Why So Blu?

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Perhaps the most important film in the history of the studio, Disney’s first feature length film animation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is finally making its way to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. Armed with a brand new transfer, this one was released on October 10th. Packaged with it is the Signature Edition Blu-ray which carries all of the previous extras that were on that release. You can order yourself a copy of this classic, which should be in any film lover and collector’s library, by using the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review at the bottom of the page.

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Film

The beautiful and kindhearted princess Snow White charms every creature in the kingdom except one — her jealous stepmother, the Queen. When the Magic Mirror proclaims Snow White is the fairest one of all, she must flee into the forest, where she befriends the lovable seven dwarfs — Doc, Sneezy, Grumpy, Happy, Bashful, Sleepy and Dopey. But when the Queen tricks Snow White with an enchanted apple, only the magic of true love’s kiss can save her!

Its weird that this year is NOT a milestone year for Snow White, but here’s the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray for it (finally). And, 30 years ago, the film was given a wide re-release into theaters. This past summer, as a part of my Summer of 93 at 30 series on my podcast, The Brandon Peters Show, I shared my thoughts on the film in a discussion of it with Scott Mendelson and Aaron Neuwirth. You can listen to that right here:

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are from the standard Blu-ray disc, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs debuts on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray with a pretty beautiful looking transfer. This one appears to have taken a film transfer approach as opposed to digital cleaning/reimagining as they’d done on standard Blu-ray with their classic animations in the past. It carries some nice grain and the details are strong enough to see the handcrafted strokes in spots and also (and I mean this as a positive) some of the age and production imperfections of the time (Blurred images and such).

Depth:  This is 2D hand drawn but it does decent with some imagined separation as well as good scale work. Movements are smooth and have no trouble with distortions.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and natural here. They color in quite solid, shade well and provide good outline. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: The colors painted here are gorgeous and well saturated in this classic, lovely palette. Reds, like the apple, pop with and stand out very well. Greens and blues make out plenty well, too.

Flesh Tones: N/A

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio, French 5.1 DTS-HDHR, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, German 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Japanese 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus

Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish

Dynamics:  Disney has gone from a 7.1 back down here to 5.1 track. And its a pretty rock solid experience here. No original mono is offered, so this is what you get. This is decently respectful to what the movie is, with most of the louder and more rich nature going to the score rather than faking or overdoing the effects in the film. It still has a sort of natural feel to it, and by natural I mean feeling of its era.

Low Frequency Extension:  Mostly the subwoofer is used for hits in the score.

Surround Sound Presentation:  Birds chirping, a couple hi-ho’s, to go with ambiance and some other things pop up in the rear speakers.  Most of it is kept to the front, though, which gives a terrific representation of the scenes progressing on screen.

Dialogue Reproduction:  Clean and clear.  It sounds of a recording in its era, but sounds nice and polished up and fresh.

Extras

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs comes with the Signature Edition Blu-ray and a redeemable digital code. All extras are the previously released ones and found the standard Blu-ray disc.

Audio Commentary

• By Roy E. Disney and Historian John Canemaker, and Recordings by Walt Disney

In Walt’s Words: Snow White And The Seven Dwarves (HD, 4:22)

Iconography (HD, 7:16)

@DisneyAnimation: Designing Disney’s First Princess (HD, 5:16)

The Fairest Facts of Them All: 7 Things You May Not Know About Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (HD, 4:37)

Snow White In Seventy Seconds (HD, 1:12)

Alternate Sequence: The Prince Meets Snow White (HD, 3:39) 

Archival Bonus Features

• Disney’s First Feature: The Making Of Snow White And The Seven Dwarves (HD, 33:15)
• Hyperion Studios Tour
• Decoding The Exposure Sheet
• Snow White Returns
• Story Meetings: The Dwarves
• Story Meetings: The Huntsman
• Deleted Scene: Soup Eating Sequence
• Deleted Scene: Bed Building Sequence
• Animation Voice Talent

Summary

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs feels like a triumph and work of art still to this day. Like such films as Star Wars or The Godfather, when it comes to the newest home video format, you should just instantly pick it up. This release, luckily has a fantastic video presentation to go with a terrific audio track. There are also a nice load of extras on the Blu-ray disc that comes with it. And easy pick up for any collector and film fan.

This is a paid Amazon Associates link