The sepia-toned bookends of the real world look like old photographs. The colors of Oz are quite stunning: the greens of Emerald City, the red hues of the poppy fields and the ruby slippers, and the entire spectrum of the rainbow in Munchkinland are all particular standouts. There is an amazing amount of detail I never noticed before, and I felt as if I was seeing the film for the first time. I hadn’t noticed the burlap-sack textures of Scarecrow’s face, the rust on Tin Man’s body, or the actual brickwork of the Yellow Brick Road before. Kansas offered similar clarity.
The high definition does make the background paintings more evident, but typical Blu-ray flaws are near non-existent. Dorothy’s blue-and-white-checkered dress avoids aliasing. Any softness in shots comes from the source, and there was a limited depth of field so objects easily lose their delineation.
The audio is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and the disc offers the option of the original mono and a music-and-effects track. It’s not an immersive experience, but the sound design from the 1930s wasn’t intended to be. Still, there’s a great use of surround as the tornado roars through the system and when the flying monkeys attack. The subwoofer gives a nice booming boost to the Wizard. The songs and dialogue are well balanced in the mix.
The UCE presents over 16 hours of special features. Although all are standard definition, there is over three hours of new material. The set also offers collectibles like a replica of the movie’s budget, a 52-page commemorative booklet, a reproduction of the 1939 Oz campaign book, and a watch.
Disc 1
Hosted by director Sydney Pollack, the audio commentary presents historian John Fricke complemented by archival interviews with cast members covering many aspects of the film's creation.
Angela Lansbury is involved with three features. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic" (51 minutes) is a 1990 documentary she hosted. She also narrates "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Storybook" (11 minutes), an abbreviated version of the book accompanied by pictures, and "We Haven't Really Met Properly…" (21 minutes), a series of short bios about nine of the cast members. Surprisingly, Garland isn’t included.
Article comments
1 - Greg Barbrick
Wow, sounds exhaustive. The Pink Floyd comment was pretty good. The silent films are something I have always been curious about, as I have yet to see them. A lot of the others I have. Great review, the details of the scarecrow's face etc. you describe sound worth it alone.
2 - Nick
Beautiful edition and great review.
3 - Fitz
It's great to see the classics get treated with the right amount of respect when they get transferred to a new medium. Great review!
4 - Jet Gardner
The first time I saw it on TV as a young kid, I remember cowering under the blankets next to my mom every time the wicked witch appeared on screen.
To this day my sister still collects crystal balls because of the scene where Dorothy sees Aunti Em in the witch's huge one.
5 - Jet Gardner
This makes me wish they'd release "Under the Rainbow" a hilarious movie about what happens with the midgets in their hotel during the filming and how they almost wreck the set of "Gone With the Wind"
6 - cheryl cassidy
One of the best movies ever made! I love everything about it. Glad to see it doing well!
7 - El Bicho
thanks, guys, glad to see the work paid off.
Greg, not surprised you liked the PF line. The shorter silents are the best. The longer ones tend to go off on some pretty odd tangents.
Jet, with Warners new Archive program, I am sure Under The Rainbow will be available sooner than you think
8 - Christine
I love "The Wizard of Oz", thanks for this info, El Bicho. I will have to check it out.
9 - El Bicho
you won't be disappointed, Christine
10 - Jeff
Perhaps naïve question - this sounds gorgeous, and I understand there's way more material than could fit on an economical number of DVD discs, but.... is the resolution really outside the DVD envelope? Or was the decision to release on BD simply because it IS the *Ultimate* Collectors' Edition?
11 - Suzy
This is my favorite movie of all time, and you have no idea how excited I am to buy it on blue-ray!!
Also, I think you guys might appreciate a Vanity Fair article that I just found. It features stills from "The Wizard of Oz" and other classic movies. If the link below doesn't work, go to Vanity Fair's website and search "The Wizard of Oz," and the article should be first on the list of results. The article is dated 1/29/10. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!