Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business of building entertainment.”
Title: Oz the Great and Powerful
Year: 2013
Source materials: based on the Oz books by Frank L. Baum and the 1939 MGM film
Budget: $200–215 million
Box office: $493.3 million
Plot: In 1905 Kansas, Oscar Diggs is a magician and con artist in a traveling circus. The circus strongman learns Oscar has flirted with his wife and threatens him. Oscar escapes in a hot air balloon but is sucked into a tornado that takes him to the Land of Oz.
There he encounters the naïve witch Theodora, who believes him to be the wizard prophesied to become King of Oz by destroying the Wicked Witch, who killed the previous king. The idea of being a wealthy monarch makes Oscar accept the role. En route to the Emerald City, Theodora falls in love with Oscar though he does not reciprocate her feelings. They encounter the flying monkey, Finley, who pledges a life debt to Oscar when he saves him from a lion. Oscar reveals his deception to Finley and forces him to maintain the lie that he is a wizard.
At the Emerald City Theodora’s older sister Evanora tells Oscar that the Wicked Witch resides in the Dark Forest and can be killed by destroying her wand. On the way to the forest they are joined by China Girl, an orphaned living china doll whose village and family were destroyed by the Wicked Witch. The three reach the forest and discover the “Wicked Witch” is the late king’s daughter Glinda the Good Witch, and Evanora is the true Wicked Witch. Evanora sees this with her crystal ball and tricks Theodora into thinking Oscar is trying to court all three witches at once. She offers Theodora a magic apple “to remove her heartache” but it turns her into a hideous green-skinned witch.
Glinda brings Oscar’s group to her domain to escape Evanora’s army of Winkies and flying baboons. She confides in Oscar that she knows he is not a wizard but still believes he can help stop Evanora. He reluctantly takes charge of an “army” of Quadlings, Tinkers and Munchkins. Theodora enters Glinda’s domain and angrily reveals her new hideous appearance to Oscar before threatening to kill him and his allies with the Emerald City’s well-prepared army. Oscar despairs at his chances of victory, but after telling China Girl about the exploits of his hero Thomas Edison he conceives a plan that relies on trickery.
Glinda and her subjects mount a fake attack on the Emerald City using a pulley-rig army of scarecrow puppets hidden by thick fog. The witches are tricked into sending their flying baboons through a poppy field that puts them to sleep, but Glinda is captured in the process. Meanwhile, Oscar infiltrates the Emerald City with his allies but apparently abandons them in a hot air balloon loaded with gold, which Theodora destroys with a fireball.
As the wicked sisters prepare to kill Glinda, Oscar appears, having faked his betrayal and death. Using a hidden smoke machine and image projector, he presents a giant image of his face as his “true” form and a fireworks display to intimidate the Wicked Witches. Evanora fearfully hides in her castle while Theodora flees on her broom, unable to hurt the “invincible” wizard. Oscar offers to Theodora that she would be welcome to return if she overcomes her wickedness, but Theodora refuses and flies away to the West laughing maniacally, leaving Oscar saddened. China Girl frees Glinda from her restraints with her wand, and she engages Evanora in a magical duel in the throne room. Glinda destroys Evanora’s emerald necklace, revealing her to be an old hag, and banishes her from the city. Evanora is carried away by two flying baboons as she vows revenge.
Oscar, now ruler of Oz, uses his projector to sustain the belief that he is a powerful wizard. He presents gifts to his friends: Master Tinker, who helped build his machines, receives Oscar’s jackknife while Knuck, the grumpy Munchkin herald, receives a mask with a smiley face; the long-suffering Finley receives Oscar’s friendship along with his top hat and China Girl accepts her friends as her new family. Finally, Oscar takes Glinda behind the curtains of his projector, thanks her for making him a better person, and they kiss.
Background: After the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Walt Disney planned to produce an animated film based on the first of L. Frank Baum’s Oz books. However, Baum’s estate sold the film rights to the first book to Samuel Goldwyn, who re-sold it to Louis B. Mayer in 1938.The film was ironically approved due to the success of Snow White.The project was then developed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) into the well-known musical adaptation which was released the following year.
In 1954, when the film rights to Baum’s remaining thirteen Oz books were made available, Walt Disney Productions acquired them. Disney’s history with the Oz series continued with the 1985 film Return to Oz, which performed poorly, both critically and commercially. but has developed a cult following since its release by fans of the books who considered it a more faithful adaptation to the Oz books than the 1939 classic. After Return to Oz, Disney lost the film rights to the Oz books and they were subsequently reverted to the public domain. In 2005, Disney produced the TV movie The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz which aired on its network ABC.
When Wicked came out, screenwriter Mitchell Kapner felt he had missed his opportunity to explore the origins of the Wizard of Oz character. In 2009, he met with producer Joe Roth and the project was developed at Walt Disney Pictures. Robert Downey Jr. and Johnny Depp both declined the role and in February, James Franco accepted $7 million to star in the film.
