The Wizard of Oz * FIRST TIME WATCHING * reaction & commentary * Millennial Movie Monday 

Something younger viewers don't get is that this movie was an EVENT. Every year, it appeared on TV only ONE TIME. That made it really special to generations of viewers. I maintain that tradition even now, only watching it once a year.

Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch) felt so bad that her performance terrified so many children (I was one of them) over the years. She appeared on "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" and showed how the witch's outfit was dress-up, and that witches are just make-believe. She may have been mean and scary in the movie, but in real-life she was very kind and sweet.

To me, one of the funniest things to come from the movie is actually a line from another movie. In Beetlejuice, that one guy says "don't mind her, she's still mad because somebody dropped a house on her sister." It's just such an elegant burn.

So my grandpa told me about the first time he watched this: He kept hitting the TV because it was in black and white and they advertised this as the first colored movie. He didn't realize that the color came in later in the movie 😂😂😂

Dorothy: "I miss Kansas!" Toto: "I miss the rains down in Africa!"

Ashleigh: "I've always wanted to go to a psychic. I tried once, and she wasn't home..." Me: She knew you were coming, LMAO! 🙃😉

The scene where Dorothy leaves the house and everything turns color in one shot, was an entirely practical effect. The set was painted sepia tone, along with Dorothy, who was Judy Garland's double. Once she opened the door, she stepped out of frame, and Judy Garland, who's in color steps in. It's an extremely simple effect, but works so well.

"I tried once to go to a psychic, but she wasn't home." Clearly she was a real psychic, and she dodged that bullet! ;-)

My Grandfather took my Grandmother to see this movie on their first date. :-) He was 21, and she was 18.

“This man is dancing his little heart out. Oh, he don’t have one.” HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! That made my day. Never change, Ashleigh :)

The overall biggest lesson of this movie was that everything the characters wanted they already had. They just didn’t know it. Even the wizard. Once he was found out the good people of Oz still listened to him, respected him & obeyed him. They believed in him. Dorothy has to realize that no matter how gloomy her life on the farm was, she was surrounded by people who loved her & she had no fears there. There’s no place like home. The scarecrow was always smart. Figuring out what to do. Always coming up with a plan. The tin man was always emotional. He wore his preverbal heart on his sleeve. He cared, he cried, he showed fear, joy, excitement. He had emotions all along. And the “cowardly” lion was always courageous when he truly needed to be. The gifts they were given were only to make them feel as though they finally had something they desired yet had all along but didn’t realize it. The wizard felt important & powerful having bestowed these things upon them all. Because just like professor Marvel, he was a fraud who didn’t believe in himself but desperately wanted others to believe in him. I never thought they could make a prequel to this movie that’d do the original any justice. But I highly recommend you watch “Oz the great and powerful “ soon. It’s pretty good.

7:54 “What in the acid trip is that?” OMFG!! I had to pause the video to laugh at that, and took me a full two minutes to write this comment from laughing and wiping tears from my eyes.

The Avengers: Nick Fury: “... And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.” Thor: “Monkeys? I do not understand.” Steve Rogers: “I do. I understood that reference.” And now you too understand that reference!!! 😁💙💙💙

One of the VERY few times "it was all a dream" has truly worked for a story and still felt satisfying.

Fun facts about the movie: In the Munchkin Land scene, the actress who played the wicked witch got slightly burned as they lit the pyro prematurely while she dropped through the floor to "disappear" in the flame and smoke. She took six weeks to heal. Toto (real name Terry) was a female and made $125 a week, while the Munchkin actors (mostly all little people) got $50/week. Toto got accidentally stepped on by a stage hand, injuring her paw and she recuperated at Judy Garland's house. Judy loved the dog and wanted to adopt her but her owner declined, as Terry was a busy actress who was in several movies- she ended up with 18 acting credits in all. Oh..btw. The brownish color whose name you're searching for is sepia.

I can't believe this film is nearly 83 years old, wow.!!! A REAL CLASSIC MOVIE.!!!

