Snow White in France. Chapter 8: 2001

With this new millennium, the world of animation as Snow White knew it on its first release has changed very much: features are now the norm, shorts are more common on TV where Disney is now a company to be reckoned with. The studios went through a golden age in the 1990s, but digital successes such as Toy Story and its sequel throw a shadow on the future of classic animation whose last avatars' success keeps decreasing (Pocahontas, Hercules, The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis). Monsters Inc. has just come out in the US and is a major smash. It is the 4th collaboration between Disney and Pixar. Worse, their competitor Dreamworks has just made a hit with a film which openly makes fun of the sugary way Walt Disney adapts fairy tales: in Shrek, Princesses are light-years away from Snow White.

French television also changed: since April 26, 2001 fictions do not stand a chance anymore faced to a new kind of programming that arrived on M6 network: Loft Story (a pun: "Loft" meaning "apartment") is the first so called "reality show" in France. It is adapted from Big Brother and the press goes wild when the winner, a bimbo called Loana, has sex live in the swimming pool with another contestant. We surely drifted far away from the fairy tale Princess.
A French old version of the Internet called minitel is slowly phased out by its modern counterpart. Video also grows more profitable than movie theaters. Different formats keep appearing, always offering better picture and better sound quality.
If Laserdisc never quite kicks in, the VHS format has clearly outgrown its competitors. As it is still developing, a new invention is almost ready to replace it: DVD.


In this new environment, Snow White will prove that she is still everyone's sweetheart and the fairest one of all. As usual, for an exceptional Disney event, the firm's jewel gets a new release: this years is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the studio's creator.

The release of the film on a format that is still relatively confidential will happen, once again, throughout the world at about the same time. DVD hasn't been adopted by all households yet who, even though they reckon its superior quality, are not willing to spend the then considerable sums needed to buy discs more expensive that tapes and players that do not offer something that people grew accustomed to: taping their favorite show.

There were 14 million VCRs in France in 1994 when the film was last released, in 2001, that figure went up to 19 millions. That explains that this release is also planned in VHS, because only 2.16 million DVD players have been sold so far.

computer recreation of a store

Yet a marketing war machine aims to entice people to buy one, especially those with the 5 million children born since 1994 so that a new generation can discover this masterpiece. Fate will arrange it so that this campaign will unfold in a sullen world wounded by the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. France is also in the process of changing currencies: French Franc is dying. Long live Euro!

This DVD, praised by all specialized critics, is a model by which all other DVDs will be compared afterwards. Everything there was on the American DVD has been copied here: other than the film itself, there is a Karaoke of the dwarfs singing Heigh Ho (from the Sing Along video), a new making of documentary called "Blanche Neige et les sept nains, la légende", a feature length audio commentary made from interviews of Walt Disney stitched together, an adventure game where Dopey must escape the diamond mine, a music video by Barbra Streisand and another by Baha Men, and on top of that, some sequences are shot with the famous Pierre Tchernia to present the content of the disc (helped by the magic mirror and Roy Disney), instead of Angela Lansbury who did it in the American version.

Pierre Tchernia

Except for that, the content of the DVD is almost the same as its American counterpart on which a French track was already included (because of Quebec presumably). The only different detail in the film strangely, concerns the on-screen text right before the last scene ("so beautiful that...") which is the same here as on the Laserdisc (the transition between the three shots has been done optically on film) whereas on the American DVD, the transition has been made digitally.

Back of slipcover

In order to convert to digital those most impatient to see the film, WD Home video releases a collector's edition first, with a second DVD in it : on October 10, a complete version comes out, with extra features spread upon various worlds in 3D settings: the wishing well with historical details about the movie, the Queen's castle with preliminary drawings, backgrounds, storyboards, actor's biographies, etc., the Queen's dungeon with a documentary about the restoration of the film and abandoned concepts, the dwarfs' mine with treasures like deleted scenes shown for the first time in France (the cauldron scene, the bed building sequence, etc.) and the original main and end titles of 1937, and finally the dwarfs' cottage with images of the US premiere, and American preview trailers of the film throughout the ages among which the 1975 one is oddly missing.

