Time again to “Do-Re-Mi” – “The Sound of Music: 60th Anniversary” comes alive in 4K UHD

4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS

Julie Andrews plays the free-spirited young postulant Maria, who loves to sing and the mountains. The Mother Abbess sends Maria to the home of retired naval officer Captain Georg von Trapp, played by Christopher Plummer, to be the governess to his seven children.

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4K screenshots courtesy of 20th Century Studios via Filmmaker Mode - Click for an Amazon purchase

“THE SOUND OF MUSIC: 60th ANNIVERSARY EDITION”

4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray; 1965; G for everyone; Digital copy via Amazon Video (4K), Apple TV (4K), Fandango Home 4K, Movies Anywhere (4K), YouTube (4K)

Best extra: “The Sound of a City: Julie Andrews Returns to Salzburg” documentary (2015)

IN 2019, Disney Studios purchased the 20^th Century Fox library of films, which included the Rodgers & Hammerstein collection of musicals: “State Fair” (1945), “Oklahoma!” (1954), “The King and I” (1956), “Carousel” (1956), “South Pacific” (1958) and “The Sound of Music” (1965).  At the same time, the bean counters at Mouse Central were aggressively pushing its new Disney+ streaming channel, and physical media lovers got extremely concerned. Would those newly acquired movies ever see the light of day on physical disc again – especially on 4K Ultra HD?  

The first four years of the new partnership were dismal, with only two 20^th Century catalog films – “Home Alone” (1990) and Speed” (1994) – jumping to 4K disc. But in the last 20 months, magic has emerged from the 20^th Century vaults with the 4K Ultra HD releases of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show: 50^th Anniversary Edition” (1975) released last week, “Aliens” (1986), “The Abyss” (1989), “True Lies” (1994), “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” (2003) and “Kingdom of Heaven” Director’s Cut” (2005). The latest, Tim Burton’s heartwarming classic “Edward Scissorhands: 35^th Anniversary Edition, arrives on October 28.

Last year, word started to circulate that Disney’s restoration house, under the supervision of Kevin Schaeffer, was planning a major restoration of the family favorite “The Sound of Music” to celebrate its 60^th Anniversary. My sister and I, along with our parents and hundreds of others, filled a former Vaudeville theater six decades ago, to see Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, and the delightful seven children as the von Trapp family singers on the large silver screen.

In February, Disney finally provided the details, that fans of all ages would get the opportunity to experience the heart-warming film, winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, for a short theatrical run in late September on over 1,000 screens in 30 countries. At that same time, it was released on the five-inch 4K Ultra HD disc and digital 4K.

Maria and the Nonnberg Abbey

(1&2) The icon helicopter shot was the last shot for the Austrian part of the production, while birch trees were planted specially for the film. (3) “The Sound of Music” premiered on March 2, 1965, and played for 147 weeks, the longest-running movie in cinema history. (4) The interiors of the abbey were filmed in Hollywood. (5) Maria misses the prayer service and runs past Mother Abbess (Peggy Wood) and Sisters Berthe (Portia Nelson) and Margaretta (Anna Lee).

VIDEO

We finally got a copy of the fast-selling 60^th Anniversary Edition, and the on-screen results are staggering. The resolution is so impeccable, when the helicopter tracks toward Julie Andrews and she does the famous 360-degree turn with her arms stretched out singing, “The hills are alive with the sound of music,” I got goosebumps, seeing it for the first time on my nine-foot screen.

It’s clearly going to be a top contender for the best TRUE 4K release of 2025, with its stunning resolution and HDR10, and Dolby Vision color grading and contrast levels. Schaeffer said during a recent YouTube interview that they scanned the original TODD-AO 65mm camera negative in 8K, “so that gives us a crisper, sharper, clearer picture than before.” The super fine film grain is tight and consistent throughout, and the mountain vistas with huge billowing clouds are detailed and flawless.

Still, there were challenges, despite receiving the “best of care.” There were stains, dirt, warping, scratches, and inherent issues with camera jitter and bumps – especially during the opening helicopter sequence as the camera maneuvered through the Austrian Alps. Those moments were smoothed out digitally, and the complete restoration took nine months to scan and correct the imperfections.  

Also, an 8K scan of a 65mm intermediate second-generation print was produced for its 50^th anniversary, supervised by Schawn Belston at Fox, and handled by post production house FotoKem. The last photochemical restoration was finished in 2000, when a 70mm print was approved by director Robert Wise (“West Side Story,” “The Day the Earth Stood Still”).

AUDIO

The previous 50^th Anniversary Edition eight-channel DTS-HD soundtrack was upgraded to the new Dolby Atmos for height speakers. It’s used sparingly for the Oscar-winning Best Sound and Best Music Score adaptation from the original Rodgers & Hammerstein Broadway production. Unforgettable tunes “Edelweiss,” “My Favorite Things,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen, “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” and “Do-Re-Mi” are dialed mostly toward front speakers. Andrews’ vocals are superb, helping her earn a second Academy Award nomination as Maria. The previous year, she won the Best Actress golden statue as Mary Poppins.

