The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 children's novel written by American author L. Frank Baum. Since its first publication in 1900, it has been adapted many times by L. Frank Baum and others: for film, television, theatre, books, comics, games, and other media.
Baum was responsible for many early adaptations, including the 1902 musical The Wizard of Oz, which was an enormous success on Broadway. The casting of comedians Fred Stone as the Scarecrow and David C. Montgomery as the Tin Woodman was especially praised.[1] Baum featured the two characters in his second Oz book, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), with the hopes of turning that into a stage play as well, with Stone and Montgomery in the lead roles.[2] When the two actors declined to participate, Baum rewrote the story as The Woggle-Bug in 1905, which was a critical and commercial failure.[3]
Following this, Baum was responsible for several more adaptations of the Oz series. His 1906 multimedia presentation, The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays, toured for two months.[4] A further musical, The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, was staged in 1913. Baum also began a short-lived film company, The Oz Manufacturing Company, and released three short films, beginning with The Patchwork Girl of Oz in 1914.[5]
This is an adaptation produced by Baum's live-action motion picture company, The Oz Film Manufacturing Company. It follows the adventures of Ojo, Unc Nunkie, and Patchwork Girl in their quest for the ingredients needed for a magic potion. The film is partially lost due to a missing scene early in the film.
Another 1914 adaptation in the series produced by Baum himself via The Oz Film Manufacturing Company. It follows the story of Fluff, the unhappiest person in Oz, and a magic cloak fairies devised for him to grant her one wish.
A black and white Soviet adaptation. While borrowing some elements from Alexander Volkov's retelling, it is considered an adaptation of Baum's book and is titled accordingly
Begun in 1962, finished in 1971 and eventually released between 1972 and 1974. It features Liza Minnelli, the daughter of Judy Garland, as the voice of Dorothy.
Anime adaptation of the story produced by Toho in 1982 and directed by Fumihiko Takayama, with music by Joe Hisaishi. The English version of the movie stars Aileen Quinn as the voice of Dorothy and Lorne Greene as the Wizard. Original songs are sung by Aileen Quinn in the English version, with lyrics by Sammy Cahn and Allen Byrnes. In the U.S., it was released on video and syndicated to local television stations.
Low budget science fiction film takeoff of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz co-written and directed by stage magician David L. Hewitt.
Edited together out of the 2011 miniseries Witches of Oz (see below under "Television"). The film version removed about an hour of footage and updated the visual effects.
Independent fantasy/sci-fi drama film inspired by characters and events from the book, which plays a crucial role.
Theatre
In addition to his books, Baum also wrote Oz-related stage plays: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1901) with music by Paul Tietjens and Nathaniel D. Mann, The Wizard of Oz (1902) (music by Tietjens et al.; with jokes by Glen MacDonough), The Woggle-Bug (1905) with music by Frederick Chapin, The Rainbow's Daughter, or The Magnet of Love (February 1909) with music by Manuel Klein, revised in April 1909 as Ozma of Oz, and ultimately produced, with music by Louis F. Gottschalk as The Tik-Tok Man of Oz. Also in 1909, he wrote a play called The Girl from Oz. The manuscript is held in the archives at Syracuse University, but apparently its relation to Oz is little more than nominal (it is also known as The Girl from Tomorrow and was later adapted for radio by Frank Joslyn Baum), as is also the case with the short story, "The Littlest Giant", a rather brutal tale designated in two lines to be in the Gillikin country of Oz. With Gottschalk writing the music, he wrote an unproduced stage version of The Patchwork Girl of Oz in November 1913, that was developed into the film scenario.
This was the first musical version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz produced by L. Frank Baum and W. W. Denslow (with music by composer Paul Tietjens) in Chicago in 1902 and moved to New York in 1903. It used many of the same characters, and was aimed more at adult audiences. It had a long, successful run on Broadway. Baum added numerous political references to the script, mentioning President Theodore Roosevelt, Senator Mark Hanna, and John D. Rockefeller by name.[9] Many existing songs that had nothing to do with the story were interpolated.
A stage musical based on The Marvelous Land of Oz, with music by Frederic Chapin. Reviews praised only Chapin and the show never opened on Broadway. It was also panned as a rehash rather than a sequel to "The Wizard of Oz".
The Rainbow's Daughter, or The Magnet of Love
L. Frank Baum
Never produced (written in 1909)
A stage musical, music by Manuel Klein, based on Ozma of Oz and The Road to Oz.
Ozma of Oz
L. Frank Baum
Never produced (written in 1909)
A revised draft of The Rainbow's Daughter.
The Girl from Oz
L. Frank Baum
Never produced (written in 1909)
While this is a play by Baum, the connection to Oz is reported as minimal. Held in the L. Frank Baum Papers at Syracuse University; later adapted for radio as The Girl of Tomorrow by Frank Joslyn Baum.
