Remastered IMAX 3D Wizard of Oz Opens Tonight

[Bob Schroeck]

(I could've sworn I posted about this last week, but... )
In case anyone's interested, they're celebrating the 75th anniversary of the The Wizard of Oz by restoring the film from its original three-strip Technicolor negatives, remastering the sound and visuals, and converting it to IMAX 3D.  Or, I should say, they have done this, having spent the last year on the task, and the results will be appearing in theatres for one week only starting tonight.  (In the US, at least; I don't know about anywhere else.)  For many of us it might be the only chance ever to see it on a big theatrical screen instead of a TV...
Peggy and I have tickets for the 9:30 PM show tonight at a nearby theatre; I'll let you know how it came out.  It appears the 3D conversion was handled with great care and took several months to do (unlike the more usual last-minute conversion to cash in on 3D), so I have high hopes for the results.  Some of the stuff I've seen about this also hints that they restored some of the missing material, like the long-lost "Jitterbug" number, but I can't get a confirmation on that.
http://www.inparkmagazine.com/classic-1 ... n-imax-3d/
And a YouTube video on the remastering process:

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

Okay, back. And wow. The 3D conversion was as good as I was hoping, except for some fades between scenes that did weird things. The image got a little fuzzy here and there, but overall the image quality was excellent -- I never saw that the Scarecrow's entire face has a burlap texture, and somehow on the small screen I'd missed that Judy Garland was only 4'11". The image quality did have some drawbacks -- some of the prosthetics were painfully obvious, like the Wicked Witch's chin and the edge of the latex headpiece for the Lion. I was wrong about the Jitterbug scene; what they restored was all the bits and pieces that had been snipped out here and there to make more room for commercials over the years -- like a long, lazy track shot of the entire Munchkin village after Dorothy first steps out of the house.

Overall a great experience and worth the premium cost of IMAX 3D.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Rev Dark]

I am impressed at the restraint of the various reviewers and advertisers.
Not once have I heard - "The Wizard of OZ - now in 3D - the Monkeys will fly out of your butt."