Snow White is a sweet young princess who grows more beautiful day by day. Her stepmother, the Queen, is bitterly jealous of her loveliness and keeps her in rags, performing the duties of a scullery maid. But even this humiliating station in life can't disguise Snow White's beauty. One day, as Snow White is singing about the day she hopes to be swept off of her feet by her dream prince, he indeed comes riding up to her. Sadly, this is also the day that the Queen asks her Magic Mirror that famous question, "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall. Who is the fairest of them all?" just as she does every day. Much to her surprise, today the Magic Mirror doesn't respond as he always does in favor of the Queen, but he says that Snow White is the fairest. The Queen summons the Huntsman to take Snow White deep into the forest, kill her and bring back her heart as proof.
The Huntsman hasn't the heart (no pun intended) to do it and, instead, tells Snow White of the Queen's plan so that she can hide in the woods forever. After a terrifying run through the creepy and darkening woods, she happens upon a little cottage, the home of the Seven Dwarfs. When the Dwarfs return home to a spotless cottage, they immediately fall in love with the sweet princess, all except for Grumpy, and the motley crew begins to make a life for themselves. Unfortunately, when the Queen asks the Mirror her famed question and discovers that Snow White lives, she comes up with a plot to transform herself into an ugly old crone and poison Snow White with a deadly apple. Despite the Dwarfs warning Snow White to not let any strangers in, she falls prey to the evil witch's plot, bites the shiny red apple and dies, only able to be revived by love's first kiss.
The Dwarfs, realizing that they have failed to protect their beloved princess, chase the old witch to her death and construct a beautiful glass coffin so that they can behold her beauty as she "sleeps" forever. Fortunately, her true love, the Prince, hears of the eternal sleeping beauty and kisses her, awakening her. As they say, they live happily ever after.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Diamond Collection is not only restored to perfection and then some, but it has an absolutely insane number of special features, including both a DVD and Blu-ray version of the film. There's a music video, a handful of games which are actually PS3 controller-friendly (mostly) and are fun to play, and featurettes on top of featurettes. Everything you ever wanted to know about Snow White is here, including storyboards, galleries, trailers, and more. There is even a sneak peek at the upcoming animated feature, The Princess and the Frog, including not just the trailer but the first 6 minutes of the film. I must admit that I wasn't too keen on this one before seeing this sneak peek, but now I am very excited. It's a hand-drawn film and we haven't had a new one of those in a very long while.
By far, the deepest special feature is called Hyperion Studios. Here, you can fully explore Walt's original studio, including the Art and Sound Departments, a Screening Room, Character Design and so much more. There are tons and tons of featurettes on every aspect of this film and the studio that brought it to you. Literally, to go through each layer of the interactive setup of the Hyperion Studios area and view each featurette will take several hours and the stuff here is meaty and informative. There are talks about the meetings Walt would have to discuss story ideas, the little bonuses given for gags in movies, how Walt would come in and surprise the team with shenanigans, but most of all, what a great, big family Hyperion Studios was - all told in the voices of those who experienced it firsthand. For any fan of Disney lore, Snow White or Hollywood in general, this is an absolutely amazing collection of information.
While Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is rather slow by today's standards, what with all of its singing and dancing, it is still a landmark piece of movie-making history and this is the way it should be viewed and heard - in all of its Blu-ray high-def glory. Today's children might prefer the glitz and glam of CG movies, but this cinematic masterpiece deserves a place in your movie collection and this is the version to have. Go get it today.
