Thank you all for your tuning into this episode, Solo Fam! This one holds a special place in my heart and I really hope you enjoy what I've put together. ❤ Remember to hit the like button to support the channel and comment your thoughts on the book, movie, musical, or new movie in a comment!
This could be a perfect transition of explaining how the wonderful Wizard of Oz was the inspiration for Veggie Tales, the Wonderful Land of Ha's combined with the parable of the prodigal son in the Bible.
9:51 And another fun fact: The way that transition was accomplished, with the film going from sepia tone to technicolor in the same shot, was actually by having a body double wearing sepia colored clothes and makeup open a sepia painted door and wall, then walk out of the frame as the real Judy Garland enters into the full color set. But an even more fun fact is that Judy Garland's body double in that scene, Caren Marsh Doll, is still alive today at the age of 105.
I did not know Judy Garland ‘s double from Wizard of Oz was still alive! OMG, I thought everyone involved in the film had all passed on by now. Well that really made my day!
I remember an interview of Liza Minnelli describing the first time she ever saw the film. She was maybe 3 or 4 and her mother, Judy Garland, was in New York and had instructed the nanny that The Wizard of Oz was showing on TV and that the girls were to watch it. Well, it terrified them. Instead of seeing a magical story of a little girl in an enchanted place, they saw their mother going away to a frightening place with witches and flying monkeys! When their mother called them to see how they liked the film, but the girls could only sob, "They flying monkeys took you away to the witches castle!" Judy tried explaining, "No, I'm in New York!" With refreshed angst, they cried, "The flying monkeys took you to New York!"
*Just a daily reminder:* The name "Oz" in _Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ came from the third section of Frank Baum's file cabinet (O - Z), with the first and second section being A - G and H - N.
But... The books include a whole aspect of Dorothy's trauma being dealt with via "delusions" to cope. It would fit that she would have been in an asylum after suffering the deaths of both parents.
@@harrisonlynch4701 There were asylums for mentally ill, also poor and poor widows. It was a very general term 100 years ago. Words change. For example, refugees and immigrants are often granted asylum
Actually, the filmmakers made the Wicked Witch green because of a technical issue. Margaret Hamilton was originally gonna have her natural skin tone when she was the Witch, but there was a thin white line that appeared on camera in between her skin and the black of her wig and costume. That didn’t happen when the filmmakers had her in a very specific shade of green, which is now trademarked by WB.
Also fun fact: Margaret Hamilton actually got caught on fire when her elevator malfunctioned and she suffered third degree burns on her face and hands!
@RichardSeebald Not that fun a fact to know. Poor Margaret on that part. But I'm glad that she still has reprised her wicked role on various occasions, even on that one episode of Sesame Street.
Nice! I didn't come across this anywhere in my research but I'll be sure to do more digging before my episode dedicated to the Wicked Witch of the West :)
Also, Dorothy's iconic blue/white pinafore was actually pink/blue due to the similar issues with filming. Pink would photograph as bright white. White would look grayish and dull blending into the soft blue showing no demarcation between the checks. I read about another movie from that era that was colorized when restored and the actress who wore a full, long white cape in the movie said her cape was bright pink, not white. She thought they made a mistake by not colonizing it but it was done to create a pure white cape. It was not intended to show a pink cape.
I read that his decision to make the lead character a girl was heavily influenced by the popularity of Lewis Carroll's Alice, but that was probably just one small facet. The Suffrage influence makes a lot of sense
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CONTINUE THIS SERIES I would especially love to learn more about the countries about the land surrounding Oz such as The land of the Nome king and Ev
I've been waiting for this for a long time! "The Wizard of Oz" may be a classic as a movie, But I know that the stories in the books are even darker and messed up.
Worth the wait, Jon. Baum's Oz is really a rare American-original and the 1939 film one of the best adaptations to make it to the screen. Your run-thru of the book contrasting with the movie was entertaining and first rate -- emphasizing not only the differences but how faithful the general plot ended up being (after numerous misdirections, which seems to be the backstory of the MGM production). It was also cool to touch on the design of the original book (by illustrator WW Denslow), which was truly unique for the time (and to this day). Excited for your follow-ups.
It's crazy how small of a role The Wicked Witch of the West played in the book, while the movie made her a much more proactive antagonist with a costume and appearance that would influence other fictional witches for a century to come.
Another fun fact: The script from the Garland version has always been available for a fee to use in theater performances and screenplays. There is wording in the contract that it MUST be performed with the Jitterbug song in it. A long time ago, in the 60s, I saw a stage play of it and was shocked and confused hearing the song and seeing the weird dance because it was never in the movie. It seemed so out of place. It was decades later I read about the slashed Jitterbug dance scene. And years after that read about the script fee contract requiring the Jitterbug being performed. Trivia: There is a clip of Judy performing the Jitterbug scene up on TH-cam. It's NOT an actual cut from the movie filming. It was taken by somebody on the set. It is very blurry. And it was taken from quite a ways back. You can even see the actual camera and lighting crew in the foreground of this film. The Jitterbug dance scene was supposedly cut from the movie as being "too modern" and they thought it would date the film. It would be like inserting a scene singing and dancing The Twist in the 1960s Sound Of Music movie.
18:51 I always thought that the poppies were from the wicked witch, being a trick and inherently bad magic. That Glinda, with her good magic, sent the snow to purify the poppies' bad magic.
The Wicked Witch looked in her gazing ball and said "poppies will put her to sleep." I can't recall if Glinda said anything before the snow fell, but I always thought she did it.
I heard some people make a connection with the Emerald City and the Gilded Age of America. As in the emerald tinted glasses made the city look like something it wasn’t, and the Wizard’s name being the abbreviation for ounces, i.e. the unit measurement used to measure gold
Vastly overstated, except in the vague applicability of the 'Emerald' City and Wizard turning out to be humbugs. This whole 'Populist Parable' notion was invented in 1963, and it is significant that not one contemporary source-no newspaper columns, obituaries, reviews of the stage musical-in Baum's time noticed this supposed parable to political/economical ideas that were much better known then than now.
The Golden Cap actually does show in the movie but it isn't mentioned, the lead monkey tries handing the Witch the cap but she angrily tosses it down shortly before the screen fades back to the party having finished oiling the Tin Man and leaves the poppies to begin skipping along to the front gates of the Emerald City before the camera switches back to the Witch taking up her broom "to the Emerald City as fast as lightning". The Witch of the East does show but she isn't credited, if you watch closely, in the Tornado sequence the Miss Gultch transformation has sparkling shoes on.
HOLY SHIT! You just unlocked a core memory! I forgot I had those Wizard of Oz dolls that you showed at the beginning of the video! Not only Dorothy, but the Lion, the Tin Wood's Man, Scarecrow, and Glinda!
Note that the book calls them 'silver shoes' (the word 'slipper' does not appear in the book at all); 'slippers' was a movie thing. Dorothy wears them for her journey because they look pretty heavy-duty: “I wonder if they will fit me,” she said to Toto. “They would be just the thing to take a long walk in, for they could not wear out.” She took off her old leather shoes and tried on the silver ones, which fitted her as well as if they had been made for her.
that's a really great point! I guess my brain didn't pick up on it because I was so caught up in the silver aspect and the style of shoe is nearly identical in both versions. thanks for pointing it out!
