The Wizard Of Oz will be geting the Blu-ray treatment later this year, although so far it’s only been officially announced for the US. Warner Home Video in America has said that on September 29th they’ll be bringing out a two-disc Special Edition DVD, a four-disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition DVD, as well as an Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray of the movie.
While it would appear the special features content will be similar to previously available versions of The Wizard Of Oz, the four-disc DVD and Blu-ray do add some collectibles to the package, in the form of a collectable watch with genuine crystals, a replica of the film’s original budget, a 52-page coffee table book called ‘Behind the Curtain’ and a reproduction of the original 1939 campaign book.
However the really interesting thing is that the Blu-ray version will, of course, get you the film in 1080p HD. The movie was extensively cleaned and restored for its 2006 DVD release, with Warner knowing at that point that the restoration also needed to be ready to stand up to the scrutiny of HD. Other Blu-rays of movies Warner has restored, such as 2001 and The Searchers, look absolutely stunning, so you gotta hope the Wizard Of Oz will be absolutely eye-popping in the high-def format.
While there’s no news yet on whether all this will be coming to the UK, we wouldn’t be surprised if there was a Blu-ray release for The Wizard Of Oz in Britain this year, even if we don’t end up getting all the collectables.