The Wizard Of Oz Bluray

[Faith Lienhard]

WithThe Wizard of Oz' making its gorgeous Blu-ray debut nearly five years ago as part of its 70th anniversary celebration, Warner Bros. had to come up with a new way to mark (and market) next year's 75th anniversary. The solution? 3D! While the idea of converting the movie into 3D might seem misguided at best and blasphemous at worst, the new Blu-ray of 'The Wizard of Oz 3D' is one of the most pleasant surprises of the year, either theatrically or at home.

A plot synopsis really isn't necessary, is it? We've all seen it. We've all referenced it in one way or another, be it talking about how there's no place like home or how we have CUR-rige. It's one of a handful of movies that have crossed over to become a cultural icon. (Besides, the blurb Rick Polito wrote in 1998 for the Philadelphia Inquirer's TV section can never be topped: "Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.")

So, with the movie's greatness a given, how is the 3D picture? In a word: great. While the 3D glasses (active, in this case) fractionally reduce the brightness, the color sections of the film still pop. The love Warner Bros. gave to the three-strip Technicolor negative has brought out even more detail that hadn't been visible before, such as the "canvas" lines and texture applied to Ray Bolger's face as the Scarecrow.

The Land of Oz itself is the real beneficiary of the 3D, gaining a sense of depth that didn't exist before. Now as she dances out of Munchkinland, Dorothy looks as if she could actually continue on the Yellow Brick Road instead of smacking into a wall where the set ends and the matte painting begins. The 3D also adds to the intensity of certain scenes, such as the green arch corridor leading to the wizard's chamber that is now much more imposing thanks to the space inserted between the "rear" of the matte painting and the actors. Even the sepia-toned landscape gets a boost, now looking more like a wide Kansas vista and less like a rear-projected screen.

Before the traditionalist in you freaks out, know that while Warner Bros. is releasing 'The Wizard of Oz 3D' in a couple different packages, all of them also contain a second Blu-ray disc with the movie in 2D. I don't have the computer equipment to do a precise bit-rate analysis, but it looks indistinguishable from the transfer done for the 70th anniversary. As that one looked great then, no real complaints.

From an audio standpoint, both the 3D and 2D discs feature DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks as well as the original mono and an additional music-and-FX track. (The earlier 2D Blu-ray included a Dolby TrueHD 5.1, so this is a step up.)

The 3D disc itself contains only two extras: the ported-over edited commentary track moderated by Sydney Pollack; and the movie's trailers, which run from a pre-release teaser through various re-releases and up to and including the 2013 limited 3D theatrical run. The commentary is incredibly interesting, if only to hear stories told by archival interviews with the stars and others.

The 2D disc houses most of the extras, though the commentary and trailers are repeated from the 3D disc. New to the 'Oz' world is a 70-minute documentary, narrated by Martin Sheen, on the movie's production which replaces the circa-1990 making-of hosted by Angela Lansbury. The two cover much of the same ground and share similar stories, but new interviews with modern fans of the movie (e.g. composer Marc Shaiman, 'Wicked' composer Stephen Schwartz) opens the movie up to a more contemporary analysis. For example, Shaiman points out that by not deleting 'Over the Rainbow,' the template for nearly all movie musicals was set to include an early "yearning" song.

Carried over from earlier releases are the video storybook read by Lansbury, the audio jukebox of alternate/deleted musical numbers, the 1939 promotional radio show, a 1950 radio adaptation starring Judy Garland and featurettes on the movie's supporting cast.

If you have either Big Box I or Big Box II, you might remember that those contained far more extras than what's listed above. You remember correctly. If you want them now, you need to splurge for the five-disc "75th Anniversary Collector's Edition."

While the first two discs correspond to the 3D and 2D discs discussed above, it adds an additional Blu-ray of supplements, including documentaries on director Victor Fleming and author L. Frank Baum, a 2001 retrospective of the film's impact, a 2005 tribute from film makers such as Ron Howard and Peter Jackson, test footage of the tornado effect and six earlier adaptations of the 'Oz' stories. The biggest/oddest feature is a 1990 TV movie biography of Baum, starring the late John Ritter as the author and Annette O'Toole as his wife. It looks to be a VHS copy, so it's tough to watch more than a few minutes, but at least they thought to include it.