Zach Braff and Joey King were on set, recording their dialogue simultaneously with the other actors, whenever their CG characters were present in a scene. Braff wore a blue motion capture suit to create Finley’s movements and had a camera close to his face for the flying sequences to obtain facial movements.
Legal Restrictions: Although the film is a spiritual prequel to the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film The Wizard of Oz, it was not allowed legally to be considered as such. The filmmakers had to toe a fine line between calling the film to mind but not infringing upon it. Disney was unable to use the ruby slippers nor any original character likenesses from the 1939 film. This extended to the green of the Wicked Witch’s skin for which Disney used what its legal department considered a sufficiently different shade dubbed “Theostein” (a portmanteau of “Theodora” and”Frankenstein”). Additionally, the studio could not use the signature chin mole of Margaret Hamilton’s portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West nor could they employ the yellow brick road’s swirl design for Munchkinland. The expert also ensured that the Emerald City was not too close in appearance to the original Emerald City in the 1939 film.
References and changes from the Source Materials:Oz the Great and Powerful features several artistic allusions, homages, and technical parallels to Baum’s novels and the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film, The Wizard of Oz.
- The film’s opening sequence is presented in black and white. When Oscar is caught up in the tornado, the audio switches from monaural to stereo and eventually surround sound.
- As in the 1939 film, Glinda travels in giant bubbles, and the Emerald City is actually emerald; in the novel, characters wear tinted glasses to make it appear so, though during the battle preparations sequence Oz can be seen wearing emerald goggles.
- The iconic green look of the Wicked Witch of the West is closer to her look in the 1939 film, as the Witch is a short, one-eyed crone in the novel.
- The Wicked Witches are portrayed as sisters, an idea which originated in the 1939 film.
- Also from the 1939 film is that several actors who play Oz characters make cameos in the Kansas segments
- Other referenced characters include the Scarecrow, who is built by the townspeople as a scare tactic; the Tin Woodman, whose creator is the Master Tinker that can build “anything”; and the lion that attacks Finley, a reference to the Cowardly Lion.
- Similarly, various other races of Oz are depicted besides the Munchkins; the Quadlings, the china doll inhabitants of Dainty China Country, and the Winkies.
- Glinda is referred to by her title in the novel (the Good Witch of the South), unlike the 1939 film, where her character’s title is “Good Witch of the North” (due to her character being merged with the Good Witch of the North).
- Glinda is also the daughter of the late King of Oz, though in the novels, Ozma is the King’s daughter.
- Theodora’s tears leave streak-like scars on her face, reflecting her weakness to water in the original story.
- Oz is presented as a real place as it is in the novel, and not as a possible dream as the 1939 film implies.
Music: Composer Danny Elfman noted that the film’s score was accessibly quick to produce, with a majority of the music being written in six weeks.
Mariah Carey recorded a promotional Pop single called “Almost Home” written by Carey, Simone Porter, Justin Gray, Lindsey Ray, Tor Erik Hermansen, and Mikkel Eriksen (a.k.a. Stargate) for the soundtrack of the film. The single was released on February 19, 2013 by Island Records.
Cast: Zach Braff returns as the voice of Finley. Braff also plays Frank, Oscar’s long-suffering yet loyal assistant in Kansas.
James Franco as Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, commonly known as Oz. For his role in 127 Hours,he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in live-action films, such as Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy; Milk, Pineapple Express, Eat, Pray, Love, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Spring Breakers, This Is the End, and The Disaster Artist, for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. He is known for his collaborations with fellow actor Seth Rogen, having appeared in eight films and one television series with him. He appeared in Freaks and Geeks, which developed a cult following. He portrayed the title character in the television biographical film James Dean for which he won a Golden Globe Award. Michelle Williams as Glinda. Williams also plays Annie, an old flame of Oscar’s and the future mother of Dorothy Gale. Her breakout role was on the drama series Dawson’s Creek. Her performance in Brokeback Mountain (2005), earned Williams her first Academy Award nomination. Other roles include appearances in Wendy and Lucy, Blue Valentine, Manchester by the Sea, Shutter Island, The Greatest Showman, and Venom On Broadway, she starred in revivals of the musical Cabaret in 2014 and the drama Blackbird in 2016, for which she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She won two Golden Globes for portraying Marilyn Monroe in the drama My Week with Marilynand Gwen Verdon in the miniseries Fosse/Verdon.
