Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney Platinum Edition) Reviews

The movie looks and sounds great .... a beautiful restoration. Images are sharp, sound is clear. You can listen to the original mono soundtrack, or an improved digital track in English or French. If you choose French, even the opening sequence of a printed fairy tale book appears in French. Pretty cool.

The extras include Streisand singing 'Some Day My Prince Will Come'; a karaoke edition of 'Heigh Ho'; a 39-minute documentary about the making of the film narrated by Angela Lansbury; audio commentary by Walt Disney himself, pieced together from archived materials; an animated short used to test some of the animation; and Dopey's Wild Mine Ride -- a great little trivia/puzzle game -- and that's just the first disk!

The second disk is spectacular -- there are dozens of elements here, but I will mention (what I consider to be) the best: storyboard/film comparison; scenes deleted from the film (including a great scene of the dwarves making Snow White a bed, with comments penciled in by an animator); camera tests; featurettes about the voices, audio sessions, restoration of the film, and artistic concepts -- layouts, backgrounds, character sketches and development; publicity materials (posters, photos, trailers, radio commercials); and a timeline of the history of the film *and* Disney studios.

The amount (and quality) of extras is truly incredible; and there is a well-designed print brochure, as well as on-disk tours of the material, to help you find your way around.

This is a great version of a wonderful film -- and an exemplary use of the DVD format.

Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 - Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs - Walt Disney's First & Best!
"Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs" was, like said tons of times before, a historic landmark in motion pictures. And now, in 2001, it's DVD release will be a landmark in the DVD industry.
The first release of 10 "Platinum Edition" titles, "Snow White" has received a complete restoration. I was skeptical at how much could be done with a film that was nearly 65 years old. The picture is incredible, makes other DVDs that were "restored" seem like embarassments. It seems like the movie was made a few months ago. The 5.1 mix only added some depth to the music, not much change to anything else. The film's original mono mix is also included.

What struck me most about the film, was that it wasn't dated at all, despite what others may say. You do get a little nostolgic, but that's good. In fact, of all the other films from Disney, none come close to Snow White in any way. Even the recent ones, with all of their advancements in animation, no, they just can not compare.

The DVD showcases tons of extras, listed above. The best ones are "The Making Of Snow White", and "Disney Through The Decades" (even though Disney's history is rushed a little). Things that caught my eye in "The Queens Castle" on Disc 2 were the excerpts from "Tricks Of Our Trade", where Walt Disney shares secrets on how Disney 'toons are done and improved upon using new technologies (many that he invented, i.e The Multi-Plane Camera). A brief documentary on the restoration of the film is fun to watch, in "The Wishing Well". And the vast Galleries of drawings for the film are great to look at.

There is just way too much to review. I've had the DVD for two days, and I still have "The Dwarfs Mine" and "Cottage" to go through. If next year's "Beauty & The Beast: Platinum Edition" is anything like this DVD (and it will be), it will be another essential. Get "Snow White" as soon as you can!

P.S I'm glad to see that Walt Disney Studios are acknowledging in these "Platinum" titles, that these films are not just "kid cartoons" and are including these in-depth extras for movie fans of an older generation

Rating: 5 - FANTASTIC!
If only all DVD's were this wonderful! This stunning release of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS is the THE best DVD package ever assembled.

Of course the highlight of this set is the superb new restoration job seen in the print. This was acheived by taking the original dirt-encrusted nitrate camera negative, cleaning each frame individually and then transferring it to High-Definition video. It is even better than the 1993 restoration and subsequent 1994 video release.

The actual movie is spectacular in itself, but the experience does not end there. The Magic Mirror and Angela Lansbury act as your guides for Disc 1, while the Mirror guides you through a world of extras in Disc 2. Very exiting, it makes you feel like you are there. No wonder Buena Vista are calling this a "totally-immersive DVD experience". You could spend weeks just exploring; don't be a pig and do it all in one sitting.

The film is still the animated classic by which all others are judged - no doubt this DVD will be the one by all others are judged too!

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS - featuring the voice talents of Adriana Caselotti (Snow White), Lucille La Verne (Evil Queen/The Crone) and Harry Stockwell (The Prince).

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney Platinum Edition)