Disney's new Blu-ray of Snow White can be purchased from Amazon for $9.99 by using the coupon code "snowhite" at checkout. It's currently backordered, but worth waiting for at that price.
It's been interesting exploring this set after The Wizard of Oz, which was greenlit by MGM in the wake of Snow White's success. Disney's Blu-ray treatment of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs exceeds the standards already set forth by Sleeping Beauty and Pinnochio. The inaugural "Diamond Collection" release features a gorgeous new HD video transfer and all of the extras from the previous Platinum Edition 2-disc DVD. On top of that, there are a bunch of new extras, including a short doc (The One That Started It All) and beautifully-restored classic Disney animated shorts like Playful Pluto, Goddess of Spring, Flowers and Trees, and Music Land. The work that's been done here has me very much looking forward to Diamond releases of Beauty and the Beast next year and even more so to Fantasia & Fantasia 2000 later in 2010.
The new features and additions are excellent, especially the immersive Hyperion Studios guided tour. Andrew Stanton introducing the tour is just one instance of the Pixar touch evident throughout the whole thing. The interface has you go from room to room of Hyperion, with archival audio interviews introducing each area. Inside each room is a collection of short Ken Burns-style documentary clips, short films, deleted scenes, and galleries related to the particular area's role in the production of Snow White.
All of the content here is worth watching, so I wish there had been an auto-pilot option to just sit back and let it guide me through. Consider that a non-complaint. My personal favorite bits were those focusing on the role of women who worked in the ink & paint department. Even today, the role of women in animation (on screen and behind the scenes) is marginal, but it appears Pixar is working to change that with the upcoming The Bear and the Bow.
The One That Started It All [17:12] is a short documentary that hits on the historical significance of the movie without needlessly repeating info provided in either the classic extras or the new ones. One of my favorite anecdotes had to do with critics arguing that no one would be able to deal with the horrible eye strain that would result from watching a feature-length, full-color animated movie.
As for other features of the disc, the Magic Mirror eerily makes recommendations and says things in the main menus based on your IP address' geographic location, viewing habits, and history viewing the disc. I don't care at all for the DisneyView feature that adds matte paintings to the sides of the Academy ratio picture to fill the "black bar" space to either side of the frame. Other supplements include storyboards from Walt Disney's would-be sequel, Snow White Returns*, a Disney Channel starlet singing "Some Day My Prince Will Come", and a 6-minute preview of The Princess and The Frog.
The review copy that Disney sent me came in a standard DVD-sized case, and based on what I've seen in ads, you're buying the same innards regardless of whether you get the "Blu-ray" or "DVD" of the Diamond Edition. The two Blu-ray discs are complimented by a standard-def DVD that has the feature, the Platinum Edition's patched-together Walt Disney commentary, the music video, and the Princess/Frog preview. They're still doing the DVD version of the new Diamond Edition on November 24th just in time for the holidays, but this is the one to get.
* the title conjures images in my mind of Snow White brandishing a sword or a gun, and a tagline like "Red Ruby Lips Meet Blood Red Revenge!" or "Some Day Revenge Will Come!"