Dwarfing old discs
Dwarfing old discs
0 Comments | Buffalo News, Oct 9, 2009 | by TONI RUBERTO
IIf you went out this week looking for a plain old DVD copy of the much-publicized new release of “Snow White and Seven Dwarfs,” you probably are a bit frustrated at not being able to find one. You have seven more weeks to wait.
Walt Disney Studios, in full marketing mode, decided to go all out with a Blu-ray release of the “upgraded” version of the animated classic, while waiting until Nov. 24 to release it on a standard DVD.
Why? A good bet is that the studio is hoping you will splurge and buy the Blu-ray release, which includes a standard DVD of the movie, and, eventually, you’ll buy a Blu-ray player.
The three-disc Blu-ray DVD combo pack of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Diamond Edition” ($39.99) has two Blu-ray discs — one contains the restored movie and a few extras, the other is an all- bonus disc. A few “classic” extras (meaning they’ve been on other “Snow White” releases, such as “Dopey’s Wild Mine Ride”) are included, but most appear to be new features that creatively use archival photos and sound recordings.
The third disc is the one that works with standard-definition DVD players and has a copy of the movie, audio commentary by animator John Canemaker, a music video by Tiffany Thornton (Disney Channel’s “Sonny With a Chance”) singing “Some Day My Prince Will Come,” and a look at Disney’s upcoming “The Princess and the Frog.”
The digitally remastered movie is breathtaking. It’s like watching beautifully rendered watercolors come to life on screen.
The movie plays with black bars on the side of the image. If you choose, you can activate the “DisneyView” feature that has artwork by Toby Bluth that fills out the screen. In the opening scenes, for instance, Bluth designed red curtains that frame the movie; in later scenes, he has painted such things as trees to make the movie image “appear” to stretch full screen. Sometimes it’s seamless; other times it’s not
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