Missing trailer in the DVD

This release (FF200) is followed on October 24, by the regular edition (a single disc from FF169  FF180) and the VHS (FF130) where the karaoke song, the documentary and the two music videos are also included.

VHS cover

A "FF30 off" coupon to be redeemed 3 months after the release of the DVD is offered to boost sales. That release is advertised in old and new media: on the internet, the website blancheneige-leDVD.com is created by Liberty surf and a partnership with McDonalds is organized between November 7 to 27: kids can find their favorite characters in their Happy Meals.
A trailer is included on the tapes of Dinosaur and Unbreakable before the release, and then on 6 Disney classics video tapes as well as on The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2 from October 30.

Commercials also appear on TV (50 a week on major networks alone!) which boasts more channels now thanks to cable and satellite (TF1, France 2, France 3, M6, Téva, RTL9, Canal Jimmy, Télétoon, Cartoon Network, Fox kids and of course Disney Channel which even airs a special night and specific sequences on the show Zapping zone), on radio (with a 90 minute show on RTL hosted by Pierre Tchernia and Nagui, and other events on RTL2), and in the press (Winnie, Bambi, Picsou Magazine, and Le Journal de Mickey with two issues dedicated to the movie, the second of which has a Halloween theme).

Press book

A contest is organized to win tickets to Walt Disney World, Florida, and to Disneyland Paris whose Godmother this year is Snow White. As if it weren't enough, an ad is sent personally through the mail to the 400,000 household where the elder child is under 6. Articles and games are include in the pages of the TV guides Télé Star and télé 7 jeux. Télé poche offers a mask of the Queen as a Halloween gift. A preview is organized for the press. And finally a luxurious press book is sent to potential retailers.

The covers of the DVD and of the VHS, and of course the associated posters, do not attempt to be original locally made images. For previous releases, the covers were often different from the US release, but this one is a mere rearrangement of the now famous image of the Princess holding the apple. Other characters are used on alternate material like this poster with the dwarfs. The drawings are obviously computer generated, which seems to be a conscious choice. The trailers are also the American ones dubbed in French (and even though these are the same new actors, it would seem that a specific recording was done for the trailer). These underline the continuity by citing various previous Disney successes and reaffirming that Snow White came before all those, only this time the emphasis is very much on the villains (among which of courses the Queen/Hag is also the first), possibly to convince adults that the film is also for them.

All that surrounds the film should not make us forget it: and a considerable surprise awaits customers. As a matter of fact, if the DVD offers French titles automatically when the French track is chosen, a detail calls our attention even before the story begins. The main title seems to be the one from 1962 only slightly changed : the French cast and crew credits have been replaced by a recreated (and previously absent) animators credit. On the VHS, after a Disneyland Paris commercial and a preview of the three extra features after the film, the image of the main title is slowed down so that it fades to black before the French credits and still stays in sync with the soundtrack: the recreated credit doesn't appear either.

The fairytale book is also the 1962 one, but as soon as the Queen opens her mouth, the reason for the change appears evident: this is a new, third dubbing. As mentioned earlier, the company already thought in 1991 that the second dubbing was "tired" and didn't need a better motivation than Lucie Dolène's trial to record a new French version where the unwanted actress wouldn't be heard anymore.

Barbara Tissier & Alain Chabat

So Disney character voices asks Barbara Tissier (French voice of Cameron Diaz, of Eilonwy in "The Black Cauldron", etc.) to direct the actors and Georges Costa (musical director of so many films that it is impossible to list them here) to direct singers for a new dubbing as close as possible to the 1962 one in the limits of the law. For each new version, the translation should not use more than a certain percentage than the previous adaptation. In this percentage, the songs have been included as a priority because, even though there are two sets of lyrics (one for the film and one for records and sheet music), changing songs which have been in people's head for so long, even when they haven't seen the film, is just not an option.

