| | Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs [1938] |  | Director: David Hand
Actors: Roy Atwell, James Macdonald (ii), Marion Darlington, Otis Harlan, Billy Gilbert
Studio: ITV DVD
Category: Video
Buy Used: £16.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 21223
Format: Pal
Rating: Universal, particularly children
Media: VHS Tape
Running Time: 40 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
EAN: 5014861207428
ASIN: B00008T2Q4
Theatrical Release Date: February 4, 1938
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was nicknamed "Disney's Folly" by contemporary observers; they doubted that the short cartoons shown before the main film could ever successfully make the transition from filler to feature presentation. Surely, no one would sit still for over an hour to watch an animated film, their eyes smarting from the bright colours on screen? Fortunately, Walt Disney and his army of artists persisted and the world's first full-length animated feature was finally released in 1937 to widespread acclaim.Adapted from the Grimm fairytale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is chillingly dark in places, reflecting its roots in European folklore, but the deft Disney touch ensures that the overall tone remains light and the story develops apace, swept along on the perfect musical score. Any lingering gloom is quickly dispelled by the superbly characterised dwarfs and by the humorous antics of the various irresistible fauna that threaten to steal the show in several scenes. The pioneering animation is breathtaking and songs such as "Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho" and "Whistle While You Work", now firmly embedded in popular culture, are seamlessly interwoven with the action. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs happens to be an interesting technological milestone in cinema history--it is also an enduring masterpiece of family entertainment. To the millions who have fallen under its spell over the years, this magical fairy tale remains one of Disney's most enchanting and best-loved films. Only Grumpy could resist. --Helen Baker On the DVD: the video quality on this DVD is stunningly clear. Though it is noticeable that the film is nearly 65 years old, Disney has done a great job in the cleaning process: the bright colours shine clearly, the blacks are deep and the whites clear. There is little to no visible wearing on the film and the digital transfer has done wonders in restoring Snow White and her seven little pals. The sound is very clear and you get a real sense, in places, of the newly mastered 5.1 Dolby Sound enhancements that have been added, making for enjoyable listening to the well-loved songs. The extras on disk one are plentiful and give a real insight into the making of Snow White. Little was done in 1937 for the filming of behind-the-scenes documentaries, but what could have been included has been. The audio commentary is strung together from interviews with Walt Disney himself, all of which are fascinating, and to keep the kids happy there is a familiar Disney sing-along and a Dopey game to play. The disk two extras are packed with information on the movie and Disney, from the 3-D virtual tour of the Snow White kingdom, that also has some documentary information, to an outtakes section showing abandoned footage and ideas that were never included in the final movie. There is also an informative timeline of the creation of the Walt Disney Studios that includes some deleted scenes from the movie. Altogether, great additions to a classic film. --Robert Hyde
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
Snow White November 7, 2007
Very impressed with the speed and effeciency of delivery. Watched it this afternoon, it has not lost any of its magic - well worth the money.
The best Disney movie of all time October 31, 2007
This is the movie that established Walt Disney's reputation as the master of children's cartoons. Even by today's exacting standards, the animation is top notch.
Perhaps the best test of Snow White's enduring charm and beauty is to sit a variety of children between the ages of 5 and 10 in front of it and watch how they become spellbound by it. Visually there is so much to see and enjoy. The detail is stunning. A collection of hugely talented and imaginiative people have vividly brought a stunning array of characters to life in a magical way - magical is truly the perfect word to describe this work of genius.
Of course, adults can enjoy Snow White again and again too. One of the joys of this movie is seeing your sons and daughters enjoy it as much as you did, when you first saw it. And, when you see it again after a gap of 25 years, its power still amazes you.
You could describe this movie as a rite of passage, something that every child should see, and why not - we all love a well-told story, which this unquestionably is. This is film that connects one generation to the next. Perhaps the only other movie that does this is "The Sound of Music".
My only gripe is that Disney releases it so rarely to preserve its value. So next time it comes out, I recommend you buy two copies because younger children will quickly damage the DVD in their eagerness to watch the film umpteen times.