Hello Jon, I don’t know if this helps but Maybe you can talk about the 1. Tin Woodman of Oz 2. The Land Of Oz 1. After the events of the Wizard of Oz, The Tin man rules over the land of the winkies as their ruler, but a young traveler named, “Woot” asked for shelter, the Tin man agrees to provide for him, but later he asks how did he become a, “Tin man”. He then explains everything and his past life with his past lover who is a munchkin maiden named, “Nimmee Amee” the rest of the book is just the Tin man, scarecrow and Woot setting off to visit Nimmee. 2. In the land of Oz, there was a young ruler named, “Ozma” who’s been missing and there’s a servant of the witch named, “Tip”. Long story short, Tip was cursed and didn’t even realize it, towards the end of the story, Tip turned into Ozma. So this whole time Tip was Ozma. This is just a suggestion that I hope you can look at in your spare time.
'Tin Woodman' also has a wonderfully surreal scene in which the titular character discovers his old cast-off head in the tinsmith's cupboard. Since no one dies in Oz, they engage in a remarkable dialogue about identity and what it's like to live on a shelf in a dark cupboard.
Something I remember from the book that you didn't mention, was about the silver shoes. It was explained that they would carry the wearer wherever they wished in three steps, and they did indeed fall off Dorothy's feet when she was passing over the Inaccessible Desert that surrounded Oz, meaning they were lost forever. VL
@whyiamafs VL is just how I sign off my comments, from something I created that I am now too embarrassed to share. (Cringy fanfic from high school). VL
If you are from Kansas, and you travel abroad, you will hear a certain phrase from this movie referenced multiple times. I've lost count of how many times this has happened: Person: Where are you from? Me: USA. Person: Where in the US? Me: Kansas. Person: Well, you're not in Kansas anymore, Toto!
@@israeltheteenager That's awesome! My biggest surprise was when someone in Costa Rica asked, "Wee cheetah?" It took my genius self a few seconds to figure out that he wasn't asking about small African cats; he was asking if I was familiar with Wichita.
The coat that the actor of The wizard of Oz war was actually owned by Elle Frank Baum. They just happened to find it in their costume department courtesy of the widow of L. Frank Baum donating it. This makes it even more surreal.
I remember watching the movie long ago at kindergarten. Despite hearing a lot of the dark elements of the book and the history of the movie production, it still surprises me just how much struggle and suffering there was simply to bring the story to life. Nevertheless, I’ll be waiting for the next chapter of “Oz explains”!
I'm sure I don't know everything that happened behind the scenes of this movie or movies in general but what I've heard over the years atleast some of those problems were due to the fact that when Wizard of Oz was made Movies were still a relatively new thing especially in color so pro lems poped up that they didn't know would be a problem. Like Buddy Epstein's extreme reaction to his make up, the make up was still relatively if not completely new since you wouldn't need silver make up with black and white movies, so he never would have used it before and maybe not many other people for anyone to really be aware of the allergy.
Luckily he lived, and then one day when he was shootin' at some food and up from the ground come a-bubblin' crude. Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea.
Have you read the Wicked series by Gregory MacGuirre? I'm obsessed with everything I've read by that man--he's an incredible writer, and managed to honor each work he adapted while making it entirely his own. My favorite is probably Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, though Mirror Mirror is amazing too, as well as the 3 or 4 books in the Wicked series that I've managed to get my hands on.
Speaking of production incidents, there's this urban legend about an actor who portrayed one of the Munchkins allegedly hanging himself on set and his corpse can be seen in the finished film, but it's since been debunked
Yeah, it's one of those rumors that only persisted due to the low resolution of VHS. (Another was the supposed ghost of a dead kid in Three Men and a Baby.) Once everyone could watch the movie in HD it was obvious there was no hanging munchkin.
I love how enchanting the 1939 film is to young children... That entire film had a grasp on my little brain like nothing else I've ever experienced. When I was a toddler I believed the movie was real and I could escape my life and go to Oz ...I remember when I was 7 asking my mother if we could invite Dorothy for dinner ...I remember BELIEVING flying monkeys were actually REAL.....such a beautiful film 🥲❤️
The movie is responsible for my lifelong terror when it comes to tornadoes. I saw the movie on TV when I was maybe four, and the tornado terrified me. Once Dorothy landed in Oz, I was fine. I still get a sick feeling in my stomach when I see photos or video of tornadoes, and seeing them in real life causes me to go into full panic, even if they’re off in the distance and not approaching my location. When I was in the second grade (way back in the early 1970s), I discovered that my elementary school library had all the Oz books, so I checked them out one-by-one and read the entire series. They were so different from the movie, but I got used to the way things were depicted in the books and found the movie to be too simplistic. It wasn’t until adulthood that I regained my full appreciation for the movie. When the novel Wicked came out in the 1990s, I read it three times in a row. I was SO fascinated by it. Gregory Maguire truly took the story and turned it upside down, making the witches so relatable and sympathetic. I suppose I should see the new movie, although I’ve found the musical to be too simplistic and different from the book so I’m not a huge fan. (I love love love Kristin Chenoweth, though!) I keep meaning to revisit the original Oz books, although I don’t own them. I imagine they’re available as ebooks, especially since they’re long out of copyright. I haven’t read them in over 50 years, so I wonder what I’ll make of them now… Oh, and I’d give anything to see the first preview version of the film, before they cut like 20 minutes out of it. I’d especially love to see the "Ding Dong! Emerald City" sequence with Dorothy & the gang’s triumphant return to Emerald City and the huge procession that was filmed. Sadly, the negatives for all that are at the bottom of the Pacific, along with all the other footage that was cut except for the extended Scarecrow sequence…
Why the snow revived Dorothy: if a sleeping person feels cool raindrops on their face, they wake fast to try to get under cover before the rain gets heavy. Snow is just kicking it up a notch. Sleeping under the stars can be nice. Sleeping under a storm cloud, not so much.🌧🌨
I’VE BEEN WAITING A EPISODE FOR EVER BUT TO POTENTIALLY TO RECEIVE AND WHOLE SERIESIS CRAAAAZY. I hope you continue it because there’s so much facts about both the book and bts movie. 🎥 🍿
And the differences between the play and the film (I haven't gotten to see the play, but I ADORE what I've heard about it - I've seen the film and ...I have complicated feelings about the changes they made for the film...)
In the book, the good witch of the North did not know that the silver slippers could send Dorothy home. Having Glinda meet her in Munchkin-land in the movie made a big plot hole people sometimes complain about.
I always remembered that Tide commercial they had that they had a wizard of Oz at the beginning of my copy of VHS of the movie. "Mom, I am scared." Lol
@phaedrapage4217 Yeah I did It even had like on the sticker a picture of the Ruby slippers. I also had a copy of teenage mutant Ninja turtles with a pizza commercial on it.
The scare crow with a gun is a Mandela Effect. I don't remember him having a gun before 2012, and I saw it many times without the gun. There's a lot of symbolism in this story. The yellow brick road represents the financial system, the field of poppies represents being controlled by the Wizard, which is the religious institutions. Each character is symbolic of the real world.
