The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
By: L. Frank Baum
I decided to read this one for the Classicsathon being run by Lucy the Reader this month. I kind of have a strange relationship with Oz as the movie scared me as a child. Or at least what I remember about the movie.
I mean girl gets sucked up into tornado, dropped in strange lands, commits homicide by house, meets a talking Scarecrow and Tin Man (I like the lion). Girl is hunted by a witch for shoes that she can’t take off her feet and she just really, really wants to go home. What’s not scary about that?
Turns out the book messed with my head in other ways…
The slippers are silver?
(For the whole story. I kept expecting them to turn ruby red but nope.)
Okay, Scarecrow standing in the corner of the room watching her sleep. Creepy. I mean he doesn’t have to sleep but still… Go outside buddy.
Oiling up the Tin Man…
That’s how he became the Tin Man?
That’s disturbing and also he really should have stopped with the ax after the first limb.
Oz sets her on the Witch as part of a deal. (Okay that’s like the slippers. I thought the witch was after her in the movie due to the shoes.) Oz is basically insisting she add to her homicide count just to go home.
Oz is a jerk.
Or at least not a wonderful wizard.
(About here starts the niggling thought that I might have to rewatch the movie.)
Fuck. Not the flying monkeys. I was hoping they were just Return to Oz.
Well, the whole thing with the witch was super fast and accidental. Like a big oops on Dorothy’s part.
Also but if you cop to not just being a villain but an “evil” villain does that make you even worse than the usual villain? Does that make you worse than someone who doesn’t even see themselves as a villain? I mean at least you’re owning the evilness but still.
Slippers still silver. I suppose red looks better in a technicolor film. Starting to doubt myself here. Maybe the slippers changed color in the movie?
I am not rewatching Oz.
I am not rewatching Oz.
My dad hated this movie to and said it scared him when he saw it as a kid. Which perhaps I was overly influenced by considering the fact I saw a ton of those Stephen King movies with my dad and our favorite movie to watch was Killer Clowns from Outer Space. So maybe not the best judge of the movie. I do kind of want to rewatch Killer Klowns though.
Aw! I like the city made of china. Not the breakable people and animals made of china though. Why is everything in Oz either creepy or leading to homicide?
“Take me home to Aunt Em.” That’s what she says??? I suppose it does sound a bit like there’s no place like home.
Either way, she goes to the same place and I am utterly doubting all my movie memories. But in the end, go figure, I actually enjoyed the book. Still undecided on whether or not I’m brave enough to rewatch the film.