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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Faithful original - Korean language subtitles easily removed, January 10, 2009
I've been thrilled and enchanted by the Wizard of Oz since I was a small child.
I don't agree with the other negative reviewers. Although this edition was made in Korea, it is a licensed edition - not a bootleg. You can easily, in the languages menu, remove the Korean subtitles.
This version has MANY advantages over the others available. First, it is playable on ALL DVD players and you can exchange this DVD with friends in other countries, or, play it on DVD players and computers from other countries.
Second, the black and white and color on this DVD are true to the original screen version. (I once saw it on the big screen in Scottsdale in 1989 when an old theater had closed - the Wizard of Oz was the first movie shown at the theater when it opened in 1939).
Third, the version is the true screen version first shown to audiences in 1939. Why is that good?
The first screen version was edited to be a gentle portrayal of the essence and spirit of the book the Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
As popular as the movie has been in history, few have read the book.
The book is L. Frank Baum's version of Homer's "The Odyssey" with Dorothy as hero (heroine). Baum was a minor scholar of the Classics (he studied Greek in military school when he was a teenager). He took the story line, conflicts, antagonists and protagonists of the Odyssey, populated it with endearing characters from his wonderful imagination, and, put them into a compelling context for American readers at the turn of the twentieth century.
Dorothea is, in ancient Greek, the name of the goddess of truth and wisdom. "Toto" (meaning "everything"), the faithful dog, is a metaphor for our "faith" as we journey through life in search of home (as did Odysseus). Brains (the scarecrow), heart (the tin man) and courage (the lion) are what all of us use in our lives to find our home and our soul mate (as did Odysseus - as does Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz).
When Dorothy is in peril in the Witch's castle, she relies upon "Toto" (her faith) to summon her brains, her heart, and her courage.
Many commentators have mused about the name "Oz." I've read some conjectures that border on the ridiculous. (One biographer of Baum speculated that "Oz" came from the O-Z on lower drawer of Baum's two drawer file cabinet).
"Oz" is the correct ancient Greek abbreviation for the Odyssey. In English, and in the Greek from about 400 BC to the present, the abbreviation for the Odyssey would be "Od". However, in spoken attic Greek (from about 800 BC - the time Odyssey was written down (it used to be chanted not unlike modern rap)) if the "d" is surrounded by two vowels, it is changed, in ancient Attic Greek, to "z" or "djeta". Hence, the first two letters of the original ancient Greek for the Odyssey are not "Od" but "Oz".
And that's how L. Frank Baum came up with the name of "Oz".
Buy this version. You can't go wrong at this price.
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