Cinefantastique Spotlight Podcast: <i>Oz the Great and Powerful</i>

Another film that answers questions we didn't ask, Oz the Great and Powerful is a prequel showing how the magical land over the rainbow got its formidable-but-all-too-fallible wizard.
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This film image released by Disney Enterprises shows a scene from "Oz the Great and Powerful." (AP Photo/Disney Enterprises)
This film image released by Disney Enterprises shows a scene from "Oz the Great and Powerful." (AP Photo/Disney Enterprises)

2013-03-11-OZ_05994_R_410.jpgAnother film that answers questions we didn't ask, Oz the Great and Powerful is a prequel showing how the magical land over the rainbow got its formidable-but-all-too-fallible wizard. Director Sam Raimi makes his 3D debut in this big-budget project, recruiting James Franco as his soon-too-be Oz, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams as a trio of witches good and wicked, and Zach Braff and Joey King voicing some of the kingdom's more magical inhabitants: a flying monkey and a China girl. Cinefantastique Online's Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons bought a round-trip ticket to this fantasy world, and are back to discuss whether the newer actors live up to their original counterparts in 1939's The Wizard of Oz, if the CG-enhanced visuals add new grandeur to the predecessor's production design, and if the entire experience is more like a wild ride into a tornado or a soporific stroll through a field of poppies.

Also: Steve gives his opinion of The ABCs of Death, and what's coming to theaters next week.

Click on the player button to hear the show, or right-click the title to download.

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