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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 18, 2001
DVD
New and noteworthy for digital players
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Platinum Edition)
Disney thoughtfully includes a map and two VIP tours of the bonuses crammed into this two-disc tribute to the first full-length animated film ever. This may be the fullest-length DVD ever, with no fewer than 73 categories of extras for remote controllers to select.
One, of course, is the 1937 fairy tale that -- as we're constantly reminded -- "started it all." The digital crispness of last year's theatrical upgrade is preserved, and nobody needs to be reminded of the film's greatness. An audio commentary track is provided by Walt Disney himself, resurrected for the occasion through carefully edited recordings. That's only the beginning of an incredibly comprehensive collection.
Where to begin? A better question is when to end and get some sleep. Three hours of browsing (without watching the movie), and I'm only about halfway through the freshly minted material. Some highlights, so far:
Don't miss the six deleted scenes, including two musical numbers dropped by Disney. No wonder that Music in Your Soup was snipped; otherwise, parents would have blamed all sorts of bad table manners on the dwarfs. Another includes a macabre image toned down for the final cut. Zip right over to Disney Through the Decades, a 16-chapter history of the studio covering all of the PR bases with elaborate home movies.
The film's creation during the radio era makes audio a key element of the set. Listen to the 30-minute NBC broadcast of the movie's Los Angeles premiere to hear announcer Don Wilson introduce musical numbers, studio executives, forgotten radio stars and a bashful Charles Chaplin. Disney arrives, nervous about the commotion he caused, unable at one point to name all of the dwarfs he banked upon.
Newsreel footage of the event and other video artifacts prove that the studio's current promotional excess isn't a new idea and Michael Eisner's hustle isn't far from Walt's dreaming. One telling clue to Disney's spin-management roots can be heard in the creator's off-the-cuff description of the dwarfs in an interview, words repeated by an announcer in a re-release advertisement years later.
Featurettes include six descriptions of the film's technically archaic creation, a hand-drawn and painstakingly photographed process, so much warmer than today's easier computer tricks. Disney's first excursion into animated humanity, The Goddess of Spring (1934), hints at several feature-length classics to come.
An interactive game, Dopey's Wild Mine Ride, is just puzzling enough to waste a few minutes. The two tours of the DVD package are better investments of time.
A few bonuses are for Mickey freaks only: Who else needs a copy of the original credits listing RKO Pictures as an original co-distributor? Or a karaoke version of Heigh Ho! plugging another home video release? Or a Barbra Streisand music video of Someday My Prince Will Come? Disney cleans out the vault and dusts for crumbs, serving it all on two shining platinum discs.