A few words about...™ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs -- in Blu-ray - Page 4

I watched this tonight. A lot of the minor issues with the '01 DVD are gone on this BluRay. Two minor details worth noting, though... Disney restored the original 1937 opening/closing titles, complete with RKO insignia. The other is the shot of the Hag's eyes lingering over a fade-out. It was a total fade-out on the '01 DVD, but it's intact here. Two nice touches that most people unfamiliar with the film could care less about - or even not something major to fans, but it adds to the "archival" feel of the package.

A+ work... I couldn't spot anything wrong with either the image or audio. I'm looking forward to Dumbo and Fantasia next year.

Patrick, thanks for bringing this up. The RKO credits and the shot of the witch's eyes were two things missing from the last release that actually DID bother me. I'm glad they have been restored!

Disneys screw ups "Snow White" with Java crap!!!

I had trouble with the still files on my Sony player with updated firmware
and I am not the only one,They don't even let you freeze frame the film
without having that poorly designed timeline thing poping up

The cover art and design of the whole project look like someone at "Toys are Us"
designed it,Its imposible for me to beleive that the same people who did the
Classy tins did this crap

The Film looks fantastic,and the extras that work are also fantasic

Either that (or that), or we have just entered ...
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

_Man_

 

There are only a handful of titles pre-1953 that were produced in a widescreen ratio, and that was only because they were among the earliest 65/70mm productions. The Big Trail and The Bat Whispers are the two that come to mind. If the black bars on the sides are that disturbing to you, on Snow White you can use the DisneyViews option, which adds watercoloured borders thematically matched to the screen content. I found this feature to be virtually invisible in most instances i.e. so well matched that you simply don't notice them. Whatever you do, you shouldn't be zooming and cropping, as this ruins the intended compositions. It was painful when I saw Fantasia on its 1990 release cropped to 1.85:1.

Finally was able to watch Snow White last night, and it looks great. Top notch job by Disney.

I'm on the record about being slightly disappointed with Wizard of Oz (given the process used to transfer it from film to digital video, I feel like it should have more picture detail), but I am not disappointed with Snow White.

-R

Agreed that a much better job was done on "Snow White" than "The Wizard of Oz," but I'm guessing that's because we're talking about re-mastering animation vs. live action.  Just my opinion...

So I watched this yesterday (Canadian Thanksgiving) and was very impressed by the image and sound quality. I watched it with DisneyViews engaged and found the feature to be an unobtrusive way of filling in the "black bars" on the sides. Not sure if I'd watch it again the same way, but the watercolour work by Toby Bluth for these side panels is impressive.

I concur with RAH's assessment of how to "improve" the picture quality of TWoO. Either Pattonized or a remake if you want a "sharper image."
Edited by Stephen_J_H - 10/13/09 at 5:58pm

 Watched this today with our 8 year old daughter. It still works as a film. She laughed a lot, esp. at Dopey and Grumpy. And she was very scared by the witch and the apple. She was urging the animals and the dwarfs to hurry up to save Snow White--just grabbing me and urging them through the screen to hurry.

The pq is very impressive for a film from 1937. I've seen this a fair amount in the restored dvd version of 5 years ago or so, and there were definitely more details to be enjoyed. Excellent bargain at $10 with "snowhite" code from amazon. Traded in 2 old dvds (of Snow White and Pinocchio) at a local store and got $5 each for them--and so halfway paid for itself.

I have to say that I like Pinocchio even better than Snow White. Snow White is still a wonderful film, and looks great on blu, but imho Pinocchio is superior in every way that I can think of--bigger laughs, bigger scares, better songs, more spectacular and professional animation, etc. I still can't entirely figure out why Pinocchio lost money on its first release in 1940. I know some of the reasons--it was quite scary for a kid's film, European markets were cut off by the war, and it was just so darn expensive that it was hard for it to recoup its costs. But still, Pinocchio is such an amazing film, imho. And it's a complete stunner on blu.

Snow White is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but of those first 5 Disney classics--all of which I like a great deal--Pinocchio is a little extra special for me. Oh, I guess I feel the same about Fantasia and Dumbo as well. Bambi I haven't seen all the way through since I was about 5! But I'm sure if it ever comes out on blu I'll make it through again...

Understood.

I have always liked Pinocchio the best of Disney's features, too, but upon viewing Snow White on blu, I almost like it the best now. What really blows me away about Snow White is the genius/courage/chutzpah it took to get it made. I had to keep telling myself while watching it that "this is the first movie of its kind". It just impresses the heck out of me that Disney put together such an impressive first feature that still holds up with, and is superior to many of his other films.
Edited by David_B_K - 10/15/09 at 7:31am

Gee no one else hard trouble with still files,I called Disney and they said the second BR Disc still filles don't work
on some Sony Players including the Playstation,and I would have to wait till new Firmware!!!


To Robert Harris ,did you mention that the timeline pops up everytime you freeze frame it? and that you
can't remove it,Did this Bother you?  

Second disc was freezing up on me in the still files too, Peter. I have a BDP-S350. I'm sure Sony will have new firmware out shortly.

Thank you for the information, I honestly didn't know.  I just had it in my head that this was going to be this great wide-screen release and when I popped in the Bluray I was disappointed.  Now I know that it was in fact presented in the original and correct format and I do not have a problem with that.  


I honestly do not have many older films in my library and have not watched a lot of older films to be honest.  And I have not bothered to get involved in to many older film threads.  Since Bluray came around I am developing a real interest in owning older titles in HD.  Gone With The Wind is one of the older titles I can not wait to own.  There is so much about older films I do not know and would like to learn about and this is the right place to learn about it.


No that is not true, I have 171 copies of Transformers!    


