The Wiz (30th Anniversary Edition w/ Bonus CD)
List Price:
Our Price: $6.98
You Save: $8.00 (53%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.30 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Diana Ross, Lena Horne, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Richard PryorBrand: Universal Studios
Cinematographer: Oswald Morris
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 134 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-02-12
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of The Wiz (30th Anniversary Edition w/ Bonus CD)
Movie Review: Entertaining Remake
Summary: 5 Stars
Reading through the first dozen or two of the reviews, I see that it is not necessary to compare this version with the one made in the late thirties starring Judy Garland, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Ray Bolger, and, with Margaret Hamilton, featured as the nasty neighbor-wicked witch, a role for which she is still remembered....by those old enough to have lived with the film but young enough to still remember anything. It seems doubtful that Lahr, Haley or Bolger are remembered either, for that matter.
At any rate, seeing this film for the first time in 2010, I found it to be entertaining, the cast talented, the songs competently written and quite well done, the dancing suitably vigorous,and the spectacle colorful. I would admonish one reviewer that we no longer consider 34 (Diana Ross' age at the time of making the film) to be middle age. Happily, she is supposed to be 24 and shy, thus, deglamorized as she is when not singing or dancing, she fits the bill. Playing a fifteen year old, however, as did Garland, would have been a stretch. Michael Jackson invested his role with some of his later famed charisma, but stayed within the confines of the role quite well. Nipsey Russell, was, what a watcher of his successful TV show would have expected, quite good.
In a different world entirely, was the Good Witch, played by the incomparable Lena Horne. Even in this walk-on role, doing her one song, she seems, to a fan of several score years, one of the very best entertainers to have emerged to prominence in the forties (though her career began earlier than that). What a loss to the public was the race barrier of the day which killed any chance she had to be one of the great stars of Hollywood. Very good to see her here, lending her spirit and voice to the film.
On two points, at least, this film fails to create the same sentimental aura which made the MGM earlier version memorable down the years: first, the score, though above average, did not have the impact of that by two of Broadway/Hollywood's best, Harold Arlen (music) and E.Y. Harburg(lyrics). When they were attuned to the setting for which they wrote, they were Hall of Famers; second, of course, the Wiz could not achieve that sentimental but
not cloying effect that the first film managed. Perhaps, it was a change in what audiences would tolerate in the forty years between the making of the first and the second.
In sum, this is an entertaining, truly FAMILY, film, in the best sense of the word. Diana Ross is an admirable star, her supporting cast, quite competent. Buy it for the kids and watch it with them.
Summary of The Wiz (30th Anniversary Edition w/ Bonus CD)
WIZ:30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION - DVD MovieSimilar DVD Movies
Double PlatinumRoss; Release date: 1999-07-20; DVD
Best price: $4.38
Price in other shops:
The Women of Brewster Place (Uncut Edition)Allegro; Release date: 2011-02-08; DVD
Best price: $7.87
Price in other shops:
Uptown Saturday NightWarner Brothers; Release date: 2004-01-13; DVD
Best price: $4.05
Price in other shops:
Michael Jackson - Michael Jackson's MoonwalkerRelease date: 2010-05-31; Blu-ray
Best price: $16.95
Price in other shops:
Rodgers & Hammerstein's CinderellaBuena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2003-02-04; Published: 2003-02-01; DVD
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
ClaudineFox; Release date: 2003-01-14; DVD
Best price: $4.31
Price in other shops:
Michael Jackson: MoonwalkerRelease date: 2010-01-16; DVD
Best price: $18.38
Price in other shops:
Return to OzBuena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2004-02-03; DVD
Best price: $5.73
Price in other shops:
The Wizard of Oz (Two-Disc 70th Anniversary Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2010-03-16; DVD
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops:
SparkleWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-01-02; DVD
Best price: $3.47
Price in other shops: