2009 Diamond Edition - Desktop Wallpapers and Game

Here's eleven Disney desktop images with artwork from the 2009 Blu-ray home video release. These wallpapers were available for download from Disney's Official Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Diamond Edition website.

To access them, you first had to play an online game where you could click on a character to download its wallpaper. However, the Queen, Prince, and the Magic Mirror (with Snow White in it) were only available after collecting 15 diamonds throughout the kingdom and unlocking the Dwarf's Mine.

The Wallpapers:

1600px × 1000px

1024px × 768px

2009 Diamond Edition Snow White Desktop Wallpapers.

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The Game:

The Magic Mirror introduced this flash animated game with the words,"The magical world of Snow White awaits."

The homepage consisted of the Seven Dwarfs singing "Heigh-Ho" and marching at center stage while the different areas of the Kingdom passed behind to the left. Diamonds were placed throughout each scene...

If you held your cursor over one of these areas, such as the Dark Forest or Queens's Castle, additional animation would entice you to click your way into this realm...>

Dwarfs' Cottage...

Enchanted Forest...

Wishing Well...

Queen's Castle...

Dark Forest...

Click a character and a window opened to download a wallpaper or email signature...

Once you'd clicked and collected all 15 diamonds, you could then proceed to the Diamond Mind which held a bonus video (of the dwarfs throwing Grumpy into the wash tub) as well as bonus printables and downloads...

Bonus Printables included a Dwarf Name Chart and an Honorary Dwarf Certificate...

Bonus Downloads included the wallpapers (shown at top) and email signatures for the Prince, the Queen, and the Magic Mirror...

All wallpapers and screen captures © Disney.

One Year Ago - Snow White Becomes Millionaire

Twenty-two year old former Snow White Natalie Marston won $5.2 million one year ago today.










Marston was...

working as Snow White at Disneyland when she bought a lottery ticket on a whim. That ticket made Marston a millionaire. [She] won the $5.2 million jackpot on the"Make Me a Millionaire" show by the California Lottery. "I know I played Snow White, but I feel more like Cinderella," Marston said.

Read the entire write-up at lotterypost.com.

Now For Something Completely Different: Snow White's Bar

I made an quick reference to this unique establishment in an earlier post. The Snow White Cafe located at 6769 Hollywood Blvd, is "just steps from the intersection of Hollywood and Highland" in Los Angeles. But it's not necessarily a place you'd expect to find such a Disney icon. Yes, inside you'll see murals paying homage to the famous princess and other characters from the film, but if Snow White was to actually find herself wandering into this place, the atmosphere would probably invoke a response akin to what she experienced in the dark forest...that is, unless she was just interested in finding a spot to sit and watch the tourists. Sounds like the perfect place for this.

Customer comments and reviews from yelp.com:

The decor is absolutely insane. Like...If a[n] amusement park in Iowa was a total Disney rip-off and had a ride called "Black-Haired Beauty and Seven of Her Smaller Friends", this is what the inside of that ride would look like. Lindsay B.

Part alpine Disney nightmare, part fern bar.  I believe the owners were required to retain the Snow White name and decorative remnants by some historical conservation society or something. Linda R.

Snow White is a RELIABLE bar. What you bring to Snow White, Snow White will give back to you. Mandy L.

Cheap crappy food, but it's great if you want to sit and have a pint after a hard day of work. Kelli M.

In the classically cool words of one Mae West..."I used to be Snow White, but I drifted" Stephy S.

 

Photo credit Mike L. 

Rumor has it that the animators (and Walt, too) used to frequent the café, meeting there to brainstorm while having a light meal or a “cup of joe.” Supposedly, the mural was a gift given as a token of appreciation for the café’s hospitality to studio personnel.  Source: 2719 Hyperion

Mural paintings at Snow White Cafe via 2719 Hyperion blog. 

See the 2719 Hyperion blog post from September 18, 2007 with a great write-up and more mural images.

