6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
The Witches of Oz follows the exploits of the grown Dorothy Gale, now a successful children's book author, as she moves from Kansas to present day New York City. Dorothy quickly learns that her popular books are based on repressed childhood memories, and that the wonders of Oz are very, very real.
Starring: Paulie Rojas Redding, Billy Boyd, Eliza Swenson, Sasha Jackson, Jeffrey CombsFantasy | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 0.5 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
Certain stories become cultural touchstones for anyone to use. The Land of Oz has been mined for inspiration by creators from Mel Brooks to David Lynch, but every so often someone has the nerve (or the gall) to try digging up a whole new version. It worked well enough for the creators of the Broadway musical Wicked (based on a 1995 novel), which is still selling tickets at a steady clip after nine years, but that's the exception. At the opposite end of the spectrum is this disastrous reboot by writer-director Leigh Scott. The Witches of Oz was shot as a movie, re-edited (and cropped) as a two-part miniseries shown on SyFy and Starz, then re-edited again (and partially reshot) into a 100-minute movie currently making the rounds in limited theatrical release. The 164-minute version on this Blu-ray is the TV miniseries, but with no break between parts 1 and 2. It's a meandering mess that has to stop periodically to deliver incompatible chunks of exposition and backstory. Even its makers regard it as less than a finished product, according to their Facebook page. I haven't seen the theatrical version, and I have no idea (and little curiosity) whether a more coherent or entertaining film could be hacked from this thicket of poppies, but there's no doubt that the disc is a quick-buck release to be avoided at all costs. And in case you read past it the first time: The Blu-ray's image has been cropped. Skip to the "Video" section for further explanation.
Even Glinda the Good Witch can't save herself from being cropped out of the frame.
Perhaps because The Witches of Oz appeared on TV before being released to theaters, it does not bear the usual disclaimer about the film being modified to fit your TV screen. But it should. The disc's producers effectively make that very announcement with the brief featurette they've included. There writer-director Leigh Scott solemnly explains that he outfitted the Red One digital camera with anamorphic (anamorphic!) lenses to obtain a widescreen image, because he wanted the film to have a "bigger, studio look". In the behind-the-scenes footage, monitors marked with a 2.39:1 rectangle are clearly visible. Witches was shot for this aspect ratio, and because of the lenses Scott used, there's no extra image at top and bottom that can be used to "open up" the film for reframing at 1.78:1. Indeed, the excerpts from the film included in the featurette are in the wide AR, not the cropped AR used on the disc. So the TV version presented on this Blu-ray contains an image that has been cut down at the sides from 2.39:1 to 1.78:1, and you can spot the compromised composition in shot after shot. Even when it isn't obvious that people and props have been arbitrarily split off at the edge of the frame, the whole enterprise feels claustrophobic, which is precisely the opposite of what Scott wanted. As if to add insult to injury, the version on this disc does contain one quick shot that's been letterboxed to the original aspect ratio, probably because cropping it would have interfered with the viewer's ability ro read a large sign spread across the bottom of the frame. (See the extra screenshots for a capture.) What remains of the digitally captured image is acceptably reproduced, with good but not exceptional detail, varied but not overly saturated colors and black levels that are generally strong with some minor crushing. It would have been a perfectly fine image, if it didn't constantly suffer from feeling cramped and narrow due to cropping. Image has once again opted for a BD-25 on a program that seems too long for such limited digital real estate. However, one of the advantages of Red One-originated projects is that they compress effectively, and the company seems to have gotten away with the single-layer disc here.
Although The Witches of Oz arrives with a full-fledged lossless 5.1 track presented in DTS-HD MA, the results are underwhelming. No doubt due to budgetary constraints, the scenes that would most benefit from aggressive 5.1 sound mixing are relatively restrained (e.g., twisters, magical devices, flying monkeys). Phenomena like Manhattan traffic noise, which becomes an issue for the country transplants Dorothy and Allen, aren't expanded into the full ambient presence that would give them their due. On the plus side, the dialogue is clear and the musical soundtrack by co-star and co-producer Eliza Swenson is well-mixed. Unfortunately, no amount of mixing can improve the quality of the script, which is clunky, or the score, which is disposable. An alternative DD 5.1 track is included, but the bitrate is an anemic 320 kbps, which is less than even the earliest DVD soundtracks. I'm sure there are still potential purchasers out there who lack the ability to decode even lossy DTS, but those are likely to be people who are listening in stereo through TV speakers rather than home theater systems. Anyone with an older HT setup should opt for the DTS "core" of the Master Audio track.
As noted in the introduction, the creators of The Witches of Oz consider their shorter theatrical release to be the finished product. If anything about this project piques your curiosity, I suggest waiting until that film is available, either in a local theater or on video. It has to be better than the jumbled, visually compromised mess on this Blu-ray for the simple reason that it will take one less hour of your time. The current Blu-ray hasn't one thing to recommend it. Pass, because it fails.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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