**** Official Review thread: Snow White Initial Impression (1 Viewer)

[Mike Buckles]

I really enjoyed this DVD, and it appears to have most of the features of the very expensive CAV Laserdisc I bought a few years back. Only complaint, the LD had a more detailed analysis of the restoration, plus still frame comparisons of the original Technicolor print, the YCM lab restoration, and the digital restoration. Anyone find this on the DVD? But, I'm not complaining, this was a terrific DVD and a great bargain!! Mike Buckles

 

[David Coleman]

Shockingly Excellent is the best way to describe the presentation! Also they supplements and the "tours" are great! By far Buena Vista's most fabulous release!
If only GODFATHER's could have looked this great!

 

[Jay Villero]

Still have not received my Snow White DVD from disneystore.com that was mailed out on Oct 4.

 

[Eugene Hsieh]

I'm not sure where you live in BC but the DisneyStore in Eaton Centre had the same free DVD selection as the US had for a pre-order including all the other neat stuff like lithos, pins, fridge magnets. I chose the Jungle Book and they gave it to you when you picked up Snow White. The Little Mermaid and the Lady and the Tramp II were also available.

Dammit! I should have gone to the Eaton Centre in Toronto and gotten Snow White there. Oh well, I guess the good news is that I paid only CAD$24 (US$15.35) for it.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

My initial impressions on this disc is that it is very good indeed, especially in its video presentation. The packaging is nice too. I just like those double Amaray cases. All of this at a very nice price to boot.
~Edwin
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http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum9/HTML/005780.html#8 http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum9/HTML/006466.html

 

[James_M]

Gorgeous disc. But has anyone noticed artifacting (most noticable in the left white area) in the beginning when they show the storybook page?

 

[Mike Buckles]

Usually, my eyes are very forgiving on artifacts and such, but yes, I too noticed the artifacts around the edges of the storybook...it was pretty obvious, even to the untrained eye...I wondered why they would have let that through, but the rest of the film looked great! Off that subject, my eyes are really bad, and my glasses very thick, so it has a minimizing effect on everything I see...I'm supposed to get hard contacts next week, which supposedly will allow me to see even better than with glasses...so I'm automatically going to get better resolution and a bigger picture size...all without changing my A/V system! Mike Buckles

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Another big

here.
Beautiful job. Embarassingly this is the first time I have watched the full movie.
My little guy is already singing Heigh Ho!
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Every man is my superior, in that I may learn from him.
MyHTSetup

 

[Peter Kline]

As a kid in the 50s we used to sing the following:
"Heigh ho, heigh ho it's back to school we go. From 9 to 3 it's misery, heigh ho, heigh ho..."

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[george kaplan]

As a kid in the 70s we used to sing:
Heigh ho, Heigh ho, it's off to school we go, with razor blades and hand grenades, Heigh ho, Heigh ho, Heigh ho
I shudder to think what kids today sing.
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13-time NBA world champion Lakers: 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1972, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 2000, 2001

 

[Chip_E]

While this post may not make me popular, some may find it as an interesting addition in this sea of "Wow, me too, greatest disc I own". \
Let me begin by saying, "Wow" ;-)
I think this is one of the best values in DVD today.
What an incredible treatment to such an important movie, at such a reasonable price. I would almost say that they mixed up pricing between "Snow White" and the "Godfather Collection".
OK, so don't get me wrong...I'm GLAD to have this addition to my personal collection.
Now for the problems with the disc (NOTE- I tend to look at DVDs in a different way than most since I author them too).
The DVD author left out (and in some cases LOCKED out) some functionality that is common and expected. Example, the ability to switch between the 3 soundtracks (Dolby 1.0, Dolby 5.1, and the Commentary Track) is native to the DVD specification and should have been supported on the disc.
Also the Track/Disc button should always return you to the top level menu, and the Menu button should return you to the menu appropriate to where you are in the disc (setup menu, features menu, etc). For me, these authoring faults (I can't see how they'd be intentional) detracted from what was nearly a perfect disc. Oh, and the fact that the menus didn't join/loop seamlessly was a distraction as well (although there are only 1 or 2 authoring systems that will do seamless loops of menus, and they're rare).
However, when it comes to interactivity...Disney has raised the bar in the industry, not just with their menu designs, but with the mine game. I'll admit it, the wife and daughter were sleeping when I popped in the disc and while watching the game, I said out loud "Wow!". There I've said it, this disc may not be perfect, but I like it a lot.
OK, one thing that did rub me the wrong way was the way they down-played (or played down) the roll of UB Iwerks in the Disney success story. UB was pretty much there from the start (at least with the Alice movies). UB was THE key animator and a partner of Iwerks-Disney Artists. While Walt wasn't the artist that UB was, UB wasn't the visionary that Walt was. They were complementary to each other. Sadly UB left to strike out on his own after helping to create Mickey Mouse (UB has been called the "Hand behind the mouse"). UB just didn't have what it took to be a success on his own, and returned to Disney as an employee instead of a partner (even his great-grandkids are kickin' him in the arse for leaving). Yes, in 1930 UB sold his 20% share of Disney Studios back to Walt for $2920 dollars. But UB was extremely important to the Disney success story and to film and animation in general. UB received an Academy Award for his groundbreaking use of animation and live action in Hitchkock's "The Birds", he also received other awards and patents for his technical inventions and innovations in film and animation. Bottom line, UB's name is being lost in the Disney history (of course UB's to blame for much of that). But yes, I'm glad to own the Snow White discs, and thing that any/every collector should have it.
- Chip Eberhart
- DVD Author

 

[Ryan Spaight]

My little guy is already singing Heigh Ho!