French crew

So the adaptation is tough: it has to be a subtle mix of the previous one which parents and nostalgics love, and new material to remain legal and dust off an old classic too. (It is interesting to see that the new French credits at the end of the film only mention "all rights reserved" instead of the name of the adapter, who thus becomes anonymous).

Yet once more, the songs still undergo slight variations: In With a Smile and a Song "...et le soleil dans votre cœur luit..." (and the sun in your heart shines) has been replaced by "et le soleil dans la fraîcheur luit" (and the sun in the freshness shines), the original English lyrics being "Life is just like a bright sunny day".

The interpretation also modernizes the adaptation:

Valérie Siclay in 1980

Valérie Siclay, friend of Barbara Tissier, was chosen, according to the latter, because she fitted her idea of the Princess, that is to say a sugary voice. Barbara has even signed an autograph for me where she had attempted to write the character's cries ("aaah aaahh"). Valérie started her career as a child in 1979 in an episode (aired in 1980) of the series Médecins de nuit. That same year she also does Le labyrinthe de verre, then La mission in 1985, then Maigret but her career then turns towards dubbing. Now she even directs sessions for the company Dubbing brothers.

Rachel Pignot in 2002

If the singing voice of Snow White is now a different artist, Rachel Pignot, like Beatrice Hagen in 1938, turns her into a less maternal, younger character. Moreover, she doesn't roll "r"s like Lucie did. One must admit that the lyrics, sometimes dificult to grasp, are now perfectly audible. This new recording also allows the echo from the well to come out of the rear speakers. Where Lucie Dolène had already replaced Adriana Caselotti in many wordless vocalises, Rachel Pignot sings almost the entire part and there is very little left of Adriana. The young singer is very active on the stage in many musicals (Romeo & Juliet, Sister Act,...). She has recently appeared in the 2014 theatrical film Brèves de Comptoir.

Olivier Cantore

The Prince, Olivier Cantore (then 28), also gains youth and losses some testosterone. He may drift slightly away from the American interpretation but is probably closer to the supposed age of the character. It can come as a surprise that a different person, Pierre Tessier, does the spoken voice since the Prince only has three short lines in a single scene. Yet it had already been done in several foreign dubbings.

In Heigh Ho, the recording of the dwarfs' chorus is also clearer but squarer, dryer and almost military sounding, where the dwarfs seemed to be part of jazz band in 1962 (which of course they were).

The final chorus is also rerecorded and mixed with American one when it is wordless.

Sylvie Genty in 1976

Katy Vail in 1959

The Queen is voiced by Sylvie Genty. She was on the stage in 1976 in the play "Les prodiges" at the Bouffes du Nord theater, then turned to TV in 1981 in the title role of "L'amnésique". She was often seen on the small screen after that.

The actress Katy Vail gives her voice to the hag, mirroring the first dubbing which used several American actors.

Jean-Claude Balard, the magic mirror, is Mendoza's voice in The Mysterious Cities of Gold.

Jean-Claude Donda in 1993

Jean Claude Donda who does Doc, is famous voice in commercials and he also took over many roles previously voiced by Roger Carel like Winnie the Pooh. The late Gérard Rinaldi, former member of the successful French 1970s comedy team of les Charlots, dubs Grumpy. Prolific Michel Mella (Rabbit in Winnie, Victor in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc.) gives life to Bashful with the help of Jean Stout (Baloo) for some songs. Bernard Alane (Clopin, Bambi...) speaks (and sneezes) for Sneezy. You'll find a complete list of the cast on my friend Rémi's website.
Interesting details: among the backup singers is Lucie Dolène's son: Olivier Constantin, Dominique Poulain (Cinderella), and many other talented artists.

If the Karaoke sequence of the dwarfs has the new dubbing on the DVD, it is the second French version that you'll find on the VHS!

As far as the picture is concerned, the same insert shots from the Laserdisc are found here, except for the details already mentioned. However the film has been restored once again.

Restoration of a high def image.