Don't know if anyone's already mentioned it, but there are 2 glaring errors in this synopsis. 1) the group didn't just encounter the Queen of the Field Mice a 2nd time, they got lost on the way back and used a whistle she had given them earlier to summon the Queen. 2) in the China land they didn't break a plate, but the lion in particular caused some careless damage including breaking the steeple of the church.
Good calls. The Dainty China Country really serves no purpose to the story (it doesn't even let any of the characters use their gifts), and seems like it's just there to provide a place to put one of Baum's Father-Goose-type songs for Mr. Joker. Alas, Baum was quite episodic-the expectation was that parents would read the books, a chapter at a time, to the kids at bedtime-and the China Country, in many guises, turns up quite a lot in his books.
The wizard of oz is by far my all time favorite movie since iv been a kid and I still watch it on a regular basis...so not only is this video awesome, but I'm really looking forward to your other oz videos!
It should also be mentioned this movie was the first movie in color EVER. So many many people were excited to see anything in color for the first time ever and tv and it basically paved the way for modern film making. Just some context behind its iconography
You're correct. The word "asylum" just means "shelter". Everyone (myself included until I just looked it up) always thinks of an insane asylum (or Arkham Asylum).
as a major Oz Fannatic I was so glad to see you do this video, and unlike so many others I have seen you avoided all the cliche urban myths and just gave accurate information as you always do! Can't wait to see what you have to say about the sequels.
I also hope you can do all the books in the series, I enjoy seeing you go deeper into the lore of Baum's fairytale fantasy universe and uncovering the deeper meaning behind them and analyzing them and the origins just like Lewis Carroll's universe.
Oh damn, he's going DEEP into this!! I know it would be a lot, but I'm really hoping he somewhat covers some of the novels made! Like I remember being so surprised how rich the lore of Oz was!
I think I have an explanation to the poppies and the snow...I would think that Dorothy and her friends fell asleep due to the scent and pollen from the flowers. The snow could potentially push the pollen down from the air onto the ground, sealing it, so they didnt breathe it in. And the scent could loose power from the cold, its known in perfume circles that the temperature affects scents. The hotter it is, the more sensitive you become to scents. The colder it is, the less we feel the scent. It might not be what they originally envisioned to explain it, but this logic fits and makes somewhat sense.
I've read this to my big kids when they were little, and the whole time they complained that "that's not how the movie goes" also, the tin man story terrified them.
16:34 so my friend had a field of poppies that he push mowed down. He got high from the pollen, got dizzy and nauseous. They are dangerous even in flower form.
So glad you’ve gotten to this one Jon! Oz was a big part of my childhood, and like many others I consider it the original American fairytale. There’s no place like home!
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the other underrated Oz books (they were the Harry Potter books for me when I was young), L. Frank Baum, Jon R. Neil's illustrations, the Return to Oz from the 80s more than the MGM film itself. I can't wait to see what you got on the rest of the series, and I hope they finally get their time to shine, solo style!
Fitting timing with The Wicked movie coming out this month. Plus, it'll help bring attention to the other OZ films, some based off of the follow-up books by L. Frank. Baum., and others as standalone stories from other authors that follow an alternate continuity.
I was hoping this would be a MUO someday and now it's here 😁 A brilliant and informative video as always and I'm really looking forward to next week's episode, some of the behind the scenes stuff is hard to hear and i know you'll deal with that as respectfully as possible. As a kid it wasn't the witch that scared me, it was the trees.. 😅 I've not found another person YET that found the trees as scary as i did.
This has now become my favorite of the “Messed Up” presentations. I thoroughly enjoyed this breakdown of the differences between the book and the movie. Well done Mr. Solo! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Omg I was traumatized as a child because of the tornado that they had in that movie as well as the way the wicked witch of the East's feet recoiled back was so freaky to me and still is.
I always thought it was quite unbelievable how glinda took the ruby slippers off the eastern witch & put them on dorothy.... in front of the dead witch's sister. glinda basically put a target on dorothy
@bradyryan5105 Yeah I always thought that the reason why they went on Dorothy's feet is because the wicked witch of the east hated the movie which of the West so much that she would rather give it to a complete stranger than her ass. Lol
I was wondering if this Christmas, you’d like to cover one of Baum’s over novels, “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” and its adaptations. I know you brought it up briefly in “Origins of Santa” video, but an in depth look would be awesome. It’s a pretty wild story and would suit this channel well.
The original draft of Dorothy saying she was treated better at the asylum might be a reference to an orphanage. Orphanages also were sometimes referred to as asylums.
As a guy from Omaha, Nebraska myself, I’m really happy to know that “Oz The Great & Powerful” from the original Wizard of Oz book is actually from my hometown!!😁👌💚💚💚
There was another song cut from the movie. It was the Tinman in Emerald City. It was a dance number where he did a puppet dance to the Funeral March of the Marinette.
Dude, jon I was literally googling the entire story of oz yesterday I’m so intrigued in the expanded lore and what happens before and after Dorothy goes so thank you and please keep this series ongoing!
18:28 this might be stretching, but poppies=opium snow=cocaine a stimulant so counteracts the depressant nature of the sleep-inducing poppies? Hmm, wonder if there are other drug references in The Wizard of Oz?
I was thinking the same thing! I hope he at least touches on the Pink Floyd/Oz ritual. If you start playing “Dark Side of the Moon” after the MGM lion’s third roar, supposedly, all the action on the screen is perfectly choreographed to the music. I’ve never tried it myself, but I’m willing to bet it would be best appreciated with an epic dose of 🍄 ✌🏼
Any episode that includes Gunther, I love! I also love this book! My mom read it to me before I was 5. I used to pretend I was with Dorothy on her trip, but I would be riding on a tiger. Not sure anymore why, but I distinctly remember that. I remember because my dad told me to shit up and go to sleep.
I was five years old, received an anniversary VHS of the wizard of oz, with extras at the end, for Christmas . I was five, learning the first actor playing the tin man had a VERY sad reaction to the silver make up. Talk about ruining it. Merry freaking Christmas (Thanks to generation Y, special features need a rating.😂😂)
It's not like it was tragic. He survived and later played Jed Clampett. If that makeup hadn't almost killed him, forcing him to drop out of the role, he may never have moved to the land of swimming pools and movie stars, the show would have probably sucked without him, and ultimately I never would have learned that a bra is a ready-made slingshot.
Thank you! I read all of the books when I young and have asked you forever to include these books. I love that you are wearing the blue and white shirt. You know because the witch's either wear white or blue in the book to identify if they are good or bad, the gingham apron that Dorothy wears is confusing to Glinda and that is why Glinda asks if she is a good witch or a bad witch. You have made this fan of yours very happy!
Great video as always. 👏 Yesterday I found out your podcasts were the ones I listened to for 267 minutes this year.😂😂😂 I wasn't really surprised. There is a new musical called "EPIC: the musical" about the Odyssey. There are gonnna be 9 sagas, the last one is gonna be released on 25th of Desember, if I remember correctly. I think it would be great if you talked about the Odyssey or maybe the differences between the characters in the musical and the poem. It's gonna be a lot, but I think the winions (epic fandom) is gonna love to hear your thoughts. Please.🙂 Sorry if I spelled anything incorrectly. English is my 3rd language.😂
Seeing a video about the Wizard of Oz a couple days after I said, "Well, with Mehmet on his team, he's officially the Wizard of Oz, now." This only works, because Marina Abramovic said he was the world's most powerful wizard.
