One of my all-time favorite movies, and something I have to watch every year, without fail, has always been 
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Ever since I was a little girl, this movie has caught my imagination, and my wonder. And over the years, I’ve discovered that it has quite a lot to say to me.
There are a lot of funny, sarcastic moments in this movie for me, hidden behind the soft, “simpler age” cinematics. And the music in the movie never gets tired. At least not to my ears.
Many people are so rabid about their fan-dom, that they can’t take a joke about it. I, on the other hand, love seeing things like this:
To me, this just proves my theory… namely, that the Wizard of Oz will resound with generations of children, and adults, far into the future. Even if just to make them laugh. But I think, really, that there’s a lot you can take away from this movie. If you look closely, listen carefully, and really dissect the Wizard down to his socks.
At the beginning of the movie, we see Dorothy, living in a dull, drab landscape with her aunt and uncle. She gets into mischief with her dog, Toto, because… well, there’s simply nothing else to do in her life. And when the time comes to pay the price? It’s excessive, yes, but she rebels, just like every normal teenager all over the planet.
By running away, fleeing from the consequences of her unthinking actions.
When she bumps up against an insurmountable problem, the “Twister” that threatens to tear up everything she loves, she’s knocked down, knocked out, and wakes up in a totally unfamiliar landscape, amongst strangers.
The people are actually rather kind to her, after she does them an unforseen favor, that of ridding them of a bully – The Wicked Witch of the East- who’s been terrorizing them for a long time.
She also meets up with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.
Now, part of me has always wondered why Glinda didn’t do something about her counterpart to the East, but, when I was a young girl, I did actually read the books, and discovered that the witches were all sisters. So, I guess it’s an unspoken family rule… you aren’t allowed to kill your sister. Good rule to have, I guess, but awkward for the munchkins.
Anyway, Dorothy gets the bad-girl shoes, which have powers (which of course, Glinda won’t tell her about, or doesn’t know about, since she’s a “good girl” and not a “bad girl”).
Now enters my personal favorite character of the whole movie – The Wicked Witch of the West!
I’ve talked about her before, here, simply because she is someone that has always fascinated me, and I always thought got rather a bum rap.
She tells Dorothy off for killing her sister, and tries to get her birthright… the magickal shoes, thus setting the whole journey in motion. Without her? This would have just been a long, quiet walk through some rather pretty countryside… no excitement – all sugar, no spice. Boooooorrrrrring. And? Dorothy would have never learned her lessons in the first place!
Dorothy then heads off on her own, to try to find someone to help her get back to her life and family. Through some accidents of her travels, and some divine intervention (of the “Glinda” variety), she meets up with just the right people (ironic, that) to help her find what she’s been looking for.
The Scarecrow, who needs to get a clue… The Tin Man, who needs to get over being such an emo sap…. and The Lion, who needs to get some… uh, (PG rating deletes comment).
They go with her, trying to help out, and stumbling right along with Dorothy, until they reach the Emerald City, where they’re told that they’ve traveled all this way, only to be turned back.
“Nobody gets in to see the Wizard, not nobody, not nohow!”
Well, of course, they end up getting in to see him, anyway, because they’re just that fabulous, and he sets them what seems to be an impossible task before he’ll grant their wishes.
Ain’t that always the way?
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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