Wizard of Oz (Baum, Movie, Books)

[Whatever]

Random Fact of the Day:
"Baum" means "tree" in German.

 

[Johnboy]

Jim Henson was a OZ fan? cool, no wonder why Henson used elements of " The Wizard of Oz" for his non-muppet movies " The Dark Crystal" and " Labyrinth", Wizard of Oz was probably a major influence on him and a personal fave of his.

Brian Henson did do Jack Pumpkinhead in Return to Oz, i think he did great as the voice of Jack during the same time he did Hoggle while filming Labyrinth.

Do you think Wizard of Oz was a major influence on Dark Crystal and Labyrinth?

 

[superfan]

I would say WofO definately had some elements of influence on Labrynth.

WofO: frustrated girl with responsiblilties
Labrynth: check!

WofO: girl dreams of fantasy world
Labrynth: check!

WofO: girl makes mistake (runs away)
Labrynth: check (gives brother to Goblin King)

WofO: girl ends up in fantasy world
Labrynth: check!

WofO: fantasy world had villanoius creatures
Labrynth: check!

WofO: fantasy world had friendly creatures
Labrynth: check!

WofO: girl overcomes great obstacles
Labrynth: check!

WofO: girl learns valuable lesson and returns home safely
Labrynth: check!

Yup.
Now, smack me on the wrist, but I haven;t seen The Dark Crystal (and I call myself a Superfan). I can only assume there's a WofO influence.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

We've another new poster here at MC who's a fan of Return To Oz.

I mentioned my faves are Scarecrow and Jack Pumpkinhead in the books.

 

[Pumpkinhead]

Ah! It's great to see other OZ fans here. (Thanks for that list Fozzie, good to see you have extensive knowledge of the OZ universe!) As a huge fan of the books, I'm in love with Return to OZ. I thought it captured the look and feel that the books portrayed. It basically combined the elements from 'Land of OZ' and 'Ozma of OZ'. The score by David Shire was perfect. (It's out of print and goes for bookoos on ebay but you can download the entire score at returntoozthemovie.com if anyone wants it.)

I would really love to see this series be made from scratch and start all over with the original story. Just as long as it takes the approach that Return to OZ did. Actually, I'd love to see it take off from where Return to OZ left off, but that film is not recognized by many, sadly. I wonder if todays audience would be more excepting of a non-musical version. It's sad to think they might not. But you never know. Most people associate OZ with the colorful musical. And I will say the MGM musical is a classic landmark film that will remain an unprecedented masterpiece. But in all honesty the overall tone of the film wasn't like the books. The books, while delightful and very funny at times had a dark side to them as well. And it wasn't just the wicked witch scenes that were dark(her role in the book didn't seem as prominent in the book as it was in the musical). I would love to see the scene where the tin man lops a wolf's head off.

Sadly, the Thompson books are out of print... I think you can get them off of abebooks.com though... I haven't read them, but I'm dying to read Jack Pumpkinhead of OZ.

 

[Whatever]

I like your username, Pumpkinhead!

 

[Pumpkinhead]

Thanks!

I have to carve a new head from time to time... sadly, there's no way to avoid bruising and spoiling.

'Whatever' is a great name too! Good stuff!

 

[Whatever]

Thanks!
I hope your head doesn't fly off too often...

 

[Rowbes]

Have you seen the silent film versions of the novels?

 

[Infinity Sirius]

Also did you know that outside of the 40 that Fozzie listed that there are over a 100 Oz novels published over the years by various publishers.