Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!¹
- 'Ozymandias', Percy Shelley

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is credited as being the first American fantasy novel and one of the most popular and influential works of children's fiction of all time. Created at a time when it was largely considered among literary critics that the genre of fantasy and fairy tales was unsuitable for an American audience, and such things had been left behind in the 'old world', author L Frank Baum² created a series which combined traditional fairy tale ingredients of witches, wizards and magic with elements that would have been familiar to children growing up in America's mid-west, namely scarecrows, farmhouses and balloons³. The plot is very similar in many ways to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland stories, only with Dorothy falling up via a cyclone to a wonderland rather than down a rabbit hole, and both encountering magical creatures before returning home.

The Films

A selection of some of the films inspired by The Wizard of Oz book series are listed below, though a complete list of everything that this popular series has inspired is impossible. This entry also states whether the films pass the Bechdel Test. This can be summarised as whether the film involves two or more female characters who have a conversation together that is not about men. Names in Bold worked on more than one Oz adaptation.

In many ways the films can be divided into two categories - the 1939 The Wizard of Oz, which is considered a classic and the most-seen film of all time, and every other film, none of which have come close to recapturing its success. Curiously none of the films has been financially successful on first release. A box office disappointment can be defined as a film that makes less profit than hoped, a flop is a film that recoups its production cost but not its marketing budget, and a box office bomb does not even bring back its production cost.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910)

The Selig Polyscope Company gained the film rights to make a series of Oz short films after L Frank Baum's first attempts to bring his Oz books to the screen failed financially, resulting in him being heavily indebted (he was officially declared bankrupt in 1911). He owed the Selig Polyscope Company thousands after they made film segments for his 'Fairylogue and Radio-Plays' show. Three short sequels followed in 1910, but none of these survive. Dorothy and the Scarecrow in Oz was first, and The Land of Oz was second. The third, John Dough and the Cherub, was based on another of Baum's books, which was not part of Oz (although the characters had cameo roles in the book The Road to Oz (1909) in the hope that this would boast sales of Baum's non-Oz work). The script of the short film is as much based on Baum's 1902 musical play The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as on the novel – the play introduced characters such as Imogene the Cow, as a pantomime cow is easier to see on a stage than a small dog. This play gave Dorothy the surname of 'Gale' and named the Tin Woodman 'Nick Chopper'. A witch named 'Mombi' had first appeared in the second Oz book, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904).

Oz Film Manufacturing Company

Baum was always interested in the performing arts, and preferred writing plays rather than novels. In 1880 he opened his own theatre in Chicago, the Baum Opera House, which allowed him to write, direct and star in his own productions. Tragically the theatre burned down in 1882. He moved to Chicago as the city held the 1893 World Fair in a venue called 'White City' that had numerous attractions including a 'Midget City', which is likely to have played a part in inspiring the Emerald City and Munchkinland.

After the success of his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) Baum wrote a Broadway adaptation, which was influenced by vaudeville and ran between 1902 and 1911. He did the same with his second Oz novel, though this was less successful. In 1908 he created a live-action Oz show titled Fairylogue and Radio-Plays, which combined live actors in costumes, hand-coloured film and magic-lantern slides. Baum himself gave a live lecture on the land of Oz and was accompanied by the oldest known film score. However, despite its popularity, each performance cost more to produce than could be recouped from ticket sales.

Following this failure Baum moved to Hollywood and decided to use his fortune to create his own film studio, The Oz Film Manufacturing Company, making three Oz films in 1914. Unfortunately, the Oz Film Manufacturing Company's films flopped, failing to find an audience - it was widely perceived then that the infant medium of cinema was unsuitable for children; parents were reluctant to take their children to see a film. The films also featured a lot of cavorting and dancing, as well as basic Georges Méliès-esque effects that by 1914 had drastically lost their popularity - even Méliès had been forced into bankruptcy in 1913.

Heavily influenced by vaudeville, and with 'pantomime cow'-type animals, most of the films featured the same acting troupe, with many of the actresses playing either male or female roles from film-to-film. These included Mildred Harris, who two years later at the age of 16 would become Charlie Chaplin's first wife.

