Holy shit did I hate this movie. Dorothy was a little whiny, complaining child almost like Katherine Hepburn in Bringing up Baby except with the worst of Scarlett o’hara. The story is pretty direct and bold and feels stupid in a way, although that might be explained by the fact that it’s a children's movie.
There are a lot of themes and capitalistic propaganda in here that I don’t agree with and definitely tainted my view of the film. While this is a classic story and classic movie, the way the story unfolds at least with a modern perspective is quite off-putting. It really merits the creation of Wicked, the play telling this story from the perspective of the wicked witch showing how people who think they are morally righteous can often be just as prejudiced and bigoted and horrible to other human beings as the ones they claim to be doing just that.
Regardless of its moralistic narrative benefits this movie is definitely well done in terms of the production. The film makes great use of color in a fantastic way that doesn't detract from the story and make it feel gimmicky but rather directly enhances and adds to the story. The movie is filled with moments that refer directly to color like the Yellow Brick Road and the Emerald City where the actual color of the production matching what is said enhances the myth of those locations and characters in the story. The effects are great too from the flying monkeys to the giant plumes of fire launching in front of the Wizard. We’re really seeing a modern world emerge in front of our eyes at this point. This production is much higher quality in terms of film, color, depth of field, use of close ups than the movies of the 30’s.
Grandiosity and spectacle in film that is also realistic and not unbelievable is becoming more and more possible.