© Madeline Bocaro, 2025
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After experiencing decades of anniversaries and special presentations of MGM’s The Wizard of Oz (including the 75th in 3-D) this meticulous and innovative restoration is the event of a lifetime.
The film, made 86 years ago in 1939 (one of the first ever in technicolor) is still beloved and revered by generations worldwide. Over the years, it has been repeatedly enhanced using each new technological progress, drawing us closer and closer to Oz every time. And now, we are there!
The Sphere looms large – even in the distance. It is nearly blinding – glowing with a cycle of different skins representing images and colors from Oz and its characters. The entryway and green neon-lit escalators are filled with larger-than-life Oz imagery.
Now with the advent of AI, we can now experientially enter Oz. If you multiply all I have written here a thousand times, you will be unable to comprehend the colossal realm of this experience! I can’t imagine viewing the movie in this utterly spectacular way for the first time as a child. Everything else in life would be a disappointment from this moment on!
The ultimate suspension of disbelief has never been easier. In the 500-foot round Sphere, with the 160,000 square foot LED screen wrapped around us (a 3.5-acre visual field) there is no other world but Oz. Our own big-screen TVs are merely pixel-sized compared to literally being surrounded by the film in this expansive orb. The first illusion is that we are in a massive Radio City Music Hall (the entire front of the theater is a virtual AI skin representing the inside of the NYC venue). This disappears, revealing the MGM lion on a huge screen. In an amusing twist, the roaring lion is replaced by the Cowardly Lion! Suddenly, an endless sepia sky envelops the entire sphere. The movie’s massive opening title appears, revealing the majesty of what is to come.
The film is not only restored in super resolution. Google-powered AI has generated more of every scene – literally above, beyond and around us. Out-painting expands every vista. There are a few instances where AI goes a bit awry. More on that later.
A completely re-recorded orchestral score (the original was in mono) bursts through 167,000 speakers – in and around the haptic seats of the Sphere. An orchestrated symphony of vibrations, aromas, wind and fog (especially when entering the dream sequence) involves and overwhelms senses and synapses that we never even knew we had!
At first, we are cocooned within the serene, nostalgic sepia opening scenes of the Gales’ Kansas home, where the farmhands enjoy a taste of Auntie Em’s crullers. Thanks to AI, we can now see what Uncle Henry was doing off-camera (he is now standing inside the room) while Miss Gulch presents Auntie Em with her decree to confiscate Toto.
The premise of flying ‘Over the Rainbow’ now seems utterly possible with this re-recorded orchestration and the enhancement of Judy Garland’s sublime vocal performance. Most captivating are the close-ups of Dorothy’s soulful eyes, and the expanse of farmland and sky with birds flying high above, at the end of the song.
The big storm is the star of the movie. This early scene is the most incredibly impactful of all! Gigantic tumbleweeds herald the tornado (the audience is literally blown away by whipping gusts of wind, leaves and debris, shaking seats and stormy aromas) as the twister above the Kansas farm menacingly swirls in the infinite sky.
The storm door blows up and away. As Dorothy runs through the house searching for her family, dust from the storm falls through the ceiling (never previously visible).
When she suffers a concussion, the dream begins. There are some liberties taken with this sequence – especially the characters swirling past Dorothy’s window in the storm. The chickens are blown around outside of the (now missing) coop, the cow is more realistic. Unfortunately, several of Dorothy’s “reaction shots” are omitted (waving to the folks passing by in the rowboat and rocking chair, and gasping in awe). Inexplicably, Toto is flying around outside the window, when we know that the dog is in the room with Dorothy). This would be especially horrifying for children! Also in this scene, more alterations have been made – when evil Miss Gulch on her bike morphs into the witch.
When the house hits the ground with a thud, the screen goes black. The audience bursts into wild applause. There are exclamations of “Oh my god!” “That’s crazy!” and “Holy shit!”
Although there are dozens of scarecrows, lions, tin men, munchkins, witches, Glindas and Dorothys in the audience, this is NOT The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This goes way beyond audience members dancing and throwing toast and prunes at the screen. In fact, we are pelted with apples and other elements FROM the film! It is also is not IMAX, nor John Waters’ Polyester in Odorama. This is a complete immersion.
The hugeness is indescribable. Poppies the size of tall buildings, munchkins the size of houses, trees as high as mountains, endless fields, forests and skies…
We become engulfed in every close-up, able to see details and nuances like never before… Dorothy’s adorable freckles, each strand of Scarecrow’s straw stuffing, Lion’s real fur, Tin Man’s rusted rivets and his blue eyeshadow. We now can see deeply into each character’s eyes.
