Released thirty-nine years apart, the children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz authored by L. Frank Baum and its most famous film adaptation The Wizard of Oz directed by Victor Fleming hold the gold standard of how to take a beloved book and bring it to life on the silver screen. Despite its universal praise, the film took a few liberties with the original story. The film took several story elements and added to them, abandoned them, or shifted them. Here are a few key ways they differ.
- The Characters:
In the book, Dorothy’s character is courageous, proactive, and incredibly
resilient given her circumstances. While a few of these traits can be seen in
Judy Garland’s portrayal, the filmmakers decided to focus more on the
character’s youthful innocence to give her an immediate emotional appeal.
Another character who is very different from her literary counterpart is the
Wicked Witch of the West. In the movie, she is the sister of the Wicked
Witch of the East and appears several times throughout the story. In the
book, there is no relation between the two and she only shows up at the
end when Dorothy goes to kill her. She also doesn’t have green skin, but she
does have one eye that is as powerful as a telescope.
2. The Plot:
As is often the case with adaptations, there is not enough time to include
everything that happens in the book and the storyline has to be reworked
to be much more focused. Some of what got left out isn’t that important,
like Dorothy spending the night at a Munchkin’s house or an encounter with
two monstrous beasts in the forest. However, the movie did cut some more
important things, such as a backstory given to the Tin Man and a subplot
where the Lion gets crowned king of the forest. By far though, the biggest
change was when Glinda comes to Dorothy in the Emerald City at the end.
In the book, Dorothy and her friends leave the Emerald City and go to
Glinda’s castle, having several new adventures along the way.
3. Aesthetic Changes:
If you ask someone what the biggest change from the book to the movie
was, the first answer you’ll most likely hear is the Ruby Slippers. These
scarlet slip-ons have become among the most iconic movie props of all
time. So much so, that there’s a pair kept safely preserved in the
Smithsonian! However, you will not find mention of the Ruby Slippers
anywhere in the book because the shoes Dorothy wore were made of silver.
Even though they serve the exact same function within the story, the
change from the Silver Shoes to the Ruby Slippers happened because the
filmmakers wanted to take full advantage of the expensive Technicolor film
they were using. They thought red popped better on screen than silver.
A smaller aesthetic change was the Emerald City. In the book, the city is
actually made of white marble but all the people who live there are forced
to wear green glasses that fool them into believing it is emerald. This was a
trick of the Wizard to make the people of Oz think he was wealthier than he
really was. In the film, however, no one wears glasses and it simply appears
as if the city is genuinely made of emerald.
4. The Moral:
The Wizard of Oz teaches one of the most simple, timeless, and universal
messages of any film ever. Dorothy sums it up best when she says, “If I ever
go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own
back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with!” Too
true, Dorothy, too true.
However, the book’s message is less clear and, frankly, isn’t even meant for
kids at all. The book was published in 1900 which was a time historians
refer to as the Gilded Age. Just like any other fairy tale, the book was
written to have hidden meanings. L. Frank Baum was attempting to provide
a social commentary on the sociopolitical changes happening in America.
Dorothy is swept away from her simple farm life into a strange and
confusing world. This is meant to be the jarring shift from rural life into
industrialization. She meets a scarecrow with no brain (farmers), a Tin Man
with no heart (businessmen), and a lion with no courage (politicians). Of
course, the seemingly invincible Wizard who turns out to be a powerless old
man is the president.
5. Cut Characters:
Unfortunately, the book is full of several vibrant characters who never made
the cut for the movie. Chief among these, must be the Good Witch of the
North.
“Now wait a minute!” you might be saying, “Glinda is a major character in
the movie.” You’re right, she is. In the book though, Glinda is actually the
Good Witch of the South. The witch who greets Dorothy when she firsts
arrives in Oz is the Witch of the North, but she isn’t Glinda. She’s an entirely
different character that Baum would later name Locasta Tattypoo. Go
ahead, laugh; I know you want to. For simplicity’s sake, the filmmakers
combined the two witches and gave Glinda the job of welcoming Dorothy to
Oz.
Another major character who was cut was the Queen of the Field Mice. In
the book, she and her subjects are the ones responsible for saving the
group from the poppies. Coincidently, that job was also given to Glinda in
the movie. She must be popular.
Whether you’re a book purist or only know the movie, Charlotte is the place
for you! Stop by the Eaton Theater on August 5 for a screening of The
Wizard of Oz then pay us a visit here at Charlotte Community Library and
read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to see where it all began.
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