The Wizard of Oz will always sit near the top of any list of the greatest films of all time, but once you see Warner Home Video's spectacular 4K UHD rendering of this timeless classic in Dolby Vision, HDR, or HDR10+, you very well might add this release to your list of the greatest discs of all time. If ever you have wondered or questioned whether vintage films could stand up to the ber resolution of ultra high definition, this release will not only quash your suspicions and allay your fears, it will also fill you with wonder, exhilaration, and a longing for more Golden Age movies to receive the same glorious treatment. With an array of colors even the proverbial rainbow can't display, crystal clarity, exceptional contrast, room-shaking audio that rivals any contemporary action flick, and hours upon hours of absorbing supplements, this 4K UHD edition of The Wizard of Oz exceeds expectations, dazzles the senses, and instantly becomes one of the top home video releases of the year. Must Own.

With each home video innovation - from VHS and Laserdisc to DVD, Blu-ray, 3D, and now 4K UHD - one special film has always been among the first Golden Age classics to be released in the new format. And every time it's trotted out, almost everyone who loves movies rushes out and grabs the freshly minted upgraded edition. Of course I'm talking about The Wizard of Oz, MGM's 1939 musical fantasy based on the beloved children's book by L. Frank Baum and starring a wistful, wide-eyed, wondrous Judy Garland in the role that would cement and define her career and legacy. This treasured motion picture has touched almost every human being on the planet, and thanks to the folks at Warner Home Video and their commitment to preserving and updating director Victor Fleming's timeless testament to the core ideals of home, family, friendship, and perseverance, The Wizard of Oz will continue to touch audiences young and old for generations to come.

I've loved The Wizard of Oz since I was four years old. I'm 56 now and have seen the film countless times over many decades, and yet the anticipation of seeing Oz in 4K UHD - and Dolby Vision, no less! - was so intense, it brought me back to when I was a kid counting the days until the movie's next annual TV broadcast. My first exposure to The Wizard of Oz was in the mid-1960s on a small black-and-white television with rabbit-ear antennae. To me, the land of Oz didn't look much different from Kansas because our TV couldn't display the glorious Technicolor! So to go from that blah experience all the way to 4-frickin'-K on a 65" OLED screen fifty years later was almost too much for me to imagine. That dorky kid who obsessed over Oz, knew all the song lyrics by heart, and had a puppy-dog crush on Judy Garland that has continued unabated to this day could never have believed in his wildest dreams that he would ever get to see this mind-blowing film in such spectacular splendor.

And yes, even in this advanced age of Marvel and DC and CGI, The Wizard of Oz remains a mind-blowing film. Forget that it was made 80 years ago. The special effects still hold up, and what the MGM technicians were able to imagine and achieve is truly awe-inspiring. Just think... Only a dozen years before Oz premiered, sound was first introduced to the motion picture medium, and just four years prior, the first full-length Technicolor film was released. Movies were still in their relative infancy, yet somehow something as complex, innovative, magical, and captivating as The Wizard of Oz was produced.

No journey, though, is worth taking without lovable, relatable guides, and in roles and performances that remain indelibly etched on our collective consciousness, Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, Jack Haley as the Tin Man, Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, Frank Morgan as the Wizard (and about half-a-dozen other characters), Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West, and Billie Burke as Glinda all capture our hearts. In many ways, Garland has the toughest assignment, because she's the only "normal" figure in a fantastical world of fairies, witches, wizards, talking trees, and flying monkeys. Yet somehow, amid all the fire and fury around her, Garland keeps her cool. The tornado may have whisked her up and away, but she remains admirably down to earth, always projecting heartfelt sincerity and embodying all the human qualities we admire. All the portrayals in the film are terrific and stand the test of time, but make no mistake, without Garland as Dorothy, we wouldn't be watching The Wizard of Oz on 4K UHD today. She's the glue that holds this classic film together and the heart and soul that allows it to endure.

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