Theatrical Adaptation

Meditation # 3 -- Katie Marchant

I loved The Muppet Wizard of Oz and I am very impressed at how much closer this version is to Baum’s original book that most of the other versions we have watched. In some ways this adhesion to the original text is very admirable but in others ways it can be kind of derogatory because it only uses pieces the writers found easy to manipulate into a sarcastic, and yes, hilarious film.
For example The Muppet Wizard of Oz makes use of the scene from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz where the Tinman chops down the tree to cross the wide ditch (Baum, 126). What makes the scene in the movie very similar to the book is the motivation they have to get across the ditch. In the movie that motivation is the two ghost Muppets yelling insults and creating fear while in the book it is the two Kalidahs approaching. Although the scenes are very different the major theme is the same, that of the friends helping each other through an obstacle.
Another detail that is close to the original story is the cap that is used to control the “flying monkeys”. In both versions after she melts the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy comes into possession of the cap and uses the power to get the monkeys to help her along the path back to Oz. In the book after three uses the cap is passed on to someone else while in the Muppet version there seem to be unlimited uses. But in the end, in both versions, the monkeys are set free to go about their happy motorcycle gang or flying ways.
I really like how the Muppet version keeps the “…I’m really a very good man; but I’m a very bad Wizard…”(Baum, 270) sentiment stated by the Wizard in Baums book. This to me is one of the most important ideas of the Wizard of Oz story. The fact that because a person is bad at what they do does not make them a bad person. This sentiment can be applied to any of the main characters in any version. For example because in the beginning the Lion is not good at his “job” does not make him stupid, because the Tinman doesn’t have a heart doesn’t mean that he cannot feel and love, and because the Scarecrow doesn’t have a brain doesn’t mean that he cannot overcome difficulties.

posted by Katie Marchant @ 6:31 PM