The Wizard of Oz movie — Page 6

Well, I've fired off an email to a few people (in the know). I'll get back to you with how it goes...

But, yes, I will check into it. Basically we've done the songs, and still working out a fluid storyline. It loosely combines the very first sequels that Baum wrote for the stories, Land Of Oz, Dorothy & Wizard In Oz and Emerald City Of Oz. The design concept for the piece is a tribute to J. R. Neill's gothic illustrations in the original books, with no relation to the MGM movie.

If there are, at any point, any MGM "issues" I talked to the (potential) producer about a) phasing them out completely or b) actually getting MGM involved or c) getting their express permission. For example, in our show the slippers are "silver". They are not ruby (that concept belongs to MGM). Disney had this issue with "Return to Oz" and had to pay off MGM in order to use several of their concepts...

Thanks for pointing this out. I was aware of some of these issues, initially, but now I'm MORE aware & that's better than what it was before.

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Yes, roquat, my apologies. It's been a great while since I've read Ozma of Oz... and the Princess Langwidere is ruling over Ev at the time of Dorothy's encounter, but she is not the Queen of Ev, as I had said earlier.

I recently watched the Shirley Temple "Land of Oz." It's cute, if not inspiring. I was excited to see Agnes Morehead as Mombi, but it wasn't as clever a performance as I'd hoped for. She (for reasons unknown) decided Mombi was Cockney. And Jonathan Winters was fun as "General Nikidik," another hybrid character. I was surprised that it was shot on video IN COLOR for a 1960 airing... when NOTHING was shown on TV in color.

And I like (very much) the Children's Theatre of Minneapolis' production of The Marvelous Land of Oz, and I would recommend it to any Oz fan... yes, despite that semi-creepy kid performance as Tip/Ozma. Come to think of it... a "child sex change" is going to be creepy no matter WHAT young actor attempts it. The Mombi in that production is excellent. You can find used copies of this VHS on eBay or Amazon quite often, and they're not expensive.

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Updated On: 10/27/06 at 09:18 AM

Another thing that scared my dad was when Auntie Em's face in the Witch's hourglass faded away and turned into the Wicked Witch of the West, and she looked right at the camera.

They are totally different - I like the movie ending much more

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I didn't like this movie THAT much as a kid until I played Dorothy in my senior year of High School.

It just never caught my interest.

And I hated Somewhere Over the Rainbow, to the point where I could not listen to it until I did the show.

I love Judy Garland so much now.

I adore this movie with all my heart. I've seen it far too many times to count. My experience is sort of the opposite of HollyImposter's... we did the musical my senior year of high school and I'm not much of an actress, but I had seen the movie so many times that I had Billie Burke's vocal inflections down to a T, so I got the part of Glinda.

Why? In the film Oz is a dream, whereas in the book it's REAL and she can go back, and does, and eventually moves there...how is that a worse ending?

I wouldn't say that the book has a bad ending, but there are certain lines in the film that I like that weren't in the book, like when Dorothy says "If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own backyard, because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with"

The book is just different - I mean Oz is a real place and Dorothy can go back and visit. But in the film, the tension, drama and I think what makes it moving is that everyone assumes that Dorothy was dreaming, but she thought it was real. She has this experience and then shes thrown back into black and white Kansas, but the experience will always be with her and it inevitably changes the way she looks at her little, simple life.

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No matter that MGM tried to present Oz as a dream in their spectacular and incomparable musical fantasy--I never doubted Judy Garland's Dorothy for one moment when she said that she had really been there, and that it was and is a real, live place.

well, b12b, yea...

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Have they made a revival of the Wizard of Oz yet?

this may sound stupid...but

yeah...Wizard of Oz the Musical in Broadway....and if not or if it hasn't been done yet...why aren't they making it into one yet?

Updated On: 5/14/07 at 07:13 PM

Well, first of, the movie is technically fantastic, a lot of the makeup still looks good, and Hamilton, Morgan, and of course Haley, Lahr, and Bolger are perfectly cast.

However...

I hate this movie. The script takes every character Baum created and just ruins them. The morals are hokey, the songs are cute and occasionally clever, but shallow, and Judy Garland is far too old. The 'only a dream' angle is lame. Characterizations are shallow at best. And disjointed though the book was, it could have been streamlined much better.