Oz Video Of The Month: The Nomads Of Oz

This award-winning indy film was just released. It's an experimental remake of The Wizard Of Oz where The Wizard is a father inventing memories of his daughter trapped in her favorite film.

Oz Video Of The Month: Wizard Of Oz Myths

This was a recent debunking of the myths behind the 1939 Wizard Of Oz movie by Leon Thomas.

Wicked turns 10

Wicked, the musical based on Gregory Maguire's book, is turning 10 years old this month. To celebrate, they have many new products in their Ozdust Boutique. They're also having lots of special events and offers on their Facebook page each day in October.

"Dorothy Must Die" TV series in works

CW is now in talks to produce a new live-action TV series titled Dorothy Must Die. Heroes creator Tim Kring along with producers Adam Armus and Nora Kay Foster are planning on doing this based on Danielle Paige's upcoming books of the same name. In this sequal to the original L. Frank Baum book, Dorothy stayed in Oz for the last 80 years, and rules it with an iron fist along with her troika of agents: the Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man. However a young modern girl from ends up transported to the magical realm, and joins an underground movement of witches and other creatures to liberate Oz. The book series is getting released this spring, but a prequel novella titled No Place Like Oz is coming out this November.

Happy Birthday to Ozma

Zenescope's Oz now out

Zenescope now has it's new Grimm's Fairy Tales Presents: Oz comic out, which is a 6-issue mini-series prequel. This is tied to the rest of the Grimm Universe they have developed along with Neverland and Wonderland. Expect more of the Oz storyline to come in further volumes.

Oz Video Of The Month: M&M in Oz commercial

This was an M&M commercial where Dorothy wakes from her "dream" to find her family wasn't in color!

Margaret Pellegrini passes away

Margaret Pellegrini, one of the last remaining cast members of the 1939 Wizard Of Oz movie passed away today. She played one of the sleeping Munchkins woken by Glinda, and one of the Munchkinland villager. She was 89 years old.

Dorothy Of Oz manhwa podcast review

This was a recent review of the Dorothy Of Oz manhwa from Udon Entertainment on Weekly Manga Recap on That Guy With The Glasses.

Oz Video Of The Month: Miami Vice and Oz, Together At Last

This original animated short by elkaibo is a PSA spoof with the Tin Man.

Emerald City Of Oz comic now out

Marvel Comics is now releasing their adaptation of the sixth Oz book, The Emerald City Of Oz. This is going to be a 5-issue mini-series, where as the previous one was 6 issues long. Scottie Young provides the artwork again, with the adaption by Oz authority Eric Shanower. It's unknown if Marvel is going to continue the Oz books after this beyond this volume as many adaptations seem to stop with the sixth book.

Oz Video Of The Month: Exploding Dorothy

Sorry this is a little late. Here's June's video featuring Dorothy from the 1939 Wizard Of Oz as well as several other actresses exploding for no good reason.

Oz Video Of The Month: Batman In the Movies

Ever wanted to know what Batman would be like in the merry old land of Oz?

Oz Video Of The Month: Cyclones To Oz

Special fan music video collecting the various cyclones scenes from adaptations of Oz.

Zenescope finally does Oz

Zenescope is finally planning on releasing their Oz comic book series starting this July as part of their Grimm Fairy Tales line. Oz is seen as one of the four separate universes within the Grimm storyline, which also includes Wonderland, Neverland, and Myst. The first issue sees the witches of Oz on the hunt for the Veridian Scepter, a lost mystical weapon that's tied to the Emerald City and the green life-force power prevalent through all the fairy-tale realms. Their search leads them to Kansas and the Gale farm, where they run into Dorothy. From there, the series will follow the traditional Wizard of Oz story and take the girl off to see the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, but not the Wizard. There's actually a different ruler of Emerald City. Both Wicked Witches will be seen here, as well as the obvious flying monkeys.

Comic Review: Dorothy Of Oz-Prequel

IDW Publishing recently finished the comic book mini-series "prequel" to the upcoming Dorothy Of Oz animated movie(which is now retitled Legends Of Oz: Dorothy's Return). This 4-issue mini-series has been collected into a trade paperback, although you can kind of expect it to be re-released under the revised title sometime closer to the movie's premiere, now set for early 2014. It was written by IDW editor Denton J. Tipton, and drawn by Blair Shedd who previously worked on IDW's Doctor Who comics.

