Young Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical Land of Oz, and embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can retu... Read allYoung Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical Land of Oz, and embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can return her to her home and fulfill the others' wishes.Young Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical Land of Oz, and embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can return her to her home and fulfill the others' wishes.
- Won 2 Oscars
- 13 wins & 14 nominations total
- The Munchkins
- (as The Munchkins)
- Munchkin
- (uncredited)
- Munchkin
- (uncredited)
- Munchkin
- (uncredited)
- Munchkin
- (uncredited)
- Munchkin
- (uncredited)
- Emerald City Manicurist
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMany shots were trimmed down or edited out of the film because they were too intense for families and children. In particular, one deleted shot shows the tornado completely enveloping the farmhouse. Also, later in the film a lot of The Wicked Witch of the West's scenes were either trimmed or deleted entirely, as Margaret Hamilton's performance was thought to be too frightening for audiences.
- GoofsAfter the Wizard gives the Scarecrow his diploma, he says, "The sum of the square roots of any 2 sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side." This is a misstatement of the Pythagorean Theorem, which is, in fact, about right triangles and not isosceles ones. However, this statement is not true about any triangle, and so it is completely wrong.
- Quotes
Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
The Scarecrow: I don't know! But some people without brains do an *awful* lot of talking, don't they?
Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.
- Crazy creditsToto is listed in the end credits as being played by Toto, when he was actually played by a female dog named Terry.
- Alternate versionsFrom 1968 to 1984, on NBC-TV and CBS-TV airings of the film, the film was edited to sell more commercial time. As the amount of commercial time on network television gradually increased, more scenes were cut. According to film historian John Fricke, these cuts started with solely a long tracking shot of Munchkin Land after Dorothy arrives there. The rest of the film remained intact. Also according to Fricke, more wholesale cutting of the film took place when CBS regained the TV rights in 1975. By the 1980s, the other excised shots included: the film's dedication in the opening credits, continuity shots of Dorothy and Toto running from the farm, establishing shots of the cyclone, the aforementioned tracking sequence in Munchkin Land, the establishing shot of the poppy field, and tiny bits and pieces of the trip to the Wicked Witch's castle. CBS, which had shown the uncut version of the film in 1956, and again from the films first telecast until 1968, finally started to show it uncut again beginning in 1985, by time-compressing it. Network airings in the 1990s were uncut and not time-compressed; the film aired in a 2-hour, 10-minute time period.
- ConnectionsEdited into Chain Lightning (1950)
Today at age 55, when it shows up on Turner Classic Movies, even though I have in my possession the deluxe "Wizard of Oz DVD Set and Museum in a Box", I'll still stop and watch it from whatever point I catch it to the end. Having the advantage of having seen it at all ages I can truly say that it has enough fantasy and whimsy and spectacle to keep the interest of children without being inane so that adults cannot appreciate it too. I think in all of filmdom only Walt Disney in Walt's time with his animated features and Pixar in modern times have been able to strike that balance. Even "Star Wars" has lost a step or two in the 36 years since its release.
Wizard of Oz has the universal themes of the value of friendship and family, of how many of us have strengths and virtues inside of us we'll never believe we have until tested, and how many powerful people are literally all hot air. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" is practically a slogan of American politics as I am writing this in the year 2013. Then there is beautiful Judy Garland when her exterior still matched her voice, before the studio system chewed her up and literally spit her out. She was never more lovely than she is right here. You'd never believe Billie Burke as the good witch Glenda is 55 years old. You'd never believe that Margaret Hamilton as The Bad Witch is only 37. I remember seeing her on a daytime commercial in the 1960's as a child and thinking "Isn't she dead yet?" There is maybe one aspect of this film that is uniquely pre-WWII. The theme of the film - "Never look for anything if you can't find it in your own backyard" is a motto for the isolationist years between the wars that would be left behind in only a couple of years when it became apparent that the U.S. would have to confront the evil expansionist powers growing on both sides of the globe. It is perhaps a unique snapshot in time in that regard only. It also shows the best the studio system could produce in that fabled year of 1939 when it was at the height of its power.
Forgive me for yammering on about a film that has been reviewed hundreds of times, but this one will always have a special place in my heart and my memory.
- AlsExGal
- May 4, 2013
Reboots & Remakes
Reboots & Remakes
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Čarovnik iz Oza
- Filming locations
- Stage 28, Sony Pictures Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA(Witch's castle drawbridge; Wash and Brush Up Company; Witch's entrance hall; Witch's tower room; Yellow Brick Road montage song)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $2,777,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $24,668,669
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $5,354,311
- Nov 8, 1998
- Gross worldwide
- $25,637,669
- Runtime1 hour 42 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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![Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, and Frank Morgan in The Wizard of Oz (1939)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BY2NjNDU1ZjctN2VhZi00Nzc5LTljNmItMTZiOTg1ODkwYjgwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTkxMzEwMzU@._V1_QL75_UX90_CR0,2,90,133_.jpg)