The Wizard of Oz at Sphere transports audiences, making them feel like they have stepped inside the film and are traveling down the Yellow Brick Road™ with Dorothy and her friends.

The experience fills Sphere’s 160,000 sq. ft. interior display plane, which wraps up, over and around the audience to create a fully immersive visual environment. 

To take advantage of Sphere Immersive Sound’s 167,000 programmable speakers, and ability to direct sound anywhere in the venue, the original film’s score has been re-recorded to take on new clarity. Multi-sensory 4D elements have been combined and leveraged for maximum impact to make audiences feel like they are in the experience alongside the characters, such as high-velocity wind arrays, atmospheric fog, towering fire bursts, and infrasound haptic seats.

The Iconic Sounds of Oz Come to Sphere

There’s Dorothy and ‘Over the Rainbow’ as you heard them before, and there is Dorothy and ‘Over the Rainbow’ as you hear them now, with the film’s classic music taking on new clarity and immersion through Sphere Immersive Sound. The Wizard of Oz at Sphere leverages newly discovered archival material along with the venue’s audio technologies, including infrasound and haptic seats – both used in new ways – to create an experience that remains true to the filmmakers’ intent while bringing it new life. To take advantage of Sphere Immersive Sound’s 167,000 programmable speakers, and ability to direct sound anywhere in the venue, the original film’s mono score has been re-recorded on the original sound stage to take on new clarity via Sphere Immersive Sound, while preserving the casts’ vocal performances. The Wizard of Oz at Sphere is a fully immersive experience that makes audiences feel like they have stepped inside the film.

Multi-sensory 4D elements in The Wizard of Oz at Sphere

The Wizard of Oz at Sphere brings a level of immersion that exceeds anything previously done in the venue. The film experience combines high-velocity wind arrays, atmospheric fog, towering fire bursts, infrasound haptic seats, and a real-time motion capture system – all designed to sync seamlessly with the story unfolding on screen.

AI in The Wizard of Oz at Sphere

The Wizard of Oz at Sphere harnesses the power of AI, alongside traditional VFX, to bring The Wizard of Oz – a film made in 1939 – to life in an unparalleled way.

Sphere Studios partnered with Google Cloud, Magnopus, creatives and technologists around the world to make this classic film, originally shot for a 4:3 frame, fit Sphere’s 160,000 sq. ft., 16k x 16k resolution screen that wraps up over and around the audience to create a fully immersive visual environment.

Three main techniques were employed: super resolution – to increase the resolution of the original film for the highest resolution screen in the world; outpainting – to fill in characters where they were cut off in the original film, but because of the size of Sphere’s screen, can now be seen in their entirety; and performance generation – to “create” new performances from characters who we know were there in the scene, but were not seen due to camera pans and framing changes.

Thousands of researchers, programmers, engineers, visual effects artists, archivists and producers across the film and technology industries worked together to both fine-tune new AI models on the original film and troves of archival material; and expand and enhance the film using visual effects for this immersive medium – all while staying true to the original film and the filmmakers’ intent. The combination of artistry and advanced technologies used for The Wizard of Oz at Sphere brings the film to unparalleled scale and clarity in order to fully immerse audiences in the Land of Oz.

Through The Wizard of Oz at Sphere, Sphere is leading the way in applying AI and visual effects to bring new creative possibilities to the entertainment industry, and wonder to the world.