The Wizard of Oz (1990) Cartoon & DVD Review
By Paul Rudoff on Sep. 8, 2004 at 12:00 PM in Home Video, Animation
An Insult To Fans Of The Classic 1939 Movie
I have mixed feelings about this series. On one hand I really like The Wizard Of Oz (1939) movie and I fondly remember watching this series Saturday mornings back when ABC actually showed GOOD cartoons (The Real Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, etc.). On the other hand, this series is a slap in the face to all fans of the original 1939 movie. For starters, it's damn near impossible to make a decent series based on the movie featuring ALL of the memorable characters since the movie ended with the hero (Dorothy) back home in Kansas, the villain (the Wicked Witch of the West) melted to oblivion, the Wizard floating off to parts unknown (presumably back to his homeland), and the three friends (Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion) being left to take care of Oz and the Emerald City.
I suppose you could set it in Kansas and do stories about the life of the teenage Dorothy, but that would leave out all of the Oz characters. You could do stories about the travels of the Wizard, but since he's a con man, it's hard to see him as a "good guy" and a good role model. The only thing left would be to do a show about the citizens of Oz with the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion presiding over the whole land like royalty. I've never read the Oz books, so I don't know how many more different Oz residents there are, but since Oz is a wacky place all by itself, the writers could let their imaginations go wild, and create new characters. The problem with this idea is that it leaves out three main characters: Dorothy, Wizard, and Wicked Witch of the West. The creators of this series would have none of that. They MUST have ALL of the main characters, the ending of the film be damned!
And so we got a series that totally ignores all character development from the film and carefully disregards certain parts of the ending. Dorothy is inexplicably back in Oz. The title sequence suggests that her ruby slippers glowed in her closet back in Kansas, thus sending out a distress call that she was needed back in Oz, and so she used them to return. There goes the whole "it was only a dream" plot device that the film laid out for us at the end. OK, I can suspend my disbelief for this to be possible. Next the title sequence shows us that the Wicked Witch wasn't melted at all, but merely turned to wood! The winged monkeys bring her back to life by putting her hat back on her head and putting her broomstick back in her hand. Now I'm starting to get worried.
Remember at the end of the film the Wizard gave the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion some items (diploma, heart clock, badge of courage - respectively) to reflect the attributes that they felt they were missing, but told them in no uncertain terms that they didn't need these items because they had those attributes all along (as they demonstrated numerous times throughout the film)? Well, they must have been missing the attribute of "paying attention" because in this show they lack all of those attributes they "had all along" simply because all of their "special items" are locked up in storage at the Emerald City where the Wicked Witch is keeping guard over them. The three friends are constantly complaining throughout the entire series about not having those attributes because they don't have the items, yet as in the film they display those attributes numerous times. What they DO have is a total lack of self-esteem as they are constantly discrediting themselves when they display those supposedly "lost" attributes (to paraphrase the Scarecrow: "I have an idea, but since I don't have a brain, it musn't be a very good idea.")
The Wizard is back, but he's stuck forever floating around Oz in his hot air balloon because the Wicked Witch put a spell on the wind so that it won't let him stay in one place for very long. Throughout the series Dorothy and friends are trying to catch up with him, but he always leaves just before they go to where he was last seen at. Why he doesn't just decide to ditch the balloon and stay on foot, where he's safer, is beyond me. Glinda, the good witch, is no great help as she is so powerless that all she can do is put a spell on the balloon so the Wicked Witch can't harm him while he's in it (I'd still take my changes on foot rather than floating around aimlessly), and put an Emerald Star in the sky above the Emerald City which glows as long as he's alive. Remind me not to call Glinda for help the next time I'm in trouble.
There are many MANY times in first two episodes ("Rescue of the Emerald City" Parts 1&2) and the twelfth episode ("Day the Music Died") alone that you'll be thinking to yourself "Why doesn't this person go there, or do this?" For example, in the first episode the Wizard is on foot in the safe confines of a fort. The Wicked Witch and her winged monkeys come to cause havoc, and the dumb Wizard thinks he'd be safer taking to the air in his balloon than hiding inside the fort (a large opened door in the fort can clearly been see in the background). The twelfth episode involves the citizens of Musicland not feeling very musical because the conductor's baton was stolen. Dorothy suggests he use his hands, and she even tries it herself to show him that it'll work, but the lazy citizens would rather read their newspapers and sleep than pay any attention to her. At this point, if I were Dorothy, I'd say "screw you all" and leave. They're not worth my help. As Dorothy and friends pointed out with their song and dance number (a dance themed song to the melody of "If I Only Had A Brain/Heart/Nerve" - which is rather good and even mentioned the Lambada!), the music isn't dead in the land of Oz, just in Musicland. So, who cares? Let the Musicland citizens die of boredom for all I care, the rest of Oz will move on with their lives.