The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914)

Based on the novel of the same name, which had only been published in 1913, this silent film has not fully survived – scenes are missing. It was also a financial disaster. In 1913 Baum had written a musical adaptation of his story that no-one was interested in performing, and this was adapted to become the film. Curiously there are several changes to the story, with the number of key ingredients needed for the potion reduced from five to three, the unusual creatures and races encountered changed⁵ and a number of character changes. The glass cat has been excised, which is understandable as to convincingly portray transparent magical animals would have been beyond 1914's technology. The Shaggy Man also does not appear. Instead the Crooked Magician has a daughter who has a fiancé as well as extra pantomime animals. One of the film's weaknesses is that it does not really reveal why picking a clover is a criminal offence that results in the main characters being imprisoned; in the novel it is at least explained that the only use for a six-leafed clover is in making strong magical potions, particularly those which were used by Wicked Witches to enslave the people of Oz.

The film was made at San Diego at the site of the exposition there. It also made film history as two key figures met on the set: actor Harold Lloyd and Hal Roach who would go on to become one of the great silent comedy film producers, particularly the Laurel & Hardy comedies. As the role of the Patchwork Girl was required to do numerous acrobatics, and female acrobats were strongly disapproved of at the time, a male acrobat, Pierre Couderc, was cast in the titular role.

His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914)

This story was reworked to become the second half of the following year's novel, The Scarecrow of Oz (1915), only instead of King Krewl ruling Oz he was the monarch of the adjacent kingdom of Jinxland. Baum had originally planned to end the Oz series and started writing instead a series of books featuring new characters Cap'n Bill and Trot who appeared in two previous novels The Sea Fairies (1911) and Sky Island (1912), only for those books to sell poorly in comparison with the Oz series. The novel The Scarecrow of Oz followed the plot of this film only featuring Cap'n Bill and Trot instead of Dorothy, the Wizard and the Tin Woodsman. By the end of the novel these characters find themselves in Oz.

One plot hole in this short film is that Dorothy and her friends decide to depose evil King Krewl and install Princess Gloria on the throne. Yet the instant that Krewl is overthrown, the throne is claimed by the Scarecrow instead. Also in the film but not the novel, everyone who encounters the princess falls in love with her, despite her frozen heart. The novel reveals that Pon the Gardener's Boy is descended from royalty and the witch is changed to Blinkie rather than Mombi, who had previously featured in novel The Marvelous Land of Oz.

The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914)

This was an adaptation of a book that was Baum's favourite of all his novels for children, but was not as successful as he had hoped as it had not been set in Oz. By changing the title for the film adaptation to include 'Oz' he hoped that it would finally find an audience.

The Wizard of Oz (1925)

The Wizard of Oz has the great Oliver Hardy in an early role, and actor/director/writer Larry Semon⁶ who essentially plays a Stanley Laurel substitute, and who conceived the film as his dream project. Semon cast his wife Dorothy Dwan as Dorothy, who lived with her abusive Uncle Henry. Most painfully there was an African-American farmhand stereotype named 'Snowball' and instead of Spencer Bell's real name appearing in the credits, he was renamed 'G Howe Black'. After a supposedly romantic scene involving a dirty lollipop and duck vomit we are expected to believe that the people of Oz who were on the brink of revolution against the evil Kruel chose not to want freedom after all having seen a female impersonator do a dance. While Hardy, Murray and Spencer Bell do the best with the material they have been given, this film is a mess with little basis on the Oz story.

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

A fairly accurate retelling of the first half of the classic tale that adds classic songs and makes a few changes, especially everything from arriving at the Emerald City onwards. It is also left open-ended whether the adaptation is set in the 1930s or at the time the novel was written. The changes include bookending the story to imply it was just a dream, as it was believed that a pure fantasy setting would put off the audience. They also removed some of the novel's key characters such as the Mouse Queen and changed Glinda from being a southerly to northerly witch. The novel's Silver Shoes have also become Ruby Slippers to better stand out as this film was made with Technicolor.

According to the Library of Congress, this is the most-watched film of all time. It was chosen to be one of the first 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant' and regularly tops 'Must Watch' or 'Best Film' lists. For most of the world's population outside the US, their knowledge and perception of Kansas is based predominantly and/or entirely on this film. When first broadcast on US television an unprecedented audience of 56 million viewers watched it, and unsurprisingly the film has gone on to influence artists in all proceeding generations. Surprisingly, despite its classic status, the film flopped on original release.

