Toto?
I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
>> Wow, can you believe The Wizard of Oz is 80 years old?
Well, it's a classic of American film-making,
it's lauded as the poster child of Technicolor.
And it has spawned a number of parodies, knock-offs, urban legends, merchandise,
and that thing people do with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
(Music)
So yeah, Casey, I can't believe it's that old.
But all that acclaim and
attention wouldn't exist without L Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
The novel was written to the scope of the Midwestern American droughts of the 1850s.
So it's no surprise that audiences in 1939 connected with the film after years of
living through the Dust Bowl.
But the film makes significant changes to things like motives and structure and-
>> And bears, my!
>> (Laugh) Right, because of the- (Laugh) >> But
I was going to say a number of beheadings.
>> (Laugh) Wait, what?
>> So click your heels together because it's time to ask, what's the difference?
(Music)
Both the movie and the book begin in Kansas,
where Dorothy lives with Auntie Uncle Henry, and her dog Toto.
But the movie makes a major change to Dorothy's attitude about her home in what
is arguably the most iconic scene.
(Music)
Movie Dorothy longs to leave Kansas behind to find her happiness somewhere over
the rainbow.
Book Dorothy, however, never expresses interest in leaving Kansas.
And while the book only spends a small chapter at home before the cyclone sends
her off to Oz,
the movie concocts a whole new plot along with a number of new characters.
Characters like Miss Gulch, the affluent Scrooge of the town,
who threatens to destroy Toto.
>> I'm taking him to the sheriff and make sure he's destroyed.
>> Dorothy seeks out support from not only her aunt and
uncle but also from the ranch hands, Hunk, Hickory, and Zeke.
>> What's the matter?
going to let a lit old pig make a coward out of you?
(Laugh) >> The movie also introduced the
unscrupulous yet lovable Professor Marvel, who tricks her into returning home.
>> I've gotta go home right away!
>> But what's this?
I thought you were going along with me.
>> The new plot and characters mirror Dorothy's time in Oz,
which makes the context of her trip different from the book.
The cyclone trip in the book is meant to be taken literally, it actually happens.
And it takes so long to get to Oz that Dorothy gets super bored.
>> This cyclone takes forever.
>> But in the movie, Dorothy is blindsided by a window knocking her unconscious.
The editor uses dissolves to communicate that Dorothy has entered a fantasy state,
so unlike the book, Oz is just a dream.
Regardless, in both mediums,
Dorothy inadvertently commits house on witch homicide.
The only thing left behind are the witch's slippers, which in the movie are red,
of course, but in the book, they're silver.
The old house on the witch, I'm getting too old for this (Bleep).
Movie Dorothy is greeted by the Good Witch Glinda, who stands by her when
the Wicked Witch of the West pops in to lament her sister's death and
threaten Dorothy over the red slippers.
>> I'll get you, my pretty.
>> But in the book, Dorothy instead meets the Good Witch of the North.
Neither Glinda nor
the Wicked Witch of the West will appear until much later in the story.
>> But the movie has already laid the groundwork for
Dorothy's adversary in Miss Gulch, aka the Wicked Witch.
So having her appear early makes her place in the story much more personal.
(Sound) >> All right, you can get up, she's gone.
>> In both mediums, the Good Witch shares her wisdom with Dorothy.
Hold onto your slippers, she says.
They must be powerful, she claims.
And find the Wizard of Oz, she instructs.
He can help you get home, she guesses.
Just follow the yellow brick road.
(Music)
>> The Good Witch of the North in the book goes one step further,
by leaving Dorothy with an enchantment of protection.
No one would dare harm her in the land of Oz now.
After Dorothy sets off down the Yellow Brick Road in both mediums, she happens
upon her three companions, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion.
Each has their own deep desire that the Great Wizard of Oz may be
able to help with.
But the movie diverges from the book when it comes to their motivations.
>> In the book, the Scarecrow is only two days old, but
knows well enough that he's lesser than the man who built him.
One particularly intelligent crow tells him that brains are the only thing worth
having in this world.
If he can get that, then he'll be as good as most men, and even better than some.
>> The most we get out of his motives in the film is that he's too
dumb to scare the crows.
But of course, he's got a laundry list of things he'd do if he had a brain.
(Music)
According to the film, the Tin Man wants a heart so that he may feel human emotions.
Apparently the tin maker simply forgot to give him one.
But in the book the Tin Man is particularly concerned with the emotion
of love.
We see he was once a woodsman in love with a Munchkin girl.
But the Wicked Witch cursed his axe so that over time,
he gradually lopped off his limbs, torso, and ultimately his head with every swing.
A local replaced his missing flesh with tin, but was unable to recreate his heart.
So if the Wizard can give him a new heart, he'll be able to marry his true love.
Finally, the Cowardly Lion wants Oz to give him courage, for
only then can he truly be the king of the forest.
And while the Cowardly Lion in the book is similarly motivated,
he also points out how lonely it is to be both feared by and afraid of everything.