“How can you cry if you don’t have a heart?” And that’s the whole moral of the story. Everyone already had what they thought they were missing. Also Technicolor was invented in 1917. But it was prohibitively expensive to use for decades. So no major color films were made until the 1930s and then only rarely. When Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind were both released in Technicolor in 1939, audiences began demanding color for all big spectacle films. That year was a major turning point for color.

In Blake’s defense, The Wicked Witch scared the crap out of kids when this came out and for years after. To the point that Mr Rogers did an early episode decades later on his show where the actress the played the Witch was aa guest and they explained/showed the makeup process to demystify her scariness for kids.

Just an FYI re Margaret Hamilton who played the wicked witch, in real life she was a total sweetheart. I had an older friend who taught school in the sixties near where Margaret Hamilton lived. Her students were scared of the witch as well, so my friend wrote Hamilton, explained the situation and invited her to visit her class. Hamilton accepted, explained to the kids what acting was all about, told tales of her experience making the film, and won the kids over with her charm. Apparently Hamilton was overwhelmed by the attention and was brought to tears. Hamilton was a wonderful woman, as was my friend. RIP Gerry

Thank you so much for getting the part where Glinda tells her only bad witches are ugly but has been asking her if she is a good which or a bad witch. So many people miss that!

1/ The brown and white parts of the film is Sepia (pronounced C-P-Ah), the brown filter is added to the monochrome film to make things including people look more natural. 2/ The twister special effect is considered by many Storm Chasers (an actual job) to be one of the most realistic looking tornados ever shown in a movie which is impressive for a movie made in 1939. 3/ The actress playing Glinda was 54 years old at the time, I was surprised to learn this as I thought she was decades younger than that.

All these years later, the moment when you see OZ in full Technicolor still holds up. Can you imagine seeing that for the first time, in the theater, in 1939?

I always liked it when the guard said “that’s a horse of a different color”, and then they go inside OZ and see the horse change colors.

Margaret Hamilton started as a schoolteacher, and she Judy Garland were great friends on set.

Fun fact Margaret Hamilton (the wicked witch of the west) was super nice and very generous to children's charities and schools, but the character was so scary that when she was on sesame street, the episode only aired once and was never seen again. Her guest appearance on mister Rogers neighborhood was all about Hollywood and make believe in the movies. They were just perfect together. Edit: She was seriously burned by the fireball in the munchkin village scene.

The Wizard Of Oz improves when you watch other movies from the era. People don't realize how technically advanced this movie was. It is leaps and bounds ahead of its time, and like you said, is extremely watchable today. Glad you finally got to see it!

Interesting fact; In the original books, the Emerald City isn't actually emerald, the Wizard makes everyone wear green tinted glasses that make everything look like emeralds.

the 2 best things about this movie: for the transition shot between the sepia and the colorful oz, they literally painted the farmhouse room and the body double in sepia tones; and the entire movie matches up perfectly to pink floyd's dark side of the moon

"The dead guy in the tree" has been an urban legend for a long time, but it was just a bird that got loose. Also, Frank Morgan, the Wizard, played 5 characters: Mr. Marvel, the crying guard, the coach driver, Oz and the man behind the curtain.

This used to play on TV every year, so it really became ingrained in people's minds. It's always surprising when I hear people haven't seen it. My mom originally watched it on a black and white TV, and when her uncle bought a color TV they were invited over to watch. She was really surprised when it switched to color. My dad was actually not scared of the witch, but of the flying monkeys. This is also the movie, in Avengers, that references the flying monkeys that Steve Rogers is able to recognize.

I totally get not having seen some classic films, but so much of this story is just part of the general cultural knowledge that my brain melted a little bit when you were surprised to learn that the witch died from water, or that the giant Oz head wasn't real. 😂

To answer your question about the munchkins, yes they are all little people. In fact it was the largest gathering of little people in history at the time, about 100+ and many had never met another little person before. It became so impactful and meaningful to them that since then they have had reunions and created little people conferences and support groups from this. One of the more positive things that came from this movie

Have you ever heard of a play called “Wicked”? THIS is what THAT is based upon. Buddy Ebsen (Jed Clampett from Beverly Hillbillies) was the original Tin Man, but became deathly ill from the silver paint, so Jack Haley replaced him. There were several musical numbers filmed that didn’t make the final cut. The history behind The Wizard of Oz is very rich. I’m so glad you watched it 😊👍

"Over the Rainbow" came dangerously close to being cut from the movie. The studio head thought it slowed the movie too much, but the film makers fought to keep it in.

