Tin Man (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
by Nick Willing
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DVD details
Actor: Alan Cumming, Neal McDonough, Raoul Trujillo, Richard Dreyfuss, Zooey DeschanelDirector: Nick Willing
Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Collector's Edition, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 265 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-03-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Rhi Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Tin Man (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
DVD Review: Warning! Long Review!
Summary: 4 Stars
First off, the first thing you see is the cover. Well, the holographic foil on the paperboard sleeve is pretty striking. (Wait... The paperboard sleeve is the collectible O-Ring packaging?) Only problem is... the original cover design (and an early poster) were pretty dynamic. This falls a little flat.
Okay, when you insert the first DVD (both of which look pretty nice, but you can easily tell which one is which), you get the copyright notice, the company notice, some previews (which I didn't note, but there's quite a few), then the menu has a nice animation, and a nice little movie showing clips from the whole series. (Disc 2 is the same, without the previews.)
Disc 1 has Part 1 and Part 2 on it, no special features. Also absent is alternate language tracks, alternate audio tracks (so no commentary), and subtitles. (There is also no Closed Captions, but this isn't on a DVD menu.) There are scene selections, eight scenes for each part, and the scene selections for each part run into each other, reminding you that these are both parts of one story.
The story opens with a young woman named DG who lives in Kansas with her folks. She has strange dreams where she sees strange scenes and a beautiful woman with lavendar eyes speaks and sings to her. She is a free spirit, ready to tease Officer Elmer Gulch (yes, you heard right) on her motorcycle.
But a storm is coming...
DG and her parents are surprised one night by men in strange trenchcoats. DG is led to the roof by her parents and is made to jump into a tornado!
DG awakes in a strange country, where she finds ruin from her house in Kansas, no sign of her parents, and midgets who capture her, believing her to be a spy of the Sorceress Azkadelia. While imprisoned, she meets Glitch, a man with a zipper in his skull. Half of his brain has been removed, so "sometimes my synapses don't fly right." He reveals that DG has entered "The O.Z.," the Outer Zone.
DG and Glitch escape, and wind up rescuing Wyatt Cain, a Tin Man, one of the Mystic Man's police force. Cain helps them save Raw (a "viewer," a half beast/half man race. Raw himself bears a resemblance to the portrayals of the Cowardly Lion by Bert Lahr and Ted Ross.) from becoming dinner in the Fields of the Papay.
As they take the Old Road (or "The Brick Route") to Central City, DG discovers that the O.Z. is in fact her home. She finds her "parents" (or, as they call themselves, "nurture units") are more android than human. In fact, they are not her parents. Her mother seems to be the mysterious woman from her dreams.
DG and her comrades make it to Central City, where they see the Mystic Man, who reveals that DG needs to unlock her memories, so DG must go north.
As DG journeys the O.Z., she (and we, as the audience) discovers many fascinating items of her past. Azkadelia is wicked, or is she? Who are her parents? Who was the other girl she lived with in the O.Z.? What secrets lie in the past of Glitch and Cain? And what is the Emerald of the Eclipse, and where is it?
The acting in Tin Man is superb. Zooey Deschanel as DG is endearing, although some feel her natural charm was wasted on the role. Alan Cumming is hilarious and serious as Glitch, pulling off the role with a professional air. Neal McDonough is dead-serious as Cain, but can be emotional when he needs to. Raoul Trujillo is excellent at re-inventing the mighty, sniveling beast. And Kathleen Robertson... WOW! She pulls off evil in a way that rivals Tilda Swinton!
The special effects and CG are almost believable. Not quite lifelike, but these work excellently.
The story is captivating and intriguing. The writing is simply delicious. However, something lacks: there is a lot of backstory not explained in the 4 & 1/2 hours that Tin Man approximately runs for. I would like to see the story continue, myself. Maybe a sequel, or TV series, or series of sequels?
The video quality is very good. I believe it's the best definition you can get on a standard DVD. The episodes have been extended. There are additional little scenes, like more fun with Glitch, more evilness with Azkadelia, and more tracking with Cain. These scenes neither make the series better nor make it worse.
Disc 2 only has Part 3 and the Special Features. Part 3 is also extended.
