The Wizard of Oz is being ruined, and (according this author) it’s fine. It’s fine because the movie is now falling out of cultural relevance, and our choices are to live in a world where no one under the age of 20 will have seen or probably even know what The Wizard of Oz is, or do something really stupid and gimmicky with it to try and get people interested in the original movie.
So, how is it being ruined? They’re using AI to modernize it for viewing at the gigantic Sphere in Las Vegas.
The sphere is a mega-size globe screen, and The Wizard of Oz was, obviously, not shot for that. So AI is being used to expand the picture and show us more that might have been happening around whatever is in frame.
The Wizard of Oz at the Las Vegas Sphere
Obviously, this is horrible since these AI fantasy additions do not represent what the filmmakers intended. Worse, most of the ones we’ve seen look kind of terrible.
Is a wide shot that looks like the sky is on a green screen better than a close-up on the Scarecrow? It is not. But if you want to show the movie in the Last Vegas Sphere, you’ll have no choice but to go with the terrible, AI-generated wide shot.
You can hate it, but it’s better than the alternative. The alternative is that this movie will soon be forgotten.
Young people don’t care about The Wizard of Oz, and you can’t make them care. I have four kids, ages 8 through 17. I watched it with all of them at some point. They don’t know another kid who has ever seen it, and to them, it was just this weird thing their Dad made them do. They don’t understand why anyone would want to watch such fake acting and bad special effects.
It’s hard to blame them. While it was beautiful and groundbreaking for its time, for new viewers watching The Wizard of Oz is like showing up to a modern comedy club and being forced to watch a vaudeville act. It’s a style of entertainment that’s about as relevant as a traveling circus.
Your great-grandfather likely loved radio plays and Burlesque. But those forms of entertainment can’t possibly compete with television and strip clubs, so they are gone.
Written by Joshua Tyler for Great Freakin Robot ~ August 2, 2025
Editor’s NOTE: The above is a somewhat addition to our recent commentary regarding AI – Artificial (Insemination) – OOPS – I meant ‘Intelligence’ – and the World is falling for this crap. Leave the films of Hollywood and the world alone. As a life-long student and supporter of film since I was introduced to much of it from the age of 4 or 5 – I will never support this kind of shiza.
However – I will present to you – ‘The Wrath of GOD‘ – Jeffrey Bennett, Editor
Tyler’s take on the AI aspect is spot on, but I do think the manner in which he has described the original Wizard of Oz is off-base … each to their own I suppose.
I happen to know many young children from my own family who thoroughly enjoyed the original version. To suggest that all youth on the whole summarily dismiss it as weird with “bad special effects” misses the mark, imho.
And I don’t think traveling circuses are irrelevant at all. We still have carnivals that act as somewhat of a surrogate for them. It’s a damn shame they aren’t still around. I took ny two daughters to one of Barnum and Baileys last performances in Gallatin, TN many years ago. They loved it!
Tyler fails to understand that the vert plays and burlesque he says can’t compete with television are some of the very same content television now broadcasts to gain audiences. So, in this one instance, he’s missed the mark. Other than that, I have to agree that AI is an abomination the modern society would be better of shucking and abandoning to the waste bin of history.