The final version of The Rainbow's Daughter, now with music by Louis F. Gottschalk, as produced by Oliver Morosco. Morosco and Victor Schertzinger interpolated two songs of their own, but the production was not a big enough success for Morosco to want to move it to New York.
An adaptation by John Kane for the Royal Shakespeare Company based on the novel and 1939 film, which hews more closely to the film's screenplay than the 1942 version. This show ran through 1989 and continues to be frequently revived and toured.[12][13]
An adaptation of the Oz story which serves as an AIDS education tool.
The Wizard of Oz on Ice
Unknown
1995
A Kenneth Feld production that toured from 1995 to 1999, based on the film and was choreographed by Robin Cousins. It featured a pre-recorded soundtrack with the voice of Laurena Wilkerson as Dorothy and narration by Bobby McFerrin.[14] It toured nationally and internationally and was broadcast in 1996 with Oksana Baiul skating as Dorothy[15] and Victor Petrenko as the Scarecrow, with Bobby McFerrin both narrating and appearing as the Wizard. Shanice was the prerecorded voice of Dorothy in the TV broadcast.[16]
West End musical, building on the 1939 film songs and script with new material by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It began previews on February 7, 2011 and officially opened on March 1. Danielle Hope, of the BBC television Series Over the Rainbow, appeared as Dorothy. Michael Crawford plays the role of the Wizard.
Off-Broadway play with minimal dialog and bunraku puppetry retelling the origin story of the Tin Woodsman. A pro-shot was released on BroadwayHD in 2016.
Television
Many of the television programs cited in this list are not strict adaptions of The Wizard of Oz; rather, they have reinterpreted aspects of the book, such as characters and plot, to create sequels, prequels or side-plots, which are inspired by Baum's original text. This section does not include single episodes from a larger unrelated series.
This anime adaptation consists of 52 episodes and follows the story of Dorothy and her adventures in Oz with the Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow. It continues on to the story of Ozma and Mombi, and follows the events in other Oz books. In 1987, HBO purchased the rights to the series and edited together key episodes of the series into a series of movies, which aired as a television mini-series. Production for the English version was done by the Canadian studio Cinar.
An animated series based on the 1939 film, was broadcast on ABC during the 1990–1991 TV season. The cartoon featured Dorothy returning to Oz, reuniting with her four friends, and journeying through the magical realm in an attempt to rescue the Wizard from a resurrected Witch of the West.
Japanese anime series involving Dorothy and her friends in a futuristic setting, traveling the "Galaxy of Oz". It was truncated to 76 minutes and dubbed for the American release.
Television mini-series directed by Leigh Scott, based on the novels The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Ozma of Oz, The Road to Oz, and The Magic of Oz by Baum.
On June 26, 2015, Amazon Video released an original 24-minute pilot for an animated series, Lost in Oz. On November 2, 2016, it was re-released with additional content under the title Lost in Oz: Extended Adventure.[18] The two seasons series aired on August 4, 2017.
Produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, it is a performance of a new adaptation of the 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz, a soul/R&B reinterpretation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The performance aired live from Grumman Studios in Bethpage, New York.[19][20]
Created by Matthew Arnold for 10 episodes.[21][22] In August 2014, it was reported that NBC would not be proceeding with the series.[23] In April 2015, NBC reversed course and announced that the series would move forward under the leadership of executive producer and writer David Schulner.[24]
Animated series produced by Warner Bros. Animation. It was released in June 2017 for Boomerang's SVOD service.[25] Clips of the series were revealed in the Boomerang upfront for 2017.[26]
Music videos
The following are strictly limited to Wizard of Oz themed imagery:
Nirvana's video makes extensive use of symbolism, much of which touches on Oz themes and imagery. The bulk of the video takes place in a field of fake poppies. The video also shows a stand of 'spooky' trees, and a pointed hat sinking into a puddle, which bear a resemblance to the 1939 film. Additionally, there are multiple shots of a man suspended in a crucified position from a rough cross and adorned with ravens in a manner more suggestive of a scarecrow.[27][28]
The music video for "Run-Around" has a Wizard of Oz motif, with Blues Traveler playing behind a curtain in a nightclub while a young, "hip" and more "photogenic" group appears to be playing the song.
The music video has characters from The Wizard of Oz going to a pastry/ice cream shop. There are two versions to this video; a "nice" version and a "mean" version. In the "nice" version the characters pretend to rob the shop but then purchase treats. In the "mean" version they violently rob the store, but the Scarecrow does not make it on time due to a flat tire and the would-be robbers get arrested.
The music video featuring Sam Smith shows a young boy traveling around a city meeting characters resembling the Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow.[33]
The comic book series Oz Squad features an adult Dorothy and her original companions from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a covert operations group protecting Oz from threats both within its borders and from the "real world".
