The Wizard of Oz book to film comparison

Infobox Book
name = The Wonderful Wizard of Oz


image_caption = Early edition cover
author = L. Frank Baum
illustrator = W. W. Denslow
country = United States
language = English
series = The Oz Books
genre = Fantasy, Children's book
publisher = G. M. Hill
release_date = 1900
media_type = Print (Hardcover and Paperback), Audiobook
pages = 259 p., 21 leaves of plates (first edition hardcover)
isbn = N/A
preceded_by =
followed_by = His Majesty, the Scarecrow of OzInfobox Film
name = The Wizard of Oz


caption=
director = Victor Fleming
writer = Novel:
L. Frank Baum
Screenplay:
Noel Langley
Florence Ryerson
Edgar Allan Woolf
starring = Judy Garland
Frank Morgan
Ray Bolger
Jack Haley
Bert Lahr
Billie Burke
Margaret Hamilton
producer = Mervyn LeRoy
distributor = 1939-1997:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
1998-present:
Warner Bros.
released = flagicon|USA August 25, 1939
runtime = 101 minutes
language = English
budget = US$ 2,777,000
amg_id = 1:55014
imdb_id = 0032138
followed_by "Return to Oz" |

Difference between the book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and the 1939 film version "The Wizard of Oz" are numerous, but largely minor. The film's basic plot is not very different from the original novel, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", but quite a bit less detailed. One of the most prominent differences is that, in the book, the enchanted shoes Dorothy wears throughout the story were silver. The shoes were changed to ruby to show off the new sophisticated Technicolor technology.

Kansas

The frame story of Dorothy on the farm in Kansas is nearly absent in the book, taking up only a handful of paragraphs at the beginning and end. Miss Gulch, the three farmhands (Hunk, Hickory and Zeke) and the bogus but kind-hearted fortuneteller Professor Marvel do not appear in any of Baum's books.

The Land of Oz

Baum originally provided complex back-stories for all the characters and locations, which are largely omitted in the film. The book featured several sub-plots (including a confrontation with the belligerent Hammer-Heads and a visit to a town with inhabitants and structures constructed of china) that, though of interest, were not integral to the main plot. Numerous other abridgments occur; for example, in the film, the companions' escape from the poppy field is attributed to Glinda rather than to Baum's army of field mice despite this being a change introduced by the 1902 musical.

In the book, the good witches of the north and south are sisters; Dorothy meets the witch of the north, whose name is not given. This lady does not know how to use the power of the Silver Shoes, which is why she sends Dorothy to Oz. Only when Dorothy locates Glinda, the witch of the south, does she learn the secret of the shoes. In the film, the two sisters are conflated into "Glinda", who explains rather unconvincingly that she knew the secret all along but wouldn't tell Dorothy because "she had to learn it for herself." The faux point, or "moral", about having to learn never to desire anything outside her own back yard, is not present in the book.

Dorothy's companions

Tone

The book is undeniably darker and more violent – in some places even gruesome – in great contrast to the movie. In the book, the Tin Woodman uses his ax to chop the head off a wildcat, forty wolves, and the limbs of animate trees. In the movie, the only two times he wields his axe is to break a flowerpot to create a crown for the Cowardly Lion in Emerald City and to chop through the door of the room where the witch is holding Dorothy captive. Similarly, the book's Scarecrow twists the necks of forty crows sent by the Wicked Witch of the West.

Some fans of the books feel the ending of the movie strongly goes against the nature of the original. In Baum's novel, there is no hint that Oz is anything but a real place, to which Dorothy returns in later adventures (she eventually moved to Oz permanently and was joined by her aunt and uncle).

In contrast to the adult theory of the film above, though the house is intact at the end, and nearly all the adults say she was having a bad dream, Dorothy believes very strongly she was indeed in Oz and never concedes the point that it was not a "real truly live place" and she had been there for "days and days". Uncle Henry tells Professor Marvel that Dorothy was unconscious so long that he thought she "was going to leave us", and Dorothy responds "But I did leave!" When he hears her story, rather than laughing with the others, he says quietly "Of course we believe you, Dorothy." Both book and film are dedicated to the "Young in Heart", and the overall impression from both is that Oz is indeed a real place -- despite the film's adult objections.

At the book's conclusion, Dorothy runs to greet Aunt Em, who had apparently believed she was dead; she tells her she was in Oz, but that is the last line in the book and the adults' reaction to Dorothy's tale is not known.

Character

Another significant difference between the novel and the film is the portrayal of Dorothy Gale, whose character was aged several years and, some fans feel, weakened. Sally Roesch Wagner, director of The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, describes the film's Dorothy as "a very watered-down version of the character" [videotaped interview with Scott Andrew Hutchins, 20 November 2004] and presenting Baum's Dorothy as a youthful version of his abolitionist feminist mother-in-law, Matilda Joslyn Gage, something hardly apparent in the film.

The book, like the film, illustrates that the three friends already have the qualities they desire, but are not aware that they do; and the wizard goes to much greater lengths to ensure that they believe they have obtained exactly what they desire. To give the Scarecrow a brain, he detaches the Scarecrow's head and empties the straw out, replacing it with a mixture of bran, pins and needles and straw to hold it in place. When he gives the Tin Woodman a heart, he cuts a hole in the Tin Woodman's breast with tinsmith's shears, puts a red satin heart stuffed with sawdust into the breast and then patches it with a soldering iron, telling him that it is a very kind heart indeed. Lastly, he gives the Cowardly Lion a green drink, telling him that once he drinks it, it will be courage.

In the movie, the Wizard notes explicitly that the trio had the qualities they desired all along, but did not recognize them. To reinforce that idea, the Wizard gives them tokens to confirm and symbolize those attributes. The Scarecrow gets a diploma called "The Honorary Degree Of Th.D. (Doctor Of Thinkology)", a ticking clock shaped like a red heart for The Tin Man, and a medal with the word "Courage" on it for the Cowardly Lion ("You are now a member of the Legion of Courage!"). That message of self-reliance and resourcefulness presumably would have resonated for an audience that was weary from ten years of economic depression.

Some of the changes were simply due to either cost or technical feasibility (for example having the mice carry Dorothy from the poppy field).

References