Oz, The Great And Powerful: A Review

[teaberryblue]

So, I don’t do this as often as I used to, but this one has really given me some food for thought. Eug and I went to see Oz: The Great and Powerful on Friday night.  And while overall, I liked it, and thought it was a well-made movie, there were a few things about it that distressed me.

Elizabeth Rappe over at Jezebel already wrote quite a lovely

Comments

[pantryslut]

I was OK with Wicked changing facts b/c the victors write history, right? So they lied. In fact I thought that was part of the whole underlying point. (So my mileage varies.)

I will probably zee Oz at some point and it will probably be in my living room so I can grouse at it appropriately without bothering too many people around me.

[teaberryblue]

I can buy that if you're saying specific characters lied, and if it's plausible within the universe where the story is being told. But you've got to be able to keep it within the confines of the original universe. In the case of Wicked, the Wizard could totally have lied to Dorothy, but once you have Glinda lying (very very much out of character) and then have to assume that Dorothy isn't just duped, but complicit in the lie, and that Baum himself is lying, when he's the one who created the world, that's taking it a bit too far. To me, Maguire's "it's a lie" is a cheap, easy way out. I'd much rather read the story where someone explains the Wicked Witch as a character while sticking to canonical facts. It's the trickier, and ultimately braver thing to do. "It's all a lie" is like saying "I'm too lazy to do my research."

[pantryslut]

I disagree that "it's all a lie" is just laziness. Like I said, the victors write the history, Baum could have been its main chronicler, I am OK with that. It probably helps that I was not a huge fan of the Oz books. They were fun but I was never invested in the world and I do think the Wicked Witches got a raw deal. I am not interested in a story where she is evil, period, no matter the reasoning. I'd rather break the canon. As I said, mileage varies.

[teaberryblue]

If it's not laziness, Maguire wouldn't have ignored canon facts that have nothing to do with how someone might present the story, like the fact that Glinda is centuries older than the Witch of the West (that's established in the books) and therefore would never have gone to school with her. A fanfic writer would get laughed off AO3 for that. And that's someone doing it for fun, so I expect much, much more from someone doing it professionally.

[pantryslut]

You expect it. I don't. There are many readers. Hooray!

[quizzicalsphinx]

Maybe you should expect it? I personally feel a little ripped off when writers try to feed me shit and tell me it's pudding.

[pantryslut]

I think it's ridiculous to cry "it's not canon!" when I am suggesting that it's perfectly OK to write a fiction where the canon is a lie. You don't have to like the resulting story if fealty to canon is important to you as a reader or think it has any value...to you. But enough of Real History (tm) as taught is exactly a canonical lie that I can't dismiss a similar aesthetic project as lazy rather than as not to one's taste.

IOW, don't tell me it's shit when you just don't like chocolate.

[teaberryblue]

Margaret Mitchell never pretended that Scarlett O'Hara didn't own slaves, and yet was totally capable of creating a sympathetic and powerful heroine. Therefore, I feel someone working with another author's canon in which it has been established that a character owns slaves should be able to do the same.

If they can't-- or aren't willing to-- it tells me something about their skill as an author.

[pantryslut]

Should, yes. Has to, no. *You don't have to have any interest in the resulting story and that's OK.*

[pantryslut]

It doesn't tell you anything about their skill, only their priorities.

[quizzicalsphinx]

Which is why you have to sit back and remind yourself that the Fairy Queen Lurline is an Elder God, the Wogglebug is her minion, and it will all make sense when the Great Old Ones leap forward through time to claim the race of new bodies prepared for them.

[pantryslut]

:)

[quizzicalsphinx]

No. For real. Glinda's Great Book of Records is the Necronomicon. She's been trying to shut down the invasion for centuries.