Audio Video News

At Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Warner Home Video recently gave a small group of journalists an advance look at some of the restored scenes from the upcoming Blu-ray Disc of The Wizard of Oz. Based on what we saw, this could be the most exciting-and controversial-Blu-ray release of 2009.

The Wizard of Oz 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition will be released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on September 29. It includes numerous newly added extras that are exclusive to this release. The extras include a sing-along track that shows the words to the songs; documentaries about director Victor Fleming and seven of the actors who played the movie's Munchkin; a commemorative watch; and a 52-page hardcover book about the movie's history.

According to Ned Price, vice president of mastering for Warner Bros. Technical Operations, the restoration was made by converting the best available prints to video using an 8K All of the key filmmakers who worked on The Wizard of Oz have passed away, so no one was available to provide guidance as to how the movie is supposed to look. With this movie, such questions are not simple. The movie's then state-of-the-art special effects required that many scenes incorporate "all these layers of fake things," as Price put it, referring to the movie's complex sets, background paintings, and optical effects. He also noted that the movie was shot on 8 ASA film, which means the production required an extraordinary amount of stage lighting.

Fortunately, Price and his crew were able to locate an answer print-a film print that was sent out for approval by the director. "It's unusual to have an answer print for a film this old," Price said. "It was at the Academy [of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences] but was misidentified."

Viewed on one of Warner Bros.' Panasonic professional plasma displays, the clips we saw looked richly saturated and extremely detailed, if grainy overall and even a tad flickery in spots. I noticed that individual grains of sand were visible in the Wicked Witch of the West's hourglass, and that I could see slight blemishes on Judy Garland's face that had gotten past the makeup artists.

The grainy look is intended, Price said: "On the last DVD [in 2005], we processed it to reduce the grain, then increased the sharpness to compensate. But you can't get away with that on Blu-ray. On this one, we didn't touch the grain. With films of this age, the grain is what carries the information."

Of course, only a close look at the final release will tell how well Warner's relatively hands-off approach to The Wizard of Oz works on Blu-ray.-Brent Butterworth