The Wizard of Oz HD comes back to theaters September 23
By Richard Lawler 
posted Aug 21st 2009 5:07PM
posted Aug 21st 2009 5:07PM
Ahead of its remastered 70th Anniversary Blu-ray release, The Wizard of Oz is returning to the big screen in high definition. September 23 at 7 p.m. over 400 theaters will be showing the remastered version for the first time, plus the "To Oz! The Making of a Classic" featurette. If you go, take someone who thinks old films can't benefit from high definition.
that is awsome !! i love that musical i was in the play in high school it was awsome i played the scarcrow i cant wait for this to come out !!!
is this any different from the HD version that was on TBSHD? It is a stunning trasfer and I will be buying tickets to this if i hear it will be even better tahn the TBS one.
2001 a Space Odyssey was stunning on bluray. That movie is the oldest one I have that is on bluray. They did a great job with it. I wouldn't mind seeing oz in the theaters. Id love to see 2001 come back too.
What does high definition on the big screen mean for a movie like the Wizard of Oz, which was filmed in 35mm?
Is it "upscaled" beyond it's native 8K or so resolution or tremendously downscaled to 1080p?
This doesn't make any sense to me.
It has been restored and remastered for the HD release, so they are showing the newly restored print. Hopefully for a theatrical presentation it would be higher than 1080p (they certainly restore it at higher than that) but who knows what the 'HD' tag means, beyond being a buzzword that normal people will see and understand. If nothing else, you will likely get to see a version of The Wizard of Oz that could well be cleaner than the original print ever was.
I saw the preview for this at the Rifftrax event, and I wasn't impressed with the trailer. There was a lot of digital noise and it looked like "black" was a bit too gray. I hope for the sake of the ticket buyers that it was just a bad trailer and the real presentation is better than that.
What, no 3D flying monkeys coming from the screen? ;)
Wife busted me looked at internet porn. Luckily EngadgetHD was open as well on this info. She wants to see it...its in HD...I'm safe!!!
Richard's article says the "remastered" version was being presented, which implies a digital presentation. This doesn't make any sense. Film still has much higher resolution and better color and contrast than HD is capable of right now, especially if the film was originally in technicolor. Any film buff knows that. I certainly hope its a film print of the "restored" version. I think that would be stunning and memorable, since many generations have never seen Oz except in video presentations.
Saw it tonight. No specks of dust or crackles but the print didn't appear any better than the last time I saw it on a big screen (Fox Theater, Atlanta) or on DVD. Perhaps it was a shortcoming of the projector. The images were not that crisp and the colors were dull and lighting a bit dim. However, we enjoyed seeing it again on the big screen.