Few stories leave such an impression as to become a permanent part of a country’s cultural makeup. The Wizard of Oz is undoubtedly one of those tales. The story has spawned movies, musicals, movie-musicals, countless books, inspired TV series…the list goes on and on. Here, we’ve decided to take a little walk back through what makes Oz so magical and it’s long and varied history.
In 1900 the original book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum was published. The story tells of a young girl, Dorothy Gale, who gets swept away from her home in a cyclone to a magical land. This is the first of 13 books that Baum would write, not to mention numerous others later. In 1902 Baum adapted his own book into a Broadway musical.
The story resonated largely in part because the world was war weary and it helped people remember the wonder of childhood and the magic of friendship and imagination.
While Baum was hard at work on subsequent books in the series, the most famous adaptation was released in 1939 from MGM and starring Judy Garland. It was not the first film adaptation, however it quickly became the most popular and for a while was aired as a special on television once a year. Audiences fell in love with the actress who portrayed Dorothy, Judy Garland, as well as with the munchinks, the colors, the Lion the Tin Man and the Scarecrow.
For many, the ambiguity of whether or not Oz was actually a dream in the movie had them coming back to watch time and time again.
Journey Back to Oz is arguably the film that can most clearly be called a sequel to the musical version. The animated version never became quite as popular as the original but the fact that it was released thirty some odd years after the MGM film is a testament to the love audiences continued to foster for the film.
A Broadway musical was released in the 20th century inspired by the book entitled The Wiz. After a hugely successful run, the musical was adapted into a movie by the same name.
The film starred Diana Ross, a young Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor. It was released in 1978 to rave reviews and had a whole new generation revisiting the 1939 film and books. The soundtrack did smashingly well and helped solidify Michael Jackson as one of America’s top pop icons.
In 1995 a talented but largely unknown author named Gregory Maguire decided to explore a different part of the story – that of the witches. He framed the story around the Wicked Witch. The book sold like crazy and a new Oz-craze began.
In 2003 the book was adapted into a musical. It rocked the box office and had audiences everywhere ‘Defying Gravity.’ It tapped into the emotional core of the original and gave everyone a chance to step outside of the narrative they had become accustomed to and think about outcasts and bullying in a new light.
In 2005, another reimagining combined the worldwide beloved Muppets with the story starring Ashanti, Queen Latifah and the Muppets. Miss Piggy played all of the witches, Pepe played Toto, Kermit played the Scarecrow, Gonzo the Tin Man and Fozzie the Lion. While it hasn’t become a part of the canon the same way the original has, the movie got people talking.
While our next stop on the timeline isn’t exclusively about Oz, it again speaks to the scope of the original story. In 2011, ABC premiered a TV show called Once Upon A Time that explored fairy tales writ large. Several prominent Oz characters made their way into the series and continue to appear today. The show became wildly successful for ABC and spawned it’s own spin-off, Once Upon A Time in Wonderland.
Oz continues to be reexamined in movies every few years. The most recent example was Disney’s massive movie, Oz the Great and Powerful. The new version had a decidedly darker tone, which was a little truer to the original book and reflected the times the movie was written and developed in. The film starred Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams and James Franco. It focused heavily on the witches, reflecting the popularity of Wicked, also. A sequel is in the works.
