By now, you have probably heard of the re-release of the 1939 MGM classic—an experience that really must be seen, heard, felt, and even smelled to be believed.

SETTING THE STAGE

Before the first frame of the movie rolls, you are already transported. A 160,000-square-foot screen has been crafted to look like Radio City Music Hall, curtain drawn and the sound of an orchestra warming up in the pit. That spectacular sound is what initially strikes you.

The Sphere employs 167,000 individually amplified loudspeaker drivers within its concert-grade audio system. Making it the world’s largest system of its kind.

All that more bandwidth means the need for a lot more information to satisfy it. The entire musical score was re-recorded on the original MGM Soundstage in order to take full advantage of the audio opportunities. It is Judy Garland singing, but the accompaniment is re-recorded, re-engineered, and re-mastered. And to great effect.

I wanted to have a little buzz on, but not be fully hit on the head with a hammer, so I popped a Pabst Blue Ribbon Cannabis-Infused High Seltzer. I am new to the beverages, so they kind of hit different. They tend to give me a little bit of a smile without being overwrought, as edibles sometimes can be for me.

I also sparked a short CBX Blue Flame OG pre-roll. And found the pairing of the preroll with the mild beverage to be just the right height for the occasion.

SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL

When the tornado strikes Kansas in the film, a 4D experience begins: you feel the wind swirling around you as massive fans blow and your theatre seats vibrate and quake. Debris falls from the ceiling and smoke clouds your vision. When Dorothy lands in Oz and meets the Scarecrow, as they dance into the enchanted forest, foam apples fall down around you, and they are even apple scented!

When the Wicked Witch of the West pursues Dorothy with her flying monkeys, 16-foot flying monkey drones fill the space: actual drone flying monkeys right above your head.

BYE, BYE, PROSCENIUM TUESDAY

A larger screen means there was no way the original 1939 aspect ratio would fill up The Sphere’s screens. So, Google AI was utilized to identify and interpret what was shot in the original and then augment and enhance. To some purists, this may be sacrilege. Before you get high and mighty with your Criterion quill, let me point out, this isn’t Ted Turner colorizing Casablanca. These are the most skilled AI technicians paying respect and homage to a classic and faithfully breathing new life into it.

SURRENDER DOROTHY OR DIE

Perhaps it’s Dorothy herself who makes this event so much more impactful at The Sphere. Somehow, seeing her youthful face and her piercing eyes some 80 feet across a massive orbital screen grabs you immediately and grips you by the heart until the end of the film. As Toto is taken captive, we feel her pain, we share her grief—her sense of loss. It was really powerful. And unexpectedly, I found myself crying when she first sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” which I don’t recall ever doing in other viewings. Maybe the PBR and pre-roll fueled my passion a bit, as well. In the original production, as the Wicked Witch soars through the sky in pursuit of Dorothy’s ruby slippers, she wrote a fatalistic message across the sky in the wake of her broom: “Surrender Dorothy or die.” The 1939 MGM executives thought that this battle cry would be too frighten- ing to children, so it was ultimately softened to “Surrender Dorothy” in the traditional version of the classic. The Sphere’s artists have restored the original call to arms and this has raised the stakes, and also serves to better fill the space.

I must say, The Wizard of Oz is the perfect vehicle for this kind of digital expression. In fact, one may argue that the character of The Wizard himself could be considered one of the first portrayals of AI. In the 1900 L. Frank Baum children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a young girl, Dorothy, ends up in the magical land of Oz with her dog Toto, who tips over a screen to reveal that the “Wizard” is just a normal old man, stranded in Oz long ago. He is a puppet master, who employs visual tricks and smoke to create the illusion of power and wizardry. It was the beholders’ belief in the wizard’s powers that fulfilled their desires and needs. He was nothing more than AI. (Maybe that’s a stretch?)

What it does mean for certain is: “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!”

Johnny Navarro is a freelance journalist from the Palms area of Los Angeles, and was the film critic for Bikini magazine for six years in the late 90s-early 2000s. He has also written for Raygun and Las Vegas Style magazines. A SAG-AFTRA actor, Johnny is currently working on a screenplay he hopes will be his ticket to the Oscars.