The Wonderful
Wizard of Oz; L. Frank Baum.
Believe it or not I've never read it before. I always had too much of the movie imagery in my mind to give it a chance when I was younger. But I kept it anyway after I moved out because after I got bit by the reading bug, I knew I'd get around to it someday. I have to say I'm surprised at how closely the movie followed the primary plot points of the book. Movies have always taken a lot of license, but the dramatic changes they made were particularly egregious back in the golden age of cinema. It loses sync with the book the further it gets from beginning to end and there are several people, creatures, and places of the land of Oz that were left out entirely. The movie was obviously good enough that the cutting and splicing that was done is forgivable and even understandable considering the limited effects of the day, but if you've never read it, it's nice to see the secondary details that were sacrificed for musical numbers and other creative elements that didn't make the cut. It's a short novel but there's a lot of things packed into it. So much, that it could've been a much longer and even an epic story had it not been intended to be a simple fairy tale. The adventure doesn't end at the Emerald City, but the adventure continues briefly even after Oz disappears in his balloon before Dorothy can finally return home.
However the bits that were lost to the classic film were touched on in the the movie they made 5 years ago "Oz, Great And Powerful." I liked that movie anyway. I approved of the story they wrote for Oz's background. And I liked the idea of a village of porcelain china people which was taken from a segment in this book. It's always cool to see the concept origins. That's why books are the best. And this is the kind of book that leaves things wide open for a range of authors to come in and build on concepts since they weren't developed any further than a page or to in order to move the characters along. As long as it's not overdone, I'm okay with it.
If you've only ever seen the film, you should read the book too. You won't regret it. I realize most people probably already have, but there may be hold-outs out there like I was.
Believe it or not I've never read it before. I always had too much of the movie imagery in my mind to give it a chance when I was younger. But I kept it anyway after I moved out because after I got bit by the reading bug, I knew I'd get around to it someday. I have to say I'm surprised at how closely the movie followed the primary plot points of the book. Movies have always taken a lot of license, but the dramatic changes they made were particularly egregious back in the golden age of cinema. It loses sync with the book the further it gets from beginning to end and there are several people, creatures, and places of the land of Oz that were left out entirely. The movie was obviously good enough that the cutting and splicing that was done is forgivable and even understandable considering the limited effects of the day, but if you've never read it, it's nice to see the secondary details that were sacrificed for musical numbers and other creative elements that didn't make the cut. It's a short novel but there's a lot of things packed into it. So much, that it could've been a much longer and even an epic story had it not been intended to be a simple fairy tale. The adventure doesn't end at the Emerald City, but the adventure continues briefly even after Oz disappears in his balloon before Dorothy can finally return home.
However the bits that were lost to the classic film were touched on in the the movie they made 5 years ago "Oz, Great And Powerful." I liked that movie anyway. I approved of the story they wrote for Oz's background. And I liked the idea of a village of porcelain china people which was taken from a segment in this book. It's always cool to see the concept origins. That's why books are the best. And this is the kind of book that leaves things wide open for a range of authors to come in and build on concepts since they weren't developed any further than a page or to in order to move the characters along. As long as it's not overdone, I'm okay with it.
If you've only ever seen the film, you should read the book too. You won't regret it. I realize most people probably already have, but there may be hold-outs out there like I was.
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