Friday, July 13, 2012
Oz - The Great And Powerful Trailer
This may surprise some of you but I HATE the original Wizard Of Oz. It was one of those movies from my childhood that was on alot and always seemed to be what my family wanted to watch when something else better was on another channel. With commercials, the stupid film lasted over THREE HOURS!!
All the life lessons I need to learn were transmitted in only ONE viewing. I get it...there's no place like home, even after your home was destroyed by a tornado. Plus, Judy Garlands's line delivery is beyond earnest and insulted even my eight year old intelligence.
Now I LOVE 'Return to Oz' but I think that has everything to do with Fairuza Balk's star making turn as Dorothy. I like the characters better than the original and those 'Wheellie' guys are a hell of a lot scarier than those stupid flying monkeys. The monkeys always looked to me like they should be carrying my bags up to my room. I thought I could give them a tip and they would stop harassing me.
The trailer doesn't really highlight how good Fairuza is as Dorothy. The situations she faces are very dark and frightening but she has a determination to chase the truth wherever it leads her. She just accepts the situation she is in (no matter how real world or Oz world bizarre they may be) and just keeps moving forward. She is brave and loyal and kind and never crumbles. How can I ever go back to stupid Judy Garland and those freakin Munchkins ever again after seeing that? I can't. I won't.
Tales Of The Wizard Of Oz was a cartoon from the 1960s that they played early every morning on Western Canadian television. It was usually paired with the stop motion New Adventures of Pinocchio for an hour of quality kid's entertainment, if you were a kid that got up at five in the morning. Forgive the crappy condition of this episode but that is the way it was shown back in the day.
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11 comments:
I've always been willing to overlook your hatred for the Wizard of Oz -to each their own- but in the same post to praise Fairuza Balk... I'm going to have to go somewhere quietly and mull this one over.
I am TELLING you. Watch the first one. Throw up. Watch RETURN TO OZ with Fairuza. Your head will fuckin' explode with awesome. THAT is Dorothy! Brave and kind and brave who with her little CHICKEN saves the world of Oz from things that make the ADULT me crap his pants. It's not a happy little fairy tale. Very dark and gothic. I have never read the Oz books but I would like to think they are this good.
Fairuza does such a great job with the role that you are rooting for her the whole time to succeed. There is your female empowerment. There is your female role model.
Oh and THEN go watch the first WIZARD. Throw up... and tell me I didn't just change your life by making you see the comparison.
I've seen them back to back. I recently rewatched Return to Oz, which I do enjoy on some levels. Though-
Whoa, wait a second... You've never read the books?!?! Clearly we're going to be at ends on multiple levels.
I'm not saying the Wizard of Oz is the most faithful either, but Return is way off base. Read the books, fall in love with them, and then be like me who just thinks a faithful adaptation is still what's needed.
Its interesting to hear you say you hate the classic Wizard of Oz. I'd heard many people complain about the ending, how a return to the mundane is the "positive" outcome. I've admired it for its trailblazing technical aspects but haven't given much thought to it otherwise, and probably couldn't bring myself to say anything bad about if only because its my Mom's favorite movie of all time.
A few summers I got to see the stage musical of "Wicked" and found that quite enjoyable. Perhaps it can get its own film adaptation someday.
http://vimeo.com/19733014
I saw a copy of "Witches of Oz" at Target the other day, which looked cool, especially the cast but got terrible ratings on IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1592287/
Also, next year we're getting the animated "Dorothy of Oz", also with a big name cast. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0884726/
So by the time we get to "Oz", I'm already worn out on the Wizard. It doesn't help that this trailer doesn't really invoke "Great and Powerful". It looks so much like the recent "Alice in Wonderland", and so unreal in its CG that theres nothing interesting to look at, and not much in the way of story to get me excited.
I loved James Franco's performance in "127 Hours", and since then I hoped he'd start to climb the ladder, but this doesn't look like its going to be a role with much range.
Gawd, we watched "Tales of the Wizard of Oz" too -- but I actually didn't mind this series.
Speaking of Wizard of Oz movies, what about "The Wiz," Cal? WHAT ABOUT "THE WIZ"????
I ask myself that same question each time I step up to the urinal.
TS - I don't need none of your fancy book learnin'.
I wonder if the Oz books have recently lapsed into public domain with all the sudden interest.
Erik, I believe the first one has been public domain for a few years.
Return to Oz was an underrated film. Brilliant in its execution of a script that had more than a few problems, but worth watching if only for the Tic-toc man (although I also love Nicol Williamson's turn as the Gnome King)
I know I read a few of the books when I was younger -- certainly The Land of Oz and The Scarecrow of Oz for sure -- but I can't remember much of any of them.
The Oz books have been public domain for some time. Well, the original L. Frank Baum ones have been, anyway. I don't know why there's this sudden interest in making Oz movies as of late.
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