General Discussion Wizard of Oz

Wes B

Wes B

Mostly Harmless
Jul 28, 2019
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zx1ninja said:
Next question: Why is the wicked witch of the west Green?
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I'm gonna be mundane, and go for practical reasons. Moviemakers go crazy with whatever new technology is available to them. Just like they go crazy today with CGI, back then, they went crazy with a new tech called Technicolor. Before then, everything was shot in black & white. In fact, they started filming the Wizard of Oz in black & white, and reshot the Oz parts in technicolor, once they got their hands on it.

They did their best to splash as much bright color all around, so why not make the witch bright, bright green? Fun fact: in L. Frank Baum's original book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's magic slippers were silver. With all that technicolor tech to show off, they switched 'em to bright red...
 
zx1ninja

zx1ninja

They call me Z.
Mar 17, 2017
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Oh, I've seen the movie lots of times. It's the book I've never seen
 
AHumbleWarrior

AHumbleWarrior

Oct 15, 2022
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You mean it doesn't go to Willy Wonka's? So disappointing! :D

I must be a weirdo 'cause I actually enjoyed The Marvelous Land of Oz (2nd book in the series) a little bit more than the Wizard of Oz.

If people only knew how many times I sang "If I only had a brain" as they walked away from me after asking me a stupid question... 🤪
 
Wes B

Wes B

Mostly Harmless
Jul 28, 2019
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zx1ninja said:
Sadly, I've never seen, much less read the book.
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It's a fun read. There were things emphasized in the book that were only lightly touched on in the movie. F'rexample, there were numerous instances in the journey where the lion showed courage, the woodman showed heart, or the scarecrow showed brains, but they could never see it in themselves. The movie did a little with these things, but not consistently enough to make it obvious. It's really interesting how the author developed them.

In addition to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum wrote another 12 or 13 Oz books, and after his death, another author, Ruth Pumly Thompson was commissioned as "the Royal Historian of Oz," and wrote another huge batch of 'em.

In the movie, they made Oz just a dream place, whereas in the books, Oz was a real place, and Dorothy goes back multiple times, the other characters have their own adventures, and a huge cast of new characters are introduced. It's quite a vast, though sadly a mostly forgotten, series.

Many, many, many of what I believe are called "The Famous Forty" of the main Oz books are now in the public domain, so places like Project Gutenberg and The Internet Archive might have some of them...

EDIT: Yes indeedy... Project Gutenberg has a whole bunch of the Oz books, ready for your downloading pleasure...

ANOTHEREDIT: My own trivia question... Do you know that the Tin Woodsman has a name? ( We see above that @AHumbleWarrior has read book two, so he might remember what it is... :) )
 
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lynnmosher

lynnmosher

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Feb 21, 2007
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LOL Just saw a new commercial for Suburu, I think it was. Car is driving down yellow road to the tune of Follow the Yellow Brick Road. Then turns off onto the red road. :D
 
zx1ninja

zx1ninja

They call me Z.
Mar 17, 2017
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A better question might be, does Subaru? Do they know they're commercial is going nowhere 🤔
 
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