In 1993, the high definition capture of the negative could not be fully used has the restoring team worked on standard video. So it was necessary to print the Cineon files back on film. In 2001, that step was no longer necessary: Cineon files could be converted to high definition video which the team could work with and directly apply color correction, dust removal, grain reduction, etc. By observing the videos in the documentary (see opposite), it would seem that the moving elements were even removed from the frame (typically characters, effects, animals and other animated elements) and cleaned separately from the beautiful watercolor backgrounds, the result being, according to Chris Carey in the DVD special features, that seeing the film now is "like seeing the original cel"without film or camera defect.

Snow White on GameBoy

The soundtrack restoration process was to obtain a clean original mono mix first (available on the DVD) and from that and with separate elements, a new 5.1 surround track was made where music, sound effects has space to breath more. Naturally, the French version having just been recorded allowed even more (subtle) effects than the original soundtrack!

Two veteran animators Ollie Johnston & Frank Thomas bring an historical endorsement by approving the restoration.

In this digital age, a a Snow White Game Boy Color game is created by Disney interactive. However it seems that the game, made for the very young, is too easy and does not find the heart of gamers who prefer to jump with Aladdin on a magic carpets to kill bad guys.
Disney Hachette édition does not neglect more traditional but ever so great books. The best of them is a collection of art from the film gathered by Pierre Lambert published in October 2000 by Démons et Merveilles (148.64 euros). It contains reproductions of backgrounds, cels and production drawings, organized scene by scene in the order in which the film presents them.

Among the many books for children, there is a small one written by Charlie Meunier with 3 dimensional images, that you can see with anaglyph glasses. This type of books was already published in Great Britain as early as 1938.

Snow White in 3D

Of course, there's news in the records department. As a matter of fact, the old recordings are not favored anymore and new ones are made. Moreover the book and record concept, still popular, has morphed into a book and CD. Of course the most drastic change is the original soundtrack : if the titles of the tracks are the same, it is the third French version that you can hear now. Other than that, the main difference is that the song Heigh Ho can be heard in its entirety whereas the 1994 version stopped soon after the song started. On the other hand, the famous final bells are omitted so that only the French chorus track is heard, and the disc ends on a few rare seconds of purely instrumental music.

This time, a booklet is included with the lyrics on it. unfortunately, even though the artists are credited, which is a vast improvement, these lyrics seem to have been transcribed from earing only, and by someone with very bad earing indeed because they are full of errors ("Je rêve aux doux mots, aux mots tendres qu'il dira" replaced merely by two words "Ce rêve", "La chanson d' l'amitié" (the friendship song) instead of "la chanson fait pitié" (the silly song), senseless sentences ("C'est le soleil dans chassant vos ennuis"= "It is the sun in hunting your troubles"), blatant mistakes ("Vous seuls (...) pouvait ramener le beau temps"=you alone can brought fair weather back) or even complete inventions from God knows where ("car ça rafraîchit la maison"= because it makes the house fresh). One can even read in "Whistle while you work" that "il ne faut pas danser"(=you should not dance), when clearly the Princess invites you to do exactly the opposite. The dwarfs have also been transformed into clocks when the digging sound "on pioche pic pac" was transcribed as a ticking sound "tic tac". And the list goes on... It is even doubtful that the person in charge of this was even French-speaking to allow such an unprofessional job to find its way on an official release.

On TV, Lucie Dolène is not called upon anymore to promote the film, but new actors are not either. In other circumstances, the purity of the newly recorded sound would have been a selling point, but in the case of Snow White, the studio is fully aware of the nostalgic factor that will make parents buy the DVD. Therefore, it will prudently wait several years until viewers have had time to get used to that version to even consider talking about the new cast officially.

Without a spokesperson, the film is still being promoted in various types of shows: on October 23, 2001 on the show C'est au programme where host Sophie Davant says that her kids are afraid of the hag, even in Disneyland. The next day, in the TF1 news, the DVD is presented. And on October 25, a comparison is made between Atlantis and Snow White on the show Comme au cinéma.

It seems that this version is the definitive home video presentation. For a time...

Don't forget to click "like" on the Facebook page for updates and more! Check out the Snow White Museum too!
That's all for today folks!