除了TREASER-REVIEW[Snow White]之外,還有些....
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Brian attended a preview screening of Disney's upcoming Platinum Series and he liked what he saw.

October… while it’s always been a favorite month of mine (sauce-making season, the annual Yankee world championship…), it’s shaping up to be the best month of the year for DVD collectors everywhere. Take a look at some of the “Fall Classic” discs released in October 2000: technical marvels like The Patriot and U571 (one of the five best audio tracks I’ve ever heard), the award winning contemporary classic American Beauty, a special edition of the spy-film benchmark From Russia With Love, as well as Spielberg’s long awaited Jurassic Park. This October is already gearing up to compete with its older brother, headlined so far by the highly anticipated The Godfather. Rumors abound that Fox is targeting October for a Five Star Series release of the suspense masterpiece The French Connection. Even Lucasfilms is rumored to finally be ready to get into the mix, albeit with the trivial The Phantom Menace (no, Jar Jar has not been digitally erased from the film) as opposed to something fans actually want to watch.

Of all the DVDs released in October 2000, though, Disney’s release scored the biggest with fans and critics alike, garnering one of the few “5” overall ratings ever given out at the Shrine with their three disc set, The Ultimate Toy Box. This year, Mousehouse looks poised to repeat their October success with the launch of their innovative new “Platinum Series” of animated classics. Starting this October, and in every October for the next ten years, Disney will release the definitive edition of one animated classic. This prestigious series will kick off on October 9th, with the two disc set Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The choice of movie was especially appropriate: it’s the movie that launched the Disney studio, and now it will be the movie that launches them into the DVD elite.

When the press releases about the set initially starting hitting the Internet, a peculiar phrase seemed to jump off the pages: “immersive home entertainment experience.” How exactly can a DVD experience be immersive? Does the viewer become the eighth dwarf? Not exactly, but as I witnessed at the preview screening for Disney’s big release of the year, it comes pretty damn close. The idea for this new ‘experience’ is to blur the line between technophile and casual DVD consumer, through the use of engaging, creative and most importantly, innovative new content. Basically, Disney wants to take the “Moms and Dads” portion of the exploding DVD market (projections are that 36 million units will be in American households by the end of 2K1) and demonstrate what DVD is capable of. A daunting task, to say the least: how does a company appease both the new DVD owner as well as the seasoned, grizzled veterans, like you and I?

They started, literally, from the very beginning, by tearing down the animated menu systems that we as DVD collectors have become accustomed to. The innovation starts here, in the never-seen-before form of a menu “host.” As the beautiful menu art comes up, the Magic Mirror (from the movie!) appears. The character actually interacts with the viewer, explaining where menu choices will lead, offering the viewer suggestions, and even throwing out barbs if one ponders for too long. Not only will this be amusing to children, but it also makes things easier for a parent (or any newly initiated DVDphile) to figure out exactly what option interests them most. Immediately, it’s obvious that the spirit and setting of the film permeates every byte of the disc, and the definition of ‘immersive experience’ became a little clearer. It’s all about interactivity.

Of course, the area in which DVD holds the real trump card over all previous forms of home entertainment is in the extra material. The second disc is comprised entirely of some of the most creative and intriguing bonus material ever put together for one film. The sheer amount of material may be intimidating to the casual viewer, so Disney invented an interesting supplement: a ‘guided tour.’ It’s an interactive video presentation hosted by Roy Disney, who introduces other members of the Disney universe (Angela Lansbury was featured in the screening) who will give an overview of the different aspects of the absolutely enormous extras package. Deleted scenes? Check. Multiple angle usage? Check. Documentaries? Got it. Trailers? How about one from every decade except the 70’s? Publicity material? Tons of it. Interactive kids game? Of course. The list goes on and on. Disney even persuaded Barbra Streisand to record “Some Day My Prince Will Come” and set it to a montage of the movie to create a music video.

I can hear the hardcore collector asking skeptically, how innovative was Disney in putting together this disc really? Here’s what sold this cynical Shrine Monk and consumer on the overall innovation of the extra materials: Disney found a way to make the PHOTO GALLERIES interesting and fun to roam around in. Once again, the use of a host-entity (called a ‘docent,’ I learned) and some unbelievable animation that truly emulates a ‘gallery’ feel (as opposed to the simple push button navigation I was used to), as well audio clips over selected photos explaining their significance truly ‘immerse’ the wandering viewer. Whichever lucky Shrine reviewer receives this title for review in October will have his or her work cut out for them when it comes to the bonus material. Of course, the collector’s next question must be technical: how does it look and sound?

Prepare to be amazed. Disney’s DVD production team, from Senior Vice President of DVD Production Chris Carey on down deserves a collective promotion for groundbreaking restoration work that has gone into the first title in their signature series. Technically, Snow White is absolutely sublime. I expected the video to be great; I was mistaken. There are no superlatives to accurately describe the literally jaw-dropping clarity that Buena Vista Home Entertainment has achieved on the upcoming disc. Snow White has been released in each decade since the 1930’s, and in the 1990’s iteration, the film was restored extensively. Here, improvements are made even on THAT print. Film grain hasn’t been diminished; it’s been abolished. Line clarity is unbelievable, even on the immense monitor that the picture screened. Color restoration is nothing short of astonishing. The entire painstaking process is documented on disc two; hopefully Disney will include some side-by-side comparison shots. Even then, you may not believe your eyes. The difference is that monumental. The sound work is just as incredible, utilizing a brand new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Though the dialogue is left monaural (as it was in the original), the music really fills the room in all four lateral speakers with CD-fidelity. In short, this is an all around technical milestone that every DVD collector should be looking forward to.

My only problem with this new series: didn’t Disney get the memo telling these fine folks that New Line has been using the “Platinum Series” moniker for quite some time now? They haven’t abandoned it for their new Infinifilm series, either. Fox has their new “Five Star Collection.” MGM has so many ‘collections’ (the inane “Contemporary Classics” featuring titles like the unforgettable Mystic Pizza!) I can’t name them all. This series deserves a unique name (“The Signature Series” is classy and understated, and most of all, unused to my knowledge!). Executives at the screening could not confirm the chronological order in which their ten “Platinum” films will be released, but did confirm that a new title will be released every October. Do yourself a favor, DVD fans: put this title in the pre-order shopping cart over at Amazon. This is going to be a benchmark in DVD history, a timeless movie on one of the most amazing and innovative discs ever put on the market. Disney deserves credit for not shortchanging the consumer on a disc that would have sold in bundles without a fantastic extras package, opting to invest major capital in developing new technology, and giving this film the treatment it deserves.