Last night, Cat and I went to a special screening of The Wizard of Oz as a gift for her birthday. What made it interesting was the way the dialogue track had been isolated, with the music track muted and replaced by a live orchestra. The experience had its shortcomings — the mediocre sound quality of the dialogue in a 75-year-old couldn’t quite compete with dozens of people performing live music alongside it — but overall it was kind of amazing. Why don’t all movies feature live accompaniment like they used to?
I don’t think I’ve seen Oz in 25 years, but I remember every single scene. Still, watching it this way — surrounded by families with kids probably seeing the film for the first time — made it feel fresh and new. The audience broke out into sincere applause a few times: When Dorothy steps into a world of color, the melting of the Wicked Witch of the West, etc. Laughter was frequent and heartfelt.
Small as the picture looks in this image, that distant little screen pulled me in and I frequently forgot about the live orchestra altogether. But most of the time, I found myself paying more attention to the score than I normally would. It’s interesting that much of the music in the film’s first half largely accompanies performances, whereas in the second half it often takes the form of lengthy suites that punctuate the action. And then there was the random Mussorgsky phrase the composer slipped into the score as the companions infiltrated the witch’s castle. All in all, it was a totally unique experience.
Mostly, though, I came away surprised that it took so long for someone to create a video game based on the movie. It’s basically the RPG archetype, all the way down to the dude who handed out annoying mandatory fetch quests.
I know I have a SNES Wizard of Oz game sitting in my basement. Never played it though. Maybe this will inspire me to take a look at it
AVGN reviewed that particular game a few years ago.
You DON’T want to pop that thing into your SNES.
Wow, you’re right about the RPG plot:
“Hey! You’re going somewhere? I MUST come with you!”
Something about comparing this movie to a cheap RPG structure feels… wrong.
I recently saw the first Pirates of the Carribean in the same manner. It certainly was awesome, but I had the same sound problems as you. Furthermore I was kind of torn between the performance of the orchestra and the movie itself. Afterwards I felt … guilty of not paying enough attention to the music/musicians.
I loved singing the little song the Twinkies sing at the castle as a kid.
Winkies, rather! I never read the books.
Were the background choral bits still on the soundtrack? It’d be *great* to hear a live choir sing along with the orchestra (especially during the Munckin and Winkies bits) but I’d imagine that would be a little cost-prohibitive.
Fun fact: that Wizard of Oz RPG is kinda super awful!