The beginning of this movie was filmed in sepia tones. When Dorothy first saw Oz the transition to color made audiences gasp at the change. They hired around 122 little people to be the munchkins. According to legend, these little people would get rip-roaring drunk and had wild parties that were X-rated. True or not, their antics of the little people were portrayed in the 1981 film Under The Rainbow. Bert Lahr's suit was actually made from the skins of two lions. The "horse of a different color" was colored by using flavored gelatin. Reportedly they had to work hard to keep the horses from licking it off.

Personal experience: This and Heidi were both considered Thanksgiving movies when i was a kid. Why? Because one of the networks would broadcast them on Thanksgiving day to keep the kids from bugging mom in the kitchen and dad watching the NFL on the other networks. That's why.

It is a weird detail but for some reason I absolutely adore the matte paintings that fill out the Oz shots. They don't look real but they are perfect for the landscape of a dream, creating this beautiful, almost hyper-real world you want to explore. It's the kind of magic you don't see in modern movies because computers have largely made matte paintings obsolete.

"Over the Rainbow" was voted the greatest song of the 20th century in a poll conducted by the National Endowment of the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America. Your comment that there cannot be songs this good is spot on. MGM actually pulled the song out of the movie. Their executives said it slowed the movie down. The producer threatened to quit if they didn't put it back in.

Fun fact: The tin man, the scarecrow, and the lion all already had the attributes that they wanted to get from the wizard. The scarecrow was incredibly intelligent and always came up with the plans that everyone used throughout the movie. The tin man was very emotional, he was crying at the movie and clearly was a bit of a romantic. and while the Lion gets scared pretty often, he still do what he had to do to help his friends so that showed his bravery. What the wizard helped them deal was realize what they already had.

I can't quite fathom the wonder of the theater-goer who saw the switch from B&W to Color.... Had to be absolutely amazing.

When I was a kid in the late 70's early 80's, and before movie rentals took off, this movie would only come on CBS once a year, (hosted by Angela Lansbury for many years) and I never ever missed it. It was my favorite day of the year!

The "goose" in the background was a species of Crane that was just allowed to wander the set. The "hanging man" urban legand was actually one of the onset cranes spreading it's wings.

The meme of the supposed "Hanging Munchkin" was in the back of the scene where they pick up the Tin Man and encounter the Wicked Witch. If you look beyond the cottage at the trees, you'll see movement in the very back of the set near the matte-painted wall. What people claim was a munchkin hanging himself was actually a swan spreading his wings and shaking them. And the color you are trying to remember from the beginning is Sepeatone.

Interesting fact: The man who directed The Wizard of Oz, Victor Fleming, also directed most of Gone With The Wind. Two massive films in one year. Margaret Hamilton, who played the witch, got badly burnt during a season. Also she was a school teacher before being an actress and spent most of her life working for children's charity. A lovely lady by all accounts. 😊

Little fact: Buddy Ebsen (Beverly Hillbillies, Breakfast at Tiffany’s) was originally the Tin-Man. But the aluminum makeup gave him a reaction so he spent 2 weeks in the hospital. Jack Haley replaced him and they reshot scenes they already filmed with Ebsen. You can still hear Ebsen’s voice during “We’re Off to See The Wizard”.

The annual primetime network airing of this movie was like a national holiday for kids. There was no home video, streaming, etc. that allowed us to watch whatever we wanted whenever we wanted, so we would do whatever it took to be there in front of the TV when it came on. No movie ever seemed quite so magical. Today it's still one of my three favorite movies of all time, along with "King Kong" (1933) and "Shane." I enjoyed your appreciative reaction.

