‘Wizard of Oz’ at the Sphere will bring the impossible to reality
The Las Vegas Sphere asks “What would it feel like to be in Oz?” with its enhanced version of “The Wizard of Oz” coming Aug. 28, 2025.
Movie purists may grumble, but what the Sphere team has done with “The Wizard of Oz” is nothing short of extraordinary.
More than 2,000 filmmakers, technicians, audio experts and AI creatives spent two years reilluminating Dorothy Gale’s adventure into a gleaming spectacle that will move you – literally and emotionally.
The film, recalibrated for its close-up on the 160,000 square feet of 16K screen inside Las Vegas’ orb of wonder, opens Aug. 28 for an open-ended run. While some may balk at the $104 ticket price, what is being presented isn’t merely a large-screen version of the classic 1939 film, but an experience – and one that has already moved more than 215,000 tickets for showings scheduled (so far) through March.
While that might seem like a trite explanation, there is no succinct way to describe the transformative encounter that begins upon entry into the venue’s atrium, which welcomes viewers into the Land of Oz with Sphere-typical grandiosity.
Much has been speculated about the “ethical AI” used by the “Wizard” crew that includes Oscar-nominated producer Jane Rosenthal to enhance the film. Despite the online uproar, we suggest protestations be shelved until the film is experienced in person.
The stunning moments in this 75-minute version of “Oz” are numerous, but here are three that will drop your jaw.
A tornado to make you cower
The soul of “The Wizard of Oz” is the relationship between Dorothy and her ragtag compatriots, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man (and of course her beloved Toto). But there would be no yellow brick road to skip down to find that “whiz of a wiz” without the knockout tornado that triggers Dorothy’s journey to Munchkinland.
We have one word for that legendary weather event: intense.
Don’t be embarrassed when you realize you’re ducking because of images on a screen. The 750-horsepower fans, one of many 4D immersive elements in the film, create the feeling of chaos as farm equipment, debris and yes, that poor cow, fly across the screen. It’s so realistic you’ll worry that a tractor – or perhaps that spinning house – will land on your head.
And when it’s over and your heart resumes a normal pace, the transition from sepia-toned Kansas to Technicolor that stuns with its clarity will take your breath away again.
The music glistens like a rainbow
As producer Rosenthal noted during an interview with USA TODAY in July, “Oz” enthusiasts have heard the movie in mono and in some televised versions, stereo.
But, she said, “hearing that voice the way you’ve never heard it before is show-stopping.”
That voice is Judy Garland’s, an instrument naturally imbued with grace and crystalline tone, and when she utters the opening line of “Over the Rainbow,” you’ll stop counting her incredibly detailed eyelashes and swallow hard because that lump will already be in your throat.
The score for the film was rerecorded with a live orchestra on the original soundstage at the former MGM lot in Los Angeles (now called the Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage), with even some of the same instruments being used decades later.
While “Over the Rainbow” is the heart-piercer of the musical, the vibrant chants of the greeters in Munchkinland (“Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”) and the giddy anthem of optimism spouted by the fearless foursome (“We’re Off to See the Wizard”) also shimmer.
Sphere brass might want to consider adding singalong showings of the film to the calendar.
The Wizard is grand, if only in appearance
While the Wizard is famously a small man feeding his insecurities by barking from behind a curtain, his façade is mesmerizing.
The Emerald City, where Dorothy and Co. trek to visit the all-powerful wizard, is vast, striking and very, very green. So entrancing is that vision that you might not notice the booming talking head off to the side of the screen until plumes of flames signal The Wizard’s power kick.
As the titular character, the Wizard has always intrigued as an Emperor Has No Clothes figure, but on a screen the size of two city blocks, his pretense is amplified to almost comedic effect, making his actuality feel even less significant.