The Wizard of Oz will forever be my favorite film of all-time. As in, I was a card carrying member of the International Wizard Of Oz Fan Club for many, many years.  I have no doubts that it will remain a timeless classic and holiday favorite as we celebrate the film’s 80th anniversary.  Now the next generation can behold the magic in the restored, remastered 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital that became available October 29, 2019.

Warner Bros. invited me along to step behind their curtain for an explosive tour of the Motion Picture Imaging building where the history of Hollywood is stored.  This is also the very building where The Wizard of Oz (among other films) has been transferred to digital and painstakingly restored frame by frame by masterful colorist Janet Wilson.  She has overseen this process and every remaster of The Wizard of Oz for the past 20 years!  I have owned many hardcopies of the film and am very familiar with her artistry.

In brief, The Wizard of Oz was originally shot in 3 strip technicolor (yellow, cyan and magenta) on a gigantic camera housed in a soundproof “blimp box” that weighed nearly 500 pounds.  The film strips were aligned by hand which allowed for natural wiggle room of the film.  This resulted in an imperfect, but still stunning, color film.

With the advent of 4K technology, the film can now be perfectly aligned revealing all of the subtleties of the sets and costumes.  According to Janet, the visible gradation of the Wicked Witch’s green skin tone is something that really pops in this version!  Everything is just more spectacular with more range of color revealing more details.  The sepia of the Kansas sequences is now perfect and all of the dust spots and scratches have been healed.

I also got to peek at Hollywood history in “The Vault” where original film reels post 1951 are stored in a controlled environment for posterity’s sake.  It’s a chilly 35 degrees with 25% humidity, earthquake resistant, with very little paper and a Halon Extinguishing System that will remove all oxygen from the building within 60 seconds!  The Wizard of Oz was shot on nitrate film and is HIGHLY combustible.  It is housed in a completely different building away from other nitrate films to lessen the odds of an accident.

Going into The Vault was such a fun part of the tour!  While it is almost freezing, the temperature is hardly noticeable because there is so much to see.  I was geeking out a bit browsing the shelves and found reels for A Clockwork Orange, Beetlejuice, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Harry Potter and The Shawshank Redemption just to name a few. To be that close to so many great films was electrifying…without the flammability.

Thank you Warner Bros. for having me out to visit!  It was so fun to get an inside look at one of my favorite films and come Case to case with so much history!

The Wizard of Oz is now available on 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and streaming Digital.  It’s the perfect holiday gift for the cinefile or Ozian in your life!

The Wizard Of Oz |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  #WizardOfOz