THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Fans would know that there are many stories to adapt within the book series for The Wizard of Oz. With so much material, it’s a surprise for Hollywood to go past the source to make something new.
PLOT
2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful is a spiritual prequel to the 1939 film, showing how the Wizard became the leader to the fantasy world. The story takes place in 1905 and follows Oscar Diggs who made a living as a con artist & magician in a traveling circus. He flees from a strongman via hot air balloon when being called out for flirting with the latter’s wife. When sucked into a tornado, he finds his way into the land of Oz and upon lading does he meet a naive witch named Theodora, who suspects him to be prophesied to defeat a wicked witch. Oscar accepts the role only to ensure he’ll be a wealthy monarch and go from there. On the way to Emerald City, not only does Theodora fall for him (in which he doesn’t reciprocate), but meet a munchkin named Knuck and a flying monkey named Finley. Oscar earns his trust when saving him from a lion and maintains the facade he is a wizard when he reveals his deception to him. At Emerald City does Oscar meet Theodora’s sister Evanora, who instructs him the Wicked Witch will be in the Dark Forest if he intends to vanquish her by destroying her wand. He goes with Finley and on the way, they meet an orphaned living doll who lost her family to the wicked witch. She meets the so called enemy Glinda, who reveals her father was the preceding king and was killed by Evanora, the true wicked one. With Theodora being misled by her sister that Oscar wants to court them all, Evanora gives her an apple claiming it will remove her heartbreak. Instead, it turns her green skin and has her embrace her evil tendencies. Glinda takes Oscar & his new friends to Munckin Land and although she’s aware he’s not a real wizard, she’s still sure he can help. He himself doesn’t feel the same since he doesn’t have powers like her. However, he becomes motivated to help when Theodora threatens to attack with a well prepared army. Overnight, Oz and the town outsmart their enemies with trickery. With Glinda’s help, they create mechanical scarecrows to lure the wicked witches. It does seem to work when most of their flying baboons get lured into a poppy field and fall asleep consequently. However, a pair of conscience ones are still able to capture Glinda and she drops her wand. Luckily, China Girl is able to retrieve it before anyone else could. Oscar does infiltrate Emerald City thanks to Knuck and is presumed to leave Oz with the hot air balloon, but that gets thwarted when Evanora destroys it with a fireball. At the brink of preparing to kill Glinda in the center of the city, Oscar resurfaces, having faked his death and uses a hidden smoke machine, as well as a image projector to trick all but his allies that a giant face is his true form. He intimidates the wicked witches with fireworks and offers Theodora a chance to overcome her wickedness, but she refuses and flies away. China Girl is able to give Glinda back her wand and when she does, the Good Witch overpowers Evanora in a duel by destroying her emerald necklace that was masking her hag like appearance. With her true form exposed, she flees to the East with her baboons. With Oscar now becoming the new ruler of Oz after the exit of the wicked witches, he decides to sustain the illusion to the city that he is powerful. With peace in motion, he provides gifts to all that helped him: He gifts a jack knife to Master Tinker for helping him construct the machine. As a joke, he gives Knuck a mask painted with a smiley face and gifts a top hat to Finley. Although he can’t help China Girl bring back her family, he chooses to accept her as his own, which she gladly accepts in return. The film ends with Oscar kissing Glinda, as a thank you for changing his life.