I need to point out before that the original concept for the movie was an adaptation of the book Dorothy Of Oz written by L. Frank Baum's great-grandson, Roger S. Baum. He's had another of his books Lion Of Oz turned into a made-for-video animated movie back in the early 2000s. The idea for Dorothy Of Oz was that a jester(called "Jester")had gotten a hold of the Wicked Witch of the West's old wand which possessed him and turned the land of Oz into a dark place. So, Dorothy comes back to Oz to remedy this, along with her old friends, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion. This was meant as kind of a sequel to the Wizard Of Oz book, although Ozma is featured in the book, making it mostly in canon with the original Baum novels. The comic and movie however act as a follow-up to the 1939 Wizard Of Oz movie, although set in modern day.

The comic opens in the Wicked Witch's castle where the character of the Jester appears and claims to be the Witch's brother. There's been several instances where one of the Witch's "siblings" appears to avenge their sister, such as Mombi being turned into her sister in Journey Back To Oz, but it seems a little forced that the Jester is just her brother that shows up out of nowhere. Anyway, he rallies the flying monkeys into taking the Witch's broom from the Emerald City, and them uses it as a new magic wand he merges with an orb. He causes a flood in Munchkinland, which causes the Munchkins to seek help from the Scarecrow who is now in charge of Oz. He along with Tin Man and Lion concur that they must call back Dorothy to help stop Jester. In order to do this, they try to activate one of the Wizard's old inventions, the Rainbow Mover. The three of them head to Quadling Country to seek advice from Glinda on how to obtain a rainbow for the machine, but have to walk around China Country as they've closed their borders in fear of the Jester. They make their way through the Candy Country, and are given advice from a helpful large owl named Wiser on using a prism for the Rainbow Mover. They manage to escape some of the flying monkeys, but the primates capture Glinda instead. Scarecrow then uses a prism to start up the machine, when the story cuts to Kansas as Dorothy is just waking up from her first night after the original twister, only to find their farm is being foreclosed.

The comic does take some liberties with what some of the characters were capable of, like Tin Man having Robocopvision, and Glinda just still staying in sidelines(even though they did show her reading from the Book Of Records). It was Tipton did a fair job with the story, but it seems more like a way to make some kind of a opening narrative to the movie. A lot "official movie prequel" comics don't really fit into the continuity of the finished product, partially because the film might have some last-minute rewrites. Because of this, this comic won't 100% fit into to movie's storyline, but is worth a look at least from an Oz fan's point of view, and a decent title for children. That and Shedd's artwork is exceptionally well suited for it.

Video review of Oz: TG&P and Return To Oz

Here's a new video review of Oz: The Great And Powerful which also looks at Return To Oz.

New Oz game from Japan

Gung Ho Online Entertainment America just released a Japanese PS1 game new to the Playstation Network titled Oz No Mahoutsukai: Another World-Rung Rung. This RPG has a very "chibi"(or "super-deformed")version of Dorothy and Toto collecting certain magical items in Oz in order to return peace to the land and get them back to Kansas. No word yet about an official English release.

New Emeralds cover!

We now have a new version of the Emeralds: Hearts In Oz comic in stock with an altered cover. This fresh print of the original comic features a map of Oz itself with our version of the Fab 4, and still for only $3.00.

Comic Review: The Legend Of Oz-The Wicked West (mini-series)

Big Dog Ink started their ongoing The Legend Of Oz-The Wicked West comic first as a 6-issue mini-series. Writer Tom Hutchison took the idea of the original WOZ book, along with some influence from the 1939 movie, and put them together to a new Weird West version of the classic story.

Here, Dorothy is sent to Oz by a twister along with her horse Toto, and the Munchkins tell her to "follow the Yellow Brick Road" to find the Wizard to send her back home. Unfortunately, Dorothy ends up trotting along the desert for the next three years looking for the darned road, partially because people keep stealing the yellow bricks which are actually made of gold. However, when she came to Oz, she took the Wicked West of the East's ruby spears and guns, that come in real handy when she mozies on in to a small town that is inhabited by winged apes that can disguise themselves as human. Dorothy slaps leather with them, and frees a lion that they had imprisoned in their saloon. The local lawman, who here is the Tin Man(original idea?), follows her along with the Scarecrow, a mute "native" girl who appears to be some kind of straw golem. The Lion helps fend them off some fearsome Kalidahs, and they all eventually find their way to the Yellow Brick Road, all while the more lone gunman version of the Wicked Witch of the West dogs them to get her sister's swag. The road leads to a lone farmhouse where they run across Scraps the Patchwork Girl and her "father", Dr. Pipt. His house leads into the Emerald City, which is a huge underground mining community where they dig for emeralds. The Wizard is a large head that tells them to waste the remaining Wicked Witch, and then he'll send Dorothy home. Dorothy and the others travel to the Witch's castle, and Dorothy is carried away by her monkey militia. Dorothy and the Witch are sent to some dream version of the Gale farm in Kansas, where Dorothy deluges the Witch by shooting down the water tower on her, then somehow appears back in the Witch's castle and her followers declare her to be the new Witch of the West.