When the door opens to Oz, Dorothy’s plasticine technicolor dream glimmers in stunning psychedelic splendor. The colors of Munchkinland are sumptuous; ruby red, golden yellow and fairy pink when Glinda floats in. Her bubble becomes a slow-mo glitter-bomb, engulfing the audience! (Mysteriously, Glinda’s crown is sometimes missing its little stars).
The swirling candy colors of the Lollipop Guild, the Lullaby League and all the munchkins’ costumes are brilliant. There are now butterflies fluttering around. We are drawn in, panned out and around these scenes as if we are actually inside the camera lens!
The wicked witch is neon green! When she makes her fiery entrances (and exits) in a haze of black and red smoke, every seat shakes and the entire theater rumbles. Her cackling smile and long green fingers are more terrifying. The golden hooves of the ponies and horses in Oz are now very obvious.
The wrinkled grimacing face of the apple tree is extra mean and scary. Apples are thrown at us from all directions, courtesy of Sphere! We see great detail in the uniforms of Nikko and his flock of flying monkeys (matching those of the Winkies). Several actual monkey dummies fly around the theater (the only thing that was too contrived).
The haunted forest has many more details; bats hanging from the trees, bugs crawling up the bark, weeds growing through cracks in the yellow brick road
The vast kaleidoscopic poppy field literally pops! We are given a new perspective – from beneath the flowers, experiencing what the characters are feeling as they are drugged by the poppies. Snow emerges from the screen in slow-motion, falling upon the audience in a cool mist as it awakens Dorothy, Toto and Lion from their dream within a dream.
The glorious glistening green buildings of the towering Emerald City are higher and more massive than ever before. The witch’s message, “SURRENDER DOROTHY” (which was emblazoned in skywriting above major cities as a cool promotional tactic) was amended to read, “…Or die.” and signed, “W W W.”
The huge looming Wizard avatar is a bit altered (was this really necessary?) to make it more frightening, with added explosions and smoke at the sides of his throne, reminiscent of being at a KISS concert!
The massive rock cliffs and mountains and the never-before-seen ceiling of the witch’s castle illustrate how small the characters are, and how much more frightened they must have been than we imagined.
The melting scene is a stunner – as the Winkies celebrate the melting of the witch. A very interesting and subtle twist: the Wizard avatar (now off to the right side of the vista) continues speaking his apologies after Toto reveals “the man behind the curtain.”
We are almost blinded by the sparkling ruby slippers as Dorothy clicks her heels to end the dream.
Obviously, this was all was beyond thrilling, even for a purist like myself. However, (not to dilute the impact of this fantastical experience) here are some “disclaimers”. Due to usage of AI, the characters’ faces in a few instances look distorted– thankfully not during close-ups. AI generated Munchkin extras aren’t blinking, and there is some looping in other crowd scenes.
The saddest thing is that the film has been edited down to 77 minutes from 102 minutes. Several lines of dialogue, and sections of the musical performances have been cut. Each character’s signature song (‘If I Ony Had a Brain / a Heart / The Nerve’) is shorter.
The degree of my disappointment depends upon the reasons for these cuts. It’s acceptable that some scenes might be technically difficult or too expensive to adapt. But it is devastating to learn that the edits were to accommodate the brief attention span of today’s audiences. Sections deemed “superfluous” were omitted in favor of a faster pace.
Who decided that the complete musical numbers were not essential to the story? Most sorely missed is the complete omission of Lion’s song, ‘If I Were King of the Forest.’ What a shame! Especially since Lion’s facial expressions are so hilariously wonderful in this glorious restoration. There is no excuse for omitting brief lines, such as Glinda’s “What a smell of sulfur!” When the witch exits Munchkinland, and Lion’s “Put ‘em up! Put ‘em up!” in the forest. The film is even more accelerated during the second half, with more frequent and jarring edits. At least we still have 77-minutes of magic.
In the future, this will likely be looked up on as an amateurish implementation of AI in its infancy, but for now, it’s astonishing. Let’s see which futuristic format we will use to view the film in 2039 on its 100th anniversary, probably directed by robots. We might even be able to take the Fab Four characters home with us!
There may be no place like home,
but virtually visiting Oz was a ticket to paradise!
Also see my review of Oz 75th Anniversary Screening in 3-D IMAX:
https://madelinex.com/2013/09/23/the-wizard-of-oz-imax-3-d/
Some online video clips…
Snow and poppies
https://www.facebook.com/reel/759157413389708
Pics: snow and poppies / Gilnda and poppies
Glinda arrives in Emerald City
https://www.tiktok.com/@vegas/video/7543916023725051167
5-minute montage – various scenes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN2nlXdNzU4
Various clips…
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