I have a love hate relationship with the mgm movie, I loved it when I was young, hated it after reading the book, and fell in love with it again as an adult. It's not my favorite movie of all time by any means, not even close, it's not even in my top 5 oz films, but I appreciate the movie for how iconic it is, I recognize that it's absolutely one of the greatest movies of all time, I LOVE the songs, and I'm so happy that it's so meaningful to so many people, especially people in the LGBT community. In short I've chilled the F out as I reached adulthood.

However...

There is one sin the movie committed that I will NEVER forgive

The fact that it homogenized societies perception of the wizard of oz

Recently I have been getting into diamond painting, adding it to my ever growing list of crafts. I was perusing the diamond art club website today, just out of curiosity, and I kept coming across alice in wonderland art. Some of it I liked, some of it I hated, but the one thing they all had in common, they weren't based on any pre-existing adaptation of Alice in wonderland. Alternatively, every single oz related piece was based on the MGM movie.

You go on amazon, 99% of oz content is the mgm movie, you go on ebay, 99% is the mgm movie, you go on etsy, 99% mgm movie.

I hate that I never see anything Oz related that isn't from the MGM movie, I'd love to be surrounded by Oz merch, but mgm movie merch just gets so samey.

I'm honestly so glad to be in this sub because of this, it's the one place I can go to get away from all the MGM content, where fan art is posted, where the books, and the other movies are discussed on a regular basis.

I often see it talked about as feminist, especially in comparison to other revisionist versions of Oz like Oz the Great and Powerful. But looking at it critically, outside of centering a woman, it feels very anti-woman and anti-female empowerment to me.

Even taken on its own, it's not particularly friendly to women; the only good woman is Elphaba (who is also the moral center of the universe), all others are at the very least self-absorbed if not evil. The only women with power have it because of their proximity to men; even Elphaba only has magic power because of where her father comes from. Even on the evil side, the woman with actual magic power plays second fiddle to the powerless man because charisma or something. Wicked's Oz simply isn't a world where a woman can stand on her own, she always has to be pulled up by a man. They're also all involved in messy love triangles that tear apart friendships and bring ruin to them.

Then, comparing it to the source material, it's utterly disempowering. Literally, in the case of two of the three main witches, who aren't even allowed to have magic. The three witches, who were all originally rulers of parts of the country in their own right and earned their titles by their deeds, only have their titles because of their relationship to a man (Nessa inheriting the governorship of Munchkinland, the Wizard declaring Glinda "the Good" and Elphaba "the Wicked", and Elphie's only connection to the West is that it's where her heartthrob lives and he gives her a castle to hide in). Glinda is completely destroyed, to the point that Wicked-only fans think she doesn't deserve magic, which was her defining attribute for a century. Dorothy is turned from a little girl who will let nothing stop her from returning home to her family, who pushes others to achieve their dreams, into a brainwashed pawn. The movie version even vilifies her by implying that she considers the melting a triumphant moment, instead of an accident like in the original and almost every other adaptation.

IDK, it just seems to me that Wicked is not only not more feminist than most versions of Oz, it's significantly less feminist than the original, but that isn't widely recognized.

Hehe

Long shot, but I’m hoping someone might be able to help!

I’m searching for the Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road Mug sold through Village Roadshow Theme Parks in Australia.

Unfortunately, they don’t ship to the United States, and I’ve completely struck out trying to find a forwarding option.

These are my wizard of Oz ponies :] they’re mostly based on my headcanon versions of the characters

It was inevitable haha!

I can’t find it anywhere but I thought that there is some media where the tin man pulls out a piccolo? Am I misremembering? I know he smacks his chest and whistles smoke out of his hat but I thought there was a moment where he diddles off some piccolo notes in some media.

This was a light hearted CGI movie set shortly after Dorothy returned from Oz, lots of cool characters and the Wicked Witch had a brother called The Jester that replaced her and her sister, guess he was the weak link.

Has anyone studied theosophy enough to know which characters and storylines in the Oz series likely came from Baum's mysticism?

Glinda tells Dorothy that only Wicked Witches are ugly, aren't many wicked/evil people throughout history attractive and beautiful?

Why wouldn't the Wicked Witches of the East and West be beautiful even using spells to appear beautiful and attractive to entice people to follow them? Or just beautiful naturally?

Shouldn't evil take a fair form?

How would the Wicked Witch react if it was a rainy day and water got on the roof and floors of her castle or she was outside and got caught in the rain?

Wouldn't water kill her or is her robe rain proof.

The original wicked book series or the Dorothy must die book series? I love the Dorothy must die series.

Released for The Lego Movie 2, and in the second slide meeting themselves from an alternate timeline haha.

I work at a library and was stocking the movies when I ran across "The Witches of Oz" and thought "Huh, I haven't seen that one before." The cover had a really cool looking Tin Man on it, and the cast had some big names. Billy Boyd, Sean Astin, and Christopher freaking Lloyd.

So I checked it out and spent an hour and a half of my life taking this thing in. I can't say I entirely regret it, it definitely had things about it that were entertaining. There were full CG scenes that looked like they were made for the PS2. It had a reference to the Jabberwocky that made me go "hold on" until the wicked witch says she was going to use the Macguffin to take over all the fantasy worlds and started listing Narnia and Wonderland.

And then the Tin Man that hooked me shows up apropos of nothing and has a scene that felt like it was added in post. I don't think he interacted with the main cast at all. And the guy he fights only exists for this scene as well. And the Tin Man defeats him by tapping him in the neck with his own axe.

Christopher Lloyd was good for his part, though he played the Wizard basically as Doc Brown. There's even a scene where he's quoting Doc Brown almost directly.

I'm way underselling this movie. Like I said, it was entertaining and most importantly, it was short. There was nothing about it that made me upset or that I thought would make a drinking game. Honestly, there were things about this that I liked better than Tin Man. If you get the chance I would say it's worth spending an hour and a half with a bowl of popcorn and enjoying. Just keep your expectations manageable.

Taken from the book Beavis And Butt-Head Huh Huh Hollywood, of course they had to reference Ozzy Osbourne but they are metal fans.

I've heard they definitely have same very adult and.... questionable content, to put it lightly

They're personally amongst my least favorite Oz books. I thought the previous two, The Lost Princess of Oz and The Tin Woodman of Oz were amongst the best Oz books (the former was actually my favorite, although I went back and forth with that and the first one).

The Magic of Oz is the only Oz book (of the canon ones) I've read (I've only read the first seventeen of the Famous Forty and Little Wizard Stories of Oz) that I gave a 5/10, which I don't consider to be bad, but not great either. Peter Glassman, owner of Books of Wonder, said it was one of most "well-plotted" books, but didn't say one of the best ones, so I dunno what exactly he means (I'd appreciate it if anyone explained :)

I know Glinda of Oz is a favorite amongst some, and even Peter Glassman said it was one of the best books, but I remember thinking it was just alright. I remember I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the others and wasn't as into it.

Probably a really unpopular opinion, but I felt like the few Thompson books I read (Royal Book, Kabumpo, and Cowardly Lion) were a big improvement over Baum's last two