Back when there were only three channels, this movie was shown every year on Thanksgiving. I remember watching it on TV for the first time in the mid-1970s. Then the following year you might be with different friends and family, but you would still gather and watch it all over again. In my family, as I recall, we'd make popcorn (the non-microwave kind) and wait with great expectation for the movie to start. With all the commercials, the damn thing ran for three hours, but it was a tradition to tune in and watch this. Every year a new generation would get hooked on The Wizard of Oz. It truly was a part of the national culture. Now, everything is splintered and we watch what we want to when we want to, via streaming. The technology available to us is amazing, and I wouldn't want to go back to the old days. But I also acknowledge it is sad what we have lost. I mean, my goodness, there are people who have NEVER EVEN SEEN THIS MOVIE!

I used to have a Cairn terrier named Ruby she was the coolest dog and she did not give two f's . She went from living in apartments to living in the country when I got her and she was always out in the woods chasing something down and being a good old country dog. She lived until the ripe old age of 18 and died of old age.❤❤

This movie has been shown on tv for decades at thanksgiving when they knew families would be together and want to watch a family friendly movie. It’s not really thanksgiving themed but is a tradition for a lot of people at thanksgiving.

The Good Witch Of The South: In the novel, Glinda IS the Witch Of The South, and doesn't appear until near the end when the group travels to seek her advice in getting Dorothy home. The Witch Of The North that greets Dorothy and gives her the slippers is a different character, Tattypoo. Also, there are a LOT of books - in the novels Oz is a real place, and Dorothy eventually moves there permanently with her aunt and uncle. c:

Little fact: Margaret Hamilton who plays the Wicked Witch of The West got third degree burns on her face and second degree burns on her hands during her exit from Munchkinland. The flames rose too soon before she descended under the stage. They had to remove her makeup with alcohol because it was copper based. She had a green tint to her skin long after they were done filming. She was also so terrifying to children that they cut down her lines significantly in the final cut. She also appeared on a 1976 episode of Sesame Street as the witch. The production got so many complaints from parents whose kids were terrified. They pulled the episode and it hasn’t aired once since 1976.

Summary in newspaper TV guide for this movie: “teenage runaway travels abroad, kills the first person she meets before banding together with 3 locals to kill again”

"Do we see a witch of the south?" Not in the movie, but in the book, Glinda is the good witch of the south, and we don't see here until the end. The witch she meets when she first arrives in Oz in the book is an unnamed good witch of the North. Also in the book, it's not a dream, it really happens. Last summer I played the wicked witch of the west in a local production of the wizard of oz.

FYI, Judy Garland was 16 when she did this movie. At the beginning, the 40 years referred to when the book was written. So approx 1899, and 40 years to the movie in 1939. When I was a kid, I also thought she was going to die when the sand ran out, but I think it was intended simply as a time piece. When the sands ran out, the witch would come back and kill her. As for the flying monkeys, yeah, they were terrifying when I was a kid. Somewhere in that time (when I was young), McHale's Navy and other WWII related shows and movies were big and I remember coping with the monkeys by imagining I had a twin .50 cal machinegun mount under the tree line so I could shoot down all the monkeys as they came flying down. This is one of those movies where you don't know if Oz is real, or just her hallucination after hitting her head. The witch was the mean lady on the bicycle. The wizard was Professor Marvel. And of course the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion were the farm hands. But there were later books and animated films where Dorothy returned to Oz. You can also do some trivia searching regarding the actors who played the Munchkins and the shenanigans that went on. Glad you liked it!

The Thanksgiving feel is because this movie was once shown annually on prime time TV around this time. Before the era of recording shows, this was always a holiday treat.

You are the essence of Dorothy...pure joy to watch and listen to. Another great and fun movie review. Now to answer your questions... Yes the correct term for the Munchkin Actors is... Little People, most the 124 were young adults around 18 years old. The poppies poison fragrance smell got frozen by Glinda's cold snow, so they all could wake up. The hour glass was a timer of how long it would take the witch to prepare a brew in a cauldron to make a Shrinking spell to shrink Dorothy to get the ruby slippers. Deleted script scene, it's online. Did I answer everything, I feel like I missed something. Oh the Kansas brown and white color is called Sepia. Toto's real name was Terry and a female dog.

