It was, and remains, a powerful critique of anti-Blackness and racism within America. Dorothy, played by Diana Ross, gets transported from her home to an abandoned park in a fantasy version of New York City by a snowstorm.
In this context, the story in “The Wiz” of Dorothy's trip from Kansas to the Emerald City can be taken as a metaphor for the great migration, its wonders and dangers. The old folks used to warn the young people coming north about the immorality of the loose‐living blacks in the cities.
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.
The lesson here is simple, when you step outside your comfort zone, magic happens. Don't get stuck in routines, take the risk, and adapt to change. Challenges are a great way to add a new accomplishments to your life's work.
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.
Many white folks didn't understand the cultural nuances, the Black language, or the stylistic choices, and many didn't try. Mainstream critics—most of them white men—were eager to dismiss The Wiz as an inferior movie product, a bad Hollywood investment, and an intrusion on the original film.
At just 16 years old, Judy Garland was slapped by the director of the film, Victor Fleming. Allegedly, it was because of her inability to complete a scene without giggling.As if that was not enough mistreatment of the show's main character, Judy Garland seemed never to catch a break.
Dorothy represents Everyman; the Tin Woodman is the industrial worker, the Scarecrow is the farmer, the Cowardly Lion is William Jennings Bryan, the Wizard is the President, the munchkins are the "little people" and the Yellow Brick Road is the gold standard. Toto probably represents a dog.
The Peddler is one of the antagonist in The Wiz. He walks around carrying a tray of knick-knacks and toys. He was a henchman set by Evillene to spy on and capture Dorothy.
The Tornado Ballet has a frightened Dorothy get flung through the air while storm clouds, lightning, and funnels appear in the background. The dramatic score further increases the scare factor, especially when an unseen lady vocalizes a scream.
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.
Original director John Badham stepped down when he objected to 33-year-old Diana Ross being cast as a teenage Dorothy. The character was changed to a 24-year-old kindergarten teacher, but by then Sidney Lumet had already replaced Badham.
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.
Munchkins: The little people, the munchkins, are said to represent the common people or ordinary U.S. citizens. The Lollipop Guild is seen as representing child labor. Silver Slippers: In the novel, Dorothy's slippers are silver and not ruby.
In the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, American entertainer Judy Garland wears a blue-and-white dress in her seminal role as Dorothy Gale for all of her appearances throughout the film.
The story mentions that the Peddler borrows money from a neighbor to buy a horse and cart. However, he is unable to repay the loan as his business is not doing well. The constant pressure to repay the loan and the inability to do so may have led him to consider stealing as a way to resolve his financial troubles.
The peddler discards the public highway and keeps to the woods after leaving the crofter's cottage because he wants to avoid being caught with the thirty kronors that he had stolen from the crofter's house.
In the story, the Scarecrow is in need of a brain, which shows that he might not be the brightest one on the journey. “Baum's Scarecrow is a response to the prejudicial notion that farmers were not smart enough to recognize their own interests” (Littlefield's Interpretation).
We all know the story of Dorothy's quest to find her way home and the three unlikely characters who she meets along the yellow brick road: the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man. Each of these characters represents a virtue that Dorothy needs for her journey back home: brains, courage, and heart.
Who do the flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz represent?
Winged Monkeys. According to some writers, the Winged Monkeys of Oz represent Native Americans in the West in the late 1800s. Baum himself had clear attitudes toward American Indians and some of his earlier writings about Indians are very similar to his descriptions of the Winged Monkeys found in Oz.
The Wicked Witch of the West is a fictional character who appears in the classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), created by American author L. Frank Baum.
"Oz is an abbreviation for ounces, one measure of the worth of gold and silver bullion," Ritter points out. "In the land of Oz, gold and silver are often the arbiters of power." In Oz, a brick road the color of gold leads to the Emerald City.