What else can I say but thank you, Walt. It is a masterpiece.
The start of Disneyfication October 22, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's quite funny that today, as I trudged into University, the module we would be studying in the lecture was Animation, and the history behind it. As a young kid, I had seen Snow White many times, with varying experiences (mostly scared!) and so it was great to bring it all back this morning in what would normally be a few hours of boredom.
Snow White, released amazingly way back in 1938, could easily be one of the most important films ever created. That might sound ambitious, considering the other advances in life at the time, but to even dare and ask the audience to sit back and watch over an hour of animation was a gamble itself. In the early 1930's, a 'cartoon' was up to 6 minutes of black and drawings that could take months and months to make.
The reason this film actually was a milestone is because of Walt Disney's quick thinking....
1. Copyrighting Technicolour - The ability to master videos in full colour, which no other company could use)
2. Rota-scope - The ability to create life-like animations of people by tracing an original video of an actor. This was filmed with 2 actors and then drawn! This is how such life-like movements could be drawn by Snow White (just a young actor) and of course the evil queen.
3. "Disneyfication" begins - The original Snow White story was a grim and dark tale that had a clear moral. Walt Disney wanted this film to appear to an audience that could be entertained, hence for the first time, we get the 'happy ever after' ending. Note also how the whit, glamour, and humour normally associated with animations at the time was lost.
4. Technological advances - Disney had made a special machine (almost as high as a house) that generated the 3-D effects in the movie, and enhanced such features as wind, rain, and room-spiral actions. A massive machine separated the cells, and then could allow for precise arrangement to make shakey pictures and movements a thing of the past. Every movement, as you'll see, is 100% precice thanks to this clumbersome contraption.
Of course, we should all know the tale of Disney's Snow White by now, and even if you don't it'd be a shame to spoil the film. While in typical Disney fashion, its fun and suitable for the family, with plenty of 'simple' gags and funny moments from the 7 dwarfs, it does have its scary moments. I'm not trying to sound like a wet-blanket - it's just a fact, and even now looking back I can understand why I hid by the couch cushions at certain scenes. But this surely proves how animation has changed - what was once an attempt to bring a watcher into the film and let them experience a moral, now is just a cheap attempt at making money at School Half Terms, when Mr and Mrs Average clogg up the roads with 4x4's, and head down the cinema's!
It reeks of elements from it's time, whether it be the Mask that speaks in the Queens mirror (its actually a voodoo style mask, as people at the time was fascinated by cultures abroad, especially Egyptology), or the character of the Evil Queen that was actually a spiff off a celeb at the time, Better Davis, who herself played evil characters.
Snow White is a milestone in animation history with beautiful artwork, and though its later counterparts may have easily exceeded it in terms of entertainment (the 40's/50's were a good era) they all still kept the roots of teaching morals up until the funny but lame 60's (The Jungle Book, with its laughably bad spiff of The Beatles. Still a great film!). If you've seen all the other Disney films and think they can't be topped, this should be watched anyway for the education of how perfect animation can be, and what we miss today.
DISNEY'S FIRST FEATURE LENGTH ANIMATED FILM IS AN ALL TIME CLASSIC October 11, 2007
To call Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs a classic goes without saying that practically everyone has called it such. It is a great film, but there are certain factors that make it so, and without them the film could've gone the other way and become important more for its technical breakthrough(s) than for the content. The fact is a story with the utmost simplicity like Snow White, the chief characters- Prince Charming, the wicked Queen/witch, and of course Snow White- are all very basic, simple, if not one dimensional than basely two-dimensional characters. It's appropriate, to be sure, as it is based off a Grimm fairy tale. Despite the beauty and charm of the early scenes, its really on par entertainment-wise with the Silly Symphonies Walt Disney produced in the 30's.
