GamerNode: Columns - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Blu-ray Review

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Blu-ray Review

Seventy-two years ago, Walt Disney released his vision: an animated feature length film that would go on to create an entire industry, and become arguably the most influential film of all time. That movie? The iconic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Snow White's story is timeless, and although it may be taken from fairytales, Disney's adaptation and interwoven music gave it new life, ensuring it would entertain generation after generation. It started out as "Disney's Folley," but it became something more important than even Disney himself could imagine: a timeless piece of human culture, and a testament to the power of human creativity.

It's almost impossible to critique the actual movie itself, without taking all of that into account. It's not the most complex film; it doesn't have the greatest character development or plot. For those who haven't seen it - hopefully you're just all young and have a legit excuse - Snow White is about... Well, Snow White.

She's a beautiful princess, living with her evil stepmother, the Queen. The Queen has a magic mirror, and asks it constantly who the fairest in the land is. The mirror, fearful of the Queen, would always say she was - but one day it answers that Snow White is fairest of all! True to her self-centered nature, the Queen orders her huntsman to take Snow White into the woods and kill her. Not wanting to harm her, the huntsman lets Snow White go, urging her to stay in the woods. It's there that she meets a group of seven dwarf miners, moves in with them, and the rest is history.

Like I said, it's not the most complex story - or even truly original. But the way it's presented, with fantastic music and animation that remains breathtaking three quarters of a century later, it's impossible to not love the movie. It may not seem as influential today as it did back then, but there's no denying the mark Snow White has had on children throughout the world; on the animation industry; on Disney itself; and on the world.

With the new Diamond Edition release, Disney is taking a new approach, including both Blu-ray and DVD formats in the same packaging. It may seem like a waste, but it's ingenious, really; people who buy the DVD because they have no Blu player suddenly find themselves with a Blu version, and people who buy Blu will have a DVD version to give to friends, use on trips, or watch in other rooms.

Whether you buy the DVD or Blu-ray packaging, you're going to get the same contents: one DVD, and two Blu-ray discs, with one being the film and commentary, and the other hosting most of the features.

With that all out of the way, let's get to what people really want to know: how the new remastering looks. In one word: brilliant. Side by side, the DVD and Blu-ray screenshots look mostly the same, with the Blu version having a much more natural and crisp color tone. But play it on a big screen, and the differences in quality become readily apparent. Whereas the DVD version loses clarity as your screen gets bigger, the Blu-ray version remains crystal clear.

It really looks as if you're watching the actual animation cels themselves move, it's so clear looking. I've been amazed by plenty of older films' transfers before, but this is up there with Wizard of Oz in terms of wowing me with what a studio can do with movies from the early 20th century given a little time to revisit them.

The new 7.1 audio track also sounds great. For most of the movie it isn't really too obvious, but at a few key times - mainly during the memorable songs - you can really hear the work that went into this version. And, for you old-school folk out there, the mono version is also included if you want to hear the original soundtrack to the film.

In terms of extras, a few things are missing from the 2001 edition, but ultimately this is a release that will keep fans busy watching for a long time. There's hours of supplemental features in this release, and amazingly a vast majority of them are at least worth one watch. (Some, like Disney's required "a modern Disney 'star' sings a 'hit' song addition you can skip.)

There are backstage looks at how the film was made, commentary from multiple people and historians, The Backstage Disney portion and the details given about Walt and the creation of Snow White is something that all fans of Disney, movies, and history should really enjoy. The little factoids about how jokes came about, and about how Walt dug through trash to find scenes they threw away are really fun to find out.

Really, I can't recommend this release enough. Not only is it a fantastic video transfer of a film that's 72 years old (which you'll forget when you see it), but it's a piece of American history. Snow White has never looked, sounded, or been presented better. With both DVD and Blu-ray included, there's no reason not to get this set. And, if you don't have a Blu-ray player, Disney is once again providing more than enough reason to look at upgrading to the high-def format.

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Movie: 5 / 5

Video & Audio: 4.5 / 5

Disc: 4.5 / 5

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Overall: 5 / 5

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