Dorothy Gale is swept away from a farm in Kansas to a magical land of Oz in a tornado and embarks on a quest with her new friends to see the Wizard who can help her return home to Kansas and help her friends as well.
In order to power the city, monsters have to scare children so that they scream. However, the children are toxic to the monsters, and after a child gets through, 2 monsters realize things may not be what they think.
A selfish prince is cursed to become a monster for the rest of his life, unless he learns to fall in love with a beautiful young woman he keeps prisoner.
A Lion cub crown prince is tricked by a treacherous uncle into thinking he caused his father's death and flees into exile in despair, only to learn in adulthood his identity and his responsibilities.
Directors:
Roger Allers,
Rob Minkoff
Stars:
Matthew Broderick,
Jeremy Irons,
James Earl Jones
In this charming film based on the popular L. Frank Baum stories, Dorothy and her dog Toto are caught in a tornado's path and somehow end up in the land of Oz. Here she meets some memorable friends and foes in her journey to meet the Wizard of Oz who everyone says can help her return home and possibly grant her new friends their goals of a brain, heart and courage.Written by
Dale Roloff
Dorothy's hair changes lengths throughout the course of the film, most noticeably in the Scarecrow cornfield sequence, which was the first sequence to be shot. As production progressed, refinements were made to Judy Garland's hair and makeup. At the end of filming, reshoots were done of the cornfield sequence and, thus, the shots do not match. The reshoots are believed to have been done by King Vidor, who also directed the Kansas sequences, including "Over the Rainbow", after director Victor Fleming left the production to direct Gone with the Wind (1939). See more »
Goofs
The tin man says he rusted solid while he was in the middle of chopping a tree but he is not facing the tree which he says he was working on & he is too far from it to have made much of an impact. He is also holding the axe in the air with one hand. If he was caught in a rainstorm & suddenly couldn't move at all then he would have been in a completely different position. It is also highly unlikely that he couldn't have made it into the cottage right behind him or been able to reach the oil can which he had next to him unless he was already very rusty, in which case he would not have been able to chop the tree down. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Dorothy:
She isn't coming yet, Toto. Did she hurt you? She tried to, didn't she? Come on. We'll go tell Uncle Henry and Auntie Em.
See more »
Crazy Credits
As in some other M-G-M musicals of the '30's and '40's, the heading "Musical Program" appears at the top of the card listing all the music credits (arranger, composer, lyricist, conductor, choreographer, and so on). See more »
Alternate Versions
The original 1939 prints incorporated a "stencil printing" process when Dorothy runs to open the farmhouse door before switching to Technicolor; each frame was hand tinted in order to keep the inside of the door in sepia tone. The 2000 Warner dvd release uses this technique. See more »
Dorothy is a young girl living on a Kansas farm, during a tornado, she, along with her dog Toto, is swept up and plonked down in a magical and mysterious land known as Oz. Desperate to get back home and under threat from a wicked witch, she is advised to seek out a great wizard who should be able to help her get back home. As she sets off and on her way she meets and befriends a wonderful array of characters whom also have something to ask of the fabled wizard, it's a journey that will prove to be both magical and fraught with danger.
The Wizard Of Oz is a film that has been pored over and dissected from almost everyone involved in the wonderful world of film. One thing that strikes me every time I view it is that their not only is no place like home, there is also no film like The Wizard Of Oz, and really, when all is said and done, there is unlikely to be another film of its ilk to ever grace the silver screen. Upon multiple viewings only the most biased of film fan could say that it is a technically perfect picture, it clearly isn't. At times it's a wee bit creaky and when scrutinised, some of the performances in the piece are far from an excellent standard, but crucially any misgivings are quickly erased due to the wonder of it all because the film has an ability to transport everybody who is watching into OZ alongside Dorothy.
The Wizard Of Oz appeals {and caters} to every demographic and pretty much any age group; adventure, meeting new friends, fears and trepidations, booming colour, songs to singalong with, and of course it's total point of homely values: The Wizard Of Oz stands up well 70 years later because it taps into all the emotions available to the human being, be it a young child spellbound on a first viewing, or an octogenarian couple of grandparents wistfully humming along to the tunes, it's a film that shouldn't be dissected looking for faults and hidden meanings, it's a film that should be loved and praised for the ode to fantastical whimsy that it so obviously is.
