The Wizard of Oz (Three-Disc Collector's Edition) | 
| Directors: J. Farrell MacDonald, Jack Haley Jr., King Vidor, L. Frank Baum, Larry Semon
Actors: Dorothy Dwan, Charles Murray, Oliver Hardy, Judy Garland, Frank Morgan
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $49.98
Buy Used: $15.69
as of 11/24/2009 23:38 CST details
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Rating:  772 reviews
Format: AC-3, Box set, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD, Original recording remastered, Restored, Subtitled, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 3
Running Time: 103 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.6 x 1.5
MPN: D67705D
ISBN: 1419818597
UPC: 012569677050
EAN: 9781419818592
Theatrical Release Date: August 25, 1939
Release Date: October 25, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
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
Description
An All-New Wizard of Oz With State of The Art Ultra-Resolution Picture Quality and Over 10 Hours of Bonus Extras.DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary by John Fricke and multiple cast and crew members.
Biographies:We Haven't Really Met Properly - includes 9 orginal cast biographies
Deleted Scenes:If I Only Had a Brain; If I Only Had a Heart; Triumphal Return to Emerald City; Over the Rainbow; The Jitterbug
Documentaries:L. Frank Baum: The Man Behind the Curtain; Memories of Oz -2001 TCM documentary
Featurette:The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Storybook; Prettier Than Ever: The Restoration of Oz; The Art of Imagination: A Tribute to Oz; Because of the Wonderful Things it Does: The Legacy of Oz
Music Clips:Audio Vault Includes: Over the Rainbow; Munchkinland Medley Rehearsal Recordings; Munchkinland Medley Sequence Recordings; Munchkinland Medley Voice Tests; If I Only Had a Brain; We're Off to See the Wizard; If I Only Had a Heart; If I Only Had the Nerve/We're Off to See the Wizard; Emerald City/The Merry Old Land of Oz; If I Were King of the Forest; The Jitterbug; Over the Rainbow/Triumphal Return to Emerald City; Kansas Underscoring; Munchkinland Underscoring; and more
Music Only Track:Audio Vault Includes: Over the Rainbow; Munchkinland Medley Rehearsal Recordings; Munchkinland Medley Sequence Recordings; Munchkinland Medley Voice Tests; If I Only Had a Brain; We're Off to See the Wizard; If I Only Had a Heart; If I Only Had the Nerve/We're Off to See the Wizard; Emerald City/The Merry Old Land of Oz; If I Were King of the Forest; The Jitterbug; Over the Rainbow/Triumphal Return to Emerald City; Kansas Underscoring; Munchkinland Underscoring; and more
Newsreel:Cavalcade of the Academy Awards Excerpt - 1939 newsreel
Other:The Wizard of Oz - 1910 short; The Magic Cloak of Oz - 1914 short; His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz - 1914 feature; The Wizard of Oz - 1925 feature; The Wizard of Oz - 1933 animated short; and more
Photo gallery:Oz on Broadway; Pre-MGM; Sketches and Storyboards; Costume and Make-up Tests; Richard Thorpe's Oz; Buddy Ebsen; Oz Comes to Life; Behind the Scenes; Portraits; Special Effects; Post Production; Deleted Scenes; Original Publicity
TV Special:The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic - 1990 TV special
Theatrical Trailer:1939 What is Oz? Teaser; 1940 Loews Cairo Theater Trailer; 1949 Re-issue Trailer; 1949 Grownup Re-issue Trailer; 1970 Children's Matinee Re-issue Trailer; 1998 Warner Bros. Re-issue Trailer; Texas Contest Winners [1939 trailer]
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 772
 A splendid updating on Blu-ray of one of the all-time classics November 25, 2009
Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA)
I give the new Blu-ray five stars despite being a little irritated with the lack of an option to buy a nice, single disc version of hte Blu-ray. I got all of the set through Netflix and saw it that way. I would very much like to won THE WIZARD OF OZ on Blu-ray, but I'm going to hold out for a less expensive single or two-disc edition. Mind you, I like the film; but that is what I like, the film not disc after disc of extras that for the most part are repackagings of earlier editions.OK, that is my beef, and having made it, let me move on.
