The Wizard of Oz
1933 · 9m · CA/US
Directed by Ted Eshbaugh
Genres: animation, comedy, fantasy
Tones: whimsical
A nearly wordless animated adaptation of L. Frank Baum's novel, following Dorothy's journey from sepia-toned Kansas to the vibrant Technicolor land of Oz, accompanied by Carl W. Stalling's classical music arrangements.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
1933 Oz cartoon possibly the first full-color animated film, six years before MGM. The YouTube link: account terminated. Felix's favorite kind of curiosity — the ghost film.
Eshbaugh's potentially-first full-color animated feature predates MGM's sepia-to-color transition by six years — a curatorially significant object whose YouTube link is now dead. Worth programming if a clean copy can be sourced.
The YouTube URL is dead (account terminated). The Eshbaugh 1933 piece is a curio of color-film history but I can't pick what I can't link. Backup source needed.
Reviews
The film has some nice style, imagery and color to it, and it is wonderful having it back completely restored.
Like so many color cartoons of the '30s this one is a pseudo-Silly Symphony that falls far short of the Disney standard, but it is historically significant as potentially the first full-color animated film.