Copyright © 2023 Rick and Ruth Coy

The Wizard of Oz is a very easy to find movies - it on disc and on line. It’s been around since 1939 and is a well loved children's movie and a great movie musical. But is it a good adaption of the book - sadly, like so many other movies based on books, it is no where as good as the book version.  And even sadder note is that this is the only version of OZ many people know - to the point that they feel movies that are much closer to the books are wrong.

The Oz Movies
1) The Wonderful wizard of OZ (1910)
2)The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914)
3)His Majesty, the Scarecrow of OZ (1914)
4)The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914)
5)The Wizard of OZ (1925)
6)The Wizard of OZ (1939)
7)The Wonderful Land of OZ (1969)
8)Return to OZ (1985)
9)The Muppets’ Wizard of OZ(2005)
10)OZ: The Great and Powerful (2013)

Disney did this wonderful film based on the books “Land of Oz” and”Ozma of Oz”. It gives you the “real” land of oz - Now people can nit pic, but most that do are trying to compare it to the 1939 MGM musical. It had a look of things from the books that other movies (including animation) left out.  Now effects in 1985 are a lot better than in 1939.  I was really hoping that real OZ fans (Fans of the books) would come out strong and support the movie and we would get more - maybe even a new Wonderful Wizard of Oz film.  But it was hated, even by some who claimed they were fans of the books(they didn’t like how Dorothy is treated at the beginning of the film. If you read the books you know they didn’t believe Dorothy stories and started worrying maybe something was wrong. I personally though it was a nice touch.

This one I have not seen, the reviews say it horrible. But they said the same thing about Return to OZ. One thing I noticed is that Tip is played by a boy and Ozma a girl. The same person should play both since they are one and the same. If I can find a copy I will rewrite this based on what I think.

The many looks of Dorothy.

1939. 1985, book, 1910, book

Blonde in books and dark haired in movies.

Return to Oz, my favorite OZ film to date. It keep more to the books, even though it was loosely based on two books - “The Land of Oz” and “Ozma of Oz”. We got to see a lot more of OZ than we did in the 1939 and it is much closer to cannon than the 1939.

Glinda, The Good Witch 1939, 2013,book, book, Wicked, 1910. As you can see except for 1939 Glinda looked very young. To show that she was older than the rest in the books, she was taller.

Loved this movie. A great prequel to The Wonder Wizard of Oz. It was a little darker than most OZ, but it was a dark time for OZ.  Again Disney out did themselves. Oz was the land we read about in the books. And it answered a question we have all had since we first read the book - HOW did the wizard get to Oz.  And being a younger man make way more sense than an old man. (Now this mean he was still younger looking as people don’t age the same as they do here - Dorothy by moving to OZ will stay a little girl forever. Now this age thing in OZ is one of the things they really didn’t look at in the movies.  No one looks real old. Ozma doen’t look much older than Dorothy in the books, but she was kidnapped by Mombi after the King of Oz died before the Wizard came to Oz.