The Witches of Oz (2011– )

Dorothy Gale discovers that her best selling novels are actually based on suppressed childhood memories of her time in Oz, and that she may be in danger of experiencing it all over again.

Stars:

Paulie Rojas, Eliza Swenson, Billy Boyd

Cast

Series cast summary:
Paulie Rojas	...	Dorothy Gale (1 episode, 2011)
Eliza Swenson	...	Billie Westbrook (1 episode, 2011)
Billy Boyd	...	Nick Chopper (1 episode, 2011)
Lance Henriksen	...	Henry Gale (1 episode, 2011)
Jeffrey Combs	...	Frank (1 episode, 2011)
Ari Zagaris	...	Allen (1 episode, 2011)
Barry Ratcliffe	...	Bryan (1 episode, 2011)
Sasha Jackson	...	Ilsa Lang (1 episode, 2011)
Mia Sara	...	Princess Langwidere (1 episode, 2011)
Sean Astin	...	Frack (1 episode, 2011)
Ethan Embry	...	Frick (1 episode, 2011)
Noel Thurman	...	Glinda (1 episode, 2011)
Christopher Lloyd	...	The Wizard of Oz (1 episode, 2011)
Sarah Lieving	...	The Wicked Witch of the East (1 episode, 2011)
Jessica Sonneborn	...	Ev Locast (1 episode, 2011)
Elizabeth Masucci	...	Jennifer Mombi (1 episode, 2011)
Marissa Smoker	...	Young Dorothy (1 episode, 2011)
Al Snow	...	Nome King (1 episode, 2011)
Jordan Turnage	...	The Tinman (1 episode, 2011)
Bill McAdams Jr.	...	Reporter (1 episode, 2011)
Brionne Davis	...	Simon (1 episode, 2011)
Liz Douglas	...	Em (1 episode, 2011)
Sarra Kaufman	...	Young Wife (1 episode, 2011)
Rosemary Thomas	...	Manager (1 episode, 2011)
Rebecca Salois	...	Maud (1 episode, 2011)
Frank Martinelli	...	Cop #2 (1 episode, 2011)
Raja Slawner	...	Toto (1 episode, 2011)
Reza Garakani	...	Guph (1 episode, 2011)
Tyler Hollinger	...	Host (1 episode, 2011)
Monti Domingue	...	Amy (1 episode, 2011)
Chris Dell'Armo	...	Realtor (1 episode, 2011)
Daniel Sergio	...	Bartender (1 episode, 2011)
Jude Cristian Kasekamp	...	Waiter (1 episode, 2011)
Ross Degraw	...	Cop #3 (1 episode, 2011)
Ross Edgar	...	Rick (1 episode, 2011)
Jon Sinish	...	Goumey (1 episode, 2011)
Brian Lee Huynh	...	Cab Driver (1 episode, 2011)
Brooke Taylor	...	The Good Witch of the South (1 episode, 2011)
Rebecca Lovett	...	Maud (1 episode, 2011)

Storyline

The Witches of Oz follows the exploits of the grown Dorothy Gale, now a successful children's book author, as she moves from Kansas to present day New York City. Dorothy quickly learns that her popular books are based on repressed childhood memories, and that the wonders of Oz are very, very real. When the Wicked Witch of the West shows up in Times Square, Dorothy must find the inner courage to stop her.

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Plot Keywords:

tv mini series

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Fantasy

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Also Known As:

Las brujas de Oz

Filming Locations:

Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Palace / Imaginarium

Technical Specs

Runtime:

167 min 167 min (TV)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The director's cut of the movie, titled "Dorothy and the Witches of Oz", is over an hour shorter and has 15 minutes of new footage with 90% re-done visual effects.

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Quotes

Billie Westbrook: You made me cry.

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Connections

Version of Priklyucheniya v Izumrudnom Gorode. Printsessa Ozma (2000)

User Reviews

Didn't do anything for me

To start things off, I was not expecting any kind of adaptation or even a re-imagining. Just something decent. I was also dubious though, considering The Witches of Oz was airing on the SyFy Channel, save a few exceptions, a lot of stuff on there is not bothering with in my view.

Thanks to costume and set design that is a notch above to most projects on the SyFy Channel and the appearance of Lance Henrikssen, The Witches of Oz could have been much worse. But in all honesty, is that saying much? Not for me.

Apparently there were over 1,400 visual effects. Okay, that is a sort of impressive number though I don't think The Witches of Oz needed that many. It wasn't the quantity of the effects I was looking to, it was the quality of them. While not as crude as some effects I seen compared to some of the other output that airs on the channel, the quality of the effects I don't think are that good, they are often lacking in clarity and sharpness.

The lighting doesn't help much either. Some scenes are dimly lit and make some of the production values seem flat. As for the story, I liked the idea and I admit I was kind of looking forward to what they were going to do with it, however it didn't engage me, I found The Witches of Oz rather sluggishly paced and also that some scenes dragged on for too long. The characters are not written very well at all, and I cared for very few of them, even Toto.

The writing is also stilted, often in a horrendous sense, the direction is perhaps too relaxed that it becomes rather dull and the acting ranges from overplayed to wooden. The worst offenders in both these categories in my opinion are Sean Astin, trying to give his material and bad material some life but ending up overdoing it quite wildly, and the girl who plays Dorothy, who is incredibly unanimated and wooden. Christopher Lloyd is also criminally underused.

Overall, didn't entirely hate it but it didn't do anything for me, sorry. 3/10 Bethany Cox