Thank you for putting all of this into a video. As a child I preferred the Return to OZ movie and would really love to hear about the book that inspired it.
Scarecrows' brains were bran mixed with pins and needles. BRAn + pINS = BRAINS. They often had to be careful afterwards not to be poked with them. Cowardly lion's courage was poured out from a silver flask the wizard kept in his coat. It tasted like fire going down, but then he said he did feel braver afterwards! (definitely whiskey) The Tin Man's heart was velvet stuffed very firmly with sawdust. They snipped him open to insert it in his chest, and patched the hole afterwards, leaving a scar. He said he didn't mind the patch at all, because he was grateful for such a soft and strong heart, which must be very kind indeed.
1:25 But Oz is not described as "the Great and Powerful" in the book, but as "the Great and Terrible." In Baum's day "terrible" was still commonly used to mean "terrifying, awe-inspiring" (as was, indeed, "awful"), but by the time the MGM film was made in 1939, the meaning "of low quality" had come to predominate. ("Terrific" for Baum's readers also still had the meaning of "inspiring fear"; it was by no means a compliment to tell a lady that she looked "terrific" in those days.)
What's also really sad is how horribly Judy Garland was treated by the directors and staff while filming. She was even fat shamed even though she looked nice for her age at the time 😢
It was one of the movies that teated her the best, she already was addicted to drugs because of her mom. And the diet was standard for all actresses. She did have a sad life, but she always remembered her Oz days happily
I had been reading two or three of the Oz books each year and finished with _Glinda of Oz_ a couple of weeks ago. Baum always wrote the forward in each of his Oz books, but the last one was written by the publishers since Baum had died, giving it a very bittersweet feel to me.
Maybe. This is the sort of thing Baum told interviewers, and, well, he could be fanciful at times. It seems a very strange division for a filing cabinet, doesn't it?
There's actually a really interesting reason as to why the movie makes Oz a dream and it's because of the comedians in the cast. Ray Bolger who played the scarecrow, Jack Haley who played the Tin Man and Bert Larh who played the lion were all household names and very successful comedians of the time. and producers thought they could be unrecognizable if they were just used in the Oz scenes then people wouldn't recognize them, so the roles of Hunk, Hickory and Zeke were written for them. this cemented the whole idea of Oz being a dream and they created Kansas/Oz counterparts for most of the rest of the cast. some notable ones include Professor Marvel and the wizard, both played by Frank Morgan and Almira Gulch and the wicked witch played by Margaret hamilton. the Only characters in the entire movie that don't have counterparts are Auntie Em, Uncle Henry and Glinda. and this is because of the idea of a sense of urgency to get home, If Dorothy recognized Glinda, then the urgency may not be there. Interestingly, in some stage adaptations, Glinda and Auntie Em are doubled while Uncle Henry doubles with either a winkie Guard or the Guard of the emerald city with lines made to reference this when Dorothy fially comes to
And the 1925 Chadwick silent Wizard of Oz (with Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man. Sort of) implied it was a dream. And of course Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking-glass are also dream stories. It was almost a cliché to make it a dream, really.
I think it’s interesting how different editions of the book portrayed the “one-eyed” witch differently. Sometimes she has an eye patch, other times she’s just a cyclops.
Thank you all for your tuning into this episode, Solo Fam! This one holds a special place in my heart and I really hope you enjoy what I've put together. ❤
Remember to hit the like button to support the channel and comment your thoughts on the book, movie, musical, or new movie in a comment!
Please tell me you and Wentworth bros are kidding about the lion and Madagascar being different, if it’s true, then I’ve been tricked this whole time.
This could be a perfect transition of explaining how the wonderful Wizard of Oz was the inspiration for Veggie Tales, the Wonderful Land of Ha's combined with the parable of the prodigal son in the Bible.
You're from Chicago!? 😮
This was my "watched every day as a toddler" movie. Thanks for the vid!
I'm so excited!! I'm looking forward to the whole oz series!!!
P.s. I love seeing Gunther... but where's your other pup?! 🐶🐶❤
9:51 And another fun fact: The way that transition was accomplished, with the film going from sepia tone to technicolor in the same shot, was actually by having a body double wearing sepia colored clothes and makeup open a sepia painted door and wall, then walk out of the frame as the real Judy Garland enters into the full color set.
But an even more fun fact is that Judy Garland's body double in that scene, Caren Marsh Doll, is still alive today at the age of 105.
I knew the first part of that, but didn't know the 2nd part! Neat!!!
Living to 105 is such a blessing!!
Holy shit, she has a very strong soul and body to live that long!💕🔥✨
Damn, so she's basically one of, if not the last actor/body double in the film who, at this point, is still alive.
I did not know Judy Garland ‘s double from Wizard of Oz was still alive! OMG, I thought everyone involved in the film had all passed on by now. Well that really made my day!
I remember an interview of Liza Minnelli describing the first time she ever saw the film. She was maybe 3 or 4 and her mother, Judy Garland, was in New York and had instructed the nanny that The Wizard of Oz was showing on TV and that the girls were to watch it. Well, it terrified them. Instead of seeing a magical story of a little girl in an enchanted place, they saw their mother going away to a frightening place with witches and flying monkeys!
When their mother called them to see how they liked the film, but the girls could only sob, "They flying monkeys took you away to the witches castle!"
Judy tried explaining, "No, I'm in New York!"
With refreshed angst, they cried, "The flying monkeys took you to New York!"
I love this story, thank you!
Yeah, New York is definitely far worse 😆
That is actually funny.
I was also terrified of the flying monkeys.
respect for commissioning an artist to do the backgrounds instead of using ai
This!
Thank you. I tried to please you 😢
Are artists so hard up for work they declare victory over AI every time someone doesn't use it?
@@dansmith1661 google is free
@@dansmith1661 I'm sure some are.
*Just a daily reminder:* The name "Oz" in _Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ came from the third section of Frank Baum's file cabinet (O - Z), with the first and second section being A - G and H - N.
News to me, always love some movie trivia.
In a another universe we could have a AG books and a wonderful wizard of HN
@@AhmedBalahim 😂😂 beat me to it
@@robinkholmes7127same
Maybe; that's what Baum told interviewers, anyway. But Baum was whimsical, and it is by no means a reliable report.
Re the asylum line, back then orpnanages were also called asylum as they offered asylum to children without parents.
I guess the people behind Return to Oz didn’t realize this
But... The books include a whole aspect of Dorothy's trauma being dealt with via "delusions" to cope. It would fit that she would have been in an asylum after suffering the deaths of both parents.
@@harrisonlynch4701 Nah, they just updated the language, because nobody would understand what a “sanitarium” is.
@@harrisonlynch4701 There were asylums for mentally ill, also poor and poor widows.
It was a very general term 100 years ago.
Words change. For example, refugees and immigrants are often granted asylum
@@harrisonlynch4701 in Return, they continued to address the role of trauma mostly omitted from the original movie, but fully present in the books.
Actually, the filmmakers made the Wicked Witch green because of a technical issue. Margaret Hamilton was originally gonna have her natural skin tone when she was the Witch, but there was a thin white line that appeared on camera in between her skin and the black of her wig and costume. That didn’t happen when the filmmakers had her in a very specific shade of green, which is now trademarked by WB.
