The Wiz Joins the Criterion Collection

Happy Pride, everyone! I just picked up a copy of The Wiz which was recently released on 4K by The Criterion Collection. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this film - memories, opinions, etc.

Criterion did a fabulous job with the release but it is pretty skimpy on the supplements, unfortunately.

One odd thing I've noticed over the years is people think this movie is called "OZ." Like I have referenced the TV show OZ a couple times to different people and they thought I was referring to this movie.

Kad said: "The film's art direction is incredible- its depiction of Oz-as-New York is such an inspired, specific move.

And I think the individual musical sequences are all really successful. They work really well as standalone music videos.

But when it's all put together, it just doesn't add up."

Completely agree. I’ve always felt it was because you just don’t care about Diana’s too old Dorothy. Her crisis doesn’t hold you.

On blu-ray.com people have been complaining about the soundtrack issues, like the missing dialogue. Some noted that the blu-ray & 4k have been taken off sale on the Criterion site, so there may be a recall coming.

Reviews of the picture quality say it is the best it has looked on home video.

TotallyEffed said: "Happy Pride, everyone! I just picked up a copy of The Wiz which was recently released on 4K by The Criterion Collection. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this film - memories, opinions, etc.

Criterion did a fabulous job with the release but it is pretty skimpy on the supplements, unfortunately."

Happy Pride, and thank you for sharing the information!

I saw The Wiz in first release, owned the soundtrack. Only knew there was a Broadway show afterwards (I was in the 4th grade). I really liked it as a kid, owned it on VCR. But I don't think it's a very good movie. It has a nearly perfect cast, but Pryer as the Wiz is a mistake (as is cutting his songs--though I'd rather no songs than a bad singer struggling through them). Love Quincy Jones' musical arrangements. The design is often spectacular: the tiny cabs, the living mike and camera in the Emerald City, the Flying Monkeys. But then the throne room and the giant Wiz head is dull, and later it's actually just lying on its side, dicarded. What???

Conceptually, it's misguided in many respects. Okay, make Dorothy a young woman who needs to get out in the world rather than a young girl who needs to get back home. I like that. But then you can't end the movie with her singing home and walking back home--it kills the message. And what a lame final shot that is; no imagination. No imagnation of what they should go through when the Poppies push them into the funnel of the neon sign's lips.

There's also a sort of violent aspect to it at times that I think is tonally wrong for what is intened as a kid-friendly movie: the Cowardly Lion's freakout when he thinks Dorothy is dead after the encounter with the Poison Poppies, and Dorothy's explosion at discovering the Wiz is a phony.

On the other hand, I think the subway sequence is just the right kind of menacing--sorta cartoony, but still threatening. Oz needs that quality, as well.

Updated On: 6/28/25 at 08:21 PM

It’s a beautiful transfer VISUALLY but when they created the new Dolby Atmos soundtrack for this release several bits of dialogue are missing. The most glaring one is before Diana starts singing “Home”. When Diana says the word “home” right before she sings the song is missing. There are several others.


They should have included the original theatrical mix as an option.


Whoops! Someone else addressed these audio issues!

Updated On: 6/28/25 at 09:17 PM

There’s a grotesque melancholy about his film I’ve never quite understood. As a little kid it made me feel confused and uncomfortable. It’s a lonely film. Diana Ross is directed in a way that is so over the top it becomes freaky, her bugging eyes and constant weepy screams border on camp. Michael Jackson is quite fantastic, he has a tender warmth that is really missing from the rest of the film. The sets and costumes are at times masterful, but again, that depressing aura looms over those as well. The wide shots have been criticized but I sort of love how absolutely massive these sets are. I like seeing the scope and scale. Give me that over bloated CGI any day.



But the movie is so, so long. Thirty to forty minutes should have been cut. It’s just ballad after ballad after a while.



I agree with Joe that the tone is all over the place. At times it almost becomes an adult movie. The poppies are hookers, the Winkies sensually strip when they are freed, and the lyrics to the Tin Man’s song are soft gay porn.



I’m obsessed with Lena Horne’s big number. The constellations of floating babies are both beautiful and bizarre.

She just can’t get that damn dog under control. Judge Judy would be very unforgiving!

This is my guilty pleasure movie. From the amazing set to Diana running around screaming in those heels…how does she do it ?

It’s supposed to evoke a Harlem street mural.

There are plenty of beautiful Harlem street murals... and that ain't one of them.

I saw this film on its original release, at a huge cinema in downtown Chicago. The soundtrack was already getting radio airplay, and some people in the audience were singing along. In fact, I'll never forget: during "Ease on Down the Road," a few people were literally dancing in the aisles! I've never seen that at theater (with a semi-exception of Rocky Horror) before or since.

Production design and Quincy Jones- just wonderful on this. And the songs are all fantastic



the rest? God it’s just so bloated and kinda dull after a while.



Lena Horne in a shower cap with shower cap babies floating all around her is absolutely insane