“10 out of 5 stars for Toto’s acting abilities!” That’s what the studio thought, too. That’s why he made more per week than the munchkins.

The "goose" was some kind of stork or egret. The "body" of meme lore was just another big bird they had wandering in the background on set (or maybe the same one). It was far in the background, and thanks to some of the tree branches someone thought it looked like a hanging body. And once the "shocking thing you didn't notice in kids film" factoid started circulating, no amount of facts would shut it down. There was always someone new for the OMG! reaction.

The movie transitioning from sepia to color was HUGE! when it first came out. The color was extremely expensive, so most movies were in Sepia or Black and White. If I remember right, the studio almost canceled the film because of it, but a surprise secret viewing showed that the audience loved it so they went for it.

9:47 "Do we see the witch of the south?" Not in the movie, but in the original book that the movie was based on. In fact, Glinda is the witch of the south in the book, whereas the witch of the north is a different character. The witch of the north is the one that sends Dorothy to see the wizard, and then we never see her again. Glinda (the witch of the south) then shows up at the end to tell Dorothy that the silver shoes (not ruby slippers) can send her home. (Also, it's not a dream in the book.)

A TRUE classic never goes out of style and _The Wizard of Oz_ fits that description perfectly. The behind-the-scenes of this film and its impact on the legend that is Judy Garland is so heartbreaking.

"Don't know what's to be scared of" 55 years old and the flying monkeys still flip me out...

"Tried to see a psychic once but she wasn't home." If she couldn't predict you were coming, that's probably for the best.

The first time I ever saw this movie as a kid, color tv's were just coming out. We all gathered at our neighbor's house for an Oz party to watch it. When that door opened, there was a gasp you we just knew could be heard around the world. It was amazing. It became a holiday tradition to repeat every year. What a wonderful memory. Thank you for watching it with me in this way. :)

Okay, the snow and poppies scene was a reference to the effects of opium which is made from poppies. At the time when the book was written, users would inhale it in opium dens, then sleep on bunks or cots provided for them. When the movie was filmed (during the Great Depression) opium dens were becoming rarer, but many still used them to get away from their troubles. An opium daze was difficult to wake from, and many died in their sleep. The snow was used to wake the characters because the police slosh cold water on the sleepers to wake them enough to arrest them.

"I tried to go to a psychic once, but she wasn't home." Never trust a psychic who has to close because of unforeseen circumstances.

"What in the acid trip is that"....Ashleigh that was such a classic line that had me laughing! I love your reactions and this movie is such a big deal so glad you finally watched it. I got to see it in the theater (my local would run it every few years in the 60s) and the witch with her flying monkey things always scared me. The witch putting them all 'in a kind of death sleep' using a poppy field and Glinda waking them up with 'snow' sure seem like references to certain popular drugs to me. There is a lot of lore and fun facts behind this classic so look into it more.

Up until some time in the 80s or 90s (I think), The Wizard Of Oz came on television ONCE a year very close to Easter. It was a very special event! I can remember being 4 or 5 years old and SOBBING in fear of the witch, I was inconsolable. She was the best witch of all time. My little pre-school self couldn't handle her threatening Dorothy AND Toto. It broke my heart an horrified me. Her mocking Dorothy when she cried for Auntie Em....it was too much for me. I love this movie and it is impossible to get tired of it. Only Judy Garland could have played Dorothy - she was such a likable girl - everybody loves Dorothy.

Pretty much everyone in my generation saw "The Wizard of Oz" because it was broadcast every year on one of the three networks. It was basically an annual television event not unlike some of the stop-motion Christmas movies, Peanuts, Grinch, etc. So nearly everyone in that era saw it, usually several times over a number of years, and that's why older people are surprised when younger people haven't seen it.