Also fun fact: Margaret Hamilton actually got caught on fire when her elevator malfunctioned and she suffered third degree burns on her face and hands!
@RichardSeebald Not that fun a fact to know. Poor Margaret on that part. But I'm glad that she still has reprised her wicked role on various occasions, even on that one episode of Sesame Street.
Nice! I didn't come across this anywhere in my research but I'll be sure to do more digging before my episode dedicated to the Wicked Witch of the West :)
Also, Dorothy's iconic blue/white pinafore was actually pink/blue due to the similar issues with filming.
Pink would photograph as bright white. White would look grayish and dull blending into the soft blue showing no demarcation between the checks.
I read about another movie from that era that was colorized when restored and the actress who wore a full, long white cape in the movie said her cape was bright pink, not white. She thought they made a mistake by not colonizing it but it was done to create a pure white cape. It was not intended to show a pink cape.
Baum's wife & mother were both leaders of the Califonia Women's Sufferage Party, which is why the strongest characters--good & evil--are women.
So the wizard of oz is a feminist propaganda film?
I'm kidding btw
I read that his decision to make the lead character a girl was heavily influenced by the popularity of Lewis Carroll's Alice, but that was probably just one small facet. The Suffrage influence makes a lot of sense
It might have been his MIL rather than his mother.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CONTINUE THIS SERIES I would especially love to learn more about the countries about the land surrounding Oz such as The land of the Nome king and Ev
I've been waiting for this for a long time! "The Wizard of Oz" may be a classic as a movie, But I know that the stories in the books are even darker and messed up.
@@TheCommenterDragon the Muppet version stuck more closely to the original.
Yes, they are, but they are still delightful reads.
Yup but I still love em.
@@forrestdupre87 Thank you. I was actually about to mention the Muppet version. Their version was closer to the books than the Judy Garland version.
I like how the Wicked Witch in the Muppets version of OZ has Piggy's witch wear the eyepatch from the books
Orphanages were often called orphan asylum. Asylums were at "safe space" for vulnerable people.
They still are supposed to be.
YAAASS! I was waiting for this! Much anticipated! Thank you Jon! Hope your wife and baby girl are doing well!
Worth the wait, Jon. Baum's Oz is really a rare American-original and the 1939 film one of the best adaptations to make it to the screen. Your run-thru of the book contrasting with the movie was entertaining and first rate -- emphasizing not only the differences but how faithful the general plot ended up being (after numerous misdirections, which seems to be the backstory of the MGM production). It was also cool to touch on the design of the original book (by illustrator WW Denslow), which was truly unique for the time (and to this day). Excited for your follow-ups.
It's crazy how small of a role The Wicked Witch of the West played in the book, while the movie made her a much more proactive antagonist with a costume and appearance that would influence other fictional witches for a century to come.
It was necessary. "The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy." 🥵
Fun Fact: the cut song *"The Jitterbug"* from the 1939 film was the song added into the *"Tom & Jerry Back to Oz"* film.
Another fun fact: The script from the Garland version has always been available for a fee to use in theater performances and screenplays.
There is wording in the contract that it MUST be performed with the Jitterbug song in it.
A long time ago, in the 60s, I saw a stage play of it and was shocked and confused hearing the song and seeing the weird dance because it was never in the movie. It seemed so out of place. It was decades later I read about the slashed Jitterbug dance scene. And years after that read about the script fee contract requiring the Jitterbug being performed.
Trivia: There is a clip of Judy performing the Jitterbug scene up on TH-cam. It's NOT an actual cut from the movie filming. It was taken by somebody on the set. It is very blurry. And it was taken from quite a ways back. You can even see the actual camera and lighting crew in the foreground of this film.
The Jitterbug dance scene was supposedly cut from the movie as being "too modern" and they thought it would date the film.
It would be like inserting a scene singing and dancing The Twist in the 1960s Sound Of Music movie.
@marciaoh7056 cool!👍
18:51 I always thought that the poppies were from the wicked witch, being a trick and inherently bad magic. That Glinda, with her good magic, sent the snow to purify the poppies' bad magic.
The Wicked Witch looked in her gazing ball and said "poppies will put her to sleep." I can't recall if Glinda said anything before the snow fell, but I always thought she did it.
I would think cold can kill your ability to smell and taste. So snow would be a remedy to kill the smell of the flowers.
I heard some people make a connection with the Emerald City and the Gilded Age of America. As in the emerald tinted glasses made the city look like something it wasn’t, and the Wizard’s name being the abbreviation for ounces, i.e. the unit measurement used to measure gold
Vastly overstated, except in the vague applicability of the 'Emerald' City and Wizard turning out to be humbugs. This whole 'Populist Parable' notion was invented in 1963, and it is significant that not one contemporary source-no newspaper columns, obituaries, reviews of the stage musical-in Baum's time noticed this supposed parable to political/economical ideas that were much better known then than now.
There's a Ted-Ed video about that
The Golden Cap actually does show in the movie but it isn't mentioned, the lead monkey tries handing the Witch the cap but she angrily tosses it down shortly before the screen fades back to the party having finished oiling the Tin Man and leaves the poppies to begin skipping along to the front gates of the Emerald City before the camera switches back to the Witch taking up her broom "to the Emerald City as fast as lightning".
The Witch of the East does show but she isn't credited, if you watch closely, in the Tornado sequence the Miss Gultch transformation has sparkling shoes on.
A lot of people think that there were deleted scenes with the cap.
HOLY SHIT! You just unlocked a core memory! I forgot I had those Wizard of Oz dolls that you showed at the beginning of the video! Not only Dorothy, but the Lion, the Tin Wood's Man, Scarecrow, and Glinda!
Note that the book calls them 'silver shoes' (the word 'slipper' does not appear in the book at all); 'slippers' was a movie thing. Dorothy wears them for her journey because they look pretty heavy-duty:
“I wonder if they will fit me,” she said to Toto. “They would be just the thing to take a long walk in, for they could not wear out.”
She took off her old leather shoes and tried on the silver ones, which fitted her as well as if they had been made for her.
They were also changed to ruby because red would look better in color
that's a really great point! I guess my brain didn't pick up on it because I was so caught up in the silver aspect and the style of shoe is nearly identical in both versions. thanks for pointing it out!
Hello Jon, I don’t know if this helps but Maybe you can talk about the
1. Tin Woodman of Oz
2. The Land Of Oz
1. After the events of the Wizard of Oz, The Tin man rules over the land of the winkies as their ruler, but a young traveler named, “Woot” asked for shelter, the Tin man agrees to provide for him, but later he asks how did he become a, “Tin man”. He then explains everything and his past life with his past lover who is a munchkin maiden named, “Nimmee Amee” the rest of the book is just the Tin man, scarecrow and Woot setting off to visit Nimmee.
2. In the land of Oz, there was a young ruler named, “Ozma” who’s been missing and there’s a servant of the witch named, “Tip”. Long story short, Tip was cursed and didn’t even realize it, towards the end of the story, Tip turned into Ozma. So this whole time Tip was Ozma.
This is just a suggestion that I hope you can look at in your spare time.
