The Wizard of WTF?

Almost everyone attached to the production of The Wizard of Oz recalled fond memories of the children’s story. Then MGM replaced them with people who could make a movie. It took three years, four directors and 14 screenwriters to translate Frank L Baum’s novel (1900) to the screen (1939), and while it’s hardly original to cry foul at a Hollywood bastardization of an obscure story, the lengths the studio went to sanitise and justify the magical land of Oz was a slap in the face to the half dozen people who had actually read it (or one of its 32 sequels). Not to mention the guy who wrote it.

Prefacing this film with a finely-fonted tribute to remaining faithful to the story was the only fanciful element of the movie. So concerned where the studio heads by the magical elements of the book that MGM circulated a brief outlining rational explanations for the existence of Oz and its inhabitants. The Scarecrow, for example, was merely so stupid, he could only find gainful employment as a scarecrow. The Tinman was merely a heartless bastard who was encased in tin as a form of punishment. Only in the film version is there an implication that the entire adventure was simply a dream, and it was a casting decision to re-use the farm yokels for their roles in Oz, none of whom appear in the original book.

So how far does the film stray from the original story? Here’s a look at what was taken out, and why.

Dorothy Dearest

Precocious, sulky, spiteful, and prone to the odd tantrum, the original novelisation of the six year-old Dorothy is rarely concerned with her travelling companions. At one point or another, they’re all left high and dry (literally, in the case of the Scarecrow, who’s abandoned on a log in the middle of a stream) with little more than a “Gee, I’m kinda gonna miss him.” She’s also a lot less repent about killing the Wicked Witch of the East with her house, and actually steals her silver shoes (not ruby slippers), which inexplicably appear on the kitchen table of her fallen home.

Stone the Crows

The Scarecrows new brains don’t arrive via a nifty diploma but through a combination of bran and pins and needles, the latter two exuding from his head every time he’s in deep thought. There’s a lot less hugging in the book as a result.

The Tin Woodman

The Tinman was once a man of flesh and bone until the Wicked Witch of the East, on instruction from his future mother-in-law (he was engaged to a Munchkin), enchanted his axe, and he began cutting off his limbs. He kept going until he planted one straight through his torso, and ultimately took off his own head. A tinsmith managed to reassemble him in a body of tin, but neglected to include a heart (or a brain, for that matter, but, as he tells the Scarecrow, “having tried them both, I should much rather have a heart.”)

Though bumbling and fairly ineffectual in the film, he’s a blood-thirsty, axe-wielding psychopath in the original novel, lopping the heads off 40 wolves, chopping a wildcat in half, cutting the limbs from the grumpy apple trees, and destroying a makeshift bridge to destroy to Kalidahs (creatures with the bodies of bears and the heads of tigers), ensuring that they’re “dashed to pieces on the sharp rocks at the bottom.”

In fact, the Tinman takes a swipe at practically anything they come across, often with questionable morality (the wildcat, for example, was merely chasing a field mouse, and it’s not like the field mouse was a mate or famous or something).

Lion About Bein’ A Coward

There’s no actual evidence of the Lion acting cowardly in the entire story. Not once does he cower, tremble, or get teary. After a while, you assume that Cowardly was just his first name.

The Not-So Emerald City

The emerald city is actually grey. The Great & Powerful Oz forces all its inhabitants to wear green tinted glasses to give everything an emerald glow.

The Wicked Witch of the West

The Wicked Witch of the West doesn’t actually turn up in the book until the Wizard instructs Dorothy to kill her. Yes, kill her. While the crusty old Wizard of the film charges Dorothy & Co with the task of collecting the Witch’s broomstick (and her death is both accidental and incidental), the Wizard of the book blatantly instructs Dorothy to take her out.

Sending the six year-old to the Haunted Forrest, she ultimately destroys the Witch in much the same manner as the film, only instead of clipping her with the O2 overflow from dousing the burning Scarecrow, she actually gets pissed at the Witch for making her do chores around the castle (and stealing back one of her stolen shoes), and she petulantly throws a bucket of water at her.

The Tinman and Scarecrow don’t even attempt to rescue her. She stumbles upon them later wearing the Magical Bonnet which allows her to control the winged Monkeys.