The Wizard of Oz (Three-Disc Collector's Edition)
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Features
• AC-3
• Box set
• Closed-captioned
• Collector's Edition
• Color
• Dolby
• Original recording remastered
• Restored
• Subtitled
• NTSC
In Theaters : 25 August, 1939
DVD Release : 25 October, 2005 |
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The Wizard of Oz (Three-Disc Collector's Edition) description
When it was released during Hollywood's golden year of 1939, The Wizard of Oz didn't start out as the perennial classic it has since become. The film did respectable business, but it wasn't until its debut on television that this family favorite saw its popularity soar. And while Oz's TV broadcasts are now controlled by media mogul Ted Turner (who owns the rights), the advent of home video has made this lively musical a mainstay in the staple diet of great American films. Young Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland), her dog, Toto, and her three companions on the yellow brick road to Oz--the Tin Man (Jack Haley), the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), and the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger)--have become pop-culture icons and central figures in the legacy of fantasy for children. As the Wicked Witch who covets Dorothy's enchanted ruby slippers, Margaret Hamilton has had the singular honor of scaring the wits out of children for more than six decades. The film's still as fresh, frightening, and funny as it was when first released. It may take some liberal detours from the original story by L. Frank Baum, but it's loyal to the Baum legacy while charting its own course as a spectacular film. Shot in glorious Technicolor, befitting its dynamic production design (Munchkinland alone is a psychedelic explosion of color and decor), The Wizard of Oz may not appeal to every taste as the years go by, but it's required viewing for kids of all ages. --Jeff Shannon DVD features
The Wizard of Oz DVD released in 1999 was loaded with extra features, but it's now safe to throw away that version in all its cardboard-package glory in favor of the new three-disc edition. First things first: All the bonus material from the earlier disc is there. That includes the Angela Lansbury-hosted documentary The Making of a Movie Classic; the outtakes and deleted scenes, including Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow" reprise and the home-movie recording of "The Jitterbug"; the sketches and stills and composer Harold Arlen's home movies; the audio underscores and radio programs; the 1979 interviews with Margaret Hamilton, Ray Bolger, and Jack Haley; and other items too numerous to mention. (Some text introductions to the features have been replaced by narration by Lansbury, for whatever reason.) Brand-new to the 2005 edition is a sharp restoration using Warner's Ultra Resolution process and an accompanying featurette on how it's done. The technicians also discuss how the sound was remixed, though that would have been more effective had it included surround-sound demonstrations (the featurette is in 2.0). Other features on the new set include a commentary track by critic John Fricke supplemented by vintage cast interviews (he offers a lot of trivia, and debunks the myth that Shirley Temple was ever close to getting the Dorothy role); profiles of nine cast members and clips of other movies they appeared in (including Toto); a lightly animated 10-minute storybook again narrated by Lansbury; 2001 and 2005 behind-the-scenes featurettes; and a 1950 Lux Radio Theater broadcast. The 1999 disc also included one-minute excerpts of three early treatments of The Wizard of Oz. The third disc of the three-disc collector's edition includes the complete versions of those treatments and more. They are four silent films: "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1910, 13 min.), "The Magic Cloak of Oz" (1914, 38 min.), His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914, 59 min., written and directed by Baum himself), The Wizard of Oz (1925, 72 min., Larry Semon). The fifth treatment is Ted Eshbaum's 1933 Technicolor cartoon short which has songs and sound, and is the first depiction of Kansas in black and white and Oz in color. The third disc also has a 38-minute biography of L. Frank Baum, and collector's-edition supplements include a gorgeous set of photo cards among other materials. --David Horiuchi |
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The Wizard of Oz (Three-Disc Collector's Edition) Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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THE dvd-set to get for this timeless classic
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For the lovers of Wizard of Oz, I recently got the three-dvd box set and let me tell you, it's worth every penny! Throw out all your previous editions of Wizard of Oz and get this box-set. Usually I hate "special edition" dvd's. Blah trailers blah boring commentary blah making of featurette blah studio stillshots blah blah. But this dvd set is REALLY worth it. For one, besides the movie and some very interesting commentary tracks, there are FIVE (count'em) documentaries. All of them are worth watching, for once. There's one documentary just describing how they created the famous tornado (a 30 foot muslim cloth funnel aided by some some studio-created 'wind'). The footage of them testing out the 'tornado' has survived and without the background blowing and wind it really does look obvious that it's really just a long cloth funnel. Did you know they were going to cut "Over the Rainbow"? Shudders. And that Judy Garland had to wear an uncomfortable corset to make her, um, less bosomy? And that the Tin Man's alumninum powder makeup caused almost deadly allergic reactions for the original TinMan, who had to be replaced? Also, there are deleted scenes, like a different take of "Over the Rainbow," that was originally going to sung later in the film. It was filmed live on the set of the film and had only a piano accompinament. It must have been a test-take, but listen to it, and realize why Garland was special. There is also a long musical scene "The Jitterbug" that was ultimately deleted, but now is shown in its entirety. Footage of Garland at the 1939 Academy Awards. The third disc is a collection of silent films of "Wizard of Oz" adaptations (earliest from 1910!), including one starring Oliver Hardy, which is pretty damned good, although the plot is almost unrecognizable from both the book and the later movie. The 1910 silent for me is fascinating. No one even knows who was in the cast. And it's by all measures an awful film, with people dressed up in ridiculous 'animal' costumes (the horse is priceless) chasing Dorothy, but still, a good glimpse into the baby days of filmmaking. But maybe the best part of the box set is a beautiful bunch of postcards and replications of the original film's promotional material. It's just a great boxset and I've spent all weekend drooling over all the goodies.
Anyway when I was in 10th grade our History class had to read L. Frank Baum's original book which was not really a kid's book but rather a political parable in favor of populism. The Wizard was William Jennings Bryan, who unsuccessfully ran for president three times. Originally Dorothy's shoes were silver, representing the populist movement to change coinage the from gold to silver standard. "Emerald City" -- well, not hard to imagine the symbolism. Dorothy, from Kansas, represented the Midwestern farmers that made up the populist movement. The film toned down a lot of the outdated political symbolism, but some of it remains. Silver got changed to ruby, but still, the original point is the same -- in the Great Depression, a lot of farmers in Kansas must have longed for the Emerald City.
I think it's the above fact (that Wizard of Oz was not a children's book and is not a children's film) that makes it so special. The film was originally slated to star Shirley Temple. Can you imagine the dimply blondie singing "Over the Rainbow"? But the producers finally nixed that idea, probably because they didn't simply want to make it a children's film. They chose Judy Garland*, who was 17 and already had the saddest voice in the world. When I was little I watched it every year, and nowadays I don't watch it nearly as much, but whenever I do, it's still a special experience. I notice something new everytime I how watch the movie. I remember as a teen I first noticed how many roles Frank Morgan played. When I got the boxset I watched it again and realized how the cowardly lion clutches his tale every time he's scared. Just a tiny little thing, but still, reminds me of why I love the film so much.
*I urge anyone who loves Judy Garland to read the biography "Get Happy." What a sad, sad life. By the time she made Wizard of Oz, sadly, her lifelong addiction to pills and self-destructive behavior were already in full-force.
P.S. Yes I've tried to do the Dark Side of the Moon/Wizard of Oz thing. And I never 'got' it at all. And this was while I was "under the influence." So ... to the people who 'get it,' I applaud them. |
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The Wizard of Oz (Three-Disc Collector's Edition) dvd movie.