By the way, although credit is given to the music composers of the 1939 film (since this series uses a lot of the movie themes), no credit is given to L. Frank Baum (the writer of the original book series).
Although the series lasted only 13 episodes, we have been "gifted" with a few DVD releases...and they don't even contain the whole series!
The Rescue of the Emerald City DVD contains the following episodes:
1. Rescue of the Emerald City - Part 1 (09/08/1990) (ep 1)
2. Rescue of the Emerald City - Part 2 (09/15/1990) (ep 2)
3. The Day the Music Died (11/24/1990) (ep 12)
Purists be forewarned that the original DIC logo at the end of the show has been replaced with the new "The Incredible World Of DIC" logo.
Although the colors are bright and the sound is great, the overall quality of the episodes is rather poor as there is a lot of dirt and debris in them and the picture jumps a little on more than one occasion. It would have been really nice if they cleaned up the episodes when they transferred them to DVD.
The disc contains absolutely NO bonus features, save for a lame (nee VERY easy) six question trivia game. If you win it, you're treated to a commercial for the DVD releases of "Sherlock Holmes In The 22nd Century" and "The Wizard Of Oz." Yeah, that's such a great prize! Plus on start-up there's an ad for other DIC properties and on the main menu the DIC logo brings up a few more ads.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Inspector Gadget provides help on ALL of the menu screens (and appears on them). This "feature" is meant to help little kids, for whom this disc is targeted. But it comes off as really lame since this isn't an Inspector Gadget DVD and that's not Don Adams providing his voice. For the record, all of DIC's DVDs from this time period (2001) contain the Inspector Gadget Help option (I have the Sabrina The Animated Series disc and it's on there too).
The only REAL bonus feature that could actually be of use to someone are English subtitles, which of course is good if you're deaf or hard of hearing as the episodes are not closed captioned. The audio is stereo (2.0 channel) and the runtime is 63 minutes.
The Continuing Story DVD contains the following episodes:
1. Fearless (9/22/1990) (ep 3)
2. Crystal Clear (9/29/1990) (ep 4)
3. We're Not in Kansas Anymore (10/6/1990) (ep 5)
4. Time Town (11/3/1990) (ep 6)
The audio is stereo (2.0 channel) and the runtime is 88 minutes. There's not much more to say about this disc.
We're Off To Save The Wizard! DVD contains the following episodes:
1. Hot Air (12/1/1990) (ep 13)
2. A Star Is Gone (10/27/1990) (ep 8)
3. Upside-down Town (11/17/1990) (ep 11)
4. Dream A Little Dream (10/20/1990) (ep 7)
I've never viewed this DVD, so I can't say anything more about it.
So, you have to buy three separate DVDs and you'll still be missing two episodes:
• The Lion That Squeaked (10/13/1990) (ep 6)
• The Marvelous Milkmaid of Mechanica (11/10/1990) (ep 10)
With so few episodes to the series, DIC should have just released the whole series in a 2-disc set. Of course, you can just go to YouTube to watch the complete series: U.S. / U.K. (US has the episodes split in two-halves each).
2 comments
I read your review on the 1990 Dic Wizard of Oz cartoon series and while really love and adore this series (you may be interested to know the writers of it also wrote for the Real Ghostbusters) I can easily understand your criticisms of it. I appreciate you pointing out a few things and I will take them into consideration when I write my fan fiction story to give it a proper ending.
I noticed you haven’t read the books the movie was based on and so I’d like to give you a bit of information you may find interesting. In the book by L. Frank Baum Dorothy’s adventures did not turn to be a dream at all and she went back to Oz again and again having more adventures and making more friends and eventually she moved into the Emerald City along with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. The Wizard also returned to Oz to live there in the fourth book and after studying magic with Glinda he became a real wizard, and he was always a good man and never wanted to hurt anybody.
