Dvd Wizard Of Oz Views

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I found watching The Wizard of Oz on DVD to be a much richer experience than I had seeing it on network TV on those old television sets. Both sepia-toned Kansas and the vibrant Technicolor Oz looked so much better! And by watching the movie without interruptions, I could fully appreciate the brilliance of the screenplay.

In addition to containing The Wizard of Oz (1939) with terrific picture and sound quality, the Three-Disc Collector's Edition comes with an impressive collection of bonus materials. I especially enjoyed the featurette where Angela Lansbury reads in voice-over a condensed version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the 1900 book written by L. Frank Baum upon which the movie is based. What fascinated me was not so much the words as that the screen was filled with a series of the illustrations created for the book by W. W. Denslow.

I knew almost nothing about Baum, so I was delighted that the DVD set includes a half-hour documentary on his life and work. He wrote a large number of children's books and at one point founded a film company to make movies based on his stories. The DVD set supplies two of his company's films: The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914, 38 min.) and His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914, 59 min.)

The DVD set contains three additional screen adaptations of Baum's work. Two of these are short: the silent The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910, 13 min.) and the Technicolor cartoon The Wizard of Oz (1933, 8 min.). There's also a feature-length silent, The Wizard of Oz (1925, 1 hr. 12 min.), which showcases the talents of now-almost-forgotten slapstick comic Larry Semon as Scarecrow. History has been kinder to the actor playing Tin Woodsman: Oliver Hardy (of Laurel and Hardy fame).