The Great and Powerful Oz question.

[DisneyparkFreak]

Just watched the trailer for the Great and Powerful Oz... Could this be the next franchise for parks and resorts? Creating a mini-land of Oz? With the Great Movie ride at HS, I am assuming disney holds somesort of rights for Oz attractions. Then, I could be wrong.

Discuss... I am prepared for the bashing though.

 

[Uncle Lupe]

I loathe the original movie. Liked the play Wicked. Would be discouraged if this made a bigger presence in the parks.

 

[The_CEO]

The graphics look very impressive. Reminds me a LOT like Alice, *remake.* I wish the lead male role was a bit more promising. I've never been very impressed with him but will for sure check it out!

 

[Californian Elitist]

There's been a rumor going around for months now that an Oz land could be coming to Disneyland.

 

[vinnya1726]

I think Carsland is enough for Disneyland right now...think DHS and EPCOT need to be next on the hit parade. A oz land in DHS would be a nice tie in.

 

[rodserling27]

Is this "Oz" movie going to be canon with the original film or with "wicked?" Or is it sort of a "what if" like "Wicked" was to the film? (Or was "wicked" canon? Lol)

 

[Hakunamatata]

Anyone else notice the house getting caught up in the tornado with the balloon? Guessing the story of The wizard and Dorothy happen simultaneously?

 

[bubbles1812]

I loathe the original movie. Liked the play Wicked. Would be discouraged if if this made a bigger presence in the parks.

Ironically enough, it's Universal that holds the rights to make a film out of Wicked. So I'm not sure Disney could use any material at all related to Wicked. They are developing the film right now as per a recent deadline report. And I am looking forward to it greatly! Definitely one of my favorite musicals.

I love Broadway in general. Will be seeing Beauty and the Beast a second time (first was years ago) in a few months along with Les Mis, War Horse, and the Book of Mormon. I can't wait!

And while I understand some people don't like the movie, there is a whole lot more to Oz than just the movie. I actually just recently downloaded all the Oz books (15!) onto my iPhone/Kindle (it cost all of a whopping $0.99 cents for me to download all of them from Amazon) just in case anyone is interested in seeing what the world of Oz has to offer and wants to literally pay pennies to do so. Granted, if they did a mini-land, it would probably focus mostly on the movie because that is what is most recognizable but if they ever considered doing an full land focused on Oz, they could definitely do more with it.

 

[sgtmgd]

I loathe the original movie. Liked the play Wicked. Would be discouraged if if this made a bigger presence in the parks.

Just saw Wicked last week at the Gershwin Theater on Broadway...Id seen it in Durham...but my daughter hadn't...she was blown away...that being said I dont see Disney getting into the Oz fest (no pun intended) they have enough movies to draw from..

 

[bubbles1812]

Is this "Oz" movie going to be canon with the original film or with "wicked?" Or is it sort of a "what if" like "Wicked" was to the film? (Or was "wicked" canon? Lol)

As I understand it, it's original material just based off of/pulled from the book series. Disney doesn't have any rights to Wicked as I posted above so I don't think they can use it. Though I suppose they could use the same sort of concept...they seem to be going for it a little bit in the trailer with the 3 different witches and one of them will probably be "misunderstood."

 

[ellie-badge]

I liked original The Wizard of Oz film, Wicked, and Sci-Fi's Tin Man, so I'll likely enjoy Oz: The Great and Powerful. As for there being a themed area in one of the parks, though... eh. I don't think it'd be my cup of tea, but if they were to make one, I wouldn't complain.

 

[Uncle Lupe]

Just saw Wicked last week at the Gershwin Theater on Broadway...Id seen it in Durham...but my daughter hadn't...she was blown away...that being said I dont see Disney getting into the Oz fest (no pun intended) they have enough movies to draw from..

We saw it off Broadway. The Ohio Theater in Columbus, OH. It was something the girlfriend wanted to do so I went with an open mind and had a good time.

 

[Lee]

There's been a rumor going around for months now that an Oz land could be coming to Disneyland.