The ending of the film also does not resolve whether Toto will be put down, nor explain how Professor Marvel knows where Dorothy lives or why no-one minds that a complete stranger is suddenly looking through a young girl's bedroom window. The film won two Oscars, for Best Original Song for 'Over the Rainbow', a song that was almost cut out of the film, and Best Original Score.

Unmade: The Rainbow Road to Oz

Walt Disney is the American filmmaker most associated with the fantasy genre, and he long held the ambition to make an adaptation of the Oz books. Following the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs he tried to acquire the rights to make an Oz film only to be disappointed that the rights had been sold to MGM⁹. In 1954 Walt Disney bought the film rights to 11 of Baum's 14 Oz books¹⁰. He was considering adapting the Oz stories for his Fantasyland segment of his Disneyland television series (1954+ with different names) which could tie in with a potential Oz ride at his planned Disneyland theme park¹¹. In 1957 he commissioned a two-episode script to be written. When finished, it convinced him that it might have potential to become a live-action film, Disney having successfully released his Davy Crockett Disneyland series as two films in 1955 and 1956, with a third on the way.

Many of the key roles in the Oz film spin-off were expected to go to Disneyland's cast of 'Mouseketeers'. Costumes of the Scarecrow, Patchwork Girl, Cowardly Lion and Ozma were created, sets built and excerpts from the intended film of the cast singing a selection of the songs were even broadcast on an episode of Disneyland under the title The Rainbow Road to Oz. When making this, Disney lost enthusiasm for the project and felt that the show would not be able to rival the MGM production. Instead, Disney changed his mind and adapted Babes in Toyland instead, which itself was based on a 1903 operetta inspired by the success of the original Oz musical. This featured many of the Mouseketeer cast as well as starring Scarecrow-actor Ray Bolger, as The Rainbow Road to Oz had intended. So had The Rainbow Road to Oz been made it would have been similar in scale and style to Babes in Toyland (1961), essentially a television episode released to cinemas; Walt Disney Pictures had only just begun making feature-length live-action films in the United States in 1955. Babes in Toyland was released the same year as the original West Side Story and it was clear that stylistically Disney would have to up their game and make any future musicals to a much higher standard, which they did with Mary Poppins (1964).

The Wiz (1978)

Featuring an all-black cast in an example of 'positive discrimination'¹², this adaptation of the 1974 multi award-winning musical was one of the last films made during the 1970s blaxploitation¹³ boom. The play's original script was heavily rewritten by Joel Schumacher to give it a contemporary New York City setting but also heavily included EST¹⁴ self-improvement philosophy. The original plan had been to cast Broadway actress Stephanie Mills as Dorothy as she had played the role on stage; however, Diana Ross personally begged Universal Picture's executive producer Rob Cohen to be allowed to star, which led to the original director quitting.

At the time of release this was the most-expensive musical yet made. Despite being a box office bomb, this film has become a cult classic and in 2015 a live remake of the musical, which contained many elements created for the film version, was broadcast as The Wiz Live!. It is notable that the 2015 remake is over 20 minutes shorter as this film version's pace is painfully slow in places. This is most apparent in the sequence set in the Emerald City and filmed at the World Trade Center - in this, background characters wear green clothes and walk around in circles, then wear red clothes and walk around in circles and then wear gold clothes and spiralling meander once more. This exists solely to show various clothes designed by a multitude of fashion companies and has nothing to do with the plot.

Curiously the crows mocking the Scarecrow in The Wiz are remarkably similar to the crows that are racist stereotypes that mock Dumbo in Dumbo (1941). Michael Jackson met producer Quincy Jones when making this film; they would collaborate on Jackson's albums Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987).

Return to Oz (1985)

Disney had paid a small fortune to purchase the film rights to many of the Oz novels in the 1950s and these rights were due to expire in the mid-80s, which led to the making of this film. As it was felt to be impossible to compete with The Wizard of Oz as a musical, the decision was made to make it a darker, more gothic film and keep elements from the novels that Disney had the rights to, particularly the second and third books in the series. Though the witch Mombi had appeared in the second book as having kidnapped Princess Ozma, her character was combined with Princess Langwidere, a minor character from the same book. The Nome King was the villain in the third novel. New story elements included Dorothy's treatment in Kansas, returning to a ruined Emerald City and its inhabitants being turned to stone and ruled by a witch¹⁷. As an attempt to play homage to the classic 1939 film Disney paid MGM royalties to use Ruby Slippers in the film. The novels use Silver Shoes, with the Nome King having a magic belt instead. At the time of release this was in the Guinness Book of Records for being the sequel made after the longest period of time from the original film (46 years), though this has since been surpassed by Bambi II: The Great Prince of the Forest, made 64 years after Bambi (1942).

