Review: Oz the Great and Powerful




By Christine Petralia

Image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios
March 11, 2013
If you were a child who, like me, watched The Wizard of Oz over and over and over again, you will love this prequel Oz the Great and Powerful. At first, I was hesitant with James Franco as Oz and Michelle Williams as Glinda the Good Witch, I was pleasantly surprised with their performances.
In true Oz form, the film starts in black and white, in 1905 Kansas. Oz (Franco) is a womanizing magician with a traveling circus. During one show, he proves his talent by making his volunteer, and latest love interest, levitate and then disappear. A child (Joey King) in the audience is amazed and asks him to make her walk, as she is crippled. Flustered, he makes up excuses and leaves the stage.
Back in his trailer, he consults with his right-hand man Frank (Zach Braff) and meets with Annie (Williams), a woman who we can only assume is the only woman who ever stole his heart. When one of the circus mates finds out his girlfriend canoodled with Oz, he chases Oz into a hot air balloon, and just when Oz thinks he’s in the clear, it gets sucked into a cyclone.
Oz ends up in, well the Land of Oz, with the Emerald City not far away. He meets Theodora (Mila Kunis). She explains where he has landed and believes he is a wizard who going to fulfill the prophecy and defeat the Wicked Witch. On the way to Emerald City to see his new home and learn how to defeat the witch, Theodora falls in love with him. They also encounter a flying monkey, Finley (Braff), who pledges him a life debt to Oz, who saved him from a lion, presumably the lion in The Wizard of Oz.
In the Emerald City, Oz meets Theodora’s sister, Evanora (Rachel Weisz), who is skeptical of Oz and if he really is the wizard, which we all know he is not. She sends him off into the Dark Forest to destroy the Wicked Witch by stealing her wand. On the way there, they encounter a destroyed village called Chinatown, where he rescues China Girl (King) and she joins Oz and Finley on their quest to destroy the Wicked Witch and save Emerald City. However, who they find is actually Glinda the Good Witch (Williams). She explains what is actually going on, how Evanora is the true Wicked Witch and that she fears she is also turning Theodora to evil as well, which turns out to be true. Back at Emerald City, Evanora makes Theodora believe that Oz is trying to woo all of the witches and make she eat an apple that turns her green and into the Wicked Witch of the West.
As Glinda puts her trust in Oz to defeat both witches and save the city, he confesses that he isn’t actually a wizard, which she tells him she knew already, but still has confidence in. She provides him with an army of tinkers, farmers and munchkins. However, during one battle to the Emerald City, Glinda is captured by baboons and taken to the square to be executed. Eventually, Oz comes up with a plan to save Glinda and save the city. The witches, frightened by his ‘powers,’ flee the city, Theodora on her new broom and Evanora gets banished by Glinda after she reveals her true, hideous form.
Once the witches are gone, Oz makes himself home with his new ‘powers’ ad friends in the Emerald City as the Wizard of Oz.
The effects alone make this film amazing. China Girl and Finley are obviously computer generated, but don’t even seem like it. Franco really did a great job as Oz, with his manipulations and almost doofiness, which really embody the wizard. Williams was very quiet and humble, as Glinda is. However, it was hard to see Kunis as the Wicked Witch of the West. Her voice cracked a little when she turned into the witch, which was slightly disappointing.
And again, in true Wizard of Oz form, I loved how the characters in the Land of Oz were also characters back in Kansas, such as Glinda, Finley and China Girl.
I never read the book by the same name, but I can tell you that learning the backstory of Oz and the witches was great. It really explained how the witches became who they are and why they are the way they are. I’m pretty excited to see where the next sequels go, as there is so much foreshadowing in this film that will lead up to The Wizard of Oz.
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