I sure hope you're talking about your son.
Ryan

 

[RobertR]

Watched this tonite. What a superb job by Disney! A pristine presentation with no EE or scratches and wonderfully vivid colors, and many many extras. All in a handsome double Amaray case. This is Disney quality at its best.
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[Edited last by RobertR on October 14, 2001 at 12:54 AM]

 

[DaveF]

I finally watched movie in full tonight. It was fun seeing this again -- perhaps the first time in 20 years. My TV isn't very good, but this movie did not look as old as it is. The restoration seems nearly perfect, to a layman.
I checked out the tour, and was amused by the mirror, amused by Roy Disney (he better stick to his job of not-acting), and flipped through the tour. Well done introduction to a massive DVD set. I also played a bit of the mine game. That was surprisingly fun; and the simple, but effective, animation cracked me up! And I nearly started singing with the sing-along song.
I'm looking forward to watching the documentary features.

 

[Brian W.]

Jim, I missed the music and effects track that was on the laserdisc, too. But I still own the laser, so no problem. I actually said to my friend during the rhyming intro to Someday My Prince Will Come: "I love the music here. It's beautiful."
FOR KICKS -- put on the French track and flip to where Snow White is reading the names on the dwarfs beds. SEAMLESS BRANCHING SHOWS ALL THEIR NAMES CARVED ON THEIR BEDS IN FRENCH! The text in the book at the opening is in French, too!
The picture is absolutely gorgeous, although the occasional blurring is odd. I can't help but wonder if it's some artifact of the video cleanup process.
My only other very minor beef is during the fadeout where the witch looks into the camera and says, "...in the sleeping death." On the old laser (and presumably VHS), the fadeout was a little slower, and left only her eyes staring at us for just a fraction of a second. This is gone from the DVD, since the fade to black is not as gradual.
Still, I'm ecstatically happy with the DVD. It really does look and sound even better than I was hoping.
[Edited last by Brian W. on October 14, 2001 at 04:12 AM]
[Edited last by Brian W. on October 14, 2001 at 07:15 PM]

 

[Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm]

Speaking as the resident hater of DVD animated menus and other whiz-bang nonsense, I absolutely adore this disc. Why? Because when I get tired of the Mirror and navigating extensive menus, I can always just go to the apple, which brings up a simple menu. Problem solved! Yeah, man! All right! Add to that the inclusion of the original mono mix and you have pretty much the most perfect DVD I have ever seen.
Oh, and you can also tell how great this disc is by what we're NOT hearing: complaints from Toshiba DVD player owners, who have so often been burned by Disney DVDs in the past. And it's only $20 (regular price)!!
This disc is like a dream-come-true. It's as if every problem we have with DVD, and Disney DVD in particular, has been addressed and solved in one groundbreaking package.
Here's hoping other studios and manufacturers get the hint.
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Andrew Hamm's new album Link Removed is available now!
[Edited last by Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm on October 14, 2001 at 08:30 AM]

 

[Jay Gregory]

The DVD author left out (and in some cases LOCKED out) some functionality that is common and expected. Example, the ability to switch between the 3 soundtracks (Dolby 1.0, Dolby 5.1, and the Commentary Track) is native to the DVD specification and should have been supported on the disc.

This inability to switch between audio tracks is common to every Disney (or Universal) DVD not published by the Criterion Collection as far as I can tell.
So apparently this functionality was not omitted in error.

 

[Rob W]

Brian ;
Disney has used seamless branching before for French language titling - GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE features a French language credit sequence for example.
It's one of the small things that they don't get enough credit for, and probably much appreciated by non-English collectors.

 

[ScottR]

I wonder if the fade out with the witch that is different on the DVD is a correction from a flaw on the vhs/ld? It seems on the previous release that the animation freezes for a second while the fadeout occurs. The new fadeout seems more natural...however, the previous version was scary! It seems that Lowry would have caught this if it had been an oversight.

 

[ScottR]

I would like to start by saying that the DVD version of Snow White is simply breathtaking. I have never seen it shine so brightly. With that being said, I am a little disturbed by what I find to be alterations to the film. I compared Snow White the DVD to my vhs copy, and lo and behold, during every fadeout (and there are quite a few in the film), the DVD fades out much more quickly, resulting in the deletion of seconds worth of animation. The most glaring example is during the Queen/Witch transformation scene. At the end of the scene on the vhs version, we see the Witch glaring at us with her evil eyes....the film fades out slowly, leaving only her frightening eyes. The DVD version fades out quickly, deleting this fraction of a moment. Other examples are throughout the film, and while they seem like minor alterations, they are alterations just the same. Snow White is my favorite Disney film and it seems a shame that an otherwise breathtaking release would be marred in this manner. I would really like some sort of explanation (i.e. which version seems to be more in keeping with the original intent.) There had to be some reason for the change. If this got by quality control, then I am very disappointed. Some make think I am being too picky, but the fact of the matter is, I love film classics and I don't want to see them altered in ways that can be avoided. Thanks!