The Wizard of Oz (1933 film)
Encyclopedia
The Wizard of Oz is an animated short film directed by Ted Eshbaugh
. The story is credited to "Col. Frank Baum." Frank Joslyn Baum
, a Lieutenant Colonel
in the United States Army
and eldest son of writer L. Frank Baum
, was involved in the film's production, and may have had an involvement in the film's script, which is loosely inspired by the elder Baum's novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
. It runs approximately eight and a half minutes.
The film was originally made in Technicolor
, but because it was made without proper licensing from the Technicolor Corporation, it was released in black and white after a lawsuit
forbade the release of the film in color. A restored version is included in the 2005 3-Disc Collector's Edition of the more popular 1939 feature film of the same name
, while a brief 2-minute clip is included on the 1999 DVD
release and as a bonus on the 1993 Ultimate Oz deluxe release.
There are many home media releases of the film, including Betamax
, VHS
, Laserdisc
, CED, DVD
, HD DVD
and Blu-ray Disc
, usually printed and shown in black-and-white
, not technicolor
. Cassette copies are usually at slow speeds, and often overexposed and poorly framed, while disc copies are all at faster speeds, and underexposed and correctly framed. The only known commercial release was in Canada
in 1985, on Betamax, VHS and Laserdisc, through the efforts of Fred M. Meyer, longtime Secretary of The International Wizard of Oz Club
. This is not an original color print, but has been colored to match the original intent of the filmmakers, which, as in the MGM film that followed, had the film go from black and white to color upon Dorothy's arrival in Oz. Cassette copies also contained a stray hair during the parade
sequence, while the LaserDisc copies did not.
The film is nearly absent of language, working mainly with arrangements of classical music
created by Carl W. Stalling.
sweeps through the plains of Kansas
, and lifts up little Dorothy
and Toto
, who tumble into Oz, landing on the Scarecrow
, and freeing him from his pole, and they stroll together, soon finding a Tin Woodman
and oiling him.
After the four watch mating rituals of various animals set to strains of Camille Saint-Saëns
's "The Swan", they are welcomed into the Emerald City
. Suits of armor sing to them, "Hail to the Wizard of Oz! To the Wizard of Oz we lead the way!" A creature resembling the A-B-Sea Serpent of The Royal Book of Oz
extends itself as stair steps for Dorothy to enter the coach. Its blocks spell out "WELCOME," which changes to "DOROTHY" step by step.
The Wizard is a cackling white-bearded man in a starry black robe and conical hat who produces custom seats for each of the four travelers, including one for Toto (the Toto chair is mostly cut out of the frame in most video versions, but is later shown in a full shot of Toto sitting). He proceeds to perform magic with a hen and eggs, possibly inspired by Billina
. These are variations on simple sleight of hand
tricks involving making objects appear, but the hen is able to take the eggs back into her body.
Finally, the hen releases an egg that will not stop growing. The five try to fight it, the Tin Woodman breaking his axe. Soon, though, the egg hatches, the hen takes the chick, and clucks out "Rock-a-bye Baby
" as a chorus joins her. The five laugh, and the film ends on an iris-in of mother and child.
Ted Eshbaugh
Ted Eshbaugh was a Canadian animated filmmaker whose work includes The Wizard of Oz, Goofy Goat Antics, and The Sunshine Makers.Sammy Salvage 1943 - External links :...
. The story is credited to "Col. Frank Baum." Frank Joslyn Baum
Frank Joslyn Baum
Frank Joslyn Baum was a lawyer, soldier, writer, and film producer, though his attempts to continue the legacy of his father brought him lawsuit and estrangement from his family. Nonetheless, he became the first president of The International Wizard of Oz Club.He is best known as the author of To...
, a Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and eldest son of writer L. Frank Baum
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
, was involved in the film's production, and may have had an involvement in the film's script, which is loosely inspired by the elder Baum's novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
. It runs approximately eight and a half minutes.
The film was originally made in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
, but because it was made without proper licensing from the Technicolor Corporation, it was released in black and white after a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
forbade the release of the film in color. A restored version is included in the 2005 3-Disc Collector's Edition of the more popular 1939 feature film of the same name
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
, while a brief 2-minute clip is included on the 1999 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release and as a bonus on the 1993 Ultimate Oz deluxe release.