'Tin Woodman' also has a wonderfully surreal scene in which the titular character discovers his old cast-off head in the tinsmith's cupboard. Since no one dies in Oz, they engage in a remarkable dialogue about identity and what it's like to live on a shelf in a dark cupboard.
@@majkus thank you for bringing that up! 👍But let’s not forget about Captain Fyter.
Something I remember from the book that you didn't mention, was about the silver shoes. It was explained that they would carry the wearer wherever they wished in three steps, and they did indeed fall off Dorothy's feet when she was passing over the Inaccessible Desert that surrounded Oz, meaning they were lost forever. VL
Yeah 😢
(What's VL?)
@whyiamafs VL is just how I sign off my comments, from something I created that I am now too embarrassed to share. (Cringy fanfic from high school). VL
If you are from Kansas, and you travel abroad, you will hear a certain phrase from this movie referenced multiple times. I've lost count of how many times this has happened:
Person: Where are you from?
Me: USA.
Person: Where in the US?
Me: Kansas.
Person: Well, you're not in Kansas anymore, Toto!
I concur.
And I’ll add , if you’re a woman, you might just be nicknamed Dorothy by everyone around you
@@stevenpina1983 Truth!
all the time but i always respond with “im not?! where am i???”
@@israeltheteenager That's awesome! My biggest surprise was when someone in Costa Rica asked, "Wee cheetah?" It took my genius self a few seconds to figure out that he wasn't asking about small African cats; he was asking if I was familiar with Wichita.
Dear Jon Solo, since you're gonna talk about MORE of Oz lore, can you talk about the history of the Nome king, the TRUE oz villain?
I’d love to look into this!
The Lion's drink was plausibly an allusion to 'liquid courage', i.e., quite alcoholic. Bert Lahr could have had a ball with that…
The coat that the actor of The wizard of Oz war was actually owned by Elle Frank Baum. They just happened to find it in their costume department courtesy of the widow of L. Frank Baum donating it. This makes it even more surreal.
It's actually L. Frank Baum. The L stands for Lyman
Maybe; studio publicity stories like that were pretty unreliable.
That’s so cool!!!!!!
@@majkus- I did some research on this and seems to be actually true
@@isabeld.paredes4923 He spells it correctly after he spelled it incorrectly. Maybe he was using speech to text or some weird autocorrect issue.
I remember watching the movie long ago at kindergarten. Despite hearing a lot of the dark elements of the book and the history of the movie production, it still surprises me just how much struggle and suffering there was simply to bring the story to life. Nevertheless, I’ll be waiting for the next chapter of “Oz explains”!
I'm sure I don't know everything that happened behind the scenes of this movie or movies in general but what I've heard over the years atleast some of those problems were due to the fact that when Wizard of Oz was made Movies were still a relatively new thing especially in color so pro lems poped up that they didn't know would be a problem. Like Buddy Epstein's extreme reaction to his make up, the make up was still relatively if not completely new since you wouldn't need silver make up with black and white movies, so he never would have used it before and maybe not many other people for anyone to really be aware of the allergy.
16:44 The 2nd Oz book depicts Mombi using poppies as a confusing (rather than fatal) distraction for her enemies.
The original person that played the tin man almost died from the paint they used.
Plus they used asbestos for the fake snow, people suffered for this art.
Buddy Ebsen was his name! He lived to be 95 :)
So did the witch! She was also very badly burned!
Luckily he lived, and then one day when he was shootin' at some food and up from the ground come a-bubblin' crude. Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea.
@@phaedrapage4217 and he was Barnaby Jones later.
I'm really glad Oz is getting attention! I loved watching the movie every year on TV, and reading any Oz book I laid my hands on!
Have you read the Wicked series by Gregory MacGuirre? I'm obsessed with everything I've read by that man--he's an incredible writer, and managed to honor each work he adapted while making it entirely his own. My favorite is probably Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, though Mirror Mirror is amazing too, as well as the 3 or 4 books in the Wicked series that I've managed to get my hands on.
Speaking of production incidents, there's this urban legend about an actor who portrayed one of the Munchkins allegedly hanging himself on set and his corpse can be seen in the finished film, but it's since been debunked
Yeah, it's one of those rumors that only persisted due to the low resolution of VHS. (Another was the supposed ghost of a dead kid in Three Men and a Baby.) Once everyone could watch the movie in HD it was obvious there was no hanging munchkin.
I love how enchanting the 1939 film is to young children... That entire film had a grasp on my little brain like nothing else I've ever experienced. When I was a toddler I believed the movie was real and I could escape my life and go to Oz ...I remember when I was 7 asking my mother if we could invite Dorothy for dinner ...I remember BELIEVING flying monkeys were actually REAL.....such a beautiful film 🥲❤️
The movie is responsible for my lifelong terror when it comes to tornadoes. I saw the movie on TV when I was maybe four, and the tornado terrified me. Once Dorothy landed in Oz, I was fine. I still get a sick feeling in my stomach when I see photos or video of tornadoes, and seeing them in real life causes me to go into full panic, even if they’re off in the distance and not approaching my location.
When I was in the second grade (way back in the early 1970s), I discovered that my elementary school library had all the Oz books, so I checked them out one-by-one and read the entire series. They were so different from the movie, but I got used to the way things were depicted in the books and found the movie to be too simplistic. It wasn’t until adulthood that I regained my full appreciation for the movie. When the novel Wicked came out in the 1990s, I read it three times in a row. I was SO fascinated by it. Gregory Maguire truly took the story and turned it upside down, making the witches so relatable and sympathetic. I suppose I should see the new movie, although I’ve found the musical to be too simplistic and different from the book so I’m not a huge fan. (I love love love Kristin Chenoweth, though!)
I keep meaning to revisit the original Oz books, although I don’t own them. I imagine they’re available as ebooks, especially since they’re long out of copyright. I haven’t read them in over 50 years, so I wonder what I’ll make of them now…
Oh, and I’d give anything to see the first preview version of the film, before they cut like 20 minutes out of it. I’d especially love to see the "Ding Dong! Emerald City" sequence with Dorothy & the gang’s triumphant return to Emerald City and the huge procession that was filmed. Sadly, the negatives for all that are at the bottom of the Pacific, along with all the other footage that was cut except for the extended Scarecrow sequence…
Why the snow revived Dorothy: if a sleeping person feels cool raindrops on their face, they wake fast to try to get under cover before the rain gets heavy. Snow is just kicking it up a notch. Sleeping under the stars can be nice. Sleeping under a storm cloud, not so much.🌧🌨
We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz
We hear he is a wiz of a wiz, if ever a wiz there was.
If ever, oh, ever a wiz there was
@@jensenrogers6611 ... the Wizard of Oz is one because, because, because, because, becaaaaaaause.......
@@phaedrapage4217 because of the Wonderful things he does...
I’VE BEEN WAITING A EPISODE FOR EVER BUT TO POTENTIALLY TO RECEIVE AND WHOLE SERIESIS CRAAAAZY. I hope you continue it because there’s so much facts about both the book and bts movie. 🎥 🍿
I hope you go over “ The Wiz” it was more like the book while still having African American cultural influences of the 70’s.
Yes!!!
And then on to the Wicked books vs the Broadway show and new movie!