The Wizard of Oz was based on a series of 17 books by L. Frank Baum, written between 1900 and 1920. It was turned into a stage play long before it was a movie. There were also silent movie versions made in 1910 and 1925. Director Victor Fleming and the wardrobe department picked out a coat for actor Frank Morgan to wear as the Wizard. One day Morgan turned one of the pockets inside-out and discovered a label that said the coat had been made for L. Frank Baum. They originally wanted to cast Shirley Temple as Dorothy. It would have been an entirely different movie. Temple was typecast as a cute little kid. Also, Garland was a much better singer than Temple. They originally cast Buddy Ebsen as The Tin Man, but he had to quit because he had an allergic reaction to the silver makeup, so they got Jack Haley instead. Ebsen is best known today as Jed Clampett of The Beverly Hillbillies. Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West, was a kind woman who loved children. It bothered her that children were afraid of her after this movie came out. She once appeared on Mr. Rogers to explain to explain that the Wicked Witch of the West was just a role she played. Margaret Hamilton wwhen she disappeared in the ball of fire in Munchkinland, and she refused to do any more stunts like it for the rest of the filming. In the scene where Dorothy opens the door after landing in Munchkinland, everything inside the house is in black and white (well, sepia), and we see color through the door. They did this by painting the inside of the house set in black and white, and dressing Judy Garland in black and white clothes. The actors who played the Munchkins were from Europe. Many were Jewish, and they stayed in the U.S. rather than return to Nazi Germany. The horses in Emerald City were colored with Jell-O mix. They had to shoot the scenes quickly before the horses licked it off. The "snow" in the poppy field was made from asbestos. Toto got $125 a week. The Munchkins each only got $50 a week. Yip Harburg wrote the lyrics to all the songs, and Harold Arlen wrote the music. Both wrote a large number of other songs, and wrote some together apart from Wizard of Oz, including It's Only a Paper Moon. They'd have worked more together, except that Harburg drove Arlen crazy with his political opinions. Harburg was a socialist. It's not that Arlen disagreed with Harburg, but that Harburg wouldn't shut up about it. Harburg also wrote: April in Paris Brother Can You Spare a Dime? Arlen is considered one of the all-time great American songwriters - some of his best are Accentuate the Positive Come Rain or Come Shine Get Happy I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues One for My Baby (and One More for the Road) Stormy Weather That Old Black Magic. The song Over the Rainbow was almost cut from the movie. It's a slow number, and they thought the movie was too long. Fortunately, they left it in. Otherwise it would have been lost to history. In 2004 the American Film Institute ranked it #1 in their list of 100 Greatest Songs in American Films. It was also named The Song of the Century by the National Endowment for the Arts.

I must have been VERY very young when i saw this film for the very first time but i vividly remembered a lot of things. Like the amazing twister scene, the transition from Monochrome to Color (The german TV broadcast master back then wasn't sepia but black and white and color) and the yellow brick road and the incredible sets. Dunno how young i was. Probably 4 or so. Then a few years later i saw it again and i was like re-living a distant dream. It was absolutely pure magic and i was amazed at how much i could still remember just from ONE time watching. THAT is how much this film impressed me as a lil boy. And as i grew up i had no idea how old that film already was. I'd always assume it was from the 60s or so but my god was i blown away when i realized it was from the late 1930s. This film really is a loveletter to everyone, old and young, who never give up dreaming about positive things and friendship. It stood the test of time and keeps captivating audiences of all new generations. THAT film is the most wonderful thing you could ever achieve with the medium of motion pictures.

I remember my parents getting me this movie for christmas when i was 7 and i watched it and was probably the only one that wasn't really scared of the movie except seeing the wizard for the first time but i enjoy singing the songs they are so so good. Tin man being my favorite he's such a sweet loveable character with the biggest heart you can find and i think we all need people like him Scarecrow and Lion that when things are bad your friends will always be there for you and would sacrife their own life to save yours

If you can find it. I highly recommend the 2019 anniversary addition of this film. It was remastered from the original Technicolor negatives. Technicolor used 3 different rolls of film. One for each color channel. They were able to scan the original film and clean it digitally. When they put the three films together they aligned each frame so that every pixel matched up exactly. This gives the film a better appearance than even the original version (where the three films were lined up mechanically with sprockets). It's an amazing restoration. The amount of detail it brings out is stunning.

