Sunday, March 10, 2013


"Oz the Great and Powerful" isn't merely a trip back over the rainbow for the majority of us. It is, in a very real way, a trip back to our collective Munchkinhood. That's just what happens when Hollywood tries to revisit the singlemost iconic film in American cinema history -- and one that is deeply, irrevocably engrained in the childhoods of multiple generations.

That is to say, director Sam Raimi and Disney took on a great and powerful responsibility when they pointed James FrancoMichelle Williams and company down the yellow-brick road for their "Oz" odyssey. We don't justremember Oz, after all. We know this place -- from Munchkinland to the Emerald City to that nondescript crossroads where Dorothy meets the Scarecrow -- at least as well as we know the shortest route to the gorilla pen at the Audubon Zoo, the flavor list at Plum Street Snoball, and the exact dimensions of the vacant lot across from Mr. Ray's house where the gang used to gather to play football.

That's exceedingly tricky territory for a filmmaker to navigate -- an occupational poppy field if ever there was one. After all, Raimi can't possibly hope to replace "The Wizard of Oz," or to do anything close to bettering it in the minds of moviegoers. The absolute best he can hope for with "Oz the Great and Powerful" is to try to recapture the spirit of director Victor Fleming's beloved 1939 original -- and avoid having his name reduced to flying-monkey status in the process. 

And while the instinct of many movie-goers will be to re-enter "Oz" with no small amount of skepticism, Raimi mostly succeeds in that regard. His highly polished "Oz the Great and Powerful" is a lovely family fantasy, one that pays fitting homage to the spirit of the original, with its well-formed sense of magic, wonder and fun -- and all without betraying the childhood memories of the American moviegoing public.

Wisely, Raimi and company don't attempt to undertake a direct remake of 1939's "The Wizard of Oz." Rather, "Oz the Great and Powerful" is intended to function as a prequel to that classic film, telling the story of how the wizard (played by Franco) came to rule Oz in the first place. Think of it as the story of the man who would be the man behind the curtain.

The way they've built it, however, it functions as an enjoyable and smartly designed companion piece to the original. (A feat made even more impressive when considering the sticky legal issues involved. Baum's books are in the public domain, but the rights to the character designs from the 1939 movie are still held by MGM, which required a delicate legal dance from an art-direction standpoint, right down to the exact hue of the Wicked Witch of the West.)

Like Fleming's film, "Oz the Great and Powerful starts out with a black-and-white prologue set in Kansas and boasting a deliberate shot-on-a-soundstage feel. Also there: The first of numerous sly little references -- visual and spoken -- to the original. (In a technical flourish that film geeks will appreciate, the prologue is presented in something approximating the old, nearly square 1.37:1 aspect ratio that was the standard pre-1950s.)
At the center of it all is another familiar flourish: the wagon of a certain traveling magician. That would be Franco's future wizard -- at this point a charlatan and philanderer named Oscar Diggs -- who spends the early part of the film wishing out loud for a chance at greatness, all the while running into people he will re-encounter in one form or another when he goes over the rainbow.

Cue the tornado, cue the shift to wide-screen format, cue the Technicolor images. Cue the enlisting of Oscar by the denizens of Oz -- who mistake him for a real wizard -- to fulfill a prophecy and restore order to their land.

Cue also some downright dazzling 3-D visuals, as Raimi and company use every tool in their digital toolbox (and a reported, but unconfirmed-by-Disney $200 million budget) to wow today's much more sophisticated audiences. They don't waste any time doing it, either, as this "Oz" starts with some of the most beautiful opening credits you're likely to have seen in some time -- and which alone are almost worth the price of the 3-D box-office upcharge.

Granted, those effects work better at times than others. A highlight: the adorable little China Girl who joins Franco's journey and who is herself a fragile work of art, from her crackled-porcelain visage to the way she clinks ever so gently when she walks. Not as impressive: the effects used to transform one of the three magical sisters he encounters -- played by Williams, Rachel Weisz and Mila Kunis -- into the familiar green-faced Wicked Witch of the West.

Despite that, though -- and despite the story's occasional lapsing in talkiness, as well as a generally confused scene regarding Weisz, Kunis and a Granny Smith apple -- there's more to appreciate than to disregard here. (No, there are no musical numbers, outside of an oddly out-of-place Mariah Carey number that plays over the closing credits. But a monkey voiced by Zach Braff -- friendly, and a motormouth -- is bound to be an audience favourite, for example.)

Is all of that to say that "Oz the Great and Powerful" comes even close to matching the timeless, iconic stature of 1939's "The Wizard of Oz"? No, of course not. That's not just a once-in-a-lifetime cultural phenomenon, but a once-in-many-liftimes one.
It does, however, make for a pleasant journey, one that gives yet one more generation of Munchkins even more fodder for yellow-brick dreams -- not to mention a few flying-monkey nightmares.