Until the big one came out in 1939, this film ends up being the best "Wizard of Oz" film adaptation ever made to this point. Unfortunately, if you read up on the history of this film, it sounds like it never saw the light of day until the 1980s. It also sounds like it wasn't restored to all of its glory until 2014. Since it was made in 1933, that is enough to say it is a theatrical motion picture, but it never saw a release in the theaters.
This is an animated version of the Oz classic, fairly loyal to the original book, directed by Ted Eshbaugh and has the same great classic animation style seen in early Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop, Popeye and Porky Pig films. This film has some nice style, imagery and color to it. It is wonderful having it back completely restored too. Especially, when you see the transformation from black and white to color as Dorothy falls from the twister into the land of Oz. This simple effect would be recreated to great success in the 1939 classic.
The problem with this film is its just an eight minute musical number with no real story to go by. It flashes some brilliance at you, but by the time you get to the end of this eight minute musical number you wish it was half the length it was. Enjoy it as a 1933 music video with not much more than that.
6.3 (D+ MyGrade) = 6 IMDB.
