First, did you catch Tin Man? Well if you didn’t, catch Tin Man. I was lukewarm to the idea of a spin on The Wizard of Oz, this is definitely a 180, but quite fun to enjoy. The chick that they cast as Dorot- I’m sorry, “DG” is something of a weak actress, but the show is still pretty sweet and to her credit, some of those lines nobody could deliver well. I’m not sure where they got the name. The “Tin Man” isn’t exactly the star of the show, nor is it centered around him really. Although there is no official “Wizard of Oz” or even the merry old land of Oz technically, you’ll quickly see how they work things in cleverly. The world we are a part of is called the “Outer Zone.” The homage payments to the famous story are plentiful, believe me. This gives me hope that I can one day make my version of the 1939 movie, which is pretty much the same as the movie, except with Hulk Hogan as part of the team. Anyway, what was nice about this story was that it seemed to exist independently of the 1939 classic, carefully paraphrasing and not quoting.
…and then they released the wolves. (See, this post for that reference.)
[SPOILER ALERT!] In the last installment of this mini series, they tie the story into the original movie, very poorly as well. First of all, a movie like The Wizard of Oz is extremely sacred and if you dare fuck with it on any level, you need to do it right. Rather than bore you with the details of the scene, just watch it here, we’ll discuss afterwards…
So why did I dislike this? We have a whole story here operating on its own and now, as if we somehow need to give this tale credibility, we go back and say, “Look! It’s all connected!” Dorothy, in case you have forgotten, WAS DREAMING! It was all a dream! Remember? “You were there, you were there…” So, some 2-bit Sci-fi mini series writer just called Noel Langley a liar. Now, some of you who know more about the Wizard of Oz are aware that the movie is originally a novel written by L. Frank Baum, in which the adventure is not a dream, but in fact real. If you’re willing to buy that, fine, but we’re dealing with the moving pictures here. Frankly, that’s the version of the story we take for granted, coupled with fact that Dorothy Gale and the surroundings are black and white in this interactive tomb-simulation thing that she eternally rests in (despite the fact that she returned home and it was just a dream and how in the hell is she buried in Oz, or the “O.Z.?”). Now, to make this story fall apart further, if you buy the original story being reality, then what about the faux-wizard who ended up in Oz before Dorothy? Then he would be the first “slipper.” Finally, damn it all to hell, who they hell did they get to play Dorothy? Dorothy, portrayed by Judy Garland, was a very timid character. Despite this, they cast the role now as a ghostly, know-it-all, creepy little girl version of Dorothy, one I would liken to them whack-jobs from the hotel in the movie The Shining (the 1980 version of course). Based on the shot of Dorothy’s shoes, one could determine if the Dorothy we’re tying into here is the novel or movie Dorothy, if it wasn’t in black and white! In the novel, they were silver. They were made ruby for the movie, however, she never had these in black and white Kansas, which doesn’t help any. Dorothy was also less timid in the book, but that’s a far cry from creepy dead Dorothy pictured here.
I guess based on this research, we would have to guess that we were dealing with the novel version of Dorothy Gale (more or less). I just don’t see why they had to go this route. It’s the last 20 minutes of the final part of the series, they have already hooked us. I guess they felt the needed it for an inflated “cool factor.” The inconsistency is that the whole movie is self-contained. We suddenly are made to incorporate both stories together. Why isn’t it “Oz” then? Why isn’t it the “Emerald City.” All things considered, the series was entertaining and I’m willing to grit and bare the bad and unnecessary tie in with the original story. I just (as always) needed to complain.