Wizard of Oz - 70th Anniversary and events

[Professional Tourist]

I don't have much to add to this current discussion since I don't have a Blu-Ray player nor a TV, but thinking about this logically, if a setting within the player or TV needed to be adjusted, then it would seem that all of David's Blu-Ray discs should have this image/sound sync issue, not just one disc. Unless there is a setting that would affect only older movies like Oz, then perhaps it's more likely to be a defective disc? David, can you test the disc on someone else's equipment?

[Alice Mayberry]

From reading much of the Blu ray audio sync thread at the Amazon customer blog I'll mention a one thing.

If the audio is coming early, before the video, does your TV or Blu ray player have an audio delay function. Under some menu in the TV or player there may be such a setting. Maybe it goes both ways, negative setting in the video comes first. Apparently the setting can go up to 200 ms, which is 1/5th or a second.

Heaven knows TraderT... I think I've just resigned myself to watching it the way it is now... I've kind of got used to it and because there is only a millisecond behind the picture and sound I'm not going to complain any more as I'm not technical...

On a side note, (and this is hilarious), you've all gotta do this.. Play the movie with the "Castellano" language playing instead of English... You get to hear the movie in a completely new way, whenever anyone speaks the underscoring of the background music is completely different... For example when Dorothy is caught up in the witches castle and is crying to Aunt Em through the great big glass crystal and she is saying "I'm stuck here in Oz Auntie Em and I'm trying to get home to you... Oh Auntie Em don't go away... I'm frightened..." instead of the usual music in the background they play the music that first opens Munchkinland where the camera is on the boom and we get that beautiful sweeping shot of Munchkinland... Talk about putting the wrong piece of music to the wrong bit of action LOL... And I also noticed that when the Lion is singing his bit "If I Were King Of The Forest", at the end of the song he speaks the bit of business "What makes a king out of a slave... Courage... What puts the ape in apricot" etc etc.. Well; the underscoring for that bit of dialogue is a piece of music that I've NEVER heard anywhere in Oz before?? I think it's from some random film?? Bizaare?? We get that same Munchkinland loop of music at the end going round and round when Glinda re-appears to send Dorothy back to Kansas, the poor Spaniards, they are missing 70 percent odd of the luscious music throughout the film... When Judy is saying "Theres No Place Like Home" to Glinda there is even more strange underscoring going on on the Spanish track??

[MrMonotony]

And in French it's hilarious! When Margaret Hamilton is on top of the house, when she hurls the fireball at the Scarecrow, she starts laughing and so does Margaret, and the Scarecrow and Tin Man jump around and scream like girls! And when Judy is crying in the castle, you can hear Judy as well!

[Alice Mayberry]

Yes theres a hell of a lot intercutting between the real actors voices and the people "dubbing in" for the principle characters... Whenever anyone laughs or cries or cackles its usually the "real" actor we hear.. ie when you mentioned Judy crying in the witches castle it's really Judy's own voice, but as soon as she speaks the "dubber" takes over.

[MrMonotony]

Yes theres a hell of a lot intercutting between the real actors voices and the people "dubbing in" for the principle characters... Whenever anyone laughs or cries or cackles its usually the "real" actor we hear.. ie when you mentioned Judy crying in the witches castle it's really Judy's own voice, but as soon as she speaks the "dubber" takes over.

Yeah, but you could hear the dubber too. And the Witch sounded like Glinda!

[ewb]

*

[LostnOz]

is the wizard of oz capable of being reprinted in imax? i don't really understand the process, but could you imagine!

[MrMonotony]

I've been waiting for them to put The Wizard of Oz out with all the deleted scenes added in (the cyclone englufing the farmhouse, Scarecrow dance) with still pictures for the audio that we have but no footage (Over The Rainbow reprise, Triumphant return). That would be good!

[Alice Mayberry]

Yeah that would be great, but I don't think they would do it as it would not be "proper" to the original concept of the film itself as of when it was released in it's final edit of 1939. I think I read somewhere that Warner Home Video were mulling over putting the extended Scarecrow Dance back into the film for the latest Blu-ray release but decided against it at the last minute as it was not in the final orginal cut back in 1939.

[ozianscott]

Just saw this - as if we weren't confused enough with the UCE, Target, Wal-mart, Emerald... editions.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4150

Milk it, Warner Home Video!!! Mooooo!