Return To Oz was made at a turbulent time at Disney, when they were struggling with many of their films' financial failures. Walt Disney Productions' executives were in a revolving door, with the project greenlit in 1982 by Disney's Head of Motion Picture and Television Tom Wilhite and given a budget of $30 million, only to be cancelled in 1983 by his replacement Richard Berger, after $6 million had been spent on the film, because other Disney films had gone over budget. After a brief period it was decided to continue but reduce Return To Oz's budget. Though it had been planned to have numerous animatronic characters, which would have included Jack Pumpkinhead ¹⁸ and Scarecrow, they ended up with expressionless faces to save money. The animatronic Billina the chicken and the Gump head that had been made were convincing. Another consequence of the budget-slashing was that, instead of being filmed in Sardinia and Algeria for the Deadly Desert and Naples for Mombi's Palace and the Emerald City, it was filmed at Elstree Studios and the outdoor Kansas scenes were filmed on Salisbury Plain. Due to child labour laws Balk was only allowed to work for three and a half hours a day, which severely slowed production as she was in almost every scene. The scene set in the Nome King's cavern was animated using Claymation.

When the film was finished Walt Disney Productions was controlled by Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg. As the film had been greenlit by previous administrations, they felt no compunction to market it effectively and so allowed it to fail. Not even recouping its production budget, Return to Oz was a box office bomb.

The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005)

The Walt Disney Company bought the rights to The Muppets from the Jim Henson Company in 2004 and immediately began work on this made-for-television adaptation of the classic novel, similar to how Disney and the Muppets had co-produced the classic The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992). Jim Henson had been a huge fan of The Wizard of Oz and in fact the song 'Over the Rainbow' had been the inspiration for Oscar-nominated song 'The Rainbow Connection' (1979) from The Muppet Movie.

This adaptation is closer to the original novel, where the Flying Monkeys obey whoever wears the magical cap, people in Emerald City have to wear special glasses and the magical footwear are silver shoes, not ruby slippers. The Munchkins have been combined with Oz's Field Mice, who in the novel are important characters who rescue Dorothy and the Lion from the sleepy poppies, as they look like rats, exclusively wear blue, and perform the roles that the Field Mice play in the novel.

The story also owes a lot to The Wiz, with the story set in contemporary rather than period America, the Gale family being black and Dorothy being played by a famous singer. In fact all three actors playing the Gale family have since appeared in The Wiz, with Ashanti playing Dorothy on stage in 2009 and both Queen Latifah and David Alan Grier appearing in The Wiz Live! in 2015, as the Wiz and Cowardly Lion respectively.

Having Quentin Tarantino cameo in this film seems an odd choice as it seems unlikely that the juvenile audience would recognise a director famous for his violent films. Also many people's favourite Muppets barely appear, including Animal and the first Muppet of all, Rowlf. That said, a delightful reference in this film is when the Tin Thing asks the Wizard of Oz if he is related to Frank Oz, one of the co-founders of the Muppets who created Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animal and Yoda.

After the Wizard (2011)

A very basic film which had earlier been conceived by the writer/director as a stage play, which possibly explains why there are a small number of scenes. Audiences are left uncertain whether or not Elizabeth is Dorothy – outside the orphanage numerous passersby interact with the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman and accept that they are the characters from the story, but inside the orphanage only Elizabeth is able to see them. The Oz books are well-known as fiction written by Frank L Baum, and no attempt is made to explain why Elizabeth would be Dorothy a century after the novel was written and set.

The film is an adaptation of the books, which were public domain, rather than the films, so it refers to the Tin Woodman, Silver Shoes and Road of Yellow Brick rather than Tin Man, Ruby Slippers and Yellow Brick Road. The Tin Woodman, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion are referred to as having been deposed from being the rulers of the Winkies, Oz and Forest respectively. Oz appears briefly, where it has been mechanised with vast farm machinery. It is revealed that Flying Monkeys only like flying during daylight and walk around during the evening, thus allowing a hot air balloon to leave Oz.

Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)

The film is very much influenced by the 1939 The Wizard of Oz and can be seen as a prequel to it. The opening is set in Kansas in 1905, which is shown in Black and White just like the earlier film. Kansas also contains counterparts to some of the characters the Wizard would later encounter, just like the 1939 film, namely Oz's assistant Frank who is the equivalent to Finley the flying monkey, the disabled girl who is the equivalent of the china girl and most importantly Oz's lost love Annie who is the Kansas equivalent of Glinda and is destined to become Annie Gale, mother of Dorothy Gale. Whether Oz would be Dorothy's father is left unclear. These characters are played by the same actors who play their Oz equivalents. Just as in the 1939 film there are only three witches, who are sisters as the 1939 film suggested. Unlike the novels none have only one eye.

That said, as the 1939 film's copyright was owned by Turner Entertainment, Disney had to ensure that they did not breach the film's copyright and so the Wicked Witch had a completely different green skin tone, the Emerald City had a completely different appearance and the film avoided using characters and props conceived for the 1939 film, most notably Ruby Slippers.

The film idea was originally developed by Roth Films to be their third film, with Disney delightedly snapping up the opportunity to co-produce it as Roth Films had co-produced the incredibly successful Alice in Wonderland (2010) remake which had made over $1 billion at the box office. As Oz had a similar fantasy setting it was hoped it would prove as successful and it was left open for potential sequels, with the film set 20 years before the 1939 musical. Oz The Great and Powerful made a modest profit, but not sufficient to justify a sequel, unlike Roth Productions' other fantasy films co-produced around the same time²⁰.

Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2014)

This is an animated film notorious for the way that it was financed. Made by the Carroll Brothers, the funding strategy has been compared to that of the film The Producers. Funds were raised by cold-calling people and asking for money and inviting people to fundraising events. In exchange for shares in one company that would fund another company, investors were promised that they would see returns from an animated film trilogy, extensive merchandising and licencing, a successful soundtrack, spin-off computer games and a stage musical, guaranteeing that this film would prove as successful as either The Simpsons or Toy Story series. The minimum investment allowed was $100,000 and no mention of the risks was made, in defiance of many US states' contract law. The original plan had been to raise enough to make a $20 million straight-to-DVD film, yet over $120 million was raised. Unfortunately, this film was a box office bomb, apparently costing $70 million to produce and making only $20 million. After the marketing budget was taken into account, the filmmakers claimed to have lost approximately $100 million.

Despite the questionable fundraising, which has led to speculations over how much of the money raised was actually spent on the film²², the film itself did involve respected talents. The animation was made by Prana Studios, who had animated DisneyToon Studios' Tinker Bell and Planes films. Yet the film looks cheap, a better Oz film had been released (and flopped) shortly before and the plot is predictable. The market for animated films is notoriously difficult - even quality films such as those made by Laika and Aardman struggle to compete, and established studio DreamWorks Animation collapsed in 2014, the year this film was released²³. After the film failed, the home market rights were auctioned off to companies uninvolved in its production.

This film is set in the early 21st Century rather than early 20th, with Martin Short playing an evil appraiser in Kansas as well as the evil Jester in Oz. There is a scene in which Dorothy runs in panic from a rainbow, with the rainbow supposedly as threatening as a tornado, which doesn't quite work. The time difference between Oz and our world seems to be taken from the Narnia novels rather than Oz. The characters of the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion, instead of having brains, heart and courage all along and not needing to change but to realise that for themselves, have now gone to extremes with the Scarecrow portrayed as a genius, the Tin Man emotionally unstable and the Lion recklessly aggressive. In fact Kelsey Grammer's performance as the Tin Man contributed to him being awarded 'Worst Supporting Actor' in the 2014 Golden Raspberry Awards ²⁴.

Conclusion

As long as the Oz novels are beloved by children worldwide who have as much imagination in their brains as the Scarecrow, or fondness as the Tin Man, there will be attempts to capture the magic and bring it to the big screen. In fact at time of writing (2022) there are two Oz adaptations in production, including of the musical Wicked.