract of this 8mm version when it was first released by Derann, at one of the Blackpool conventions in the 1990's. It was the scene with the witch mixing her evil concoction into an apple.

I was a student at the time and even though I was studying TV & Film, I'd never really given Snow White much thought (shame on me!), having only ever seen it on VHS. And in those days that meant on a smallish CRT television.

Well, this short scene on the big 8mm screen, and on film, just blew me away. I've been a huge fan ever since. The art and craft of this movie is just astounding. Only ever topped, in my view, by Pinocchio.

I know the subsequent HD releases have had much criticism, although personally I find them spectacular, but to sit and view this movie in this sort of quality outside of a real cinema, and back in the 90's, was just something else.

[Paul Adsett]

These Derann Disney feature classics on super 8 are now really to be regarded as treasured and highly collectible items.
They will never come round again.

[Osi Osgood]

Quite true, Paul.

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Osi

Your welcome.

Young Walt in the first of the two trls that came with Snow White

Here are a couple of screen shots taken a while back






The later trailer...

[Osi Osgood]

It was just an awesome extra to this release! I wonder, was the release, releasedthat way from beginning to end, or was it an extra just in the early print runs? My box is labeled within the first hundred.

[Brian Fretwell]

It doesn't mention the trailer being included in the write up in the 2006 catalogue so maybe it was only with early copies.

[Osi Osgood]

Look at how slim Disney was earlier on. Most people knew the Disney seen on the "Wonderful World of Disney".

[Brian Fretwell]

I have heard the Blu Ray is over grain reduced etc but I haven't watched it yet, but seeing two copies second hand in CEX at £1.50 each, I did buy one this week.

[Osi Osgood]

It most certainly was literally grain eradicated, sadly. I see where the Disney studio was going in doing so, allowing the art to be shown to it's greatest effect, but doing away with "film element" completely was a mistake, in my opinion. I once had a pirate copy of Snow White, and the quality was just awful in the most terrible to imagine way. To see the film this way is just fantastic, though I must admit, I watch it more for it's history than entertainment value. It was amazing as to how much animation grew up, in such a short amount of time. After all, it had been a mere 8 years or so since "Steamboat Willie"!

[Mike Newell]

It’s a technical genius of an achievement. You can see how the Silly Symphony’s were stepping stones to the full features. Pinocchio a few years later is much more technically advanced and complicated and tends to be overlooked.

[Oliver Feld]

Snow White was my first film in the movies ever when I was 7. And the german version included the german names of the dwarfs carved into the wooden beds. Amazing that Disney did this for a foreign country.

What an amazing and outstanding masterpiece and what a great print and review, Graham.

[Graham Ritchie]

Thanks Oliver.

[Barry Attwood]

Funnily enough this was a reluctant release by Derann, as Derek new that their were some very decent "import" prints still available, but he couldn't really turn this title down, could he!