The Steam Engines of Oz Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

The Steam Engines of Oz Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 30, 2018

A disembodied voice kind of cheekily announces that “we’re not in Kansas anymore” as The Steam Engines of Oz begins, but for some fans at least, the sad part about this so-called “steampunk twist” on L. Frank Baum’s immortal stories is that we’re not in The Wizard of Oz anymore, either. In the “you can learn something from any release” department, while I was less than impressed with this effort, during background research for this review I did get to find out a bit about Arcana, which is evidently the largest comic and graphic novel purveyor in Canada, and whose nascent animation entity produced the film, based on a graphic novel they released. The Steam Engines of Oz evidently had some kind of Kickstarter strategy, at least in terms of its publishing presence, and there are also a number of “motion comics” of the “franchise” available online as well. Unfortunately, the film itself is badly in need of contextualization, and fans of Baum’s work may either be confused or, worse, maybe even a little angered at some of the liberties that have been taken with the venerable tale and characters.

Though it takes a while to get there, The Steam Engines of Oz ultimately gets around to detailing an Oz split into various factions, including an underground lair where heroine Victoria (voiced by Julianne Hough) lives. She initially feels completely satisfied to be an almost literal cog in the machine (the underground region is run by steam power and contains a lot of machinery that would be right at home in Modern Times. In just one of several plot elisions that aren’t (initially at least) very well explained, when she’s contacted by a witch with flying monkeys, she becomes a revolutionary of sorts, out to keep a villainous Tin Man (yes, you read that right) from destroying natural areas around the Emerald City due to his wishes to expand the urban area ceaselessly. There’s a supposedly heart rending reason the Tin Man is such a civic booster (so to speak), but the film takes way too long to get there, and delivers the rationale in a kind of “home movie” “Moishe the Explainer” sequence that deprives the revelation of any real emotion.

The Steam Engines of Oz Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Steam Engines of Oz is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. In terms of transfer or compression issues, there's really nothing much to complain about, with no signs of banding or other anomalies. From a design aesthetic standpoint, though, I really don't know what to think about this offering. At times, I kind of dug the look of characters like the Tin Man, but a lot of the film looks very much like a not very well rendered video game, with blocky looking backgrounds and characters without much detail. The film's palette pops quite well, with its emphasis on jade green tones rather evocative at times.

The Steam Engines of Oz Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Steam Engines of Oz features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that provides some good bursts of immersion when steam escapes from machines, or in a couple of supposedly "epic" showdowns that erupt into hand to hand combat. Dialogue and score are rendered cleanly and clearly and with good prioritization on this problem free track.

The Steam Engines of Oz Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on the Blu-ray disc.

The Steam Engines of Oz Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Steam Engines of Oz simply can't come close to capturing (and/or recapturing) the magic of the Oz universe, and its kind of weird animation style doesn't help to distract from some story and character deficits. Technical merits are fine for those considering a purchase.