Also In the original series the Wizard actually made brains out of bran, needles and pins and put them into the Scarecrow’s head and said he had given him “bran-new brains", and he makes a heart out of silk and stuffed with sawdust and put it into the Tin Man’s chest, and he gave the Lion a bottle of green liquid which he said would give him courage once he drank it. Dorothy’s three companions do not have the gifts the Wizard gives them stolen by anyone, however in the proceeding books beginning with The Marvelous Land of Oz the Lion returns to his old cowardly self though acting brave when the time is right, this is of course because the Wizard was a con man as you said and could not really do magic. As for the Scarecrow and Tin Man however they are ever afterward under the delusion that he was a great wizard and really did give them what they had wanted and are both very arrogant and conceited about it too even though they are no different than before they ever met the wizard.
This is what the Scarecrow says to Jack Pumpkinhead, who is a reflection of what the Scarecrow used to be, when they first meet in the second book “Let that be a warning to you never to think for unless one can think wisely it is better to remain a dummy which you most certainly are! It seems to me your creator wasted a few good pies to create an indifferent man!” and here is what the Tin Man says to Mr. Wogglebug, who is my absolute favorite character in the books, after he tells a harmless joke “We are not very particular and we are exceedingly kindhearted but if your superior culture gets leaky again-” he did not complete the sentence but he twirled his gleaming axe so carelessly that the Wogglebug looked frightened and shrank away to a safe distance. Yes, you read correctly, and the Tin Man in the books just loves to threaten people with his axe and he sometimes uses it on them too. I am not kidding! So let me ask you a question would you rather have these two portrayed like in the books or how they were in the cartoon series? I think I may know the answer, after all the Tin Man in the books is better suited for an enemy on the Batman cartoon show of the 90’s instead of a nice little kids cartoon. I think the episode called “Fearless” further illustrates this when the Witch put a spell on the Lion that took away all his fear and he acted very arrogant and stupid under it until he broke the spell by acting brave without it.
The story I am going to write and post on Fanfiction.net will explain how everything got started and tie up loose ends. For instance, the Witch was resurrected when the winged monkeys put her clothes on a statue of her and chanted a spell, and the Ruby Slippers appeared in Dorothy’s closet in Kansas when they were sent to her by Glinda to come back to Oz in its time of peril, and the Scarecrow, Lion, and Tin Man think they have lost their brain, heart, and courage because the Witch had put a kind of hypnotizing spell on them to make them think they were nothing without the objects she had stolen so that she could tempt them into betraying Dorothy to get them back, and this fails of course, and it is up to them to break the spell by learning they possessed them inside all along and had to learn how to really use them and make them work right, and they did on their adventures with Dorothy. The Wizard has stayed in his balloon to avoid the Witch and her black magic and now his balloon gets popped and he walks on foot for most of the story. The four main friends become separated from each other at one point and then find each other, everyone does the things they should do and they eventually make it to the Emerald City and with some help from a new friend defeat the Witch and save Oz and then go their separate ways.
The show was canceled because it had to compete with Muppet Babies on CBS and I suppose it lost to a worthy competitor but I think it should have lasted another two years at least. But thank goodness for Fanfiction.net and I don’t know yet when the story will be up but if you want to read it here is a link to my profile there: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/456534/
Thank you for taking the time to comment with such a thorough message about my review. I’m sorry for taking almost two months to get back to you.
Yes, it is true that I have not read any of L. Frank Baum’s books, and I think that I made that clear in my review, as I wanted readers to know exactly where I was coming from, and what I know and don’t know about the Oz universe. In regards to the 1990 tv series, I think that I benefit from not having exposure to the books because the series was clearly meant to relate to the 1939 film (as evident in the visual style, songs, etc.), and was obviously created to capitalize on the 50th Anniversary of the film the year before. Most people have seen the film, but have not read the books, so my knowledge of the Oz universe would be perfectly in line with the bulk of the audience that would have seen the tv series.
I thank you for explaining some of the elements of the books to me, and for your explanations on the backstory of the 1990 series which you will include in your fan fiction. The 1990 tv series really could have benefited from a much better backstory. Although it still wouldn’t have gelled perfectly with the 1939 movie, which it was trying to be a sequel of sorts to, it would have been much better than what was given in the tv series.
Good luck with your fan fiction.
– Paul
Leave a comment
| « Lilo & Stitch's Island of Adventures DVD Game Review | The Hitchhiker Vol. 1-4 VHS Review » |