Just a quick shout out to thank you for this review. The WOZ was my late wife's very favorite movie, and as sad as I sometimes become watching it with our three kids over the years since her passing, having wonderful reviews like yours makes it all better! You're awesome Ashleigh and congrats because you are almost at 100,000 subs!!!

Ashleigh, you HAVE to watch the "sequel" the return to OZ from the 80s. (in 80s fashion its way more darker than the first movie, but a lot more accurate to the book!) its one of my all time fav. fantasy movies and in the likes of labyrinth and the neverending story.

To answer the question, Scarecrow by far. First, I love his dialogue. There's a scene where he says, 'some people without brains do an awful lot of talking'. That line is so relevant nowadays, that I almost dare to say that it might have been prophetic. Secondly, for not having a brain, he's the only one that thought to bring a gun when going after the Witch.

Another fun fact: In the book OZ and Dorothy's adventure are very much real but they decided to go with a more "Alice in Wonderland" type ending. Also, her shoes were silver in the book, but they wanted to show off the color tech so they changed them to red!

“Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again.” - Rick Polito (movie description writer)

"Dorothy straight spitting fire!" Words I never thought that would describe this movie. 😆

18:30 The hourglass was only a TIMER -- her intent was to kill Dorothy herself once time ran out. As a kid, I didn't quite catch that, and I'm glad I didn't!

THE WIZARD OF OZ used to be shown on TV annually from 1956 - 1991. It was an EVENT that the whole family looked forward to each spring. School kids talked about it for weeks before and after. That's the tradition I grew up with.

I adore Judy Garland, and I think you'd also really enjoy "Meet Me in St. Louis", a later musical of hers. She introduces the song "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" in that film.

I love how enchanted you are by this. I feel like there was never a time in my life that I didn't know about the Wizard of Oz because it's so famous, but you get to see it with fresh eyes. Yeah the color aspect was still a huge deal at the time which is a lot to do with why the colors in Oz are so garish and vibrant. They wanted people to be dazzled by the new technology. They even changed her magic footwear from "silver shoes" to "ruby slippers" because they thought the red would pop more on the screen. What's funny is that I have no recollection of her going to the psychic at the beginning. I know I saw the movie several times as a kind, but I guess that scene left no impression on me.

There was a lot of recasting in this movie. 1. Ray Bolger was originally supposed to play the tinman and Buddy Ebsen was supposed to play the scarecrow, but Bolger wanted to play the scarecrow so he and Ebsen switched roles. Then Ebsen had a severe allergic reaction to the aluminum dust used to make the tinman's makeup and had to spend six months in an iron lung, so the part of the tinman went to Jack Haley. 2. Shirley Temple was originally supposed to play Dorothy, but she was under contract with United Artists, and they wouldn't release her from her contract, so that part went to Judy Garland, whose real name was Frances Gumm. She was an unknown at the time and the studio changed her name to Judy Garland because they thought it sounded more glamorous. 3. W.C. Fields was originally supposed to play the Wizard, but he wanted too much money, so that part went to Frank Morgan. 4. Gale Sondegaard was supposed to play the Wicked Witch of the West, but they decided she was too glamorous, so they asked Margaret Hamilton, to play the Wicked Witch.

Ashleigh channeling Ethel Merman as Dorothy. I just love how when she finally escapes Oz to get back to her reality, it's just as dusty dull and grey as when she left.

The munchkins were played by people with dwarfism. Billy Barty, one of the youngest of them, started his career in this movie and went on to become famous in his own right. He appeared frequently on many television series as well as several other movies.

Ray Bolger, who played the scarecrow, really was that limber.

I laughed so hard I spit out my coffee when you said, "I went once (to see a psychic), but she wasn't home."