Rachel Weisz as Evanora. Weisz made her film debut in Death Machine. She won a Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for her role in the 1994 revival of Noël Coward’s play Design for Living and she went on to appear in the 1999 Donmar Warehouse production of Tennessee Williams’ drama Suddenly, Last Summer. Her film breakthrough came with her starring role as Evelyn Carnahan in The Mummyand The Mummy Returns. She went on to star in several films including Enemy at the Gates , About a Boy, Constantine, The Fountain, The Lovely Bones, and The Bourne Legacy. For playing a murdered activist in the 2005 thriller The Constant Gardener, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and for playing Blanche DuBois in a 2009 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress. In the 2010s, Weisz continued to star in big-budget films such as the action film The Bourne Legacy (2012) and the fantasy film Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and gained acclaim for her performances in the independent films The Deep Blue Sea and The Favourite.For portraying Sarah Churchill in the latter, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and received another Academy Award nomination.Mila Kunis as Theodora. She landed her first significant role at age 14, playing Jackie Burkhart on That ’70s Show. Since 1999, she has voiced Meg Griffin on Family Guy. Her breakout film role came in 2008, in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. She gained further critical acclaim and accolades for her performance in Black Swan,for which she received the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress, and nominations for the SAG Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other major films include Max Payne, The Book of Eli, Friends with Benefits, Ted, Bad Moms and its sequel.
Bill Cobbs as Master Tinker. He has numerous credits including The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Trading Places, Silkwood, The Cotton Club, The Color of Money, New Jack City, The Bodyguard, Demolition Man, The Hudsucker Proxy, That Thing You Do!, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Night at the Museum, and The Muppets. Joey King as the voice of China Girl. King also plays a young girl in a wheelchair volunteering in Oscar’s magic show in Kansas.She first gained recognition for portraying Ramona Quimby in the comedy film Ramona and Beezus, an adaptation of Beverly Cleary’s book series Beezus and Ramona. King has also appeared in the films Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Dark Knight Rises, The Conjuring, White House Down, Independence Day: Resurgence, Wish Upon, The Kissing Booth, and Slender Man. King received critical acclaim for her starring role in the true crime drama series The Actand earned both Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Awardnominations for her performance.
Tony Cox as Knuck/Sourpuss. He known for his roles Bad Santa, Me, Myself & Irene, Date Movie, Epic Movie and Disaster Movie. He is also known for his role in George Lucas’s Willow, as an Ewok in Return of the Jedi and as The Preacher in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice.
Critical Reception:
- Kim Newman, writing for Empire, gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and said, “If there are post-Harry Potter children who don’t know or care about The Wizard Of Oz, they might be at sea with this story about a not-very-nice grownup in a magic land, but long-term Oz watchers will be enchanted and enthralled … Mila Kunis gets a gold star for excellence in bewitchery and Sam Raimi can settle securely behind the curtain as a mature master of illusion.”
- Critic Alonso Duralde also admired the movie: “That Oz the Great and Powerful is so thoroughly effective both on its own terms and as a prequel to one of the most beloved movies ever made indicates that this team has magic to match any witch or wizard.”
- Leonard Maltin on IndieWire claimed that “No movie ever can, or will, replace 1939’s The Wizard Of Oz, but taken on its own terms, this eye-filling fantasy is an entertaining riff on how the Wizard of that immortal film found his way to Oz.”
- Justin Chang of Variety had a mixed reaction, writing that the film “gets some mileage out of its game performances, luscious production design and the unfettered enthusiasm director Sam Raimi brings to a thin, simplistic origin story.” He also compared the film’s scale with the Star Wars prequel trilogy adding, “In a real sense, Oz the Great and Powerful has a certain kinship with George Lucas’s Star Wars prequels, in the way it presents a beautiful but borderline-sterile digital update of a world that was richer, purer and a lot more fun in lower-tech form. Here, too, the actors often look artificially superimposed against their CG backdrops, though the intensity of the fakery generates its own visual fascination.”
- Richard Roeper, writing for Roger Ebert, noted the film’s omnipresent visual effects but was largely disappointed by the performance of some cast members; “… to see Williams so bland and sugary as Glinda, and Kunis so flat and ineffectual as the heartsick Theodora …”
- Marshall Fine of The Huffington Post was unimpressed, writing, “Oh, it’s exciting enough for a six-year-old; anyone older, however, will already have been exposed to so much on TV, at the movies and on the Internet that this will seem like so much visual cotton-candy. Even a sophisticated grade-schooler will find these doings weak and overblown.”
Legacy: On March 7, 2013, Variety confirmed that Disney has already approved plans for a sequel with Mitchell Kapner and Joe Roth returning as screenwriter and producer respectively. On March 11, 2013, Kapner and Roth said to the Los Angeles Times that the sequel will “absolutely not” involve Dorothy Gale, with Kapner pointing out that there are twenty years between the events of the first film and Dorothy’s arrival, and “a lot can happen in that time.” As of 2020, the sequel is yet to materialize.
My take: I always have a problem with prequels. There are never any real surprises, because you know where every character ends up. The movie really didn’t stick with me
Available on Disney +?: no
Next Week: Tomorrowland
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