And the differences between the play and the film
(I haven't gotten to see the play, but I ADORE what I've heard about it -
I've seen the film and ...I have complicated feelings about the changes they made for the film...)
In the book, the good witch of the North did not know that the silver slippers could send Dorothy home. Having Glinda meet her in Munchkin-land in the movie made a big plot hole people sometimes complain about.
The books get crazy. The Tinwoodman of Oz and The Scarecrow of Oz would be interesting subjects. Also the material used for the 2nd Oz movie.
I always remembered that Tide commercial they had that they had a wizard of Oz at the beginning of my copy of VHS of the movie.
"Mom, I am scared." Lol
You had a VHS with a commercial on it?
@phaedrapage4217 Yeah I did It even had like on the sticker a picture of the Ruby slippers. I also had a copy of teenage mutant Ninja turtles with a pizza commercial on it.
The scare crow with a gun is a Mandela Effect. I don't remember him having a gun before 2012, and I saw it many times without the gun.
There's a lot of symbolism in this story. The yellow brick road represents the financial system, the field of poppies represents being controlled by the Wizard, which is the religious institutions. Each character is symbolic of the real world.
He always had the gun, it was from a deleted suene, but they kept the little tibit where it shows
Don't know if anyone's already mentioned it, but there are 2 glaring errors in this synopsis. 1) the group didn't just encounter the Queen of the Field Mice a 2nd time, they got lost on the way back and used a whistle she had given them earlier to summon the Queen. 2) in the China land they didn't break a plate, but the lion in particular caused some careless damage including breaking the steeple of the church.
Good calls. The Dainty China Country really serves no purpose to the story (it doesn't even let any of the characters use their gifts), and seems like it's just there to provide a place to put one of Baum's Father-Goose-type songs for Mr. Joker. Alas, Baum was quite episodic-the expectation was that parents would read the books, a chapter at a time, to the kids at bedtime-and the China Country, in many guises, turns up quite a lot in his books.
Margaret Hamilton went from terrorizing Dorothy to selling coffee.
While making a small detour to Sesame Street.
The wizard of oz is by far my all time favorite movie since iv been a kid and I still watch it on a regular basis...so not only is this video awesome, but I'm really looking forward to your other oz videos!
It should also be mentioned this movie was the first movie in color EVER. So many many people were excited to see anything in color for the first time ever and tv and it basically paved the way for modern film making. Just some context behind its iconography
@7:29 maybe she's probably talking about the orphanage when she said Asylum?
You're correct. The word "asylum" just means "shelter". Everyone (myself included until I just looked it up) always thinks of an insane asylum (or Arkham Asylum).
I found it hard to believe that a dirt poor farmer had three hired hands. The book didn't have any hired hands or Prof. Marvel.
They could've been working for food & lodging. It was during the Depression Era & it's not like Kansas was a booming state. 🤷🏾♀️
as a major Oz Fannatic I was so glad to see you do this video, and unlike so many others I have seen you avoided all the cliche urban myths and just gave accurate information as you always do! Can't wait to see what you have to say about the sequels.
I also hope you can do all the books in the series, I enjoy seeing you go deeper into the lore of Baum's fairytale fantasy universe and uncovering the deeper meaning behind them and analyzing them and the origins just like Lewis Carroll's universe.
Oh damn, he's going DEEP into this!! I know it would be a lot, but I'm really hoping he somewhat covers some of the novels made! Like I remember being so surprised how rich the lore of Oz was!
I think I have an explanation to the poppies and the snow...I would think that Dorothy and her friends fell asleep due to the scent and pollen from the flowers. The snow could potentially push the pollen down from the air onto the ground, sealing it, so they didnt breathe it in. And the scent could loose power from the cold, its known in perfume circles that the temperature affects scents. The hotter it is, the more sensitive you become to scents. The colder it is, the less we feel the scent.
It might not be what they originally envisioned to explain it, but this logic fits and makes somewhat sense.
I've read this to my big kids when they were little, and the whole time they complained that "that's not how the movie goes" also, the tin man story terrified them.
16:34 so my friend had a field of poppies that he push mowed down. He got high from the pollen, got dizzy and nauseous. They are dangerous even in flower form.
So glad you’ve gotten to this one Jon! Oz was a big part of my childhood, and like many others I consider it the original American fairytale.
There’s no place like home!
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the other underrated Oz books (they were the Harry Potter books for me when I was young), L. Frank Baum, Jon R. Neil's illustrations, the Return to Oz from the 80s more than the MGM film itself. I can't wait to see what you got on the rest of the series, and I hope they finally get their time to shine, solo style!
Yes! I was waiting for you to do this!🥳🥳
Fitting timing with The Wicked movie coming out this month. Plus, it'll help bring attention to the other OZ films, some based off of the follow-up books by L. Frank. Baum., and others as standalone stories from other authors that follow an alternate continuity.
I was hoping this would be a MUO someday and now it's here 😁
A brilliant and informative video as always and I'm really looking forward to next week's episode, some of the behind the scenes stuff is hard to hear and i know you'll deal with that as respectfully as possible.
As a kid it wasn't the witch that scared me, it was the trees.. 😅 I've not found another person YET that found the trees as scary as i did.
This has now become my favorite of the “Messed Up” presentations. I thoroughly enjoyed this breakdown of the differences between the book and the movie. Well done Mr. Solo! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Omg I was traumatized as a child because of the tornado that they had in that movie as well as the way the wicked witch of the East's feet recoiled back was so freaky to me and still is.
I always thought it was quite unbelievable how glinda took the ruby slippers off the eastern witch & put them on dorothy.... in front of the dead witch's sister.
glinda basically put a target on dorothy
@bradyryan5105 Yeah I always thought that the reason why they went on Dorothy's feet is because the wicked witch of the east hated the movie which of the West so much that she would rather give it to a complete stranger than her ass. Lol
@@bradyryan5105glinda is actually the wicked one 🫢
I was wondering if this Christmas, you’d like to cover one of Baum’s over novels, “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” and its adaptations. I know you brought it up briefly in “Origins of Santa” video, but an in depth look would be awesome. It’s a pretty wild story and would suit this channel well.
Thanks for making this happen in a time like this. Oz is my childhood comfort 💚
The original draft of Dorothy saying she was treated better at the asylum might be a reference to an orphanage. Orphanages also were sometimes referred to as asylums.
Looking forward to the Oz explained series! 💚
As a guy from Omaha, Nebraska myself, I’m really happy to know that “Oz The Great & Powerful” from the original Wizard of Oz book is actually from my hometown!!😁👌💚💚💚
You do awesome research man - keep doing your thing 👍🏾
@24:21 lmfaoooo at the music change when you talked about her look 😂😂😂😂
Edgar Allen... Wolfe? Just doesn't have the same ring 😂
There was another song cut from the movie. It was the Tinman in Emerald City. It was a dance number where he did a puppet dance to the Funeral March of the Marinette.
Your comparison videos are so interesting!I remember reading the book many years ago as a kid,in fact I read almost the whole series.
Dude, jon I was literally googling the entire story of oz yesterday I’m so intrigued in the expanded lore and what happens before and after Dorothy goes so thank you and please keep this series ongoing!
I read the original book and love telling people how different the movie was
39:42 playing Dorothy, voice acting legend June Foray.