This is shaping into being a fantastically new take on Oz, with Old West merging with a fantasy adventure, similar to Wild Arms. The regular ongoing series continues with most of the other characters like Tin Man and Scarecrow, with new takes on Pip, Jack Pumpkinhead, Sawhorse, and Jinjur. Writer Tom Hutchison does a great job adapting the original stories into a fresh new western, and artist Alisson Borges seriously brings her A-game with the dynamic character designs and backgrounds. There's also a 2-issue mini-series spinoff telling of the Scarecrow. Each comic of this series has multiple variant covers, but only worth collecting for the collector's sake. The trade paperback graphic novel collecting the entire first mini-series is now out, with the other volumes to collect the ongoing series.

Oz Video Of The Month: The Magic Of Oz

This was a black & white cartoon was done as a poorly animated look at Dorothy's first contact with the Cowardly Lion.

Comic Review: Dorothy And The Wizard In Oz (Marvel Comics)

Marvel went a fourth round with the original Oz books. Based on the L. Frank Baum book of the same name, Eric Shanower returns to adapt it, and Skottie Young comes back to do the enchanting artwork.

Dorothy is still in California on her trip with her Uncle along with her kitten Eureka(no mention of where she came from since Ozma Of Oz, and visiting her cousin Zeb. While Zeb's horse Jim pulls them back to Zeb's place, an earthquake occurs, and our heroes fall threw a giant crack in the Earth. Floating softly to the inner world of the Mangaboos, Dorothy is reunited with The Wizard who shows up in his old balloon. After messing with the Mangaboos' monarchy musical chairs game, they enter the Valley of Voe to meet invisible citizens and ghastly gargoyles. One of the more interesting anomalies they run into is a nest of young dragons waiting for their mother to return. Eventually, Ozma uses the Magic Belt to wish all of them to Oz, and makes The Wizard her official Court Wizard, meaning she allows him to use magic. After a very silly trial were Eureka is accused of eating one of the Wizard's piglets he uses in his magic act, Dorothy and Co. are sent back to America.

Like the previous three Marvel adaptations, this was pretty close to the original source material. They seemed to not go into the detail that the novel did in regards to some of the Wizard's origins, plus how he spirited Ozma as a baby away to the care of Mombi. The extended cast of Oz gets some good scenes in this too, like the Sawhorse having a race with Zeb, and the Wogglebug in his court wig is especially funny. Even the brief cameo of the Gump's head is welcome.

After this, Marvel seemed to discontinue it's standard 8-issue run as their version of The Road To Oz is a 6-issue mini-series. This might be due to to the fact that the story has less content than the other books, or it might be a change in their format. Anyway, you'll be more than satisfied with this romp with The Wizard!

Oz Video Of The Month: Oz The Great And Powerful on Movie Surfers

Disney Channel recently posted this interview with two of the stars of the upcoming movie, Oz, The Great And Powerful

Oz Mythbusters: It's Not Easy Being Green

One of the more popular misconceptions as far as the original Oz books were concerned was that the Wicked Witch Of The West was green. It was only in the original 1939 Wizard Of Oz movie that we first see her as having green skin. However there, the Witch's Winkie guards were also green. This would mean that by the movie's standards, everyone from the Winkie Country would have green skin, just as the regulars of Munchkin Country would all be short.

However, in Gregory Maguire's Wicked book series, as well as the Wicked stage musical, it is revealed that the Witch(Elphaba)is the only girl in Oz born with green skin, aside from the possibility of some of the elves briefly mentioned. This is mainly attributed to her true heritage, which also possibly includes her mother's ingestion of a magic elixir by the illustrious Wizard of Oz. Years later, Elphaba's granddaughter Rain was also born with green skin, as well as her family's talent for magic.

New Dorothy Of Oz interview

A brand new interview with the creators of the upcoming Dorothy Of Oz animated movie.

Oz Video Of The Month: Oz Rap

A very bizarre Israeli music video based on WOZ by Kele-6.