Who doesn’t want to experience the world of Dorothy, her ruby slippers, and the adventures of the magical land of Oz? We all have loved the story as a kid and imagined ourselves in the Wizard of Oz fighting against all odds and getting home safely. It’s entertaining and amusing to imagine yourself as the character in the story because of how she lives a life full of adventures.
But what’s the origin story behind The Wizard of Oz and how it imagined to outlive so many generations and is till so popular among children?
The Origin of the Wizard of Oz
People have always liked stories with magical worlds and it’s a theme that has existed for decades. The stories of fairies, aliens, ghosts, and wizards have captured the imagination of children and adults alike because they provide us with a gateway to worlds unknown to us.
L. Frank Baum introduced the world to a new magical land called Ozin in 1900. Capturing the minds of children and adults alike, Baum’s first Oz book, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” introduced us to iconic characters like Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West. It quickly became a success as we know it today and was later turned into stage products and recently into a movie; Wicked.
It was followed by the “The Marvelous Land of Oz” and many other short stories about the land of Oz in the coming years. It was common to publish books in pieces and serialize them over weeks, in newspapers.
People used to wait for the new episode every week just like episodes of series are released now in the movie industry. It used to build anticipation in readers and they waited for a week to read the next episode.
The stories were then adapted into famous theatre plays and films. One such play can now be found on Youtube.
The newest adaptation is “Wicked”, the movie, which takes a different angle to the book and explains the side of the Wicked Witch of the West.
In the Wizard of Oz, Wicked Witch of the west was seen through the eyes of Dorothy, and the witch was presented to be purely evil. The movie Wicked flips the perspective and shows the Witch’s backstory. It reveals her name as Elphaba and how she wasn’t always evil; she was a kind young woman who was often misunderstood.
What’s New About the Story
The film flips the narrative in a way that it has shown a different side to both the main characters; Glinda (the good witch) and Elphaba (the evil witch) from the world of Oz.
It’s not possible that someone who is shown to be good has no flaws and someone who is shown to be evil has no good in them. In the books, the witch was always shown to be wicked but in the movie, the character of Elphaba has been shown to have a backstory and he wasn’t always evil. This is more in line with how things are in real life, people aren’t inherently evil but they go through different circumstances and experiences that might change them.
This shift in the narrative helps the audience understand how someone who comes off as bad and evil isn’t purely just BAD but how there’s a story to everyone which we often forget to take into consideration when forming an opinion about someone.
Through this blog, we will try to understand how the two stories are connected and how they help children learn important lessons about courage, kindness, and consideration.
How the Wizard of Oz and Wicked are Connected
The Wizard of Oz was about Dorothy who lives on a quiet farm in Kansas with her aunt, uncle, and a little dog named Toto. In a turn of events, a big tornado takes her and Toto to a magical place called the Land of Oz.
When she lands in the land of Oz, her house accidentally hits the Wicked Witch of the East. The people of Oz cheer this as they dislike the witch because of how evil she is. Dorothy then meets Glinda, the Good Witch, who helps her by giving her shiny ruby slippers and tells her to follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City to find the Wizard of Oz who will help her get back home.
The story revolves around Dorothy’s adventures on her way back home and how she finds a new side to her personality and successfully goes back home.
While the stories start with Dorothy coming to Oz, the movie goes before Dorothy’s arrival and tells the story of the Wicked Witch. How Glinda and Elphaba were friends and classmates who then grew apart with time. It explains the side of Elphaba unknown to people and how she became known as Wicked Witch.
Children who liked The World of Oz growing up will find their favorite characters in The Wicked only shown from a different lens. While it is about the Wicked Witch, it has the Good Witch and other characters which makes it relatable for kids and adults who were fond of the World of Oz growing up.
We would have started off with reading the stories with your kids and then enjoy The Wicked as a family watch. This will make it an interesting watch for both the parents and the kids because they would then be able to understand the backstory of the film and the characters.
If you’re children find reading to be boring, you can try it on our app, where you can put on different characters from the Oz World and perform them for your kids and grandkids and make it an interesting watch for them. Visuals stay longer in the young minds and with polite storytelling, it will help them understand the evil characters from the world of Oz with a different perspective.
This visual experience of a story that is classical will stay with your grandkids as a core memory. It will help them imagine the characters from the Oz world and enjoy their favorite story in a more engaged way.
We would have started by recoding the stories on our app to share with your grandkids because the stories on our app are for all age groups, while the movie should be watched by kids above 8-9 years of age.
Even if you can’t watch the movie with your kids because of the age limit, you can always give them the same visual experience with Zoog.