Maria becomes a Governess

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The Captain and Baroness Elsa von Schraeder

EXTRAS

Most of the bonus features from previous editions have been carried over and separated across the 4K with the commentaries and two Blu-ray discs housing the rest of the extras.

• Two commentaries: One with co-stars Andrews and Plummer, two of the child actors and the youngest member of the actual von Trapp family. Andrews recalls how the large helicopter maneuvered sideways toward her position on the hillside field. “It moved like a crab,” as the camera operator hung out the side door. But, when the helicopter made the turn for another take, the down draft was so strong it would “flatten me into the ground,” she said. 

  
  

• The second track is with director Robert Wise, recorded for its first DVD presentation in 2000. He recalls how intermit rain caused delays during the summer of 1964, with three days of sunshine and then three days of rain. He also details the opening helicopter shot with Andrews, which was the last shot of the production. The rest of the cast had been sent back to Hollywood to start filming interior shots. The iconic hillside was filmed in Southern Bavaria in West Germany during the height of the Cold War.

  
  

• “The Sound of a City: Julie Andrews Returns to Salzburg” (50 mins.) This documentary was filmed to celebrate the film's 50^th anniversary. At the time, Andrews, just a few months short of 80, begins a tour of Salzburg, Austria, and its many famous “Sound of Music” locations, where the true-to-life story took place during the 1930s. 

Maria leaves and Returns

• “Musical Stages: Four Segments:”

  
  

• “The Songs” (31 mins.) details each of the key songs, plus three songs (“An Ordinary Couple,” “How Can Our Love Survive?” “No Way to Stop It”) cut from the 1959 Broadway production. Richard Rogers composed two new songs for the film, “I Have Confidence” and “Something Good.”

  
  

• “The Show” (29 mins.) Highlights the partnership between Rodgers & Hammerstein who dominated Broadway during the 1950s. It also has interviews with cast members including Marni Nixon, “Singing Voice of the Stars,”as Sister Sophia. She’s the amazing singing voice for Deborah Kerr’s Anna Leonowens in “The King and I,” Natalie Wood’s Maria in “West Side Story,” and Audrey Hepburn’s Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.”

  
  

• “The Family” (24 mins.) Points out how the von Trapp family actually left Austria via a train into Italy, and didn’t climb the Alps into Switzerland for their escape. It features interviews with Maria von Trapp and her son Johannes. He tells how their U.S. VISTAS were not renewed in 1939 and had to go back to Europe for the summer. The family got new visitors’ VISAS, but they were sent to Ellis Island for three days, because Maria told the immigration officer, “I’m so glad to be back here again, I never want to leave again.” During their detainment, they entertained everyone in the main lobby of Ellis Island. Eventually, friends got them the right paperwork to stay in the U.S., and two von Trapp brothers served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

  
  

• “The Restoration” (11 mins.) Highlights the video and audio digital work for its 50^th Anniversary, including how they resurrected the original six-track stereo print master for its new audio soundtrack.   

  
  

• “A City of Song” Features 18 brief video clips showing the modern Salzburg landmarks, compared to the spot featured in the film.

The Germans march into Austria

• “Vintage Programs” originally from 1994:

  
  

• “The Sound of Music: From Fact to Phenomenon” (87 mins.) Narrated by actress Claire Bloom and features several dozen interviews from the von Trapp family, the cast, the director, Hammerstein’s son James, Theodore S. Chapin, at the time president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, associate producer Saul Chaplin, screenwriter Ernest Lehman and Fox studio head Richard D. Zanuck.

  
  

• “My Favorite Things: Julie Andrews Remembers” (63 mins.), She recalls, at the time, the film was the most-watched musical in cinema history.  

  
  

• “From Liesl to Gretl” (34 mins.) A sit-down with the adult actors who played the von Trapp children 30 years earlier.  

  
  

• “Salzburg Sight and Sound” (13 mins.) A featurette captured in 1964, through the eyes of Charmian Carr, who plays teenager Liesl.

  
  

• “On Location with ‘The Sound of Music’” (23 mins.) Carr narrates this tour of Salzburg, which was captured in more than two dozen scenes for the motion picture.   

  
  

• “When you Know the Notes to Sing: A Sing-Along” (13 mins.) Highlights the ‘Sing-Along screening of “The Sound of Music” at the 18,000-seat Hollywood Bowl. 

  
  

“The Sound of Music” continues to hold the record as the longest-running movie in American cinema. It premiered on March 2, 1965, and played for 147 weeks. The American Film Institute selected it as the No. 4 musical of all time, with “Singin’ in the Rain” at No. 1.

— Bill Kelley III, High-Def Watch producer

Salzburg Festival

SPECS:

• 100 GB disc

• TRUE 4K mastering

• 65mm 5 perf TODD-AO format, 2.20:1 aspect ratio

• Video bitrate: Varies from the upper 20 Megabits per second to 85 Mbps. A running time of 174 minutes, with a 2-minute and 15-second intermission.

• Box office: $165 million domestically, and worldwide $288 million. Finished as the No. 1 box office film of the year, with 161,598,302 tickets sold.

• Academy Awards: Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, and won five for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Music

• Rotten Tomatoes: Top critics 84 percent, Moviegoers 91 percent