The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was an illustrated novel first published in 1900 by the George M. Hill Company. Written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow, the novel was inspired Baum’s personal life and experiences, as well as his desire to capture the wonder of the stories of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen without all the horror. He recognized from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that its ultimate source of popularity was the titular Alice herself, giving children a character they could identify with, and that children’s books should be lavishly illustrated, pleasurable to read, and devoid of moral lessons (something expected of kids’ books at the time).
The cover to the first edition of the book. |
The book was about a young Kansas farmgirl named Dorothy Gale who was swept away in a tornado with her dog, Toto, to the magical Land of Oz. Her house landed on and killed the evil Wicked Witch of the East, freeing the Munchkin people—diminutive inhabitants of Oz adorned from head-to-toe in blue, their favorite color—from her rule. The Good Witch of the North gave Dorothy the Wicked Witch’s Silver Shoes and sent her to the Emerald City so that the powerful Wizard of Oz could send her home. While following the Yellow Brick Road, Dorothy met, befriended and was joined on her journey by the Scarecrow, who wanted a brain, Tin Woodman, who wanted a heart, and the Cowardly Lion, who wanted courage. The Wizard agreed to give them what they wanted in exchange for freeing the Winkies—expert tin-smiths who loved the color yellow—from the rule of the Wicked Witch of the West. After doing so, they learned that the Wizard was actually an ordinary man from Nebraska who was stranded in Oz when his hot air balloon was blown off course. The Wizard granted Dorothy’s friends their wishes, but Dorothy was still stuck until Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, revealed that the Silver Shoes had the power to send Dorothy home. The novel ended with Dorothy finally returning home; the Woodman becoming king of the Winkies; the Lion king of a forest he rescued from a giant spider; and Scarecrow the new ruler of the Emerald City.
The final Thompson book. |
Publisher George Hill didn’t have much faith in the book and had given a skeptical prediction of selling around 250,000 copies; although he initially only produced 10,000. He only agreed to publish it at all when Fred R. Hamlin, manager of the Chicago Grand Opera House, agreed to turn the book into a musical stage play for publicity. The book ended up becoming a phenomenon, selling out that initial print run and every printing afterward, and the musical, which opened in 1902, did just as well. Baum had never planned beyond the first book, but by popular demand he ended up writing 13 sequels and 6 short stories until his death in 1919. Ruth Plumly Thompson was named Baum’s successor by the publisher, and she wrote 21 more sequels that were released every Christmas until she left the series in 1939 and was replaced by various other authors. As the books remained popular, they were translated into many other forms of media from radio plays to films, both live and animated. The most famous adaptation of Baum’s work came with 1939’s The Wizard of Oz by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The musical film was directed by Victor Fleming with music written by Yip Harburg and composed by Harold Arlen. It starred Judy Garland as Dorothy, Billie Burke as Glinda, Ray Bolger as Scarecrow, Jack Haley as Tin Man, Bert Lahr as the Lion, Frank Morgan as the Wizard, and Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West. While the most faithful adaptation at that point, the film strayed from the original book by combining, condensing or omitting several elements. Glinda’s character was merged with the Good Witch of the North, appearing at both the beginning and end of the story. Many of Dorothy’s side adventures were eliminated, with the focus placed on her meeting her friends and journeying to the Emerald City. The Wicked Witch’s role was enlarged to become a looming threat, whereas she only appeared in one chapter of the book. Dorothy’s Silver Shoes were changed to Ruby Slippers in order to take full advantage of the Technicolor process used during all the Oz scenes of the film (the Kansas scenes were shot in a sepia tone, later made pure black and white). Dorothy herself was also older than the book depicted.
1949 re-release poster. |
The film, while critically acclaimed, was actually a financial loss for MGM in relation to its budget until its re-release in 1949, where it made an additional $1.5 million. It went on to become one of the first movies MGM/CBS Home Video released on VHS and Betamax in 1980, as well as the basis for several other Oz adaptations. One of those, to commemorate the film’s 50th anniversary, was an animated series produced by DiC Entertainment and Turner Entertainment.
Scarecrow, Lion, Dorothy, Toto and Tin Man. |
Titled simply The Wizard of Oz, the series saw Dorothy (Liz Georges) and Toto (Frank Welker) returning to Oz by using the Ruby Slippers after they appeared on her doorstep, reciting the reverse of her famous line: “There’s no place like Oz.” The slippers were sent by Glinda (B.J. Ward) to recruit Dorothy to help Oz rid itself of the Wicked Witch of the West (Tress MacNeille), who was revived by her minions, the evil winged monkeys, and conquered the Emerald City; stealing her friends’ gifts. Reunited with the Scarecrow (David Lodge), Tin Man (Hal Rayle) and the Lion (Charlie Adler), Dorothy and her friends set out to find a way to free Oz from the Wicked Witch once and for all and rescue the Wizard (Alan Oppenheimer), who was trapped on his balloon and constantly being blown around by a magical wind created by the Witch.
Hyena captures the friends. |
The Wizard of Oz debuted on September 8, 1990 on ABC and ran for a single season before it was cancelled. The introduction depicted the backstory on Dorothy’s return to Oz and was produced in the same way as the movie; with the Kansas scenes in black and white except for the Ruby Slippers. The series was adapted by Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser and written by Pat Allee, Gordon Bressack, Bob Carrau, Jules Dennis, Ben Hurst, Lisa Maliani, Michael Maroney, Michael Maurer, Richard Merwin, Doug Molitor, Michael O’Mahony, Laurie Sutton, Chris Weber and Karen Willson, with Molitor serving as story editor. Animation was handled by Pacific Rim Productions, Inc.
Dorothy and Glinda. |
Despite the visual similarities to the 1939 film and the use of several
of its songs (with additional music by Tom Worral), a few things were
changed for the show. For starters, the entire premise was closer to the books
in that Oz was a real and vast place and not the trauma-induced delusion it was
suggested as being at the end of the film. The Witch’s demise was changed to
her becoming a statue, rather than having been melted when Dorothy doused her
with water; which was how her monkey minions managed to revive her. In order to
keep the Ruby Slippers from being the dues ex machina of every story, their
magic was shown to be unreliable because Dorothy didn’t know how to use them
properly. The Slippers also shouldn’t have been able to be removed from
Dorothy’s feet until her death, even though they were several times during the
show’s run. The Witch’s crystal ball was also limited, only able to work once a
day due to its creator sabotaging it when she first stole it.
DVD cover art. |
Shortly after its conclusion, Turner
Home Entertainment released 11 episodes on VHS between 1991
and 1995. Lions Gate/Trimark Home
Entertainment brought three episodes to DVD as The Rescue of the Emerald City in 2002. In 2003, United American Video
released The Continuing Story as part of the “Animation Station”
line. Although it had the same cover art as the previous volume, it featured
four different episodes. They next
released four more episodes on We’re Off to Save the Wizard in 2005 under their new name of Sterling
Entertainment Group. The only episode not released on DVD was “The
Marvelous Milkmaid of Mechanica”.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2024.
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