The Wizard of Oz Marathon

The Wonderful Internet of Oz saved our spirits on this chilly weekend.

We used this contraption made out pipes* (as pointed out by a U.S. Senator some years ago) to do a Wizard of Oz marathon.

Instead of starting with the now iconic 1939 movie, we found ourselves the prequel Oz the Great and Powerful (on blu-ray).

Not bad. And the special effects have become so much better.

Someone then decided to search the web, and the results were wicked. Not only did a Salman Rushdie edited Wizard of Oz book show up, no, the sheer number of search hits could make you think we live in a world populated by good and wicked witches. A world where the neighbor you sometimes call a scarecrow is having the same grand old time as all the tin men politicians you see on the magic television screen every day.

You, of course, being the munchkins.

We skip the millions of references to Oz in TV shows and all the aborted projects like Dakota Fanning in a Dark Oz.

The next stop in the saga of the wizard was a stage production turned movie from 1978 as The Wiz. The Diana Ross Dorothy starts out in a modern Ghetto Oz, or Oz in the Hood, and the movie turned out to be a good occasion to make peace with a younger Michael Jackson. The stage version keeps popping up in various places around the world, so check your local listings.

Exploration of more Oz adaptations took us from this website that lists 15 you didn't know you need to a number of adult versions. Search for those yourself if you feel like it, and note that Google search is understanding and forgiving -- if you mistakenly search for yellow prick road, they'll fix that typo for you. It's okay if that typo makes you think of your boss - nobody will ever find out. In the adult versions, the wicked witches are at their wicked best, of course, and Dorothy does a few things wicked herself.

You are not done, though, until you have found the Muppet's Wizard of Oz. It is a blast. If you do not laugh out loud when you see that Toto is a shrimp in this one, well, maybe that Prozac from the online pharmacy was not the real deal.
The most powerful puppets in Hollywood (their words) borrow from everywhere, so you encounter the Flying Monkey's motorcycle gang from The Wiz again in a furry getup. The ride of the Flying Monkeys being accompanied by the music of The Ride of the Valkyries certifies Richard Wagner's status as the wicked composer. And Quentin the Tarantino is in there, too!

Watching more than one Wizard of Oz in a row may have a compounding effect, you may glance out of the window expecting a tornado any time now, and you may feel a little sorry for the wicked witches being crushed and doused over and over, with the marvelous bottled water vs. tap water in the Muppet's version stealing the thunder.


* The senator from Alaska was ridiculed for the "pipes" comment. But, really, he was misunderstood, he was talking about the pipes we all know and love in our favorite flavor of Unix operating systems.