The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!

Finally, the Cap'n has come back to talk about something worthwhile! Oh sure, dissecting a two-and-a-half minute advertisement for a movie I'm not going to watch anyway was fun, but now it's time to stop the childishness and talk about something you might actually care about.

Yes, dear reader(s), I speak of The Wizard of Oz on Blu-Freaking-Ray High Definition!

Even a day later, after dousing my eyes in red and green Krueger-ness, I'm still boggled by how wonderful it looks. Even the sepia toned beginning and (spoiler!) ending are as impressive as those new-fangled movies you keep buying.

Well, not you, Mr. Not-Going-to-Adopt-Blu-Ray-for-Price-and/or-Personal-Reasons, but certainly for everyone who asks me "why bother mastering old movies for HD? they always look like crap, right?"

Wrong. If Casablanca didn't prove them wrong, if The Third Man didn't wear them down, The Seventh Seal didn't hush them good, and The Adventures of Robin Hood didn't shoot that argument right into the gutter, Oz will. The Wizard of Oz makes The Adventures of Robin Hood look like a warm-up for High Def.

I guess this isn't going to mean anything to you if you aren't already inclined to watch The Wizard of Oz, but the Cap'n is. Beneath my horror loving exterior, I can be a down right softie, and while I wasn't even planning on watching the whole movie before reporting, I couldn't turn it off.

The Wizard of Oz is designed in such a way that you very easily fall into the story without losing interest: the opening section in Kansas dispenses with all the necessary foreshadowing and character introduction quickly, split right down the middle with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and before you know it, you're hanging on to see this bland middle-America turn technicolor trip-out.

Similarly, although I really thought it would take longer, the Munchkin sequence is over and Dorothy has the Ruby slippers and is following the Yellow Brick Road. The pacing isn't breakneck, but you've met the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion (with a song apiece) in short order, and they're a poppy field away from the Emerald City.

I gave a cursory thought to doing some homework, only to realize "I'm halfway through the movie already" and decided to just finish it off. I"m still not sure how it is the last fifty minutes go by faster than the first, but there goes the Wizard, floating off in his balloon and Glinda the good witch was back to tell Dorothy she could go home all along.

One digression: I don't know how I always forget this, but The Wizard (and the movie) certainly does a disservice to the Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man (and the kids at home) by not imparting the "you had a heart/brains/courage all along" speech. Instead, he suggests that what's more important that Hearts, Brains, and Courage are the trinkets that make them clear to others (a diploma, a medal, and a heart clock). I'm serious!

To be fair, it makes the Futurama spoof even funnier, because I could almost hear the Wizard say "You don't need courage when you've got... a GUN!" to the Cowardly Lion. I guess that I want to believe the movie is less superficial in that one regard, so I conveniently forget it and replace it with a trope from every other kids' book.

But enough about the movie. If you like it (as I do) then you want to know how it holds up to that ten year old dvd you've got, or that... uh, three year old(?) two-or-three disc set you have.

The answer is: pretty damn well. There are clips from the oldest of the versions (seen in any extra featuring the voice of Angela Lansbury), and the difference is astounding. Even the fancy re-mastered newer dvd doesn't sport the clarity and depth of picture quality this Blu Ray does. The poppy field is an excellent example, both before and after the snow fall. I was rather surprised how easy it was to tell one flower apart from the other, even when staring at hundreds of like-colored plants. The evil forest that Dorothy and company tread through is more ominous, and for some reason, an especially cheesy shot of flying monkeys dazzles.

I don't mean to be rude to The Adventures of Robin Hood, but The Wizard of Oz really blows it out of the water when it comes to seeing early color films in High Definition. I've seen newer movies with robust color palettes that don't sparkle like Oz does. If this is what Warners is planning on doing with all their catalog titles, count me in. I expect that Oz and the in-production-at-the-same-time Gone with the Wind are their way of announcing "old movies can look great too!"

And they're right. This wasn't the first time I've sat down with Oz and stuck around until the end, and having seen it like I did yesterday, it won't be the last time either. For a 7o year-old movie, you'd hardly be able to tell...

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While this isn't Oz related, I thought I'd share that 1986's Labyrinth looks pretty damned good in its own right on Blu Ray. I haven't seen The Dark Crystal yet, but I expect similar results.