laura_seabrook | After the Wizard

Well, I went and saw The Wizard of Oz on the big screen, and overall I loved it. But...

Flaws

As shown, the top and bottom of the film was cropped. I noticed this almost immediately when the opening prologue text seemed to be missing half a line at the top. It was most noticeable in two scenes. The first was where the Witch threatens Dorothy and group from the roof of the Tin Man's house next to the yellow brick road. The Witch's head was cropped out of the frame as she speaks! Also, the classic scene where Dorothy says "And you were thee, and you were there... was severely cropped so that you could barely see Dorothy at all. In fact it looked like this (greyed areas did not show).

I mentioned this cropping to the staff, because maybe other films got cropped as well (for instance, yesterday when I saw THOR bits of both sides were outside the screen).

It was clear by the number and type of scratches on the film, and times the colour registration went out of focus (presumably on a reel change), that this was real film, rather than a digital distribution of the same (which i know they use at that cinema because when I saw Avatar in the same theatre we had to wait for the download). In a way that's really nice, but all the same it detracted from the film.

Notes

Was the Cowardly Lion one of the original inspirations for furries and Furry Fandom?

I was watching Toto all the way through the film, and it's interesting to note that he's carried for more screen time than when he walks. There's a scene where he's placed on a tractor seat and it's clear THE DOG WANTS TO GET DOWN. Otherwise he behaves a lot like my dog Bobby, who is also a smaller breed. He watches and wags his tail at anyone who dances, and on more than occasion that he's being cued by a wrangler off-screen.

The Munchkins really can't dance well or act much either. It doesn't matter that much though as we the audience are all focussed on Glinda and Dorothy singing.

As I watched a song by the Cowardly Lion about courage, I realised that the alliteration in part of another song from Sweeney Todd (about putting people into pies) was directly inspired by it. Check out the links and hear what I mean.

So yeah - I really enjoyed it!