I’m leaning slightly toward The Wiz, myself. The tunes are more to my personal liking & are better suited to generate spontaneous rhythmic finger snapping when I watch. Even though the two make the same point about getting out of your own personal closed mind & getting past your personal limitations, I can identify a little more with The Wiz for some reason. The short list of Pros & Cons:
The Wiz Pros:
•Better music & cool choreography.
•Emerald city much more snazzy looking in The Wiz.
•The Wiz tugs more firmly at the heartstrings towards the end (for those of us who like that sort of thing).
•No similarities or relationship of any kind between The Wiz and Pink Floyd.
•Evillene melts into giant toilet at the end
•Chance to see Michael Jackson when he was still black.
•Bigger & better voices (Ross, Jackson, Horne, King).
The Wiz Cons:
•Script writers evicted Glenda from the north & moved her to the south. She’s supposed to be the good witch of the north, dammit!
•Evillene (wicked witch of the west) doesn’t make random appearances & throw fireballs at the scarecrow like in the original.
•Flying monkeys not done very well. FMs in the original were better.
•The original wicked witch was more to my liking- traditional halloween witch with pointy nose & hairy chin wart still my favorite.
•Richard Pryor… 'nuff said.
•Giant metal Wiz head sort of goofy looking.
Hmmm…isn’t she actually the Good Witch of the South in the original novel? I could be mistaken, but I remember reading the book as a kid (after having seen the movie) and finding that weird…
The Wizard of Oz is still one of my favorite movies, but I have fond memories of being in a (freely adapted) version of The Wiz. (Evillene was a thirteen-foot puppet.) Especially since I got to say the line “Girl, I’m gonna wear white to the funeral!”
For the music, and the fond memories it evokes.
As a junior high field trip, we saw it during its theatrical run.
I held my girlfriend’s hand for the first time during that movie.
Well, glinda is the good witch of the south, but there was also a good witch of the north, which is who dorothy met first. they just combined them into a single witch in the movie. also, the good witch of the north seemed to vanish from the series, i donn’t remember her after the road to oz, and she wasn’t listed as on of the people allowed to practice magic after it was outlawed, maybe she retired or moved to Ev, or Mo, or one of the other neighboring fairy lands. (yes, i read too many of these books when i was a kid)
also, return to oz’s weirdness is in part due to combining 2 oz books (land of oz and ozma of oz) as well as the 1939 movie (which is why dorothy is still a brunette qand not a blonde like the novels, and everything is explained as another dream)
Nope, they restored the book. Glinda was, in all 40 Oz books, the Good Witch of the South. The Good Witch of the North was an altogether different character. This is a MAJOR pro.
**
But she was played by Nell Carter who rocked in that role. (Rock’d 'n role. Geddit? gdr) MAJOR pro.
Other Cons:
[li]Diana Ross was…what? 40 years old. Hey Diana: You rock, but you’re too FCKING OLD to play an 8 year old girl! (Where was Stephanie Mills, dammit) Y’should’ve showed some dignity and bowed out. Why not a female Tin Woodswoman? You’d 've been miles better than Nipsy Russell[/li]
[li]The ending just blew chunks. The whole FING point of the movie was that it was time for 40 year old Dorothy to leave the nest. So what’s the LAST scene we see? Dorothy running home. :rolleyes:[/li]
Cons for both movie versions:
[li]Dorothy was NOT a wimp! Dorothy, unlike Alice and many of her fairytale predecessors was not a reactive heroine. Dorothy was the first of a breed of heroine who took matters into her own hands, as opposed to coping as things came along. Case in point: When the Cowardly Lion shows up, both musical Dorothys run. In the book, she hauls off and belts the lion without running.[/li]
Same with melting the witch. I can’t remember why she does it in THE WIZ, but in The Wizard Of Oz, Garland is a klutz who only melts the witch because she’s too incompetent to extinguish the scarecrow. In the book, she douses the witch because the witch trips Dorothy and Dorothy gets pissed. Active, not reactive. Apparently Stephanie Mills’s version of Dorothy from the Broadway version was much closer to the book version.
That said, as a huge fan of the novels, and as a huge fan of musicals, I prefer THE WIZ to THE WIZARD OF OZ.
I think Disney’s Return To Oz was the most faithful adaptation in spirit, content and tone (people who complain about how dark the movie was would be shocked by the books), but as musicals go, THE WIZ comes closer to capturing the tone of the book and is just better paced, etc.
Tars (great name, btw) The Good Witch of the North didn’t show up again in a Baum book, but in a (horrible, IMHO) Thompson book, the Witch of the North showed up again (and Thompson, always icky-sacceriney-cutesy, named her Tattypoo). She’d been under some sort of spell all during the other books. If you care, I can dig up the title)
Gotta disagree: Garland’s vaguely quavery, throaty voice was wonderful for slow, wistful songs like “Over the Rainbow” or “Merry Little Christmas” but on faster, more upbeat songs (“Get Happy” for instance) her voice just (IMHO) wasn’t up to it (I’m obviously in a minority here). Ross’s voice was a far more versitile instrument.
But I don’t think either was a good choice for Dorothy
Don’t bother, i was less than impressed with the three thompson books i read (hungary tiger, purple pirates or something, and a third i can’t even remember). i never found Neill’s or the other authors’ books at a library where i grew up, but i did find one by james howe (of bunnucula fame) If i ever see any Thompson books for sale, i won’t hesitate to pick them up, but i won’t activally search out for them.
How faithful a movie is to the book it is based on is absolutlely irrelevant to the quality of the movie. A movie exists on its own terms, as a separate work of art, and should be judged without reference to the book it is based on.
Ease on Down the Road or Follow the Yellow Brick Road?-- The Wiz wins.
Home or Somewhere Over The Rainbow?-- The Wizard of Oz wins.
Judy Garland or Diana Ross?-- Definitely The Wizard of Oz.
Ted Ross or Bert Lahr?-- Um, Ted Ross was such a hottie, but Bert Lahr is the definitive Cowardly Lion.
Michael Jackson or Ray Bolger?-- I gotta give this one to Michael, reluctantly.