And now that our merry band is together,
they set off to Emerald City to meet the wizard, a journey fraught with perils.
In the movie, the Wicked Witch puts obstacles in the group's way,
all with the intention of taking Dorothy's slippers.
(Laugh) >> But
in the book, these perils are purely environmental.
The literary Land of Oz is generally more dangerous and
violent than the movie counterpart.
In the movie, the witch merely subdues the group in a field of poppies,
but Glinda crossfades into the picture, saving them with magic snow.
>> Dorothy, you're waking up!
>> However in the book,
it's the queen of the field mice who helps them out of the poppy fields, for
she was indebted to the Tin Man for saving her from a pursuing predator.
Which brings us to the Emerald City and the titular Wizard of Oz, whose merry
upper class inhabitants sing a happy tune and tend to their guests' needs.
The movie mirrors the book's depiction of the Emerald City, save for one detail.
The book requires everyone in the city to wear emerald colored glasses in
an egregious case of fashion fascism.
And while book Dorothy is easily granted access to the reclusive wizard,
thanks to the good witch's protection charm,
movie Dorothy instead brings the doorman to tears with emotional anguish.
>> Please don't cry anymore.
I'll get you in to the Wizard somehow.
>> The movie chooses to introduce him as a massive disembodied
head over intimidating pyrotechnics, which is how I like to meet most people.
But in the book it is but one of his many forms.
He also appears as a biblical ball of fire, a monsterous beast,
and a B-E-A-utiful fairy.
>> No matter is form in both mediums, he directs Dorothy and
his friends to kill the Wicked Witch of the West in order to earn their wishes.
(Music)
>> In the movie, Dorothy is stolen away by the witch's pet flying monkeys,
who leave Dorothy's friends behind.
>> What happened to you?
>> The Wicked Witch from the book first sends bees, crows, and wolves,
all of which end up being murdered.
Damn!
It's only then she sends the Flying Monkeys, who are not the pets depicted in
the film, but instead a cursed group of beings bound to a magic hat and
forced to carry out three wishes.
What the movie lacks in violence, it makes up for in tension.
>> Do you see that?
That's how much longer you've got to be alive.
>> The Witch puts a ticking clock on Dorothy's life.
Her companions embark on a comical infiltration scheme.
Ultimately, the group reunites, only to find the Wicked Witch has them cornered.
But when the Witch takes a flame to the Scarecrow- No, Scarecrow kryptonite!
Dorothy tosses a pail of water to douse the flames,
inadvertently melting the Witch.
Witch kryptonite!
>> I'm melting, melting!
What a world, what a world.
>> The confrontation in the book puts the full burden of the situation on Dorothy's
shoulders.
The flying monkeys knock Scarecrow and
the Tin Man out of the game by dropping them from a great height.
The lion is left chained in a dungeon, while Dorothy is subjected to housework
till she snaps and throws her mop water on the witch out of frustration.
>> You liquidated her, eh?
Very resourceful.
>> Yes, sir.
>> In both mediums, the Wizard turns out to be a sham, a shyster, a pettifogger.
An old humbug from the heart of Kansas, a real son of a (Bleep).
But Dorothy and her friends refuse to let him off the hook, so
he does his best to grant their wishes anyway.
In the movie, he presents the scarecrow with a university degree, the lion with
a medal for bravery, and the Tin Man with a testimonial token of affection.
>> The wizard in the book is much more arts and crafts.
He makes the scarecrow a brain out of a mixture of bran, pins, and needles.
For the Tin Man, he installs a heart made of silk and stuffed with sawdust.
And for the lion, a bottle of liquid courage, weakling.
>> And like the movie,
Dorothy is to be taken home by the humbug himself in a balloon.
But Toto mucks up the take off, leaving them stranded in Oz.
Bad dog.
But not to worry, because Glinda has a solution.
In the movie, she magically appears.
In the book, Dorothy must travel a great distance to reach her.
So for the next few chapters, Dorothy and her friends weave through frightening and
foreign lands, armed with nothing but their brains, their hearts, and
their courage, and an axe, and a group of flying monkeys.
Yeah, of course she put the hat on.
It's so pretty.
In both mediums,
Glinda reveals how Dorothy had the power to go home all along, like a chump.
In the movie, she had to complete an emotional odyssey in order to
realize there is no place like home.
But since book Dorothy never wanted to leave Kansas to begin with,
she had to learn self-reliance.
It's by taking matters into her own hands that she finds Glinda,
who tells her the secret power of the silver slippers.
(Sound) By the end, Dorothy makes it back home.
Auntie And Uncle Henry are elated to find Dorothy alive after all this time.
Although, I imagine there would be little time to celebrate,
since they're busy rebuilding their house.
The movie ends with Dorothy regaining consciousness, the dream is over, and
having experienced the wonders in the dangers of the world.
Dorothy is happy to be home.
>> There's no place like home.
(Sound) >> And
that's the end of our yellow brick roads.
Be sure to like this video and subscribe for more What's the Difference,
right here in the merry old land of Cinefix.
(Music)