THOUGHTS
As I look back, it becomes clear to me Hollywood spaces it out in Oz adaptations because they want to respect the legacy that was built in ‘39. Being aware there have been so many books, it was obvious there was a lot of inspiration for Director Sam Raimi and writers Mitchell Kapner & David Lindsay-Abaire to bring to the table. The end result was something quite fun. Obviously, this wasn’t gonna top the classic, but it never had to be to just enjoy. So admittedly, the background shots on Oz’s landscape are what have aged poorly, but the focus on the various creatures like the flying apes, river fairies or China Girl are splendidly made. And of course, the costume/makeup design pay off in giving the atmosphere that is out of this world like the first time. It's kinda ironic they casted James Franco to be the Wizard due to the controversy that would surround him by the end of the decade, as the whole point of this movie implies that even those that are looked at scoundrels can find redemption and have a new lease on life. Since i never thought of who else were to play this character, it made sense of the time for it to be Franco due to the popularity he gained previously. Overall, I think he does make it believable that Oscar's a guy aware of his flaws and desires to be better. His dilemma is to break out of his quirks that make him who he is until he uses them for a more appropriate scenario. If you use your talents to help others, then you're on the verge for greatness. He couldn't do it in Kansas because he was caught up with his own need to survive but when he came to Oz, he realized he wasn't the only one trying to do the same. Little by little, he saw how different everyone is and was able to adapt enough to save his new home. He chose to not go back to Kansas because he knew he'd go back to scheming ways and didn't want to undo his growth. And his decision to rule Emerald City with his ruse is for the sake of finding a leader to respect rather than fear. The dynamic of the wicked witches has its similarities to the Wicked novel, but has a far different approach that pays off creatively. Rachel Weisz succeeded in making Evanora the most despicable of villains due to manipulating others like her own sister to do her dirty work. Mila Kunis gives legit sentimentality for Theodora since she was most naive & susceptible. Because of that, it was easy for her to believe anything her sister said before it was too late. The second she went green, she became everything she stood against. If my sister did that to me, I probably would drop a house on her, so Glinda gave us a prelude of that when exposing Evanora's true appearance. Speaking of which, Oscar would've not had this change of heart had it not been for the others who showed him the way. Tony Cox made me chuckling in making Knuck most temperamental until learning to lighten up and Bill Cobbs was a treat in being quite compassionate of an inventor as the Master Tinker. I had a big smile with Zach Braff because he was so charming as Frank and his variant Finley. What they have in common is genuine loyalty because Oscar gives both sides a chance to live to their potential and it paid off in both ways. Frank still gave him his belongings as he left Kansas and Finley kept his secret. Joey King was also a great addition because as China Girl, she breaks out of her own shell going from shy to feisty which she proved when helping Glinda. Had Oscar not helped her walk again, something he couldn't for a human child, who knows if the wicked could've been defeated the way they did. Last but not least, Michelle Williams was a great choice at the time to play Glinda. She is the variant to Oscar's long lost lover Annie Gale and what they have in common is being benevolent yet still kind throughout as the goal is to protect everybody, as you would expect from anyone called Good. Her optimism is through the roof too since even though she leads people to not kill, it still pays off exponentially since she didn’t need to do so to kill Evanora. She kisses Oscar in the end because she sees how big his heart has grown and he falls for her like he did with Annie because she was the only one who didn’t doubt his potential. Off of that, things really changed for the better until otherwise. While I respect everything this movie was going for, there are other things that don’t age well story wise. Like the trippiest thing about entering Oz isn’t the aspect ratio, but how the gravity differs between Oscar and all the non-sentient objects around him. There’s no explanation for things like the top hat being able to float while he’s grounded in the balloon. And there was no reason for the river fairies to wait it out on attacking Oscar like they were waiting for Theodora to introduce their existence. Also, there was no reason for Finley to ask in joining the carriage if he could’ve just flown in. If the luggage is so heavy, he could’ve thrown that in and still kept flying. I then can’t stand the fact that Theodora didn’t even try to kill Glinda on her own. If she was so angry at Oscar, she could’ve made an example. I know Glinda still had her wand at that point, but it’s not like she knew she had anything that would stop her. The same thing goes with her not considering to fly over the poppy field once she saw the baboons fall for the trap. Hell, the baboons that avoided the field could’ve killed Glinda if they wanted to and it’s dumb of them not to since Evanora didn’t make an order to save her for last. Oscar is also lucky that the balloon didn’t land on the carriage because lord knows what would’ve been improvised without the projector. And if I gotta get into continuity errors, I’d have to point out how odd it was to see Theodora to be further away from the projector in one take only to be closer in the following one as she retreats. Other than that, Oz the Great and Powerful is still an enjoyable origin story for being a creative shakeup at its time. If you are of this fantasy franchise, I hope you have a soft spot for it as I have.
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