The Locations Iconically, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz is from a farm in rural Kansas. In The Wiz, Dorothy is instead from Harlem, New York City, what could be considered a polar opposite of the character's original home. This change was done to represent urban Black communities that audiences could better relate to.
The Wiz is a 1978 American musical adventure fantasy film directed by Sidney Lumet. Adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical of the same name, the film reimagines the classic 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum with an African-American cast.
Which movie came out first The Wiz or The Wizard of Oz?
The three most prominent for musical theatre fans are the 1939 MGM movie-musical "The Wizard of Oz," the 1975 "super soul musical" The Wiz and the 2003 musical prequel to Baum's novel, Wicked.
A 1978 movie version of “The Wiz” starred Diana Ross, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor as the Wiz. Michael Jackson co-starred as the Scarecrow, with Nipsey Russell as the Tin Man and Ted Ross as the Lion. NBC televised a live version in 2015 with Queen Latifah, Ne-Yo and David Alan Grier.
'The Wiz' VS 'The Wizard of Oz'⎮The Original Vs The Remake
How are The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz similar?
They both basically have the same story, except the most glaring difference, the age difference between the two Dorothy's. As stated, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz is a kid while Dorothy in The Wiz is an adult.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1910 American silent fantasy film and the earliest surviving film version of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, made by the Selig Polyscope Company without Baum's direct input.
Both the film and stage productions of The Wiz have one common theme – they highlight the perseverance of Black people in adversity and they're a rallying call for racial liberation. Aside from the contextual underpinnings of the plot, The Wiz stands out for its take and celebration of African dressing and hairstyles.
In the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was played by Judy Garland, who received an Academy Juvenile Award for her performance. Since she was sixteen years old at the time of filming, Garland's maturing figure was bound into a figure-hiding corset.
Adaptations of The Wizard of Oz were among some of the first films ever made. In fact, two silent movies came out in 1910: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Land of Oz. Of the two, only the first remains as the earliest surviving version of a Wizard of Oz movie.
The crows taunt Jackson's character, who longs to get down from the post and just “walk.” The crows assert that he can't get down because “there ain't nothing to get down for.” His existence is parallel to that of Black people in America under Jim Crow law: separate, but equal.
Long gone are the days of emerald cities and yellow brick roads. In this dark re-imagining of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy Gale is now an elderly woman, broken by years of paranormal entangleme... Read all.
She embarks on a quest to find The Wiz to help her get home to New York City. Along the way she befriends the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion who join her in her quest.
Theodore Ross Roberts (June 30, 1934 – September 3, 2002) was an American actor best known for his role as the Lion in The Wiz, an all-African American reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz.
In the graphic novel adaptation of How the Wizard Came to Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is named Morella. In the 2021 novel Oscar Diggs, The Wizard of Oz, the Witch of the West is named Theodora Elphaba, a combination of the names from Oz the Great and Powerful and Wicked.
Prior to its debut and certainly much after, The Wiz was criticized for having an all black cast. It was deemed racists by majority of the white audience.
The film was not well-received by critics. Many critics found the film to be too different from the original Wizard of Oz, and criticized the casting of Diana Ross as Dorothy. The film was expensive to make. The Wiz had a budget of $24 million, which was a lot of money for a film at the time.
Scholars who interpret The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a political allegory see the Emerald City as a metaphor for Washington, D.C., and unsecured "greenback" paper money.
Even Dorothy had hope that "The Great and Terrible Humbug," as she called him, would find a way to send her back to Kansas, and if he did she was willing to forgive him everything.
The Wizard represents President William McKinley. “The Wizard in his Emerald City is none other than the evasive, hard-to-pin-down President William McKinley: '[h]e symbolizes the American criterion for leadership-he is able to be everything to everybody'” (Earle, 8).
When choosing between love and hate, good and evil, love and good will always triumph. This is an obvious theme in The Wizard of Oz, and it's the best way to live. The very first person that Dorothy encounters in the land of Oz is Glenda the good witch.
Dorothy will miss the Scarecrow the most because the Scarecrow joined Dorothy from almost the start of her trip. In essence, he was her FIRST friend in a scary strange land.