[Trader T]

Scott, thanks for the info.
I see that a single disc version of "GWTW" is also out.
I refused to buy the $70 deluxe edition. I asked the clerk for a single disc edition and when shown the over-priced deluxe set I said there is probably NOTHING in that entire set that is scanned at 1080p other than the main movie. It's all standard def junk. Nothing worth spending that kind of money for. "GWTW" single disc is $21 U.S. and Oz will probably be about the same.
Look how much low grade video stuff they are putting on that "Oz" single BluRay disc. They can do that because for all old movies they only have to store a 1485 pixel width image on the disc.
And the H.264 software codec used to store, code and decode movies onto BluRay is getting more and more sophisticated. They can store detailed images using less disc space than the space needed for storage just a couple of years ago. That is what I gather from reading info about the Handbrake DVD codec. This well regarded freeware says the ripped DVDs that it recodes to H.264 are looking better because the H.264 software is getting better.

[ozianscott]

This new single disc Blu-ray of OZ is set for March 10 release, and the suggested retail price is $28.99.

I have Handbrake as well - great program!

As much as I love GWTW, I will get the single disc as well. I have the 2005 set, and my Blu-ray player renders standard DVDs quite nicely, so the standard def stuff will look the same. I rented the Blu-ray of the film from Netflix. It looks incredible.

One note to people out there - and TraderT can probably give more details on this - but check your settings on your Blu-ray players. Mine has a setting that automatically determines the frame rate of the film/programming on the discs. But I had to set it to do that, as the factory setting was simply a standard frame rate for everything.

In other words, now if I play a disc of a film that was made on film stock at 24 frames per second, the player recognizes that and plays it back at that rate. If something is made digitally and/or at a different frame rate, it recognizes that and plays it back at that rate. So, you get a better picture.

It also determines if the "feed" is HD or SD and tells me with an onscreen display (1080i, 420p...). But I think that's standard for most players.

And don't use that horrible "stretch" feature that stretches the image across the entire screen. It distorts the standard 4x3 films and makes all the actors look short and stout! Yuck!

So - check your settings to see if you have this option, as it will help render the classic films at the correct rate of frames per second.

[Alice Mayberry]

Milk it, Warner Home Video!!! Mooooo!

Oh For Gods sake, I totally agree, and if they are releasing it in March 2010 how can they claim it's still a 70th Anniversary special, (??) when Oz was released in 1939? "Hello!!" We are now in 2010, so they cannot claim it to be a 70th Anniversary item any more, they've passed the "sell-by-date".. Plus we get that same "old hat" commentary track that we've had since 2005, it's time that was updated after five years! It needs a new angle on it...

Anyway, Scott, you were talking of "GWTW", well, over here in the UK we already have a one disc Blu-Ray edition of "GWTW" available and I received it for my birthday last month, it's simply spectacular, and of course it's SO handy having the whole film on one disc. No flipping on another disc halfway through, you can just view the entire movie all in one sitting. I haven't watched it in its entirety yet, but HAVE watched the first 20 minutes and it's outstanding. The opening scenes with Scarlett saying "War war war... This war talks spoiling all the fun at every party this Spring, I get so bored I could scream" etc etc... Well, if you check out Vivien Leighs costume you can see the actual threads of lace in her white dress, the detail is amazing, and I have a 42 inch LCD TV which is huge.

[meltonn21]

I'm a newcomer to posting, but I visit all of the time. I'd LOVE a new commentary on the Wizard, even though I enjoy Fricke's. I always thought it would be great to have one that highlighted all of the bloopers, interesting sidenotes and rare trivia for the ultimate Oz fans. I'm sure Fricke could do it!

[John Fricke]

Many thanks for the vote of confidence!

Actually, the 2005 OZ commentary track as it was planned and recorded, included a good deal more of that kind of information. We did it, it was approved, and then chopped up and edited and interlarded with the surviving comments of those associated with the original 1939 film.

Normally, that would have been thrilling to me, as that stuff is incomparable and historical and of much more interest and relevance than the voice of any historian or author. But it was something I’d suggested (and repeatedly asked if) they’d prefer from the onset of the OZ project. (That approach had worked very well with the ST. LOUIS commentary track, and as we’d known that THAT one would go such a route in the first place, we were able to pace my own words accordingly, lead into and out of the archival voices, and at least try to make a “one track/many participants” sense of the listening experience.) For OZ, I was told again and again that they didn’t want that; they wanted just my narration accompanying the entire film. So we proceeded under that ultimatum.

Ironically, I’d also suggested that I could very easily put together a second voice-track for the 2005 OZ that would consist solely of the archival WIZARD interviews. But they rejected that idea as well.

Then, as noted above, someone who knew absolutely nothing about OZ decided at the last minute to hack about the completed track, and to mix and mis-match the material. I didn’t know this had been done until the release hit the streets.

And there it was -- for posterity

But, again, the enthusiastic comment and trust are both appreciated!