Also read the post from last month's Ghost Hunters of Urban Los Angeles meeting at the Cafe. Great "deets" on the Snow White murals and on the Cafe building itself.

See more images and comments at yelp.com, and read a review (of sorts) from a February 07, 2008 article in the Los Angeles Times.

Snow White Scrapbooking Embellishments

Picked up this Snow White ornamentation for a song during a recent trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics. The "dimensional stickers" are made of paper, fabric, felt and other mixed media, and they're apparently used in scrapbooking. It was a deep cut sale so...um...I couldn't pass them up.

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

Approximately 4" high.

Then I found four more on ebay that were fairly inexpensively priced...

4" high.

6" and 4.5"

4" high

All images from personal collection.

One Year Ago - Fairest of All

Published by Disney Editions, Serena Valentino's hardcover Fairest of All hit the stores last year, August 18, 2009. The author is known for her work on the comic book series GloomCookie and Nightmares and Fairy Tales.

The idea behind Valentino's book is an intriguing one--the telling of the Snow White tale from the Evil Queen's perspective. Where did this monarch come from? How is it that she's so wicked? An alluring concept for the curious intellect, but wait, on second thought, do I really want to know?

Book Cover promotional images. Posted by author Serena Valentino via Live Journal.

The story takes us into the life and mind of the Queen before she became a queen. The daughter of a verbally abusive father, she suffers the dysfunction of a low self-esteem. We learn of her home life, how she met the King (Snow White's father), and her loving relationship with the little princess--then only 3 or 4 years of age at the time of the royal couple's wedding. While the writing is generally aimed at a young adult audience, darker segments may not be suitable for the more sensitive teen.

Valentino tosses a few unexpected twists our way, e.g. the identity of the face in the Magic Mirror. Overall though, I found myself most interested when the story paralleled the time period of the actual film rather than before. Also, I couldn't help feeling a little dispirited by the domesticity of the main character's issues. She was living more in an everyday reality of neuroses rather than in a world of fairytales. OK, she was being manipulated by conniving witch sisters and a talking mirror, but still it seemed as if all the Wicked Queen really needed was a good therapist. Where's the fun in that?

Title Page image scan.

So the question still begs, "Do I really want to know her past?" Do we want a human side to one of Disney's most perfect villains--one rivaled only by the likes of such evilness as Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent or The Little Mermaid's Ursula?

A couple of top-notch Villains, desktop wallpapers. Images copyright disney.com.

The problem is not [entirely] the fault of the author, Serena Valentino. The issue is deeper. Mythological tales are all about the inner workings of the human psyche; the characters within the stories represent the different aspects of our own selves. Evil is evil because it needs to be in order to satisfy the archetypal symbolism that it represents. Once you start looking to domesticate it, that is, to place ordinary explanations on the reasons for its existence, the bubble begins to burst.

A perfect example of this is in the Star Wars saga. George Lucas was an inspired individual when he wrote and created the original trilogy. Throughout the first three films, the mystery and mystique are kept intact for the quintessential villain, Darth Vader. Yes, we have revelations and even redemption at the end, but the archetype is not spoiled. Vader was an agent of the dark side and fulfilled his mythic role perfectly. However, the prequel films set the character in everyday situations with ordinary human emotions. This may satisfy our curiosity about his early years, but the power of the archetype is diminished (and the overall story suffers).

Darth Vader addresses Princess Leia, Star Wars: Episode IV, 1977.
Image copyright Lucas Films, Ltd. via BigBadDaddyVader.

Of course, for those not interested in the archetypal symbolism, you may find that Fairest of All will indeed satisfy your curiosity about the Queen's early life. After all, the mythic world is not for everyone. It's a quick read and probably available at your local library. If not, it can be gotten dirt cheap through any number of online book dealers.

Sample Page image scan.

Hardcover: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1423106296
ISBN-13: 978-1423106296