The Oz-Wonderland War is a comics story in which the people of Oz fight together with the characters of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass against the villainous Nome King. It also starred Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew and was originally intended to be the comic's issues #21–26. The comic, however, was cancelled at #20, and the story was subsequently presented as a mini-series.
Dorothy of Oz (Korean:Dorosi) is a manhwa (Korean comic) by Son Hee-joon about an ordinary girl named Mara Shin who winds up in a science-fantasy realm called "Oz". She meets up with this realm's version of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion, and follows the Yellow Brick Road to find her way home.[35]
The comic book Dorothy was launched by Illusive Arts Entertainment in November 2005. Presented in semi-fumetti style using digitally altered photographs, this retelling of Baum's story has been updated to 2005 and features model Catie Fisher as 16-year-old Dorothy Gale, a disaffected youth with dyed hair and piercings who steals her uncle's car and runs away from home; until she encounters a tornado and is knocked unconscious.
Marvel Fairy Tales features a retelling of The Wizard of Oz starring Marvel characters, such as the She-Hulk as Dorothy and the Scarlet Witch as the Wicked Witch of the West.
Wizard of Oz Slots game found in Casinos. The game is a five-reel video slot machine with bonus feature rounds, produced by WMS (Williams Gaming). Released in 2013.
The Card Game of Oz, a 2014 game created by James C. O'Connor under his Orion's Bell label.[49] The game is based on the original books. Series 1, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was released in May 2014. Series 2, The Marvelous Land of Oz, was released in August 2014 as an expansion.
The crossover-genre video game Lego Dimensions features a world based on the 1939 film.
The mobile game Oz: Broken Kingdom Is based on the world of Oz and takes place after the original story.
In Sherlock: Hidden Match-3 Cases, a mobile video game published in 2020 by G5 Entertainment, one of the featured books is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.[50]
In September 1933, The Wizard of Oz debuted on the NBC radio network, sponsored by General Foods Corporation. It presented dramatizations of episodes from the book.[51]
Ray Bolger recorded an audio adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. This was the first in a series of four audiotapes, The Oz Audio Collection, recorded by Bolger and issued by Caedmon Audio from 1976 to 1983.[52]
Todd McFarlane created a sinister toy series called Twisted Land of Oz that portrays all of the characters as more sinister (such as the monster Toto) and adult oriented (BDSM Dorothy).[53]
The rock band Aerosmith put some original audios from the 1939 movie and Steven Tyler's voice repeating some quotes of the characters in the song "The Farm" in the album Nine Lives from 1997.
The musical group America released the song "Tin Man" in 1974, with the enigmatic line; "And Oz never did give nothin' to the Tin Man, that he didn't already have." The song was the first single released from their album Holiday and became a top ten hit.
Walt Disney originally wanted to make an animated version of The Wizard Of Oz to serve as the follow-up to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,[54] but the film rights were bought by Samuel Goldwyn, who originally intended to make it as a standard musical comedy, with Eddie Cantor as his star. However, Goldwyn ended up selling the rights to MGM.
The Felice Brothers wrote a song called "Don't Wake the Scarecrow" which features several references to The Wizard of Oz.
American McGee's Oz was a darkly, twisted series of figurines based on Baum's original Wizard of Oz characters. This series was released before McFarlane's, and was supposed to help McGee launch a franchise around this interpretation.
The Wiyos's album Twist is an original song cycle loosely based on The Wizard of Oz.[56]
Ray Bradbury's short story "The Exiles" mentions the Emerald City and its inhabitants existing alongside other famous literary characters and locales on a Martian colony.
"Straight Outta Oz" is a studio album and original musical written and produced by Todrick Hall. It is based on the Wizard of Oz whilst being a semi-autobiographical account of his rise to fame in Los Angeles (Oz). The trailer for the album was first released on May 13, 2016. Todrick has released the musical in the form of (as well as each song separately) on his YouTube channel on March 21, 2017. It includes a host of guest stars including Nicole Scherzinger, Jordin Sparks, Perez Hilton, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Amber Riley, Raven-Symoné, and Tamar Braxton.
The marketing campaign for season 22 of American Idol is directly themed after the 1939 film, complete with a commercial featuring Ryan Seacrest and the judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan dressed as Tin Man, Dorothy, Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow following the "Golden Ticket Road" to Hollywood. This was to reflect the show's plans to visit the judges' hometowns throughout the season.[57][58]
^McAvennie, Michael (2010). "1970s". In Dolan, Hannah (ed.). DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 165. ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. The Yellow Brick Road from Munchkin Land to the Emerald City was also wide enough to accommodate DC and Marvel as they produced their first-ever joint publication ... Roy Thomas scripted a faithful, seventy-two page adaptation of Dorothy Gale's adventure, while John Buscema's artwork depicted the landscape of Oz in lavish detail.
Kevin Scott Collier. The Wonderful Animated World of the Wizard of Oz: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly! CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018. ISBN172632558X