#Hanging munchkin wizard of oz movie#
#Hanging munchkin wizard of oz tv#

Or this one, which is in colour, but obviously videoed from the TV screen: Check out this one on YouTube, for example:įor some reason it is not only fuzzy, but in black and white. And many of the repeatable formats are not particularly clear, especially VHS. You only get one chance at the cinema to check out the scene.

#Hanging munchkin wizard of oz movie#

Many people would have seen this movie in some not easily repeatable format. The part that makes sense is the fact that in most previous versions of the movie, it was nowhere near as obvious that this was a bird. So how did some people come to be believe anything different? Well there are two parts to this: one that makes sense and one that’s irrational. I haven’t changed the screen grabs in any way, other than cropping them down to size. With the enhanced clarity of Blu-ray, it’s quite impossible to see any hanging bodies, or anything else other than a large bird. See how the bird’s beak becomes more prominent on the later (lower) frame as it moves more into profile. This is obvious on the Blu-ray, but here are crops from frames a second or two apart: The reason I say aggression is that as the group move past it, the bird rotates slowly to its left, facing them. Then as they get closer, the camera pulls back a little more and the bird stands there, watching them, all detail now gone, leaving it as an indistinct black blob wobbling slightly around the tree/painting behind it:įinally, the dancing, singing crew get close enough to alarm the bird, which opens its wings in what looks like a display of aggression, but may merely be preparation to depart. All detail largely disappears, aside from a yellow dot for its beak. To me, it looks an awful lot like the bird is watching the trio approach, as birds are inclined to do:Īs you can see, as the bird becomes more upright to see (as I imagine) what’s approaching, its neck comes to align with a tree behind it (probably not a tree, but a painted tree on a backdrop). At this point the bird changes its posture from one of pecking stuff from the ground.

Now the group turn around and start dancing back up the path, away from camera. Soon after this the camera backs up a little (as the trio of performers approach it), making the bird a bit smaller in frame. I don’t know my birds at all, but it seemed to be some kind of crane, largely black or very deep blue, with a yellow crest on its head and yellow and white wings.ĭon’t believe me? Here’s a grab from the Blu-ray, or rather crops from two of them. And all I could see was what was bleeding obviously a bird. I immediately thought ‘Blu-ray’ of course, so I popped in the disc and watched the section he mentioned. Brian Dunning, the producer of Skeptoid, says where the alleged hanging body can be viewed, and suggests that it is most likely one of the birds they had on set. It turns out that some people actually believe that the suicide of a Munchkin was recorded on film in The Wizard of Oz. Incredible! I’m listening to a recent episode of the Skeptoid podcast, this one on Hollywood myths.