Average Rating: 
Rating:  - the very best
It doesn't matter what advances they have made in special effects since 1939, The Wizard of Oz stands out in every child's mind as the most magical, fantastical and, at times, frightening story ever told on film. Dorothy, who is apparently orphaned and living with a childless aunt and uncle, is swept away in her house in a tornado into the land of Oz (and from sepia and black to glorious Technicolor). All she wants is to get back to Kansas with her little dog Toto. Unfortunately, her house landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East and now her sister is swearing revenge. Dorothy is given ruby slippers to protect her (now on display in the Smithsonian) and told to follow the yellow brick road to the Wizard of Oz, who will help her go home. Along the way, she meets other friends in need of something they hope the Wizard will grant them: The Scarecrow who needs a brain, the Tin Man who needs a heart and the Cowardly Lion who needs courage. Judy Garland almost lost this part to Shirley Temple, whose contract didn't allow her to accept it. "Over the Rainbow" can never be sung by anyone other than Garland - that song BELONGS to her, in retrospect. It's interesting to see Dorothy's hair change in length from scene to scene because the costume people forgot how long it was supposed to be, and that Garland's chest was bound (Dorothy was supposed to be 12 years old), and that Toto made more money per week than Garland did. Strange but true! Still, the Wizard of Oz is a great telling of the fact that one girl wants to go home, and the journey she undertakes to achieve that. Although I always felt bad she wanted to return to grey old Kansas instead of staying in colorful Oz with all her friends.
Rating: - THE SUCCESS OF OZ
102 years ago, The Wizard of Oz was first part of American Literature, written by the talented Lyman Frank Baum. Nearly 40 years later this timely fairytale was altered onto the big screen under Metro Goldwyn Meyer for a 1939 release, Starring Judy Garland as Dorothy who skips down the yellow road paved of brick that will lead Dorothy to her destiny, Frank Morgan, the founding father of the Screen Actor's Guild,as Oz, Ray Bolger the Scarecrow, Jack Haley as the Tin Man, and Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion.
The Wizard of Oz, by 1939's standard was first considered a B rated success, mostly because of Gone With The Wind's strong push of Hollywood style. Nevertheless, In 1956, along came television with the very FIRST movie picked up for a national televised premiere was ultimately, The Wizard of Oz. Little by little, year by year, this became a story not only for the small child but, the child in all of us; as the beginning of the 1939 movie does quote.
Generations after the 1956 premiere, fell in love with its ingenuity. Now in the year of 2002 The Wizard of OZ has become the most watched and beloved film ever made. You know, it's amazing how you can a watch a bad movie, and one tine is enough ! But, in the case of the Wizard of Oz, One hundred times may NOT be enough !
Rating: - The best family picture of all time
For an amusing evening some time, sit down with someone else who grew up watching Danny Kaye introduce "The Wizard of Oz" every spring and try to list all the lines from this movie that have made it into the popular culture. I'll start the ball rolling with "I have a funny feeling we're not in Kansas any more," and you can take it from there.While it's wonderful to be able to own this for home use... we recently had the immense pleasure of seeing this in the theater, in its restored glory. Our daughters (11 and 7) had seen the film many times at home, but our son Charlie, 2, had not. When Dorothy opens the door in Oz and the world outside, for the first time in the film, is all in glorious Technicolor, Charlie's intake of breath could be heard throughout the theater, and his hushed "Ohhhh!" as he raised his finger to the screen was worth the price of admission. Yes, it's a magical place, over the rainbow. Another fun evening's entertainment -- imagine what the film would have been like with some of the originally planned cast members. Buddy Ebsen would have been a fine Tin Man (as anyone who's seen him dance opposite Shirley Temple can attest). But as dear as Little Miss Temple is, I can't really imagine her as Dorothy; Judy Garland's wistful, longing, on-the-verge-of-maturity rendition of "Over The Rainbow" is such a motion picture icon that it's hard to imagine it done with the bright, sweet tone of "The Good Ship Lollipop" or "The Codfish Ball." On the other hand, W.C. Fields, originally considered for the role of the Wizard, would have brought an even greater sense of charlatanism and trickery to the character. I can just imagine his gin-soaked drawl as he says, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" And the languorous Gale Sondergaard, originally considered as the Wicked Witch of the West, could be perhaps the only villainess to bring more subdued, seething sexuality to her role than Glenn Close's incomparable Cruella de Vil. Just imagine, she might have been responsible for an entire generation of young men growing up with a series of complexes that Freud himself would have trouble pinning down. But as it is... the film is really just about perfect. Yes, it's a filmed stage play in most shots, with relatively fixed camera positions and cuts that conveniently fade to black just as the actors are about to dance off the stage floor and crash into a backdrop. And none of that matters once Leo roars and the music starts; the film is magic, Oz is magic, and for the time that it's on the screen (large or small), that magic lives again for anyone who watches it.
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