Oz the Great and Powerful
the review by Chiara Spagnoli

Are you prepared to discover how it all began before Dorothy was thrust by a whirlwind Somewhere Over the Rainbow?

Disney’s fantastical adventure ‘Oz The Great and Powerful,’ directed by Sam Raimi, imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum’s beloved wizard character. When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas of 1905 to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot-fame and fortune until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced of his great powers.

The prequel to the 1939’s movie had already been attempted (accomplishing an outstanding success), by the Broadway award-winning musical ‘Wicked,’ with the music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and the book by Winnie Holzman. But in this case the story and main characters clash with those of Sam Raimi’s film: the future Wicked Witch of the West is called Elphaba, and her public fall from grace occurs because of the mischievous weaving of the Good Witch of the North (Glinda), who doesn’t seem to be as nice as history portrays her.

In the case of ‘Oz The Great and Powerful,’ three is the magic number, since we have all three witches that will meet Dorothy as soon as she lands in Munchinkland: the Wicked Witch of the East (Evanora), who will perish crushed under Dorothy’s house, who will inherit her slippers; her sister the Wicked Witch of the West (Theodora), green, ugly and on a broomstick; and the Good Witch of the North (Glinda), who travels inside bubbles with her smile and cheesy loving kindness.

‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ undoubtably traces the spirit of its inspirer, drenching dialogue with mushy forceful good feelings and moralistic prudishness of the 1930s. The references to the upcoming Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Monkey with a hat, are inserted cleverly. Even more cunning is the construction of the special effects used by the Wizard to appear through steam and smoke. His passion for his timely illusionists, such as Houdini or Edison with the Kinetoscope, truly show a great development of the script, dialogues aside.

The cast plays majestically: Mila Kunis looks hot even under layers of green paint and deformed nose and chin features; Rachel Weisz is sophistication personified; and Michelle Williams succeeds in playing a schmaltzy angelic character without getting under the audience’s skin.

But James Franco is not convincing. He has now become a parody of the collection of over-the-top characters he has picked one film after another: somehow what happened to Johnny Depp, who has now become the Jack Sparrow mask alternated to Tim Burton’s freakish personages. In Franco’s case though, one could argue that his brazen face is perfect to interpret the jackass fraudulent wizard of Oz.

At the end of the day the spectacular special effects take your breathe away, and the black and white initial scene when the wizard is in Kansas, recalls the moment when Judy Garland – in her tablecloth dress – walks in her family farm, before her adventure begins in the land of Oz.

What did we have the feeling was missing in ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’? The Cairn Terrier Toto (a Kansas four-legged ancestor could have shown up) and the forbidden dream of every girl, the magic red slippers.

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