I guess thats what happens when you ask questions when your to tired to be asking them.  


 

Needless to say, Gone With the Wind will also be in 4:3. Movies started doing widescreen presentations in order to compete with that new fangled TV thingamajiggy.

Hi-Ho everyone,

I was exploring the Hyperion Studios on Disc 2. Using the Index to find my way (there are lots of stuff), I navigated to the Live Action Reference and selected the Live Action Reference Gallery. It allows me to navigate the 3 pages of still photo thumbnails, but when I press enter on any of the thumbnails, my Sony 350s player locks up. The only function that works is Top Menu button, which brings me out of the Hyperion Studios mode. What is supposed to happen when you select a thumbnail picture?

I've watched about half the animated film so far. It's a huge improvement in color quality compared to my earlier copy of the film. I don't see any grain what so ever. I don't really hear a benefit of the 7.1 channel sound in my 5.1 setup, but I'm glad to have it available when/if I ever add more speakers. Overall, I love the new bonus material on this release - there's so much to explore. Let me know how you fare with the Live Action Gallery.

 Well, this is simply one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.  Unlike the person who posted that the clarity took him out of the movie, I found the opposite - I got lost in the movie, I was at one with the movie.  Why it's necessary to post that the animation is not like today is baffling, but I guess it has to be done because young people seem not to be able to watch anything without context being handed to them with a shovel.  I have to believe that wherever Mr. Disney is, he's smiling at how beautiful this historic and monumental achievement looks.  Frankly, I found everything about this presentation superior to the much later Sleeping Beauty.  Kudos to all involved - you've done Disney proud.

You almost sound like this will be your first viewing of "Gone With the Wind," Dave.  If so, I'm a totally envious!

I'm really impressed with the audio on the blu-ray, especially the sound of the orchestral music.  It sounds like a full-frequency recording, not one from 1937.  It doesn't have any of the electronic 'edges' you typically hear on these enhanced soundtracks.  

 

Maybe what I'm hearing is a result of the fact that they don't have to compress the sound as much as they do on a standard DVD.  But, whatever the reason, it sure sounds good.

I was going to mention the audio in greater detail in my earlier post. I'm currently running just the core DTS from my BDP-S350 into my setup and even the lossy core sounds amazing. There is real depth to the music, and the dialogue is excellent. I'm gonna run the restored mono on my next viewing to see how it compares.

 Just another SONY owner agreeing with the above posts.....the disc 2 still features cannot be accessed on my player, and the menu screens in the Hyperion section get locked up as well.

As a side note, I found the Hyperion section to be throrough and exciting, but not all that easy to navigate. 

PS, the film itself is indeed glorious to behold.

It wouldn't be the first time I have seen Gone With The Wind but its not like I have seen it more than 2 or 3 times in my life.  And I honestly have not seen it in so long that the next time I see it, heck I might actually feel like I have seen it for the first time.  I really love what HD has done for movies as it has help make the viewing experience much better and there has been not better to own movie library's than now, I love it!

It's almost hard to believe that my HD library has passed up my SD library in a shorter time than it took me to build the SD library.  

I've only seen it once -- mainly because I liked the book much better (despite its -- to be kind -- "outdated" racial attitudes).

Well, I seem to recall there being a hacked-up "widescreen" version that was actually shown theatrically at one of those film revival runs a couple decades(?) ago, no?  And I even joked about that when I first saw the PR images for the upcoming box-o-......neat-stuff  release -- it surely reminded me of "widescreen", not that I ever saw that hack-job version myself.

Actually, I have *never* seen GwtW in its entirety either -- only ever saw different parts of it on network TV broadcasts over the years.  I've actually owned the DVD for a loooong time, but just could never find the time to watch it in one sitting -- and I *really* hate splitting a film into multiple viewings, especially for the first time.  So the BD could very well end up being my first complete viewing of it as well -- and no, I definitely don't own 300 copies of Wolverine or Transformers on BD.   Maybe I just need to learn to accept that GwtW (and similar types of films) need to be split into 2 separate viewings (likely on separate days) -- yeah, I'm aware that's how they did it for such epic classics back in the day, but I just have a hard time adopting that approach for my own personal viewings.

_Man_

Are you sure?!? 

Hahah...  Well, sometimes ... it's really hard to tell w/ so many kids running loose around the house (each wanting his/her own movies/shows) and a wife who actually prefers Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible flicks on any given evening even while I continue to build piles of yet-to-be-watched films like Gran Torino, Do the Right Thing, some Merchant/Ivory production or maybe an opera -- well, I guess at least my 11-yo girl is starting to learn to appreciate some of this stuff, so...

_Man_

Just a heads up on the supplements disc... there's eight classic cartoons in the Hyperion Studios section in 1080p:

Steamboat Willie
Music Land
Playful Pluto
The Skeleton Dance
Flowers and Trees
The Goddess of Spring
The Old Mill
Babes in the Woods

The Goddess of Spring looks upscaled, but the rest seem to be HD remasters.

  How the heck did I miss THAT?!?  Thanks, Patrick!

I haven't taken the 2nd disc out of the case yet.  I think I will tomorrow! 

Steamboat Willie and Playful Pluto are definitely HD, and they've had a lot of work on them.  If you compare Steamboat Willie to the earlier DVD, you see that it's been cleaned up dramatically, but, for whatever reason, contrast is reduced.  It looks great, though, and makes me wonder if an HD collection of Disney shorts is in our future.  You may be right about the others, but it's hard for me to tell because of significant registration issues.  They look clean, however.  Music Land, but the way, is a terrific cartoon.

It took me awhile to realize that you can access what they call the index by hitting the down arrow on your remote.  Otherwise, you have to try to find the cartoons through a labyrinth of admittedly interesting features.