Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs…in Blu-Ray Goodness

The first time I saw the movie Snow White in its entirety, I fell asleep. It was nothing against the movie itself, but more so that I was a teenager and the movie was a bit slow for my liking at the time. Since then, I had never sat down to give the movie another chance. It was just one of those things that never happened.

Of course, now I have a three year old girl and we’re all about the princesses. But, mainly we’ve been a Cinderella house.

So, when we heard that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was being re-released by Disney, we knew we had to get it. And since Disney movies are only available for a short time before going into the vault, we didn’t want to miss our chance of introducing baby girl to the movie that started it all. It was, after all, the first full-length animated movie to be made.

Just a few days later, I got an email from One2One Network about an opportunity to review Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Diamond Edition. Talk about perfect timing!

Why is it the Diamond Edition? Well, it has both a Blu-ray disc and a regular DVD in one package.

What’s so Great about Blu-Ray?

I finally get it. Ever since my husband put together his “entertainment wall,” I’ve been trying to figure out what the big deal is. He talks about 1080p, HDMI, and it’s all like a foreign language to me. I’ve thus far been unimpressed. Much to his disappointment.

But now…I get it. I guess my biggest issue was a point of reference. Now, I look back at my tattered and torn VHS version and then over at my sparkly new Blu-ray and the difference is like night and day. The color is clean and vivid. Though my daughter will never know the “joy” of scratchy, grainy video tapes, I can definitely appreciate how far things have come. Man, kids have got it good.

The DisneyView framing, though a nice thought, isn’t what I’d consider “must-use” as it seemed unnatural in some instances. Even baby girl commented on its “different” appearance every now and then. It’s basically just a frame around the picture. So, instead of having two black frames to the sides, you get scene-appropriate frames that coordinate with the picture.

All about the Sound

I think the audio probably excited my husband more than my daughter and I. Apparently, many of the Blu-rays he has purchased don’t have 7.1 surround sound. What did that mean to me? Err…nothing. So, I was privy to a 10 minute discussion of the surround setup in our family room and the difference between having 5 speakers and a sub woofer (5.1) versus 7 speakers and a sub woofer (7.1). It was more than I REALLY wanted to know, but, it did help me gain some perspective on “what the big deal is.” I actually began to appreciate the small nuances provided by his elaborate setup. Kinda funny that it took a kid’s movie to do it, which I’m sure he finds infuriating. He tried to explain the same thing before with Transformers. Hehehe.

Extras

I have to say, we were a little disappointed by the special features as a whole. Though the decade by decade Disney history was very interesting, to me and the husband anyway, I would have expected a little more with the capacity of the Blu-ray disc. There was not much in the way of music, video or otherwise; a single karaoke sing-along track and a music video from one of their up-and-comers.

The games, classic and new, suffered from the monotony that MOST DVD games suffer from. Some required a level of comprehension or patience that my 3 year old was not willing to put in. We did get a kick out of seeing which princess daddy was (ahem, Ariel) and the phone call from a princess was a fun little extra, that lit up baby girl’s face. With a web enabled player, you can take a peek at some of the latest films preparing to be released into theaters or Blu-ray/DVD in the coming months. And the quirky phrases and insights from the magic mirror was worth a few laughs to the monkey.

You can view the Snow White Blu-ray Edition Trailer and learn more about Blu-ray discs with the Disney Timeless Memories Blu-ray High Definition DVDs and Movies video.

Disclosure: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Diamond Edition pack received from One2One Network for review purposes.