# Snow White Blu Ray and Standard Definition review



## Richard W. Haines (Jul 9, 2007)

Actually this above title is inaccurate. I cannot review the Blu-Ray of Disney's
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" at this point in time. Why? Because after
an endless array of promos and trailers, the menu will not allow me to access the
actual feature on my Samsung Blu Ray player. I need an upgrade which means I
have to contact the manufacturer and ask for one to install it before I will be able
to see the movie in high definition. And it took about five minutes before I was aware
of this not withstanding the warning on the disc itself about this. Suffice it to say this
is not 'consumer friendly'. In fact I was furious. Every other Blu-Ray disc I've bought
played without problems except for this one.

So I had to screen the standard definition bump down of the movie until the CD-ROM
of the upgrade arrives and is installed.

Fortunately, it looks great or rather it looks better than the original Technicolor prints
looked back in 1937. And what do I mean by that? There was a general feeling by
producers back in the thirties that three strip Technicolor was so vibrant and vivid it
might hurt the eyes for anything longer than a short subject or cartoon. So for the first
five years of the process they tended to subdue the colors contained on the three black
and white negatives and make rather contrasty and almost sepia tinted release copies in
the dye transfer process. After "The Wizard of Oz" in 1939, they decided audiences could
accept vibrant color and Technicolor became "Glorious Technicolor". So later Technicolor
features specifically enhanced the vibrant primary potential and make the dye transfer (IB)
copies with colors so brilliant they glowed from the screen, including later re-issues of the
Disney film. This Blu-Ray represents the more vibrant color spectrum of the later re-releases
than the orginal release but that's okay. It looks very good...although the animation of the
first reel seems a bit primitive to the later reels and later features.

As many fans and historians have noted, the secondary characters (the dwarfs and evil
Queen) are animated in a much more rubbery and interesting manner than the lead character
of Snow White who is a bit bland. However, the music, story and songs are so innovative
and energetic you get involved with the story and can ignore her limitations.

For film history buffs...this is the first movie to have a digital clean up and fix up. After
the introduction of digital animation in "Jurassic Park", the Disney folks asked if it was possible
to scan in an entire negative and have certain artifacts removed...specifically the "Disney dust"
on the cells caused by the multi-plane camera. Well they were able to go through the film a 
frame at a time and get rid of it and out-put a brand new negative without any dust or dirt
to great acclaim. True, all audiences saw it when it was first released but I have no doubt the
Disney brothers would've used what ever technology was available to get rid of it way back when
had it been available. After the success of cleaning up "Snow White", other studios decided to
do the same on their library and the rest is history. In fact, many of us will not accept dust,
dirt or scratches on any DVD or Blu-Ray release now since we know it can be removed and cleaned
up to look brand new or better than brand new.

So the standard DVD bump down of "Snow White" looks great and is certainly a historically
important motion picture. The first animated feature film that had both drama and comedy
and could withstand adult and child interest for a long running time. I'm sure the Blu-Ray looks
the same but sharper because of the added pixel count. And in a couple of weeks I'll be able
to see it after I install the update and calm down from my frustration and anger being forced
to deal with this.


----------