This also goes without saying that Snow White's run through the woods is one of the highlights of the film, still bringing a sense of terror and the surreal for the adults in the audience (if you're a little kid it could be one of the scariest things you've ever seen). But then- just as Snow White settles into her little 'hide-out' in a house she thinks occupied by messy, orphaned children- we're introduced to the seven dwarfs, and this is where the film picks up most of its energy, laughs, and complete and total balance. In a way, not to analyze too deep for a filmed fairy tale, they each represent the different sides of men, and so it gives the film the appropriate human dimensions it needs (in this, also setting up practically all the hand-drawn Disney films of the next seventy years or so). It's tempting to say which are my favorite, or whom I got the most enjoyment out of. There would be three, two for more obvious reasons, one for subtle ones.
Dopey, who is almost a perfect re-incarnation (in Disney Dwarf form of course) of Harpo Marx- he's a lovable idiot, with barely two sounds in the course of the film, who (and I hate to sound sappy) brings out the laughing kid in anyone. Grumpy, who I found to be maybe the most complete character in the film, has attitude to spare, and gets comic bit after comic bit happen to him from the animators- and yet, there is heart behind him, and when its revealed in key parts of the film, they act as the most emotional points. There is also Sleepy, who also barely says a word, but who's physical movements are really divine little moments among the big, inspired musical numbers. Indeed, there are little moments throughout the film that help make up the greatness: the mood and atmosphere in the Queen's dungeon of witchcraft; the scene where the dwarfs go to sleep (a fly that rests on Sleepy's nose); the traits given to the animals in the forest (that little turtle is hilarious).
All these parts help to add to the basic structure of the story- Queen wants the good looks, goes after her once the hunter fails, gives her the poison apple, then it goes even more predictable from their (though in a good way). The detail of the animated scenes, the backgrounds, the visual effects, are often mesmerizing. And the songs, which were some of the most standard I heard from the Disney oeuvre as a kid (they were always on those Disney 'Sing-along' videos) are still whimsical most of the time. Then there is also the icing on the cake- the voice of Snow White, Adriana Caselotti (who got contracted into this being her only film role, based of producer/uncredited director Disney's insistence), brings something to the film that's hard to describe, except to say that it's, well, serene.
Even if she's not the strongest character, her main goal of making people around her feel good and inspiring happiness makes her watchable, and in a way lovable. It's a very curious, though important, factor that she (and Prince Charming and the Queen pre-witch) are animated very traditionally, apart from the cartoon-like dwarfs and animals. Its a reminder of the film's, and Disney's, strongest success- that as an imagined and visualized fairy tale, the representation is strong, and touching. In the new century studios move away from hand-drawn animated films, but it's a good idea to look back to the early Disney films, if not for just nostalgia (or to watch with your kids) to get a sense of the experimentation, the purity of it. It remains one of only several animated films, from any country or style, to have the crucial elements come together- music, voice-talent, usage of colors, and cinematography.
 Enchanting September 5, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
What I found most impressive about "Snow White", after watching it for the first time since I was a child, were the landscapes. True, they don't look as appropriate for the story as those in "Sleeping Beauty" or "Hercules", both of which look like a Medieval painting and a Greek vase respectively, but there's something about the forests and castles in Disney's first feature-length offering that really intrigues me. Perhaps more than any other Disney film, it looked like the sort of world I would want to explore
However, "Snow White" is not without its flaws. Disney had not perfected the art of creating villains yet, and the Wicked Queen, formidable as she is, rather pales next to, say, Maleficent or Lady Tremaine. Furthermore, there is a disappointing lack of interaction between the Queen and Snow White; the only time they are ever really on screen together is during the famous apple scene when, of course, Snow White is unaware of her companion's true identity. If a few earlier scenes had been included where visual evidence of Snow White's mistreatment was provided, rather than the viewer having to rely on a narrator, I do think the film could have been improved. Similarly, the relationship between Snow White and the Prince is unconvincing, as the Prince gets so little screen time with her.
Of course, these are all comments that can be easily made in retrospect, and I'm only really complaining because I know that Disney managed to improve over the years. Taken on its own, it is absolutely charming: far more innocent than Disney's later offerings and made with such good humour as well. Definitely deserves to be more widely-watched than it is. It's a "top ten" movie any day.
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