‘Snow White’ for Film Buffs, Newcomers

One of the first models for the character of Snow White in Walt Disney’s legendary 1937 animated feature “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was actually the big-eyed actress Zasu Pitts, who starred in the classic silent “Greed” and many comedies in the ‘30s and ‘40s. After that concept was scrapped, the animators experimented with making the heroine a blue-eyed damsel with long, blond curly hair, then finally settled on a pale, dainty beauty with short black hair.

As revealed in the lavish two-disc DVD of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” released this week ($30), Snow White, the Queen, the Witch and the Seven Dwarfs all went through several metamorphoses during the three-year production of the first feature-length cartoon.

Though some material on the DVD was featured on an earlier laserdisc, Disney has literally emptied the vaults for the extras on the new disc. Besides a fully restored picture and soundtrack, the package includes production features, deleted scenes, radio shows and picture galleries.

“There are some of our movies from the first couple of decades that we didn’t have as much detailed archival materials as we did with ‘Snow White,”’ says Chris Carey, the studio’s senior vice president for DVD production. “But even back then, everyone recognized ‘Snow White’ as something special. A lot more stuff got saved, which made our jobs easier and more enjoyable.”

The first disc is geared mainly to families, with a documentary on the production of “Snow White,” a “Dopey’s Wild Mine Ride” game and Barbra Streisand’s new rendition of the movie’s “Some Day My Prince Will Come.”

Thanks to a little magic and some technical razzle-dazzle, the late Walt Disney supplies the disc’s fascinating audio commentary. Carey says this was done by cutting together several of Disney’s original recordings about the genesis and production of the film.

The second disc is for film enthusiasts: It features three hours of material hosted by the Queen’s all-knowing and wryly amusing Magic Mirror, who reveals the contents of each of five “lands.” Among the highlights:

* “Snow White’s Wishing Well” looks at the movie’s history and development, including a production timeline, the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale and comparisons between the storyboards and the completed film.

* “The Queen’s Castle” features preliminary designs, deleted concepts and background cells, all of which were done by hand. And there are profiles of the voice talent for the movie, plus footage of young dancer Marge Belcher (who later became Marge Champion) and vaudevillian Eddie Collins, acting and dancing out the roles of Snow White and Dopey, respectively, for the animators.

* “The Queen’s Dungeon” features abandoned concepts for the film, including an alternative version of Snow White meeting the Prince and the storyboards for a lengthy fantasy rendition of “Some Day My Prince Will Come.”

* “The Dwarfs’ Mine” includes deleted, partially animated sequences, including a delightful musical number with the Dwarfs called “Music in Your Soup” and the Dwarfs building a bed for Snow White.

* “The Dwarfs’ Cottage” features newsreel footage and a radio broadcast of the movie’s Hollywood premiere at the old Cathay Circle Theater on Dec. 21, 1927, as well as photos of original merchandise, trailers of the various releases, a poster gallery, original press kits, two short subjects about the studio from 1937 and two interviews with Disney about “Snow White” from “Lux Radio Theatre” in 1936 and 1937.

As with the other big DVD titles for the fall, the reason for adding all these extras on “Snow White” is to set it apart from the earlier video release. The challenge, Carey says, was to come up with a package that would appeal to everyone from film buffs to “kids who might be seeing it for the first time.”