The Blu-ray is a definite improvement in the overall quality of the film, though not as much as one might have hoped for if you have watched the DVD on a up-conversion DVD player. This is not a problem restricted merely to this. Most of the older classics seem to have reached the point of diminishing returns on DVD. Even epic films like John Ford's THE SEARCHERS shows minimal improvement on Blu-ray. Still, even if the improvement isn't as marked as on more recent films, it is still definite.
But frankly, I think I loved the movie just as much when I was a kid watching it on my parents' old black and white tube TV. We all know the story about the film these days, that it was a critical and box office failure when it first was released. And we know all the stories about it. Buddy Ebsen being forced to drop out of the project when the make up that was sprayed on him caused a serious lung reaction. How Judy Garland took over the role when a deal to trade Jean Harlow and Clark Gable to Warner Brothers for a film so that MGM could get Shirley Temple, a deal that fell through when Shirley Temple died. We know all the songs, all the skits, and a host of the lines. And most importantly we have experienced firsthand how the film became a hit years after its first release because of its annual showings on television, hosted by Olivia DeHavilland (which never made a great deal of sense to me, since he had no connection to the film and had spend her studio career with Warner Brothers rather than MGM). Television was responsible for THE WIZARD OF OZ being the hit it became. But despite its success in the television era, it is almost impossible to understand how it failed to become an instant classic. The songs are irresistible, the performances classic, and the art design unmatched at the time. Scene after scene is filled with one perfect touch after another, like a peacock that strolls around in the background when Dorthy and the Scarecrow meet the Tin Man for the first time. Or the way the Cowardly Lion's tail twitches all the time (it is a subtle effect, but imagine how static he would be if he tail always drooped). It is a beautifully structured film, marvelously photographed, and beautifully scripted. The entire production is magical.
And this is a film that generations share. I remember vividly the terror I felt as a child watching Dorothy's friends come after her in the witch's fortress. Nothing in my childhood scared me more than Later it was the first movie that I watched with my daughter on TV (barely verbal at the time, she for several weeks referred to the film as "Scary Apples," for obvious reasons). My daughter probably watched the movie on VHS a hundred times minimum, largely because Dorothy was at the time one of the few female heroes around (this was before the Era of Buffy), and when she and I were stranded on a ski lift that was stopped during a sudden lightening storm immediately outside Flagstaff, Arizona, I kept her calm by retelling the entire movie, no mean feat given the lightening flashing all around us (though thankfully there was little rain).
This truly is one of those classics that it is impossible to imagine going away. The film is, if anything, as popular today as it has ever been. And conversions of it into new media like this new Blu-ray will guarantee that each generation will continue to rediscover it.
A favorite November 23, 2009
D. E. Camp (Philadelphia, Pa)
The Wizard of Oz, being the classic film that it is, deserves to be well done. I'd gotten used to seeing the substandard version and just assumed that "fuzz" was normal. I had a few film buffs with me when we first viewed the Anniversary Digital Copy [Blue-ray] and what a difference it made. We all saw things for the first time that couldn't be seen in previous video viewings. Great!!!
 THE WIZARD OF OZ November 22, 2009
Karen A. Lee (VA)
LOVE THE BLU-RAY VERSION. THE DIFFERENCE IS INCREDIBLEThe Wizard of Oz (70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition with Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]
 Nice extras but DRM prevents it from playing on my PC November 22, 2009
Douglas R. Tice
I'd like to say the video quality was spectacular but unfortunately this Blu-ray movie won't play on my PC using ArcSoft Total Media Theater 3 Platinum. (I'm feeding it into a HDCP projector) I am just about ready to throw in the towel and buy a regular player. This may be the last Blu-Ray movie I buy. It's no wonder people are pirating movies, they play on everything!
Review of DVD November 22, 2009
Soonercraig (Oklahoma City OK USA)
Purchased as a gift for my son and 3 year old grandson. No problems, excellent quality recording (so my son reported), delivered when promised.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 772
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