You absolutely have to delve into more Judy Garland movies!!!! “Meet Me In St. Louis”, “Live Finds Andy Hardy”, “For Me and My Gal”, “Thousands Cheer”, “Girl Crazy”, “The Harvey Girls”, “Easter Parade”, “In The Good Old Summertime”, “Summer Stock” …,,. Many Many great songs came fr. These movies 🥰

There are so many backstories to this movie, it's nearly endless. For Boomers like me, this movie was on TV once a year, and it was a family event, so it's in my generation's DNA. But you really need to watch more classic films.

The flying monkeys were creepy as hell when I was a kid watching this, but honestly I always looked forward to seeing them just because of that.

Margaret Hamilton was easily one of the funniest people in interviews, but easily one of Cinema's Best Villains. She was a kindergarten teacher who started acting later in life. Funniest story she always told was when she heard she'd been cast in THE WIZARD OF OZ, she was like, "Amazing! I've loved that book since I was a little girl. Who am I playing?!" Her agent was like, "...........the Witch." She was like, "THE WITCH??!!" and then her agent said, "Yeah, what else??" Apparently, she took it in stride and did an amazing job (nearly a half hour of her performance was actually taken out of the movie because audiences thought she was too scary)

Two things I'll say about the Wizard of Oz: When I was a kid, my family would watch this movie every Christmas when it would come on TV (this was the 1960's) and the wicked witch scared the crap out of me every time. Also, we watched on a B&W TV so I was in my mid-20's before I knew that the movie went from Sepia to Technicolor when she gets to Oz.

“What in the acid trip is that?” My thoughts exactly in this entire film and Willy Wonka 😂

Three fun bits of trivia. The guy who played the Tin Man had a lot of health problems because of the silver makeup. The Coat that the fortune teller wore belonged to L. Frank Baum himself. (The author of The Wizard of Oz.) And Margaret Hamilton suffered some bad burns when she got the timing wrong and lost the trap door to disappear through in the Munchkin village, so she didn't get all the way through the door when the fire went off.

I maintain that Glinda was the actual wicked witch of this story. FIRST...you side swipe Dorothy by asking her if she's a witch and then say 'only bad witches are ugly'. Okay...but you asked her so...SHADE. Second...Glinda stole family heirlooms and put them on Dorothy's feet. If your sister, wicked as she may be, had've had a house drop on her and squished her beyond recognition, wouldn't you want her shoes back? THIRD...she put the shoes on Dorothy and knew the witch would be mad enough to keep pursuing her, thus putting Dorothy in danger for no reason other than she just didn't want to do the dirty work herself. All of that trauma for Dorothy because of a 'Good' witch with a vendetta. LOL I probably overthought this. It shocks me that you never saw this. Not sure if its actually a Thanksgiving movie, but for sure growing up it was ALWAYS aired on Thanksgiving night.

Ashleigh is Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion and the Wizard, all rolled into one! And Beans is Toto, of course! :)

Somewhere on RU-vid, you can find the "extended version" of Scarecrow's "If I only had a Brain", where he does a LOT more dancing. That guy could dance! The actress who played the Wicked Witch was also famous for being Mrs. Olsen in the Folger's Coffee commercials. She also made a guest appearance on Mr. Rogers, to teach the kids the difference between a wicked witch and an actress playing a wicked witch. Yes, the Munchkins are all little people. The thing the Scarecrow says when he gets is diploma is completely wrong. It's possible that it was written correctly in the script and he just garbled it. A possible follow-up to this movie you might consider watching is The Wiz (1978). It's not a sequel or a prequel or a reboot. I guess you'd call it a reinterpretation.

The reason that the Wicked Witch melts when she's splashed with water is because it's a reference to folklore where witches cannot cross running water because water is used to cleanse and symbolizes purity while witches were either the embodiment of evil, or in league with it.

The film is based on a children's book by L Frank Baum, which has 13 sequels, all of which are sheer genius. They're the kind of children's' books which include plenty of stuff that's fun for the grown-ups who read them to their kids. Highly recommended. Oh, and in the books, Oz isn't just an hallucination that Dorothy has while unconscious. It's an actual place, a 'fairy land' far away that she actually travels to. The movie version is clever, but a huge departure from the books.