Somewhere…Over the Rainbow…a Disney executive thought it’d be a good idea to re-vamp one of the most popular stories of all-time. The 1939 movie, “The Wizard of Oz”, is a classic. So why mess with something so memorable and so good?
Sam Raimi (director of the original “Spider-Man” trilogy) helms this prequel to the film that revolutionized the transformation from black and white to color in motion pictures. And he begins “Oz: The Great and Powerful” cleverly, in a style reminiscent of the original. Set in Kansas in 1905, we are introduced to Oscar Diggs (played by James Franco). He’s a struggling traveling magician who has very little love or happiness in his life. A twister! A twister! blows into Kansas, sending Oscar (or as he’s billed professionally – Oz) away in a hot-air balloon aimed right at the storm.
Oz survives, and as he comes to in a new land the screen widens and the film is now in color. Oz is in Oz. He meets three witches – the first named Theodora (Mila Kunis), who tells him that he is part of the prophecy: a wizard bearing the city’s name would come and save everyone from the Wicked Witch of the West. Then Oz meets Theodora’s sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) who explains how Oz has to defeat the Wicked Witch in order to become King and receive riches beyond his wildest dreams.
So Oz journeys down the Yellow Brick Road with a flying monkey in a bell hop outfit and a China Doll girl and they meet-up with Glinda the Good Witch (played by Michelle Williams). She sets them all straight on who is really wicked and who is really good (the one mystery in the plot that I’m not going to give away) and together they, along with the townspeople and singing Munchkins, come-up with a plan to reclaim their kingdom. Some reviews will give it away (as did an Entertainment Weekly cover). The scene in which the
Wicked Witch (yes I did just write that) is revealed is well done.
Following an imaginative opening credits sequence, “Oz: The Great and Powerful” gets off to a bumpy start. The B&W works, but the set-up scenes are slow, with some very bland dialogue. Later, when we get to Oz, the look of the city is impressive, but there’s a big problem: it’s ALL CGI. Often the use of green screen is very obvious, even in 2D. The filmmakers do a better job making the city scenes look realistic as the movie progresses, but the full CGI does take you away from the moment.
There are several nice touches in the script (in particular one towards the end) that remind us just how timeless and magical “The Wizard of Oz” is. The writers didn’t just slap this story together. And to their credit the lines “I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas Anymore” and “There’s No Place Like Home” are not uttered in the film. In fact, there’s no reference to Dorothy or any of the other characters from the ’39 classic.
For the first hour or so, I was thinking that Raimi simply picked Franco
to play Oz because of their “Spider-Man” connection, but eventually Franco does grow into the role. Weisz and Kunis are also good, though they take a back-seat to Williams who shines. She’s the perfect choice to for Glinda – almost a mirror image of the wonder and innocence of Judy Garland’s Dorothy. Williams continues to prove that she’s one of Hollywood’s top actresses.
Also deserving praise is the make-up, hairstyling and costume design – early frontrunners for next year’s awards season.
“Oz: The Great and Powerful” is rated PG for some mild action/violence and brief, scary moments. It’s appropriate for kids 9 and up. But parents – this is NOT a musical with talking a Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man. Little ones, especially those who have seen “The Wizard of Oz” countless times, will be bored by this story and all the dialogue.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Oz: The Great and Powerful” gets a B-. I can’t call it “great” or “powerful”, but it’s worth watching.