Snow White (2025) 4K Ultra HD (SteelBook)

"Snow White" is the live-action musical retelling of the classic full-length animated "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." In this timeless adventure Snow White (Rachel Zegler) journeys into magical woods to escape her stepmother, the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot), and meets the beloved Bashful, Sleepy, Sneezy, Happy, Dopey, Grumpy and Doc who join her quest to restore the kingdom and bring kindness to the land. Gary Reber)

Special features include "Sing Along With The Movie," the featurettes "Fearless, Fair, Brave, and True: Making Snow White" (HD 11:40), "Merry Tunes" (HD 09:29), and "Fairy Tale Fashion" (HD 08:53), bloopers (HD 02:28 ), three deleted scenes (HD 02:20) and a Movies Anywhere digital copy.

The 2.39:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 Ultra HD Dolby Vision/HDR10 picture, reviewed on a VIZIO Quantum X P85QX-JI UHD/HDR display, was photographed digitally in anamorphic Panavision® using the Arri Alexa LF and Arri Alexa Mini LF camera systems and sourced from a 4K master Digital Intermediate format. This retelling of this classic fairytale look terrific, The seven dwarfs animation is perfectly life-like. Picture quality is superb. The color palette exhibits saturated hues with excellent nuanced shading. The wide color gamut is rich in warm hues that pop. The costumes are magnificent in design and color. Flesh tones are perfectly natural. HDR contrast is excellent. Black levels appear natural such as in the night scenes and the wicked princess' and old lady's costumes and eye makeup. Shadow are well defined throughout. White levels appear nicely illuminated. The quantity of sets are numerous and the scale and intricacy of set designs reveal unbelievable attention to detail. Facial features are nicely detailed with revealing skin pores, complexions, lines such as when the wicked princess turns into the old lady, beards and hair. Costume fabrics are colorful and detailed, Objects are detailed and precisely textured throughout. This is a great looking cinematic picture that will captivate the entire family. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack is dynamic sounding with a combination of dramatic action and songs. New productions of long-beloved songs complement five original “contemporary kingdom” tunes thoughtfully crafted by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, breathing new melody into a well-known story. The action is supported with imaginative atmospherics and sound effects that punctuate with bass transients. Deep bass in the .1 LFE channel extends to sub-25 Hz for dramatic effect. Foley sound effects are in perfect sync with picture. The orchestral score extends wide and deep across the soundstage with aggressive surround envelopment. The singing and choruses are well integrated spatially as is the dialogue, often ADR produced.

The Immersive Sound element is comprised of an infrequent extension of parts of the orchestral score, sans the singing except for spots of chorus, dialogue of the wicked queen before the magic mirror, segments of nuanced dialogue in the palace, minor atmospherics and at times sound effects such as thunder. Far more could have been achieved in the treatment of the height layer to enhance spherical dimensionality.

This is a wonderful ear-level holosonic® soundtrack with the occasional spherical surround effect that honors this Walt Disney classic. (Gary Reber)