Disney has a new film—Wish, out November 22—that celebrates its 100-year history by dramatizing the fairy-tale dream of “wishing upon a star.” But the company is also dipping into its vast library in honour of this landmark year, including bringing a 4K restoration of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, its first feature-length animated film, to Disney+.
According to a Walt Disney Company press release, the 4K Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will arrive on the streamer October 16, noting “this restored version of the 1937 classic is the result of the combined efforts of the Walt Disney Studios Restoration and Preservation team, working closely with key artists from Walt Disney Animation Studios, the same team who recently worked together on the critically-acclaimed restoration of Walt Disney’s 1950 animated classic, Cinderella.”
The restoration team included veteran Disney Animation artists Michael Giaimo (Wish, Frozen) and animator-director Eric Goldberg (Once Upon A Studio, Pocahontas, Fantasia/2000). “The opportunity to help restore Snow White was both an honour and a challenge,” Goldberg said in the press release. “As the very first Walt Disney feature, Mike Giaimo and I felt we owed a debt to history to get it looking as beautiful, and as accurate to the original colours, as we could. The muted palette and the delicate watercolour backgrounds evoke the illustrated fairy tales that Walt so loved, and the story and characters continue to resonate to this day. I hope our work inspires future generations of animation artists to fully appreciate the masterful talent and care that has gone into this landmark film.”
Walt Disney Studios’ director of restoration, Kevin Schaeffer, added, “We are incredibly excited to go back to Walt’s original negative and use current state of the art technology to restore this stunning classic to its original beauty.” You can see an example of the “before” and “after” at the top of this post, and behold the final result when it arrives on Disney+ October 16. The pre-restoration version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is available now on Disney+.
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