In addition, the opening title card and credits are now absent from parts 2 & 3 (but the video is still there) and there is no end credits on parts 1 & 2, and the opening credits on part 1 and the end credits on part 3 have been expanded to cover the entire series.
The Special Features are quite good, making this another rarity when it comes to Oz DVDs. (Very few have good special features.)
First up is the "Beyond the Yellow Brick Road: The Making of Tin Man" feature. This was aired on SciFi about a week before the miniseries (and was also a popular bootleg download and the only feature available on bootleg Tin Man DVDs), so this makes it a nice addition.
Next up is a new documentary: "On The Set With The Director," a documentary that, once again, goes behind the scenes and lets the cast and crew talk about working with director Nick Willing.
Now we have the "Blooper Reel." Ah, yes. We all love to see the cast mess up on their lines and cues... except that doesn't happen much here. It's mostly the crew joking around and the cast having downtime. Still fun to watch, but it should have been called by a different name.
Next up is raw footage of interviews with Nick Willing, Zooey Deschanel, Alan Cumming, and Neal McDonough. Some of this, if you're watching the special features sequentially, will sound familiar, as some of it was used in the featurettes. You can also faintly hear the interviewer asking questions and the director, actor or actress listening to them. This can be a little distracting, but most of the time it is bearable. Sadly, Miss Deschanel is not a good interviewee. She even has to ask the interviewer to re-state the actual question. We do learn some interesting things about the cast and crew, though.
Finally is the full-length Tin Man trailer. This was all over the Internet, and probably on SciFi, too, so you've probably seen it.
All in all, if I had to rate this DVD on a scale from 1 to 10, I'd give it an 8. Lack of subtitles, closed captioning (come on, fans whipped up a set of subtitles for the bootleg video files), and the special features, while there is a considerable amount, could have been a bit better.
I say, add it to your Oz collection. It's probably the best re-imagining of Oz that goes far-out while not raping Baum's original vision that we'll get for a long time.
If you buy the DVD at Borders, specially marked DVDs have an exclusive premium, an acetane pouch with a third disc inside the case.
The menu is not unlike the Special Features on Disc 2. We have three selections here. The first two are fancily titled interviews with Kathleen Robertson and Raoul Trujillio. These are much like the interviews on Disc 2, the actor and actress not in costume, seated in what looks like one of the sets, answering questions from the same interviewer, who we can't hear any better than we could before. Both Kathleen and Raoul interview very well, and the interviews are a little over ten minutes long each.
The other item is over a half-hour long. It shows behind-the-scenes footage of the Mystic Man's show, including a deleted item wherein Zooey Deschanel's DG asks the Mystic Man for help. (We also get a good look at some decor at the show: a pillar shaped like a cyclone with many farmhouse items being spun around in it.) However, the repeated takes of the Mystic Man's show gets old very quickly. To be sure, this gives you a taste of what it's like to work on a film, but when you're not involved, it gets dull.
As with many premium bonus DVDs, this disc is not completely satisfying, but it is nice to see these uncut interviews with Kathleen and Raoul. As afore mentioned, the behind-the-scenes of the Mystic Man gives us a realistic glimpse of how much time is taken to shoot a scene that runs for just a few minutes. Altogether, not a bad addition.
(Thanks to Sharon of Curiozity Corner for confirming the existence of the Borders DVD and identifying the material the pouch is made of.)
Description of Tin Man (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
A tent-pole miniseries release from RHI Entertainment and SCI FI Channel, Tin Man is a modern science fiction update of L. Frank Baum?s timeless "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." When a sorceress named Azkadellia scorches the once-beautiful land of OZ into a desolate wasteland, the only hope lies in an "outsider" named DG, a young Midwestern woman, whose troubling dreams have summoned her to the doomed paradise. D.G. embarks on a journey to find the great mystic man to save the O.Z. and on her way she befriends a scarecrow named Glitch, a tin cop named Cain, and gentle manimal named Raw. Journey beyond the yellow brick road withTin Man, now on DVD for the first time in this 2-Disc Collector's Edition with amazing bonus features and collectible packaging.Bestsellers in DVD
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