Oz is likely will be among the first waves of movies released in high-def.

WARNER RETURNS TO OZ
Delivers two special editions of restored classic
By Scott Hettrick 7/7/2005

JULY 8 | Warner Home Video will release two new special editions of
The Wizard of Oz on Oct. 25, offering the first new restoration and
new bonus features in 12 years.

Warner restored the film using its proprietary digital
Ultra-Resolution technology process. Used on such recent releases as
last year's Gone With the Wind, Ultra-Resolution presents such an
improved visual and color clarity that WHV senior VP classic catalog
George Feltenstein said he noticed for the first time that the
Scarecrow's face make-up is actually burlap.

This new restoration has been created with high-definition
presentation in mind. Although Warner has not named the title to be
one of its first batch of high-def DVD this fall--when it plans to
introduce the first releases on HD DVD, the studio's preferred
high-def disc format of the two incompatible options hoping to secure
the market--Feltenstein said Oz likely will be among the first waves
of movies released in high-def.

The Oscar-winning score and soundtrack also has been enhanced and
remastered for a new 5.1-channel stereo audio track, creating more
separation from the two microphones used to record some of the music.
The original mono track will be an option on the disc, however.

Two versions of the DVD will be released with different sleeve art for
the two-disc special edition and the three-disc collector's edition.

The three-disc edition, with 13 hours of bonus features, including
more than five hours of new extras, features a new documentary about
creator L. Frank Baum and the entire 1925 silent feature film version
of The Wizard of Oz, starring Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man. The silent
version has been restored from 35mm nitrate, with a new score recorded
by Robert Israel.

Feltenstein estimates that about 20 million copies of Oz have been
sold collectively of the multiple VHS and Betamax editions, three
laserdisc editions and the two previous DVD editions since the initial
VHS release in 1980 as one of MGM Home Entertainment's first group of
home video titles. That first VHS edition used an original theatrical
release print. The studio reissued the movie on video in a 50th
anniversary edition in 1989, using a transfer from a rare Technicolor
print found in the basement of CBS.

In 1993, MGM released The Ultimate Oz set, which featured the film
transferred from a new interpositive from the original negative and
hours of bonus features presented in their entirety on a laserdisc
set. But that edition has registration problems with colors out of
alignment causing a fuzziness and hosting in some scenes.

That same film element was used for the edition that MGM released in
1997 for one of its first DVDs, which had none of the bonus features
from The Ultimate Oz, and again on the 1999 DVD release from Warner,
which had then taken over the MGM library. That current release
includes all of the bonus features from the 1993 laserdisc.

No doubt many of the 20 million copies have been sold to the same
customers who keep upgrading their collection. Warner is hoping that
will be the case again with this new edition, but Feltenstein points
out that there are more than 70 million DVD households and therefore
plenty of room for additional sales to new first-time customers.

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