For me, and like
most fans, The Wizard of Oz is has been a movie that lived on through televised broadcasts and the numerous home video versions that have graced my collection shelves over the years. So the opportunity to experience it on the big screen is without question a big rare treat.
As one of the most iconic films of all time, Oz has been given the royal treatment to celebrate its milestone 75th anniversary. You can’t help but be skeptical when you think about blowing up a classic film to IMAX proportions in addition to converting it to 3D. But the meticulous work put into the task boasts glorious results that truly makes following the Yellow Brick Road well worth the journey. This despite the countless times you may have seen Judy Garland’s adventure as Dorothy Gale over the years.
Few find themselves strangers to the 1939 adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel that chronicles the adventure of the Kansas girl and her little dog who are transported over the rainbow to the magical Land of Oz. With the help of some new found friends, she follows the Yellow Brick Road to seek the help of a legendary wizard in order to get home. All the while breaking into song and eluding a green skinned wicked witch who has flying monkeys as minions. The story needs no scholarly film review here, a classic is a classic, so let’s dig into the tech specifics of this anniversary edition.
The folks at Warner Bros. have put the 75-year old negative through several stages of restoration over the years for video releases, with each successive pass benefiting greatly from improved digital technology to remove dirt, scratches and enhance long dormant details. To take a print three quarters of a century in age and see it converted for a theatrical IMAX 3D run is a true test of the tireless work put into this latest restoration. Granted we have big TVs nowadays that are HD, but for me growing up I saw the film only through televised broadcasts or VHS copies on a 4:3 25″ Magnavox TV set. The grandeur of the movie going experience all these years later, I’m happy to report, was an eye opening revelation.
The picture is simply stunning. Try and find a scratch or a speck of dirt on the “print” that was scanned frame by fame at an 8K resolution. The colors are vibrant and well within the color pallet you’d expect from the time and the Technicolor film process. You can imagine the color correction artists would have eagerly jumped at the opportunity to crank the knobs all the way to the right and over saturate the film. Thankfully there is a pleasant restraint to their efforts. Oz looks as colorful as you remember it, and still retains its vintage aesthetic. The greens particularly pop on Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West’s face as do the jewels that line Emerald City. The skin tones look fantastic, Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers shimmer in its iconic red and the warm earth-tone hues of the Kansas scenes look great.
What the big screen particularly allows is a better appreciation of details lost on TV sets, notably the burlap layers in Ray Bolger’s Scarecrow make-up and the constant wagging of the Cowardly Lion’s tail. As a dog owner, I paid particular attention this time out to Terry, the canine who played Toto. On the IMAX screen you can appreciate how consistently on-point the dog was in wide shots, constantly following the cast, reacting at all the right times, and for God’s sake maintaining correct eye-lines. It’s these little things that come up big.
The 3D conversion here is also a welcome victory. Granted there is only so much layering you can do with a film negative that old, but the 3D was always present and never distracting. It fell in with the path the best new movies have taken with the technology, allowing it add only subtle layers to the overall experience and not have anything and everything shoot out at you. The second issue I typically have with 3D is the darker projection and too often resulting muddy picture. Oz passed the 3D test well. Was it necessary? Absolutely not given only the overall slight enhancement to the presentation, but it is by no means a reason to skip it. There were a few soft close-up shots, but I think its bound to happen with any IMAX conversion, and Oz has a lot of inherent accepted leeway on its side on the tech side of this.
I have been enjoying the trend of pre-Blu-ray theatrical runs in IMAX and / or 3D for the most part, some more than others. The return of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park on the big screen were victories, whereas Top Gun fell flat and short on all levels except for its rocking ’80s re-mastered soundtrack. If certain modern movies do not hold up well in IMAX, its a testament to the artists and filmmakers involved here to have pulled off such a cinematic feat with Oz.
The main thing is I felt like a kid again sharing a big screen journey with old childhood friends. Lavish CGI-heavy prequels can’t take away from the original’s charm and rightful place in movie history (that means you Oz the Great and Powerful). There is no way around it, The Wizard of Oz is a movie that’s impossible leave not in a good mood. This welcome 75th Anniversary edition of the timeless classic is a fantastic cinematic experience fit for the whole family, and the trip down the Yellow Brick Road has never looked so stunning.
The Wizard of Oz – An IMAX 3D Experience opens in IMAX 3D on September 20th.
The Wizard of Oz 75th Anniversary Collector’s Edition hits shelves in Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD and UltraViolet verisons on October 1st.
REVIEW RATING: ★★★★☆
Director: Victor Fleming
Starring: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Frank Morgan, Margaret Hamilton, Terry
Screenwriters: Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf
Rated: PG
Studio: Warner Bros.
Running Time: 111 minutes
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