The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

[calzephyr]

Finally I have found the perfect icon for books! I visited Project Gutenberg recently to load up my Nokia 770 with e-books. There's plenty of classics I have never read, and it occured to me to download The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I don't know how bibliophiles felt about books being turned into movies back in the day, but I was surprised by how immensely different the book and the movie were. All sorts of things were left out of the movie, such as the poreclain city, the queen of the mice and the golden cap. The flying monkeys were not inherently evil either! I was surprised that the chapters were short, and the ending was very abrupt. In some places Baum's writing was very mechanical, as if he was just pushing through to connect events. All the events are just little dots really :-) There was a lack of visual richness too, which of course the movie excelled at :-) I downloaded the other books anyway, it was still a pleasant read, but I'm probably too corrupted by the movie after all these years.

Oddly enough, Wikipedia has a page comparing Oz to politican characters of the day.

Comments

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I think what surprised me most about the Oz novels vs. movies was how Ozma was entirely removed from the movies. The movie "Return to Oz" is, as far as I can tell, a cross between Oz novels 2 and 3.

As for the politicians, there's a theory that the Yellow Brick Road and Emerald City were supposed to represent the competing gold standard and silver standard to money at the time.

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

I remember watching Return to Oz as a kid, but it was so different than the orignal, pretty dark!

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Half the children in the audience with me were crying, and a few were taken out of the theater. My mom asked me if I wanted to leave, and I said no, I'd make it through and stay. Now I kinda want to see it again. And "The Wiz".

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

I've always wanted to see The Wiz :-) It just sounds so groovy.

Oh man, I couldn't see taking kids to a movie like that, but I'm glad you were brave enough to stay :-) I don't think the movie ever made it into theatres here, as I watched it on TV.