Daily Archives: February 13, 2013

The Merry Old Land of Oz

 

With the release of “Oz the Great and Powerful” around the corner, this week I’ve decided to take a look into “The Wizard of Oz”. Now you’re probably thinking “This girl is crazy, there aren’t any remakes!?” sorry but you’re wrong. 😀 There are so many different interpretations of L. Frank Baum’s interesting book. Most people know about the 1939 version starring Judy Garland, so I’ve decided this week to compare it with the 1978 version entitled “The Wiz”.

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Now, both of these movies follow the same plot line, with some minor differences. They both have Dorothy, the witches, the Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man. But the main difference is that The Wiz adds an African American influence to the mix.  Its producers had the goal of illustrating the African American experience in the Wizard of Oz. In the 1939 version Dorothy lived on a farm, but in the 1978 version Dorothy was a school teacher who lived in Harlem. Of course the differing backgrounds for each of the movies allowed for different renditions of the songs to be created. Personally I found this to be awesome. A lot of the Wizard of Oz remakes feature the same old songs from 1939. But The Wiz created new songs that are just as catchy as the original music.

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From an acting perspective both are pretty good. I mean, I am very biased because growing up the Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie. But The Wiz starred Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, both of whom were/are very influential African American artists. In my opinion, nothing beats the original. But this remake is definitely worth your time. It is funny, energetic, and a bit quirky. Everyone should definitely see both of these movies. If you haven’t seen the Wizard of Oz, shame on you. Just kidding, but really you should see it. And everyone should watch The Wiz because it is also pretty cool too! Fun fact about the Wiz; this weekend at THON the Blue Band is going to play a song from the movie! And if you went to either the Temple or Wisconsin game it might sound familiar to you (it was part of the halftime show those weeks). Anyways, this blog isn’t too informative on the movie because I don’t want to give too much away. The Wiz is available on Netflix and if you really want to watch the Wizard of Oz it is probably on YouTube. You should definitely watch both of them! Here are some YouTube clips from each! 😀

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjyJ_ZUEMEw&feature=youtu.be&t=25s

This clip seriously gets me every time. It’s the song that Blue Band is doing. But it’s also just really funny to sit back and laugh at and the song is way too catchy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aopdD9Cu-So

And this scene is probably one of the most quoted by me. I have a tendency to shout it whenever it is raining! And it’s funny too.