There are many home media releases of the film, including Betamax
Betamax
Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
, VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
, Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
, CED, DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, HD DVD
HD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
and Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
, usually printed and shown in black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
, not technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
. Cassette copies are usually at slow speeds, and often overexposed and poorly framed, while disc copies are all at faster speeds, and underexposed and correctly framed. The only known commercial release was in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1985, on Betamax, VHS and Laserdisc, through the efforts of Fred M. Meyer, longtime Secretary of The International Wizard of Oz Club
The International Wizard of Oz Club
The International Wizard of Oz Club, Inc., was founded during 1957 by Justin G. Schiller, a then thirteen-year-old boy.The sixteen charter members, some of whom continue to make valuable contributions to the club, were garnered from the mailing list found among the papers of the recently deceased...
. This is not an original color print, but has been colored to match the original intent of the filmmakers, which, as in the MGM film that followed, had the film go from black and white to color upon Dorothy's arrival in Oz. Cassette copies also contained a stray hair during the parade
Parade
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind...
sequence, while the LaserDisc copies did not.
The film is nearly absent of language, working mainly with arrangements of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
created by Carl W. Stalling.
Plot summary
A tornadoTornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
sweeps through the plains of Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, and lifts up little Dorothy
Dorothy Gale
Dorothy Gale is the protagonist of many of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum, and the best friend of Oz's ruler Princess Ozma. Dorothy first appears in Baum's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels...
and Toto
Toto (dog)
Toto is the name of a fictional dog in L. Frank Baum's Oz series of children's books, and works derived from them. The name is pronounced with a long "O", a homonym of "toe toe". The dog was originally a cairn terrier drawn by W.W. Denslow for the first edition of the Wizard of Oz...
, who tumble into Oz, landing on the Scarecrow
Scarecrow (Oz)
The Scarecrow is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum and illustrator William Wallace Denslow. In his first appearance, the Scarecrow reveals that he lacks a brain and desires above all else to have one. In reality, he is only two days old and merely...
, and freeing him from his pole, and they stroll together, soon finding a Tin Woodman
Tin Woodman
The Tin Woodman, sometimes referred to as the Tin Man or the Tin Woodsman , is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum...
and oiling him.
After the four watch mating rituals of various animals set to strains of Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
's "The Swan", they are welcomed into the Emerald City
Emerald City
The Emerald City is the fictional capital city of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
. Suits of armor sing to them, "Hail to the Wizard of Oz! To the Wizard of Oz we lead the way!" A creature resembling the A-B-Sea Serpent of The Royal Book of Oz
The Royal Book of Oz
The Royal Book of Oz is the fifteenth in the series of Oz books, and the first to be written by Ruth Plumly Thompson after L. Frank Baum's death. Although Baum was credited as the author, it was written entirely by Thompson. Beginning in the 1980s, some editions have correctly credited Thompson,...
extends itself as stair steps for Dorothy to enter the coach. Its blocks spell out "WELCOME," which changes to "DOROTHY" step by step.
The Wizard is a cackling white-bearded man in a starry black robe and conical hat who produces custom seats for each of the four travelers, including one for Toto (the Toto chair is mostly cut out of the frame in most video versions, but is later shown in a full shot of Toto sitting). He proceeds to perform magic with a hen and eggs, possibly inspired by Billina
Billina
Billina is a character in the Oz books of L. Frank Baum.She is a yellow hen tossed overboard in a storm with Dorothy Gale in the novel Ozma of Oz, the third Oz book, and a sequel to L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
. These are variations on simple sleight of hand
Sleight of hand
Sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation or legerdemain, is the set of techniques used by a magician to manipulate objects such as cards and coins secretly....
tricks involving making objects appear, but the hen is able to take the eggs back into her body.
Finally, the hen releases an egg that will not stop growing. The five try to fight it, the Tin Woodman breaking his axe. Soon, though, the egg hatches, the hen takes the chick, and clucks out "Rock-a-bye Baby
Rock-a-bye Baby
Rock-a-bye Baby is a nursery rhyme and lullaby. The melody is a variant of the English satirical ballad Lilliburlero. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 2768.-Lyrics:...
" as a chorus joins her. The five laugh, and the film ends on an iris-in of mother and child.