New Wizard of Oz movie

[Indian Ink]

Remakes are irrelevant to my judgement of an original film. The remake/reboot is a separate creation. However a sequel is different as this is the continuing story of the original. The final season of Game of Thrones ruined the whole series for me, but really as a rule, it depends how close the story links are with the sequel to the one before it. If I only like original Star Trek, then everything after this can be easily someone else's 'What Ifs' and I don't have to accept it, as after all it's only fiction.

[shades of eternity]

Bring it on.

Maybe one day we'll get beyond the first book and show the sheer depth of the world that L. Frank Baum made.

[thwhtGuardian]

Interesting. I love Oz. I've read all the books by the original author (haven't really read any of his successors, though). And usually this would be my cue to say they should make a remake that's closer to the books. Except . . .

Look, I love Oz for it's strengths. Those books overflow with invention and imagination, full of charming characters and bizarre concepts. It's probably the most successful and iconic American fantasy series of all time. But they're kind of light on story. Most of them follow the same pattern as the first story with characters going on a journey for something and encountering dangers and new friends along the road. Even that first book is kind of a janky thing that seems to reach a climax (the Wizard with his balloon) and then just goes on for a while after that with the different characters finding new places to belong, fighting a giant spider monster and ultimately meeting Glinda in her castle in the south only for Dorothy to learn she could have gone home the whole time. Which is probably why the MGM movie cut all that out. I'd love it if they could introduce more of that Oz stuff into movies. Especially characters like the Patchwork Girl, the Woozy and Polychrome the Rainbow's Daughter. But I don't think it would be easy.

There are some fun and interesting reimaginings, though (despite what some in this thread think). The animated series Lost in Oz, which is on Amazon Instant Video, is a fun, modern take that plays with the idea that the magic of Oz is a science unto itself. And the Boomerang series Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz isn't too shabby either.

Pretty much this, as much as I love the world the plots were pretty thin and once you read one or two books you pretty much had all the plot beats for the rest so much that really start to blend together the more you read. I actually thought the recentish Disney "Oz the Great and Powerful" did a pretty good job of showing the wider world.

[AdamFTF]

Bring it on.

Maybe one day we'll get beyond the first book and show the sheer depth of the world that L. Frank Baum made.

Pretty much this, as much as I love the world the plots were pretty thin and once you read one or two books you pretty much had all the plot beats for the rest so much that really start to blend together the more you read. I actually thought the recentish Disney "Oz the Great and Powerful" did a pretty good job of showing the wider world.

Both Return to Oz and Oz the Great and Powerful did an okay job showing the depth and wider world. Though, there were some issues with both. Return to Oz went darker than necessary with the whole "Dorothy in a mental institute" thing. And some of the nuances are lost because we don't have the omniscient narrator voice. For example, I still meet people who don't know that the Wheelers are supposed to be ultimately harmless. Oz the Great and Powerful had some fun bits taken from ignored bits of the first book (a good flying monkey, the girl from the China Country). And I liked the theme of an ambitious scoundrel learning that being good is more important than being great. But they kind of gave their scoundrel-ish male protagonist a little too much leeway in what's largely a feminist fantasy world. Like, no way he should be kissing Glinda at the end there.

[thwhtGuardian]

Both Return to Oz and Oz the Great and Powerful did an okay job showing the depth and wider world. Though, there were some issues with both. Return to Oz went darker than necessary with the whole "Dorothy in a mental institute" thing. And some of the nuances are lost because we don't have the omniscient narrator voice. For example, I still meet people who don't know that the Wheelers are supposed to be ultimately harmless. Oz the Great and Powerful had some fun bits taken from ignored bits of the first book (a good flying monkey, the girl from the China Country). And I liked the theme of an ambitious scoundrel learning that being good is more important than being great. But they kind of gave their scoundrel-ish male protagonist a little too much leeway in what's largely a feminist fantasy world. Like, no way he should be kissing Glinda at the end there.

They definitely both had their flaws story wise, and from purely technical and cultural levels neither is likely to have the lasting appeal or influence of the MGM version but there are entertaining stories that could still be told. Will they be as good as what's come before?
Who knows, but stranger things have happened.

[Jim Kelly]

I just like saying "Fairuza Balk." What a wonderful name.

[caj]

I don't necessarily need a remake, but if it's done, I would like it to reflect more details of the book (with the exception of some obvious outdated/hurtful details).

---slippers are silver instead of ruby
---it wasn't all a dream
---the Wicked Witch of the West sends a pack of wolves and a flock of crows to attack Dorothy's group before ordering the Winged Monkeys to attack
---they travel to the land of the Quadling Country to see Glinda
---Lion kills the giant spider

[WebLurker]

I don't necessarily need a remake, but if it's done, I would like it to reflect more details of the book (with the exception of some obvious outdated/hurtful details).

---slippers are silver instead of ruby

Dunno, the ruby slippers seem have "officially" replaced silver ones (along the lines of how the '80s Ninja Turtles cartoon exceeded the comics it was based on). Seems like even in works made by companies without the rights to the ruby slippers there's some kind of nod to them somewhere.

it wasn't all a dream

Fair enough.

[choptop]

The movie was never a dream the magic redid everything just made it look that way also ruby>silver