The film of course will forever be associated with its darling star, Judy Garland. Viewing now, and knowing what a sad life she would eventually lead, The Wizard Of Oz is a fitting picture on which to remember what a magical and wonderful performer she was, myself as a 14 stone lump of waning machismo, I have no shame in saying that as Judy sings Somewhere Over The Rainbow I melt and feel as tho I'm being sent spinning into another world, that's the power of the piece, as a sepia Kansas becomes the glorious colour of Oz, nothing else in my world matters, I'm in hook line and sinker.
There are many interesting back stories to the picture, with books galore available to anyone interested. Some notes that might interest you being: original castings to be W.C. Fields, Shirley Temple and Deanna Durbin, munchkins running riot, drunken cast members, sadness and suicides, and grizzled old pros fighting hard not to let Garland steal the picture. Well it makes for a great read, for sure, but what remains to this day is one of the most beloved pictures to have ever been made, for once in the pantheon of great cinema we have a film that is termed a classic, that actually deserves to have that tag. One of the great things about the advent of technology is that it can benefit old classic movies to make them better, for now we can view remastered editions of The Wizard Of Oz and appreciate even more what a great job the makers did. Keep your eyes on Dorothy's Ruby Slippers during the film and see how they are the sparkling important character that they should be, or take in the brilliant work of the make up crew, the tiniest of rivets on The Tin Man a testament to the brilliant work that goes into bringing magic to our lives. Get the newest copy you can and then see it on the biggest screen available to you because The Wizard Of Oz is a 10/10 movie: and then some.
40 of 48 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
Dorothy is a young girl living on a Kansas farm, during a tornado, she, along with her dog Toto, is swept up and plonked down in a magical and mysterious land known as Oz. Desperate to get back home and under threat from a wicked witch, she is advised to seek out a great wizard who should be able to help her get back home. As she sets off and on her way she meets and befriends a wonderful array of characters whom also have something to ask of the fabled wizard, it's a journey that will prove to be both magical and fraught with danger.
The Wizard Of Oz is a film that has been pored over and dissected from almost everyone involved in the wonderful world of film. One thing that strikes me every time I view it is that their not only is no place like home, there is also no film like The Wizard Of Oz, and really, when all is said and done, there is unlikely to be another film of its ilk to ever grace the silver screen. Upon multiple viewings only the most biased of film fan could say that it is a technically perfect picture, it clearly isn't. At times it's a wee bit creaky and when scrutinised, some of the performances in the piece are far from an excellent standard, but crucially any misgivings are quickly erased due to the wonder of it all because the film has an ability to transport everybody who is watching into OZ alongside Dorothy.
The Wizard Of Oz appeals {and caters} to every demographic and pretty much any age group; adventure, meeting new friends, fears and trepidations, booming colour, songs to singalong with, and of course it's total point of homely values: The Wizard Of Oz stands up well 70 years later because it taps into all the emotions available to the human being, be it a young child spellbound on a first viewing, or an octogenarian couple of grandparents wistfully humming along to the tunes, it's a film that shouldn't be dissected looking for faults and hidden meanings, it's a film that should be loved and praised for the ode to fantastical whimsy that it so obviously is.
The film of course will forever be associated with its darling star, Judy Garland. Viewing now, and knowing what a sad life she would eventually lead, The Wizard Of Oz is a fitting picture on which to remember what a magical and wonderful performer she was, myself as a 14 stone lump of waning machismo, I have no shame in saying that as Judy sings Somewhere Over The Rainbow I melt and feel as tho I'm being sent spinning into another world, that's the power of the piece, as a sepia Kansas becomes the glorious colour of Oz, nothing else in my world matters, I'm in hook line and sinker.
There are many interesting back stories to the picture, with books galore available to anyone interested. Some notes that might interest you being: original castings to be W.C. Fields, Shirley Temple and Deanna Durbin, munchkins running riot, drunken cast members, sadness and suicides, and grizzled old pros fighting hard not to let Garland steal the picture. Well it makes for a great read, for sure, but what remains to this day is one of the most beloved pictures to have ever been made, for once in the pantheon of great cinema we have a film that is termed a classic, that actually deserves to have that tag. One of the great things about the advent of technology is that it can benefit old classic movies to make them better, for now we can view remastered editions of The Wizard Of Oz and appreciate even more what a great job the makers did. Keep your eyes on Dorothy's Ruby Slippers during the film and see how they are the sparkling important character that they should be, or take in the brilliant work of the make up crew, the tiniest of rivets on The Tin Man a testament to the brilliant work that goes into bringing magic to our lives. Get the newest copy you can and then see it on the biggest screen available to you because The Wizard Of Oz is a 10/10 movie: and then some.