Last month I read “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire (the basis of the hit Broadway musical), followed by the L. Frank Baum 1900 classic, “The Wizard of Oz”. After completing those I felt it necessary to break out my old VHS copy of the 1939 Hollywood marvel, “The Wizard of Oz”.
The differences are many. Tinseltown embellished the original story (which is not surprising); for instance, in the book there is no Miss Gulch, and there are terrifying creatures with the bodies of bears and the heads of tigers (oh my!) called Kalidahs. The flying monkeys are good, the company makes it out of the field of poppies without snow, and the book is more gruesome than I thought. The most flagrant ‘modification’ for the movie was that the iconic ruby red slippers are actually SILVER in the original book (they are red in Maguire’s book, and are complimented by Nessarose’s (The Wicked Witch of the East) striped stockings).
I really enjoyed both books and I had fun comparing and contrasting the two books to the original movie.
I thought I would share my favorite quotes from over the rainbow.
The Wizard of Oz: “A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.”
Dorothy: “How do you talk if you don’t have a brain?”
Scarecrow: “Well, some people without brains do an awful lot of talking don’t they?”
Dorothy: “Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my!”
The Wizard of Oz: “As for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don’t know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.”
Glinda, The Good Witch of the North: “You have no power here! Begone, before somebody drops a house on you, too!”
The Wizard of Oz: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”
The Wicked Witch of the West: “You cursed brat! Look what you’ve done! I’m melting! Melting! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?”
The Cowardly Lion: “Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage!”
Dorothy: “Please, sir. We’ve done what you told us. We brought you the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West. We melted her!”
The Wizard of Oz: “Oh, you liquidated her, eh? Very resourceful!”
Dorothy: “There’s no place like home.”