SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS was the first full Length American animated film.  It paved the way for Walt Disney Pictures to become the brand name it is today.   Snow White is a tale often told in movies and TV with some of my favorites being the live action stuff while many remember the Disney animated movie that started Walt’s empire that lead to other animated movies, live action movies, TV, and the theme parks. The animation is simple and the Disney animation team were still learning the techniques that they would perfect with later animated movies over the forthcoming decades.   Everyone knows the story of the movie, but I am more impressed with the history behind the making of the movie, the animators, and the things that happened after for Walt Disney Pictures.  The story is very simple compared to some of the modern day Disney animated movies, but Walt Disney was more about gags, songs, and presenting safe stories for the whole family (so the Disney animated movies of old aren’t Shakespeare).  SNOW WHITEAND THE SEVEN DWARFS is a simple story as she is sent to the woods to be killed only to have the Huntsman decide not to kill her and she falls in with seven bachelor dwarfs of various temperaments before the evil Queen finds out her Huntsman didn’t kill the fairest of them all (while the Prince has a very small part in the story due to animation limitations of the time).  I like SNOW WHITE AN DTHE HUNTSMAN better than the Disney animated movie (despite Kristen Stewart’s limited acting in it and being upstaged by Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron).

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

IN WALT’S WORDS: SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS- Walt talks about the animated movie and why he chose to do it

ICONOGRAPHY- all about why the movie is iconic and how it has influenced pop cukture, art, and fashion

@DISNEY ANIMATION: DESIGNING DISNEY’S 1^ST PRINCESS- a look at designing Snow White as modern day Disney artists discuss the design of the character na dhow it influenced some of the other Disney characters

THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL: 7 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS- little facts about the movie people might not know by Disney Channel star Sofia Carson

SNOW WHITE IN SEVENTY SECONDS- a rap of the animated movie in 70 seconds

 

DISENY’S FIRST FEATURE: THE MAKING OF SNOW WHITE AND THE SVEN DWARFS- a documentary on the making of Disney’s first full length animated film  about how they made it to get money to make it to Hollywood thinking it would fail

BRINGING SNOW TO LIFE: ABOUT THE EARLY ANIMATION GREATS- this featurette focuses on the mentors to the famous Disney animators (the Seven Old Men) like Vladimir “Bill” Tytla, Fred Moore, and Norm Ferguson

HYPERION STUDIOS TOUR- a combination of archival photos, film, and audio recordings bring to life a picture of Hyperion Studios day to day and how it was to work there

DECODING THE EXPOSURE SHEET- a breakdown of how they photographed the animation sequences by looking at the records that exist for them

 

SNOW WHITE RETURNS- a short featurette on a sequel short that was put into development only to be abandoned. 

STORY MEETINGS on THE DWARFS and THE HUNTSMAN

ALTERNATE SEQUENCE: THE PRINCE MEETS SNOW WHITE

Deleted scenes in storyboard and sketch form with audio created to go along with the Soup Eating Sequence and the Bed Building Sequence (which was revived for the abandoned sequel short

 

ANIMATION VOICE TALENT- a featurette on the voice talent of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS

The audio commentary is put together from various archival audio interviews with Walt Disney, the animators, and others as they talk about the making of the movie and how the studio ended up in debt again when World War 2 hit as they had several animated films in development after the success of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS

 

Code to download and stream a digital HD copy of the animated film

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS in standard definition on DVD

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  I enjoyed some of the extras more than the movie which has an important place in animation and movie history.  SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS may be simple compared to what can be done with animation now, but this is the movie that made other animated movies possible.

 

This review is ©2-29-2015 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com