Ooh, another of those wacky combo specials at Casa de Loba! Haven’t done this since my Flashback Friday\/Poster Pick combo for Poltergeist<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I hope it doesn’t feel like I’m letting the Emerald City take over all my silly special features here at the lair, especially considering the fact that my last Poster Pick was for the musical Wicked<\/a><\/em>. But that<\/em> was inspired by the fact that I was reading The Annotated Wizard of Oz: Centennial Edition<\/a><\/em> at the time. <\/p>\n

Honestly, it feels like I was reading this particular version of this story for a really long time<\/em>. I do believe that this is the most thorough and definitive version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz<\/em> that’s available. It was almost like reading three books instead of just one. The first part of the book provides a brief history of the novel and its follow-up stories as well as how it went from book to musical to movie, and information on L. Frank Baum. There are more detailed biographies out there on Baum (in fact, I own one, which I have sadly yet to read), but this is a good solid introductory piece for those who’d like to know a little more about the man and his wonderful world before diving in to the actual story. <\/p>\n

Of course, then we get to the heart…brains…and courage of it all. Not only does this version of the book present the story as it was originally printed, complete with W.W. Denslow’s absolutely gorgeous <\/strong><\/em>illustrations (see below), it also provides a plethora of annotations. I kid you not, there are like three pages on just the name “Dorothy.” Plus, the annotations are printed in what looks like a 6-point Times New Roman, which is a huge contrast to the story’s ginormous 14-point font. Oh, my eyes! <\/p>\n

(FONT SNOBBERY, FTW!!)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To be honest, there were so many annotations that I found them a bit distracting after a while. So I ignored them for a first read-through and then went back and picked them up on the second sweep. Like I said, it felt like I was reading this book for a really long time. <\/p>\n

So, what did I think of the original story, now that I’ve finally read it? I’m going to say something so shocking for a book geek, but I have to tell you, denizens, I think that, as lovely as the original story is, this is one of the few instances in which I prefer the movie to the book. <\/p>\n

!!!<\/p>\n

I know! Shocking! And, honestly? It’s for purely sentimental reasons. The 1939 movie version<\/a> of this story was a perennial part of my childhood, one of the things that stands in my memory as something specially reserved as a ritual for my mom and me. My dad worked night shifts at that point, so he was never home for the annual showing of The Wizard of Oz<\/em> on television. So my mom would pop a bowl of popcorn just for us (and our little dog, too!) and we’d settle in for another trip to the Land of Oz. I loved this ritual for all its gloriously simple perfection. <\/p>\n

Plus, the movie still remains magical, even more than 70 years later. Think about the creativity of the people who brought this world to the big screen pre-CGI! And the bravery! Don’t forget that Buddy Ebsen, the original Tin Woodsman, nearly died because of all the aluminum powder he inhaled before they switched over to a paste for Jack Haley. And Margaret Hamilton was badly burned twice<\/strong> during her portrayal of the Wicked Witch: once by a pyrotechnic in her broom and once when the flame effect during her exit from Munchkinland triggered before the trap door elevator could pull her down. Her green copper-based makeup instantly caught fire, along with her costume, causing second- and third-degree burns to Hamilton’s face and arms. <\/p>\n

(Okay, bizarre and completely superfluous tangential geek trivia: In one of her last performances as Elphaba in the Broadway production of Wicked<\/em>, Idina Menzel broke a rib when she went to step onto a trap door elevator for a similar effect, only the trap had dropped away already. Not quite as dramatic as Hamilton’s injuries; however, this does provide further evidence that it’s not<\/strong> easy being green. Ba-dum-bum.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sorry, back on track. There’s something about this movie that is so special and so (der!) wonderful. The music, the dancing, the costumes, the set pieces, the flying monkeys! Each actor was so well-suited to their role that it seems almost sacrilegious to try to imagine anyone else ever playing these characters. Also, for me, this is Judy Garland’s defining role (but also the role that landed her on the path to an untimely and unfortunate end, thanks in part to MGM introducing her to the Wonderful Wizard of Amphetamines). Her rendition of “Over the Rainbow” is one of the most heartbreaking moments ever committed to film. Just thinking about it now gets me a little verklempt. <\/p>\n

And Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch! True talent is when you’re only 5 feet tall and your character is on-screen for barely more than 10 minutes, but you’re still voted the fourth most frightening villain in movie history by the American Film Institute.<\/a> She might have gotten even higher had it not been for that unfortunate run-in later on with that damnable pink bunny…<\/p>\n

Of course, all this movie praise doesn’t mean that I don’t think the book is worth reading. There are, in fact, multiple and significant differences between the book and the movie, which gives us two similar-yet-different ways to experience this delightful fairytale. At the moment, I can only think of one other book\/movie combo, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?<\/em> and Blade Runner<\/em>, that provides an equally successful same-but-different experience. <\/p>\n

Another bonus from finally reading the original story? I love inside information, and now that I have read Baum’s story and seen Denslow’s original illustrations, I feel like I’m now privy to some great jokes that I didn’t get until now. I’m referring to all the references that Gregory Maguire made to the original text in his book Wicked<\/em>, as well as props and costumes in the musical that were directly inspired by Denslow’s art. There were a couple of moments in particular in which I had to explain the extra-large smile of recognition I had on my face whilst reading the story or looking at the artwork. <\/p>\n

Final Verdict:<\/strong> I definitely would like to add this book to my collection, snuggled right there on the shelf with my aforementioned Baum biography, my Wicked <\/em>Grimmerie, and my copies of Wicked <\/em>and Son of a Witch<\/em>. As for the movie? The three-disc release from 2005 is already in my collection, and I have to admit that the recent 70th anniversary release was almost enough to finally get me to buy that Bluray player. Almost<\/em>. Maybe when I hit that big lottery payoff and I can get the HDTV, too. Until then, I just might put on my pointy black witch’s hat<\/a> and settle down this evening with a bowl of popcorn…follow the yellow brick road and see where it leads me. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ooh, another of those wacky combo specials at Casa de Loba! Haven’t done this since my Flashback Friday\/Poster Pick combo for Poltergeist. I hope it doesn’t feel like I’m letting the Emerald City take over all my silly special features here at the lair, especially considering the fact that my last Poster Pick was for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}