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I read an interesting review on this from HiDef reviews. They made very persuading arguments that this is a must own, but at the $84.xx retail pricetag($51.xx amazon), I'm not certain there is any movie worth owning. I must admit I could not wait for it's release, but I just can't get over the price. Has anybody seen it/own it? Is it truly worth the duckets that Warner is asking for?
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“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” - Einstein -
Target has a version without the watch that was at a sale price of $35 or so. May have increased since the release.
Walmart was selling a $19.99 version that was disc 1 of the large set only.
We nabbed the target set, but have not watched it yet.
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THe 70th anniversary BluRay (Target) edition looks really good. Maybe too good. Ironically for me, the black and white (actually sepia toned) sequences benefitted the most from the high def treatment.
Once Dorothy realizes she and Toto are not in Kansas any more, it is harder to suspend disbelief when you can distinguish the brush strokes on the colorfully painted backgrounds, the (good and bad) witches' makeup is so obviously not their real faces and the yellow brick road looks like a perhaps too evenly laid out regular red brick road with a coat of mustard. I think there was actually more magic when things were not rendered so precisely.
The sound is OK, certainly not bad for a 70 year old movie, but the Munchkins are still as annoyingly screechy as ever. But fortunately they don't stay on screen very long. When Dorothy is a little further along on her journey and sings with her new found friends, the soundtrack holds up a bit better. And while the "scary" parts are rendered satisfactorily, don't expect any elaborate surround effects (even if you are listening to the 5.1 soundtrack).
I know a lot of work went into the restoration for this edition, and I appreciate the care and effort that went into this, and recognize this is a significant technical achievement. But, on the whole, I'm not sure that I really like the BluRay edition more than the last DVD edition in terms of recreating my original viewing experience with this movie. But I will keep it in my collection.
What you DON'T say may be held against you...Comment
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For some reason the "official" release is only the collectors edition, but I have seen that $20 version at Wal-mart if you don't want the extras.Santino
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.Comment
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Finally watched this over the weekend. As Burke says, it reveals all. Not always in a negative way though. For me, being able to closely read the actors faces was a treat, compared to having mostly seen this as a broadcast as a child.
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I gave my dvd version away to my granddaughter a few years ago because she loved it so much. I'd like to revisit it so I'll probably buy the featureless version and get it back in my collection.Comment
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This was a regular, annual viewing event when I was a kid (on broadcast TV--affordable VCRs happened when I was in my late teens and the Oz thing wasn't "cool").
I've shown it to my daughter and she quite enjoyed it (my son was too young to follow it when I rented it, so I don't know if he'd like it now) so it may be a stocking stuffer this Christmas--though not the full blown set (unless I see a serious bargain). She's not that big a fan.Comment
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