EARLY 'SNOW' FOR BLU-RAY
SUSANNE AULT -- Daily Variety , April 6, 2009 Monday
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is putting its faith in a 70-year-old princess to broaden the audience for Blu-ray.
The studio's next re-release of animated classic "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," which has been off the market since 2001, will hit Blu-ray on Oct. 6, seven weeks before it appears on standard DVD on Nov. 24. The lengthy advance window for Blu-ray, designed to push consumers toward the format, is unprecedented for a major release.
Bonus features, as yet unspecified, will be packed into both configurations.
Disney has recently tried to stagger the Blu-ray and DVD releases of "Bolt" and "Bedtime Stories," with Blu-ray getting the early release by just two days, but those plans were stymied by retailers that put both versions out for sale early.
The Blu-ray "Snow White" will follow Disney's trend, used on the recent re-releases of "Sleeping Beauty" and "Pinocchio," of including a standard DVD with the Blu-ray in one combo pack priced $10 higher than the standard DVD.
"Snow White" is one of Disney's crown jewels. The 1939 film, considered the industry's first full-length animated feature, has been released theatrically nine times.