Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Walt Disney's Masterpiece)

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS will make it's long awaited Disney DVD debut on October 9, 2001 and will return to video in November 2001 for a very limited time, it was announced by Peter Schneider, Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios. Over 60 years ago, Walt and Roy Disney changed the face of entertainment forever with the first feature length animated film, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. Now, at last, families and movie lovers everywhere can enjoy this greatest of animated masterpieces through the magic of Disney DVD. The SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS DVD will be the ultimate way to experience this landmark film. This amazing treasure trove will represent the industry's first truly immersive DVD experience and includes bonus features, behind-the-scenes programs, production features, audio commentaries and much more, providing the most complete package ever assembled for this animated classic. Truly, the DVD release of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS marks a new, historic milestone in entertainment history. Walt Disney Home Video is proud to present this beloved film's Disney DVD debut on October 9, 2001, and its return to video in November 2001. Commenting on the announcement, Schneider stated, "The Walt Disney Company has been waiting for today's technology to rise and meet the initial creative brilliance of the One That Started It All. Through the magic of today's modern digital advancements, the artists at Disney have created the first immersive DVD experience that will certainly change the way families have watched films." "The best way to celebrate a film-making breakthrough is to reveal it in its most magical form ever," Schneider concluded.

Snow White, the wicked Queen, Bashful, Sneezy, Doc, Happy, Grumpy, Sleepy and of course Dopey are icons for generations of families. The film's music is also beloved to audiences worldwide. Such songs as "Some Day My Prince Will Come," "Heigh Ho" and "Whistle While You Work" are classics. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS is the first and only animated film to be included in the prestigious U.S. National Film Registry, and the film delivered an Academy Award for Walt Disney, (1938, Honorary, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS) who was also presented with seven miniature Oscars for each of the famous dwarfs.

Disney's telling of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS is the definitive version of this enchanting tale. In a faraway land a young princess lives, whose blossoming beauty disturbs her stepmother, the Queen. Each day the Queen asks her mysterious magic mirror to tell her "who is the fairest of them all." When the mirror replies with Snow White's name, the evil Queen sets out to slay Snow White, but the young girl flees into the forest. There, she meets the Seven Dwarfs, who hide her as best they can. When the Queen tricks Snow White into eating a poison apple all seems lost, until a handsome Prince arrives to awaken Snow White and to live with her "happily ever after." Disney's animated version of the classic fairy tale is the definitive version for generations of families. At long last, the legendary film that started it all for Disney, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, makes history again with its long-awaited debut on Disney DVD and return to home video.

Walt Disney Home Video is distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., a recognized leader in the home entertainment industry for over 15 years and a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. Buena Vista Home Entertainment is the marketing, sales and distribution company for all Walt Disney, Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax and Buena Vista videocassette and DVD product.


Timeless film; handsome DVD package   October 10, 2001
keviny01
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

Disney's first "Platinum Edition" DVD is a terrific 2-disc set that every DVD fan should keep for all eternity. (I received an early, free copy from Amazon which allowed me to review it before the Oct 9th release date. This is a promotion by both Amazon and Buena Vista.) The THX-certified video transfer of the movie is blemish-free, almost always sharp, and has only an occasional softness perhaps due to age. Colors look splendid. The sound is clean and without a scratch, although some dialogs lack detail. The 5.1 audio remix provides mildly effective separation and bass for the background music. Otherwise, it is neither better nor worse than the included original mono soundtrack.

The supplements on the first disc includes a 40-minute retrospective documentary that actually serves as a nice introduction of the supplements on the second disc. For nearly every aspect mentioned in the documentary, the extras on the second disc cover at length. There is an audio commentary track by historian John Canemaker that includes contemporary recordings of Walt reminiscing about the difficulties and fortunes during the making of the film. The commentary reveals that Deanna Durbin was once considered for the voice of Snow White, but she was deemed "too old". Canemaker, besides introducing each of Walt's recordings, also provides excellent scene-by-scene analyses. After the movie is over, Michael Eisner introduces Barbara Streisand's decidedly more mature rendition of "Somewhere My Prince Will Come". The first disc also includes four games -- two for set-top players, two as DVD-ROM content.

