A Few Words About A few words about...™ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Rob W]

Dave;

You have over 2,500 posts on HTF and you have never learned that virtually every film made before 1954 ( the start of the widescreen era ) was in the 4:3 aspect ratio ? It's been discussed in hundreds of threads over the years.

 

Sheesh, I responded as politely in his similar post in the Wizard of Oz thread, but it is surprisingly that someone could have 221 DVDs and 171 Blu Rays, as well as post count of 2500 and never once have seen a movie before 1953 (How to Marry a Millionaire I believe was the first). I guess if you've got 171 copies of Wolverine BD that might explain it.

 

[TonyD]

Originally Posted by Rob W

Dave;

You have over 2,500 posts on HTF and you have never learned that virtually every film made before 1954 ( the start of the widescreen era ) was in the 4:3 aspect ratio ? It's been discussed in hundreds of threads over the years.

He cannot be serious, I don't believe it.

 

[Edwin-S]

Originally Posted by Dave Moritz ">[/url]

I just picked up this Disney classic today and while one can see how dated the graphics are it is still a very good transfer. The only question I have is, are all the old classic from Disney in 4:3 ratio? I have not been reading up on the newer releases on Bluray like I should have been so that is my fault. Like I was saying above this appears to be a very good transfer but I was a little disappointed that it is pan & scan and not wide-screen. But because this is an older animated title that will not get alot of viewings on my h/t I can over look that its not widescreen. But I hate the fact that Wizard Of Oz was not in widescreen and that I have to scale it with the tv to get ride of the black bars on the sides of the picture. The sound on Snow White is very good for its age and so is the video transfer. Where these classic titles not done in widescreen ratios back in the day? Or was this done on purpose? Would love to hear from someone here that knows about the older film titles, thanks.[/QUOTE]Been messing with Flux Capicitors again, eh? You're outatime. It's October, not April 1.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Nah. I'm not buying either.

I don't understand his point, but...

Curious.

 

[Brandon Conway]

I haven't looked at the disc to know: did Disney not include the optional side art panels to fill the unused black space on 1.78:1 TVs on Snow White like they did on Pinocchio?

 

[Brian W.]

Originally Posted by Brandon Conway

I haven't looked at the disc to know: did Disney not include the optional side art panels to fill the unused black space on 1.78:1 TVs on Snow White like they did on Pinocchio?

Yes. However, I don't think they're as effective as they were in Pinoccho. Though painted by Toby Bluth, just as the Pinocchio panels were, they seem to blend less well with the artwork than they did with Pinocchio. Sometimes, they seem intrusive to me, as with the PERPETUAL red curtain during the first three scenes and the white birch tree panels for the "Smile and a Song" sequence. During the latter, there are several shots that are bright towards the center of the frame and darker at the edges. The white tree trunks contrast too sharply with the darker edges of the frame and draw attention to themselves. There also seems to be a strange sort of light "sputtering" effect with the side panels on fade-outs and fade-ins. But, they are optional, of course.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

While certainly not a reason to panic or demand a recall, I noticed a weird jump in the image at the beginning of the Dwarfs' (or is that "Dwarves'" ) "Work Song". I went back and frame by framed it and discovered it was two aliased frames. It looked like for two consecutive frames, two adjacent frames were superimposed on each other like you used to see on old SD presentations with 3:2 pull-down aliasing. It occurs right after the initial zoom in on the mining dwarves around 21:40 or so.

The seemingly errant frames were present on the previous "Platinum Edition" DVD and the laserdisc released before that as well, although I never noticed it before. This suggests that it is a production artifact. Apologies if this has been discussed before.

Regards,

 

[RickER]

Originally Posted by Dave Moritz

I just picked up this Disney classic today and while one can see how dated the graphics are it is still a very good transfer. The only question I have is, are all the old classic from Disney in 4:3 ratio? I have not been reading up on the newer releases on Bluray like I should have been so that is my fault. Like I was saying above this appears to be a very good transfer but I was a little disappointed that it is pan & scan and not wide-screen. But because this is an older animated title that will not get alot of viewings on my h/t I can over look that its not widescreen. But I hate the fact that Wizard Of Oz was not in widescreen and that I have to scale it with the tv to get ride of the black bars on the sides of the picture. The sound on Snow White is very good for its age and so is the video transfer. Where these classic titles not done in widescreen ratios back in the day? Or was this done on purpose? Would love to hear from someone here that knows about the older film titles, thanks.

Wow, that really blows my mind. Its like, when you ask a question, and then realize...man...why did i ask!

Just cause its Blu-ray doesnt mean it has to be widescreen! In this case, it SHOULDNT BE! Widescreen came about because of people staying home to watch TV. As you might know, i hope, not many TVs around in the 30s.

 

[Patrick McCart]

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!

 

[Peter Neski]

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

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by Dave Moritz

_Man_

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Originally Posted by Dave Moritz

I just picked up this Disney classic today and while one can see how dated the graphics are it is still a very good transfer. The only question I have is, are all the old classic from Disney in 4:3 ratio? I have not been reading up on the newer releases on Bluray like I should have been so that is my fault. Like I was saying above this appears to be a very good transfer but I was a little disappointed that it is pan & scan and not wide-screen. But because this is an older animated title that will not get alot of viewings on my h/t I can over look that its not widescreen. But I hate the fact that Wizard Of Oz was not in widescreen and that I have to scale it with the tv to get ride of the black bars on the sides of the picture. The sound on Snow White is very good for its age and so is the video transfer. Where these classic titles not done in widescreen ratios back in the day? Or was this done on purpose? Would love to hear from someone here that knows about the older film titles, thanks.

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.

 

[Reagan]

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

 

[Jeff F.]

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...

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Reagan

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

There are two ways to create "more picture detail" in Oz.

1. Heavy grain removal and resolution processing.

2. Re-shoot.

Every grain of actual image detail has been harvested and rendered.

RAH

 

[Stephen_J_H]

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."

 

[benbess]

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...

 

[Reagan]

Originally Posted by Robert Harris




There are two ways to create "more picture detail" in Oz.

1. Heavy grain removal and resolution processing.

2. Re-shoot.

Every grain of actual image detail has been harvested and rendered.

RAH

Understood.