Oz the Great and Powerful [Blu-ray] [Region Free]

Good

A few decades back now, Disney tried a new Oz movie, in the shape of  Return To Oz [DVD] [1985 ]. Now they've brought in Director Sam Raimi to have a go at a prequel.The story of this movie takes place before the Wizard of Oz. It's all about the Wizard himself. And how he came to be there.Therefore fans of the Frank L. Baum books will not find much they'd recognise from those in here, aside from the setting and certain characters, since this is an all new story that tries it's best to fit the style of the world Frank L. Baum created. If you're a literary purist then whether or not this succeeds at doing that will be a matter of individual opinion.The Wizard is actually Oscar Diggs [James Franco]. When we meet him it's in America in 1905, and he's a small time carnival magician, with somewhat dubious ethics and dreams of making it big.Like the original Wizard of Oz movie, this has all the scenes in our world filmed in black and white. It also adopts a few of the technical tricks and styles of much older cinema in these moments. Which is a very nice touch.James Franco does manage to carry the film very well and makes for a decent lead right from the off.Fate conspires to bring him to Oz. Which is where it goes into colour and more modern cinema styles. Making the acquaintance of two witches [Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz] and a flying monkey, he finds that everyone is expecting the arrival of a great wizard. And that Oz is a land with problems.Setting out to deal with these, he picks up another travelling companion along the way. But who can he trust? And he can take this opportunity to be the great man he's always dreamed of becoming?The story of this is obvious from the start. A few movies have done the story of a would be great man who gets into a situation where they can become one, boasts, lets people down, and then comes back and saves the day. But this doesn't follow all the story beats from that style, so that does give it points for originality.The supporting cast are all pretty good. Some of the cgi creations work extremely well. And there are enough twists and turns in the plot and character development to keep it all moving along very nicely, all in time for a decent finale.It's definitely worth it for the visuals, though. Which make Oz every bit the colourful and eye catching land that it should be. There's always something new coming along on screen to capture your attention.Certain things and characters can't appear in this due to copyright reasons [the fact that a studio other than Disney holds the rights to the Wizard of Oz movie] but you might get into this enough to not miss them too much.Any great fantasy should keep you spellbound all the way through and leave you appreciative by the end. When I saw this in a rather crowded cinema, most of the audience burst into - genuine - applause at the end. So this would certainly seem to do that job. There may be one or two moments that very young viewers might find scary, but not too many. This is a very good effort at creating a magical and fantastical cinema experience. Which makes it worth 4/5.Older viewers who are familiar with the Director's work might wonder if a few of the actors whom he usually uses crop up in here. Just keep your eyes peeled and listen carefully....The dvd has the following language and subtitle options:Languages: English, Russian, Ukranian.Subtitles: English, Estonian, Greek, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Ukranian.The disc begins with quite a few trailers. These can be skipped by pressing the next button on the dvd remote control. You can see all of them in the sneak peeks section of the dvd main menu anyhow.There are just two extras:A four minute long reel of outtakes. The sound quality on some of these isn't great. But a few are quite funny.Walt Disney and the Road to Oz. A nine minute long feature about Disney's original attempt to make an Oz movie back in the 1950's. This is absolutely fascinating hitherto generally unknown movie history. If you're into that, it's well worth a watch.

This epic fantasy covers Oz's history prior to the 1939 Wizard of Oz film, based on the first instalment of Frank Baum's books. These wonderful, escapist stories have been called the only truly American fairy-tales. Prequels like Tin Man for TV and Wicked for the stage concentrated on the witches that roam the place but Oz, short for Oscar Diggs, is about the arrival of said prestidigitateur in the land. The film's style is a tribute to the 1939 Wizard of Oz, as some of the Oz actors appear in the B&W Kansas scene first. Oz's conning lead him to escape in a balloon, and after a scary time in a twister he ends up in the enchanting, rich-in-detail world of Oz (e. g. the River Fairies are deliciously vile cuties). After a false start with ghastly consequences, wherein the womanizing Oz becomes indirectly responsible for calling the most wicked of witches into existence, he makes a pact with yet another witch, Glinda the Good. Oz's world of lush art direction becomes the metaphorical background for Oscar's gradual transformation into a better person. The screenwriters convincingly manage to let Oz's tricks triumph over the magic and get him installed as the powerful man in Emerald City. We all knew James Franco could give us a dashing lead, but he masterfully keeps us sympathising with a character that in essence is not likable, at least not until way into the second act of the movie. Of the three witchly sisters only Rachel Weisz has the style necessary to appear in a costume movie. Strangely, the scriptwriters denied her character to connect with The Wizard of Oz - in which she made a short and corpsy appearance (or aren't we to assume she is the Wicked Witch of the East under Dorothy's house?) They just had to let Weisz don a pair of striped stockings, visible on her last escape - that, and a certain pair of ruby slippers. It would have made the movie a completely clarifying prequel, and given the fact 'it works hard' to be that, this is a peculiar error. But this is just an afterthought, it didn't bother me during watching. Notwithstanding the overdone girlishness of the broken doll and a bit of a 3D let down I applaud this well-handled movie, from its nostalgic, vaudeville start to its Emerald City-end, that sets the stage for the original story we have come to love ... and Judy Garland's glorious debut.

This film is "excellcent" and "brilliant" and a visual feast on the eyes,even though it starts in "black and white" it does add to the film. The "story line" is more a prequeal/origin to "The Wizard of OZ" but as a film in its own right is certainly worth watching:),James Franco plays an excellcent role as the selfish,arrogant,and show side magician "Oz",who turns out to be a man who does care.The land of Oz itself is presented beautifully and great thought and design went into it,but what else due we expect from Disney!!.A very enjoyable movie,both for adults and children highly recommened,and the sequences with the "Broken china doll" are outstanding and quite moving.Just watch it and be trilled by it,its like the first time watching the "Wizard of Oz" just a really nice filmwhere you can leave this modern world aside and just lose yourself in something totally fun and silly.

good film happy with price

Thought I was receiving the version as shown in the image but was sent a different version. Cost of item advertised went up in price at checkout.