The Dark Side of Oz

I think there’s a definite temptation for people, when faced with something child-friendly and innocent, to want to find something dark and disturbing beneath the surface. That could be part of why it seems popular to want to make dark Oz stories. There was even a comic series actually CALLED “Dark Oz.” Wicked and its sequels were also pretty gritty when compared to the original books. I mean, Gregory Maguire essentially made the Wizard of Oz into Hitler. On the other hand, is L. Frank Baum’s Oz really as light as it’s sometimes thought? There was apparently a tagline in use back when Baum was writing that said none of his books ever sent a child to bed with troubled dreams, but I’ve occasionally explained something from an Oz book that other people unfamiliar with the stories found disturbing. I think it has a lot to do with context, with the way Baum wrote making it hard to take even the messed-up stuff too seriously. But what about a movie adaptation, which of course would leave out most of Baum’s words? I think Return to Oz is a good example here, as it’s a film that’s been touted as quite faithful to Baum, and also that scared a lot of people. Now, part of this was totally within the control of the filmmakers, and due to conscious choices on their part. Baum never had Dorothy faced with electroshock therapy; in fact, she was on vacation when she made her second trip to Oz. There was no occasion in the books when the Emerald City was turned to stone and the Yellow Brick Road destroyed.

Even some elements that did come from the books had their more disturbing aspects played up.

The Wheelers come across as more deranged in the movie than in Ozma of Oz, and the book never said that the heads belonging to Princess Langwidere (combined with Mombi in the movie) had come from people she beheaded. Still, is there any way to show a woman changing her head and NOT have it look kind of scary?

It’s hard to say, and there are plenty of other weird characters and incidents in later books that could be terrifying if portrayed realistically on screen. How about the cannibalistic, head-throwing Scoodlers, who might be more frightening than funny on film?

I don’t know. What scares people is very much relative; I’ve been really disturbed by some things that weren’t meant to be scary, and not at all bothered by things that were. I think my main point here, however, is that the heartaches and nightmares weren’t necessarily left out of Baum’s books, but rather simply presented in a way that made them much less nightmarish. When interpreted in another medium, they might be more likely to send a child to be with troubled dreams.