The second disc contains a large amount of archival material of the movie. There are over 400 stills (all high-quality scans) of pencil tests, backgrounds, layouts, character designs, photos of the voice talents, photos of the production, the premiere, the 1937 pressbook, merchandise, and posters. There are quite a bit of video content as well. Notable is a new, nicely conceived, 40-minute segment called "Disney Through the Years"; it chronicles SNOW WHITE's theatrical releases in every decade (all trailers are shown) as well as Disney's accomplishments through the years. There are the original credit sequences with the RKO logo. There are deleted scenes that were fully animated and dubbed, one of which is a spectacular soup-eating scene. There are scenes that were conceptualized but were abandoned before animation, such as a dream sequence for one of Snow White's songs. There is a segment about the film's restorations in 1987, '93, and 2001. There are also vintage video of voice actors, models for live action references, techniques used in animation (two excerpts of Disney's "Tricks of our Trade" TV show are included).

And there is more! There is a half-hour live radio broadcast of the film's premiere in which many celebrities are interviewed. There is another half-hour radio program in 1938 in which several songs from the movie are performed. There are two 4-minute radio interviews of Walt Disney by Cecil B. DeMille, one of which was recorded on the eve of the premiere. There are eight radio commercials from the 50s and 60s. There are recordings of two deleted songs, one of which, we are told, were only recently discovered in Disney's archives. There are also text screens about the film's production and Walt's life and career. A nice inclusion is the English translation of the Grimms Brothers' "Snow White."

Future Platinum Edition DVDs will include BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN, THE LION KING, BAMBI, THE JUNGLE BOOK, CINDERELLA, THE LITTLE MERMAID, LADY AND THE TRAMP and 101 DALMATIANS. It disappoints me that DUMBO will not be a Platinum Edition (it will come out Oct 21st as a "Gold Edition" DVD). It irks me even more that only one Platinum Edition DVD will be sold each year for only a limited time; thereafter it will be put on a TEN-YEAR moratorium. This will no doubt lead to buying frenzies, so run, don't walk, to your nearest personal computer and order this SNOW WHITE DVD right away. I do not oppose releasing one Platinum DVD per year, since I understand it takes time and care to produce these great discs. But I do oppose Disney's long-standing policy of putting their video releases on moratorium for long, long periods. Their rationale has been that if people own the movie on video, they may not want to see it in theaters. Not true. Seeing this spectacular SNOW WHITE DVD has actually increased my desire to see the film in a theater.


this is not as advertised--(the original animated version)--   September 21, 1999
15 out of 19 found this review helpful

this was a great disappointment to my 3 yr old son --he was looking forward to the singing version and i believed that this was what i bought--i would call this false advertising


Finally, a mind-boggling Disney DVD release.   September 6, 2001
Straight Shaun (the poorhouse)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Finally, finally, FINALLY, Disney is releasing one of their films with a format, media and extras that do it justice. I'm an adult (most of the time), with no kids, but I still can't buy and receive this DVD soon enough; I think it has to be the best value of the year. I don't personally really care for Disney's more recent efforts, but there's no denying the magic of its early works, and Snow White is the perfect title to kick off this incredible-sounding Platinum Collection.

One thing that I have never been a fan of, though, has been Disney's marketing and sales schemes (VHS and DVD alike), and these Platinum titles, while finally doing justice to both the movies and the fans, will likely just add to the overall confusion for most buyers. The Limited Edition and Gold Collection DVD's already released are somewhat substandard; they are generally devoid of any extra DVD features and often are shortchanged technically (lack of widescreen or surround audio when available, etc.). They certainly don't hold a candle to the upcoming Platinums, which features tons of extras, innovative and wonderful-sounding DVD navigation schemes, incredible color and sound enhancement, and pretty much everything a fan could hope for in a Disney DVD. However, this being Disney, not everything could be good news of course, and with the Platinum Editions, the bad news comes with the ridiculous marketing plan for them; 1 per year for the next 10 years (Snow White being the first of 10). Until Disney to come to its senses and shortens that moronic release timeframe, however, we at least can have a taste of the incredible potential in this line with this first release.

Whether you were lucky enough to have a childhood touched by the magic of the early Disney classics, or if, like me, you weren't that lucky but have the alternate fortune of experiencing these titles for the first time with these mind-boggling Platinum Editions, this should be the easiest, most no-brainer DVD purchase you make all year. And for those able to pre-order and get another DVD for free (Limited/Gold Edition, but still), the deal becomes almost criminal to pass up.

Thank you, Disney, for what you're giving fans with this wonderful new line of Platinum titles. (Now if you'll PLEASE just release them more often than over 10 years! :O )