Wizard of Oz Animation Collection (Li

Rating:
Summary: Creative License...Oz Style.
Review: Collected together in this cute box set; "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", "The Marvelous Land of Oz", "Ozma of Oz", and "The Emerald City of Oz" are all unfaithful yet fun version of their literary counterparts. Created in the late 80's, these cartoons definately fall short of today's computer aided offering...but still hold a unique charm that stems from the source material. Beginning with "The Marvelous Land of Oz" the stories stray far from the stories (with Dorothy not even appearing in the book "The Land of Oz" but playing a huge part in this version) with "Ozma of Oz" being the biggest offender of the bunch (not much of the original story is left here kiddos). The voice acting is well suited and the animation is typical of its time. Die hard fans of the "Oz" mythology beware...but nonetheless, these movies are entertaining and a definate treat for children.

Rating:
Summary: A Pleasant Surprise on DVD, but Heavily Edited
Review: I was SO thrilled to find that the Wizard of Oz animation series had come to DVD, that I bought it as soon as I could. Here was another piece of my childhood that I could eagerly put in my shelf, in a convenient format.

Sadly, this is not the entire series uncut, at least as shown on HBO or Disney's Family Channel in the 80's. I consulted an old recording I had of "The Marvelous Land of Oz", and there were definitely more than a few scenes missing from the version I saw on air.

It's really a shame, since I remember the eagerness with which I e-mailed LightYear Productions a long time ago, with a request for this series to be put on DVD (with no reponse). It really is a good show, with great one-liners, voice acting and art. It's probably good enough to entertain younger kids who won't know they're missing anything, but for the discerning collector of animation and 80's television, the amount of editing done is disheartening and unacceptable.

Which is not even mentioning the technical flaws of this release. While the picture quality is decent, the image jitters and jumps, and the sound continuously fades in and out - forcing the viewer to have the remote handy for raising and lowering the volume. There is no captioning option for the hearing impaired.