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.
Yeah, I have no urge to rewatch the film either. But the differences from the book are interesting! I don’t think I could reimagine the shoes in silver while reading.
Their red in our hearts and thats what matters 🙂
Jeez…I might have to give this a try :).
If you like audio books its only around four hours. So also a super quick read in all likelihood!
Homicide by house!! Hahahaha 😀
I remember the movie, it terrified me as well when i was a kid… there was a cartoon version too. That was a bit better in terms of not being so scary.
Good to know I’m not alone. I always feel weird when I tell people about my Stephen King filled childhood and then that Wizard of Oz was the scariest movie I ever saw!
The Wizard of Oz was actually my favorite movie when I was younger. If you’re not going to re-watch it, it’s okay, but you should look up some trivia about the making of the movie. It’s amazing that more of the actors didn’t die.
oh gosh I loved this post so much, it was so funny and NOSTALGIC!!! this was my first chapter book I ever read, and I forgot most of it but now I have so many memories and feelings!!!!! It really is creepy af though.
I use to be crazy about this film. It was my absolute favorite until I read this book!🤯 Great post!😉❤💯📚
I read this book for the first time to my daughter when she was younger and did the same things with the slippers. I was like, what do you mean they aren’t red!?? The movie, I agree (and the book), oozes creepiness. Even the behind the scenes things were creepy, like the supposed deaths on the set. The first wicked witch died from her make-up or something? I have no idea if these rumors were true. I’m sure I could find out on the internet, but I kind of don’t want to know. (I like the mystery.) There was also (again supposedly) a real death hidden in one of the scenes (the one where Dorothy meets the tin man). As a kid, I’d watch the scene and rewind the tape over and over to try to see it. Morbidly weird, I know. But I was also a big Stephen King fan as a kid. 😉
Ew! I didn’t know that! Though I do kind of remember hearing about a real death in a scene I was never sure if that was Hollywood legend or not. (I think a Bond girl died from make-up or paint to!) But this one never needed any help creeping me out!