18:28 this might be stretching, but poppies=opium snow=cocaine a stimulant so counteracts the depressant nature of the sleep-inducing poppies? Hmm, wonder if there are other drug references in The Wizard of Oz?
You and I posted similarly about the same time. He commented on mine that he's mad he didn't think of this, LOL.
I was thinking the same thing!
I hope he at least touches on the Pink Floyd/Oz ritual. If you start playing “Dark Side of the Moon” after the MGM lion’s third roar, supposedly, all the action on the screen is perfectly choreographed to the music. I’ve never tried it myself, but I’m willing to bet it would be best appreciated with an epic dose of 🍄 ✌🏼
Twice Ozma uses the Water of Oblivion on the Nome King to make him forget that he's the Nome King and is about to attack Oz.
Any episode that includes Gunther, I love! I also love this book! My mom read it to me before I was 5. I used to pretend I was with Dorothy on her trip, but I would be riding on a tiger. Not sure anymore why, but I distinctly remember that. I remember because my dad told me to shit up and go to sleep.
Ur videos r always so interesting!!
I appreciate all the research u take to deep dive into this!
The sepia tones and the checkered shirt are a nice touch. Well played sir, well played. 🌪️
I was five years old, received an anniversary VHS of the wizard of oz, with extras at the end, for Christmas . I was five, learning the first actor playing the tin man had a VERY sad reaction to the silver make up. Talk about ruining it. Merry freaking Christmas (Thanks to generation Y, special features need a rating.😂😂)
It's not like it was tragic. He survived and later played Jed Clampett. If that makeup hadn't almost killed him, forcing him to drop out of the role, he may never have moved to the land of swimming pools and movie stars, the show would have probably sucked without him, and ultimately I never would have learned that a bra is a ready-made slingshot.
@phaedrapage4217 interesting, my VHS says he died, I was trying to be nice about it. But good to know
Thank you! I read all of the books when I young and have asked you forever to include these books. I love that you are wearing the blue and white shirt. You know because the witch's either wear white or blue in the book to identify if they are good or bad, the gingham apron that Dorothy wears is confusing to Glinda and that is why Glinda asks if she is a good witch or a bad witch. You have made this fan of yours very happy!
I love that this will be a series! I can’t wait!
Great video as always. 👏
Yesterday I found out your podcasts were the ones I listened to for 267 minutes this year.😂😂😂 I wasn't really surprised.
There is a new musical called "EPIC: the musical" about the Odyssey. There are gonnna be 9 sagas, the last one is gonna be released on 25th of Desember, if I remember correctly. I think it would be great if you talked about the Odyssey or maybe the differences between the characters in the musical and the poem. It's gonna be a lot, but I think the winions (epic fandom) is gonna love to hear your thoughts. Please.🙂
Sorry if I spelled anything incorrectly. English is my 3rd language.😂
I been waiting for this video!!!😍😍😍
Seeing a video about the Wizard of Oz a couple days after I said, "Well, with Mehmet on his team, he's officially the Wizard of Oz, now." This only works, because Marina Abramovic said he was the world's most powerful wizard.
Did Jon just sass a certain Naughty Pyramid? Illuminating!
Thank you for putting all of this into a video. As a child I preferred the Return to OZ movie and would really love to hear about the book that inspired it.
I remember when it was an annual event to watch on tv
Congrats on the new series
Scarecrows' brains were bran mixed with pins and needles. BRAn + pINS = BRAINS. They often had to be careful afterwards not to be poked with them.
Cowardly lion's courage was poured out from a silver flask the wizard kept in his coat. It tasted like fire going down, but then he said he did feel braver afterwards! (definitely whiskey)
The Tin Man's heart was velvet stuffed very firmly with sawdust. They snipped him open to insert it in his chest, and patched the hole afterwards, leaving a scar. He said he didn't mind the patch at all, because he was grateful for such a soft and strong heart, which must be very kind indeed.
I read the book in audio form but like I have to read a book more than once to fully remember it. So I like that you explained all this.
At 25:11 I think the "mallet" is an antique insecticide sprayer 🦟
1:25 But Oz is not described as "the Great and Powerful" in the book, but as "the Great and Terrible." In Baum's day "terrible" was still commonly used to mean "terrifying, awe-inspiring" (as was, indeed, "awful"), but by the time the MGM film was made in 1939, the meaning "of low quality" had come to predominate. ("Terrific" for Baum's readers also still had the meaning of "inspiring fear"; it was by no means a compliment to tell a lady that she looked "terrific" in those days.)
What's also really sad is how horribly Judy Garland was treated by the directors and staff while filming. She was even fat shamed even though she looked nice for her age at the time 😢
This was the movie that got her addicted to drugs.
@alfiegrace poor Judy...
It was one of the movies that teated her the best, she already was addicted to drugs because of her mom.
And the diet was standard for all actresses.
She did have a sad life, but she always remembered her Oz days happily
I'm 36 and I fondly remember watching this movie still. I DEFINITELY should REWATCH this soon!
Maybe you can do manga and anime adaptations differences!?!?
woah that sounds interesting! any recommendations for where to start?
@ ok how about the sailor moon 🌙 adaptation from the manga from the original 90s anime and the Sailor Moon crystal remake!!!
The illustration with Dorothy grabbing Toto by the ear is absolutely hilarious! 😂😂😂
I read all 14 of Baum's Oz books. The name Oz came from Baum's file cabinet. It had two drawers: A-N and O-Z.
I had been reading two or three of the Oz books each year and finished with _Glinda of Oz_ a couple of weeks ago. Baum always wrote the forward in each of his Oz books, but the last one was written by the publishers since Baum had died, giving it a very bittersweet feel to me.
Maybe. This is the sort of thing Baum told interviewers, and, well, he could be fanciful at times. It seems a very strange division for a filing cabinet, doesn't it?
Love the simple blue gingham shirt!
There's actually a really interesting reason as to why the movie makes Oz a dream and it's because of the comedians in the cast.
Ray Bolger who played the scarecrow, Jack Haley who played the Tin Man and Bert Larh who played the lion were all household names and very successful comedians of the time. and producers thought they could be unrecognizable if they were just used in the Oz scenes then people wouldn't recognize them, so the roles of Hunk, Hickory and Zeke were written for them. this cemented the whole idea of Oz being a dream and they created Kansas/Oz counterparts for most of the rest of the cast. some notable ones include Professor Marvel and the wizard, both played by Frank Morgan and Almira Gulch and the wicked witch played by Margaret hamilton. the Only characters in the entire movie that don't have counterparts are Auntie Em, Uncle Henry and Glinda. and this is because of the idea of a sense of urgency to get home, If Dorothy recognized Glinda, then the urgency may not be there.
Interestingly, in some stage adaptations, Glinda and Auntie Em are doubled while Uncle Henry doubles with either a winkie Guard or the Guard of the emerald city with lines made to reference this when Dorothy fially comes to
And the 1925 Chadwick silent Wizard of Oz (with Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man. Sort of) implied it was a dream. And of course Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking-glass are also dream stories. It was almost a cliché to make it a dream, really.
I think it’s interesting how different editions of the book portrayed the “one-eyed” witch differently. Sometimes she has an eye patch, other times she’s just a cyclops.