Being developed as we speak, but...
Keep an eye on the Box Office numbers. That will tell the tale.

 

[sgtmgd]

As I understand it, it's original material just based off of/pulled from the book series. Disney doesn't have any rights to Wicked as I posted above so I don't think they can use it. Though I suppose they could use the same sort of concept...they seem to be going for it a little bit in the trailer with the 3 different witches and one of them will probably be "misunderstood."

I just watched the trailer and didn't see anything that screamed "wicked" from what I saw..

 

[Pixiedustmaker]

The backdrop of Oz looks a lot like Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Especially the hills with the curls on top, which is seen in a lot of Burton's films. It also looks like they added a lot of exotic plant and animal life, like in Avatar. I don't get why the opening is in black and white, instead of sepia and white, like the original Wizard of Oz.

I get that they want to "wow" the audience with the visuals, but they seem a little bit too contrived, and it seems like they are sort of hoping to ride the Wicked wave of Oz popularity. I'll be interested to see the trailer, to see more of the plots and main characters. I have the suspicion that the plot is pretty thin.

 

[menamechris]

I just saw the trailer for Oz - and yes, the graphics are amazing. But my question is - to do it justice in a theme park - what has Disney created that is that detailed and involved? Anything they could imagine - by the time the budget was butchered (especially in Orlando), it would not match the imagery in the film. I think in order for them to do something like this right it would need to have the budget of a 5th gate...and we know thats not happening.

 

[bubbles1812]

I just watched the trailer and didn't see anything that screamed "wicked" from what I saw..

Oh, sorry, I didn't explain myself well. I wasn't trying to say anything "screamed" Wicked... but clearly, the witches are a focus (Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, and Mila Kunis are all witches in the movie). And well, none of them were green in the footage they showed throughout the trailer but there is certainly that green hand at the end... so I'm guessing some of the plot will revolve around how the Wicked Witch of the West came to be, much like Wicked.

If you really want the answers to who is a good witch and who is a bad witch just go to wikipedia and look up the movie. And then look at the names of each of the characters and then click their names. It takes you to their most likely counterparts in the book series. (Obviously take wikipedia with a little grain of salt but I think it makes sense they went the route where 1 witch will come off evil right off the bat, 1 witch comes off good right off the bat, and 1 witch will be ambiguous and have to make a choice to become wicked or good)

 

[Pixiedustmaker]

I just watched the trailer and didn't see anything that screamed "wicked" from what I saw..

Wicked won't come out until 2014 (?) because the play (based off of the book) is so popular that they didn't want to steal its thunder. Then out of nowhere Disney decided to make a Wizard of Oz prequel, knowing that there is Wicked coming out plus another Oz film about Dorothy's daughter going to Oz to fight the bad guys ;-).

There is some good material in the L. Frank Baum works that Disney owns the rights to, but the Disney movie needs to stand up on its own. From the teaser, I don't see the compelling story that usually makes popular films, but rather a film that is propped up mostly by special effects and the name recognition of Oz.

There's a lot of eye candy, but Oz looks like a cross between Wonderland and Pandora, the Emerald City looks uninspired as it looks so much like the one in the original Wizard of Oz. Alice in Wonderland had a more than solid script with humor and interesting lines, I don't see that yet from this film.

 

[Pixiedustmaker]

Oh, sorry, I didn't explain myself well. I wasn't trying to say anything "screamed" Wicked... but clearly, the witches are a focus (Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, and Mila Kunis are all witches in the movie).

No doubt Disney was inspired by Wicked's huge financial success on the broadway, and with the book. My biggest concern with the film is that the Wizard starts off sort of as a huckster, and then somehow changes during the film. Hard to accomplish over the duration of a film. If Franco's character isn't immediately likable from the onset, despite character flaws, then I think it will be hard for the film to become popular, IMHO.

 

[bubbles1812]

All this talk of the Wizard of Oz has now inspired me to go watch the horrible (yet entertaining in the its so bad its good kind of way) 1982 animated version. Ah, childhood memories...