Wizard of Oz IMAX 3D review
October 2013, Dublin CA – At the Regal Cinema complex in Dublin, we had the chance to experience the 75th anniversary remastering and 3D converted version of the film classic the Wizard of Oz. I was able to attend the showing with some avid fans of the original film who were waiting for the screening with mixed feelings – anticipation and a little bit of dread. While there were high hopes for the conversion, there was the sneaking fear that the horrors of “the colorization craze” where people “improved” classic films.
IMAX Wizard of Oz 3D
The overall reaction was positive. The depth that was added to the film worked well in the majority of scenes. They did a good job of keeping the depth map at the level where the main characters are at the plane of the screen, and there are not a great many scenes where the screen content is pooping out at the audience. This plan greatly enhanced the initial color scenes at the beginning of the yellow brick road, and produces a very immersive de-focus effect when the tin woodsman was found and they were walking in the forest.
The dual 2K projects that are used for the IMAX showing made the restored film very bright and vibrant. Typically, these older films, when restored and shown in 3D lose a lot of screen intensity due to low lighting situations in the theaters. The color restoration was skewed towards the green which is good for the story. The emerald city and the wicked witch were restored to the original levels of Technicolor green. The large amounts of glass, refection, and people in the scenes posed quite a challenge for 3D conversion. The scenes were carefully done as to keep the center of attention on the characters and improve the immersion of the scene. These could have easily been converted to “poke me in the eye style” 3D, but the scenes were treated properly.
One of the areas that had questionable depth choice was the scenes in the witches castle where she held Dorothy. The 3D version set Dorothy at the edge of the screen – this let to a significant defocus effect for the flying monkeys leaving out the window area behind her that created an effect of the room being perceived as larger that ir realistically could have been. This also brought the hour glass and the furnishing in the castle out into the audience in front of the screen, which was odd and temporarily broke the immersion in the story.
Overall the film conversion was done well and it did not detract from the experience. The majority of high depth scenes were chosen properly to increase the immersion into the world of OZ, and the crowd embraced the experience. The IMAX sound system did a very nice job with the converted soundtrack and created a full surround environment.
