L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - The Witch's Reveal

In this tension-riddled excerpt from the film, Dorothy Gale encounters The Wicked Witch of the West for the very first time.

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[barnyardstudios]

@AStarryKnight Heh, e-mail alerts so I still know what you said. Mean, guy...

[jaredofmo]

@PhaedrusNYC Ease up on the guys. Their depiction of the characters is their decision, and frankly, I think we should judge the finished film instead of just this scene and what they plan. It's possible to remain true to Baum's spirit, story, and characterizations without being a slavish book-to-screen project. If they have their own way to do it, fine. No movie of Oz will ever be Baum's full intention since he can't approve it.

[MrCaptainA]

Hey, PhaedrusNYC, if you don't like what the filmmakers have done with the story here, why don't you and they all just agree to disagree and leave it and that?

And if it really bothers you that the inhabitants of Oz are so small, maybe you could make your own version of this story in which they're of more average height.

(Personally, in the version of Oz that I see in my own head, I see only the Munchkins as being shorter than Dorothy. But that's just me.)

[KeyserSushi]

@PhaedrusNYC I'm proud of my work. Why would you assume that I'm not? I take credit for the few alterations I chose to make when I wrote the script. I also give Clayton credit for the ideas that he brought to the revisions. But by the same token...the majority of what is in that script is straight from the book, and the changes, when they occur, are for the sake of the storytelling in the filmic medium. Unearned legitimacy? Robert Baum has given us his blessing, so...whatever.

[KeyserSushi]

@PhaedrusNYC Well, maybe you didn't take many English classes in college. Hell, maybe you didn't GO to college. But I learned a long time ago how to do a critical reading and there's a difference between putting words in someone's mouth, and having wit enough to understand the intended meaning of their words. Subtext and theme are real things that writers use. But I guess you'd know all about that, being a writer and all.

[KeyserSushi]

@PhaedrusNYC This is the second time you've started out with, essentially, "I'm an author and I know what authors do." Well, I'm an author too. So let me ask you, in what universe is "oh, they sent the short Munchkins to meet Dorothy for some reason" a better argument than, "the Munchkins are short"? Also, Baum never said they were elderly. He said they looked many years older than Dorothy. But she's a child! They could be 35 years old and be "many" years older than her...

[KeyserSushi]

@PhaedrusNYC I think it's perfectly clear that Baum did, indeed, retcon a number of things as the series progressed. I'm reasonably sure that he didn't write "Wonderful Wizard" with a series in mind, and only came back to Oz due to popular demand, and indeed bringing back the character Dorothy in book 3 because people wanted more of her. There are notes to this effect in the back of the Books of Wonder edition of Ozma. As my esteemed colleague pointed out...retcons happen.

[barnyardstudios]

@PhaedrusNYC I don't know, it's hard to say over one hundred years later. But Bilbo's ring was originally just a magical trinket. And Leia wasn't originally going to be Luke's sister, nor Vader his father. Things do change as a series progresses and stories demand different things, so I don't think it's fair to rule it out. It may not be Baum's CLEAR intention, but it's a valid interpretation of his writings. And our Glinda is of average adult female height, as the illustration.

[PhaedrusNYC]

@barnyardstudios .... You aren't adapting the series, but the fact remains that Baum wrote 14 books. Either he radically changed his own conception or it wasn't his conception in the first place. To me, the latter is more likely than the former.

[PhaedrusNYC]

@barnyardstudios Writers don't generally mention traits like that unless they're unusual. Dorothy met three short, elderly men, and then several other characters (including the soldier with the green whiskers and Glinda) illustrated as taller than she. Your choice is interesting- but it's a stretch to say that it's Baum's clear intention...