After the Wizard

After the Wizard is one of those movies that you know no one is looking for. I happened to stumble upon it and seeing its 29% audience approval decided to watch, hoping to have found a "so bad it's good" flic. Disappointingly, the movie is poor in its story telling, but not entertaining in its shortcomings. We follow the Tin-man and the Scarecrow who decide they need to leave OZ after the people of OZ have rejected them as leaders. The sets (at one point OZ is set as a hollow cement plant) and character designs (The tin-man is festooned in a gray button down with silver face paint) convince the viewer of the films limited budget. The plot is not redeeming. Most of it is vague exposition, focusing on the duo's journey to Kansas where they clumsily bump into extras as they travel first via, air ballon, train, then bus. The movie is hardly entertaining, even with awkward transitions and odd continuity errors. I fell asleep watching and I'm sure your child will too. The movies summation is an insult to its audience with not even the finest resolution or cause for the scarecrow and tin man's travel. They end up with nothing in the end and so will you.

For a family flick, this is a really poorly executed film. The idea is excellent and for the first few minutes, the prospect of a great film gets you. However, this excitement quickly turns into disbelief when you are faced with 10-15 minutes scenes with one dimensional dialogues between two characters. Even my 10 year old daughter, fan of Shakespeare plays (heavy stuff) was bored after a while. We watched all hoping to see a turn of events that made our 80 minutes worth waiting... Nothing was found. The only positive thing was the acting. A great load of the film falls on them and they (in general) deliver. It is not their fault that the director choose substance over entertainment.

While this was a very amateur production with a few good performances, as a life-long fan of the Oz literature I could have overlooked that if the story had been any good. My biggest issue is that it's presented as an Oz adventure when it's not, and whatever story it's trying to tell is muddled by two incongruous plots. Elizabeth is an orphan who pretends to be Dorothy in order to cope with vague and undefined problems, while the Scarecrow and a guy in grey makeup travel across the United States to seek her help with vague and undefined problems back in the rock quarry that's supposed to pass for Oz. I've wondered if I might have liked this movie more if I'd seen it as a child.

This is touted as a sequel, yet nothing about it matches the canon or indicates that anyone had actually read the books despite the frequent praise for them from the writer and the characters. There are already at least two other "sequels" anyway that DO incorporate elements of "Land of Oz" and "Ozma of Oz," the books which follow "Wizard:" Filmation's "Journey Back to Oz" from 1972, and Disney's "Return to Oz" from 1985. This was more like an "add a word" forum game that someone cobbled together into a script, and given that a few dozen people received special thinks for the writing, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what happened. It would certainly explain why the overall premise was so disjointed.

Ultimately if you like stories that have a simple plot with minimal conflict that's easily resolved and a pat happy ending all around, you'll find that here, but if you want something more complex, keep looking.

I've never been a fan of the original Wizard Of Oz & I think I've only liked 1 or 2 of the remakes.I really didn't know what to expect of this version but I was surprised that I truly liked it.It was something different.I enjoyed watching the journey the Scarecrow & Tinman took on their way to find Dorothy & the people they met along the way.I especially liked the Scarecrow & Tin Man's costumes.I thought they looked pretty cool.My only problem with the movie was that the girl thought she was Dorothy & wanted everybody to call her that but her actual name was Elizabeth.It just made it seem like she had.... problems.Why couldn't her name just be Dorothy? I can imagine not everybody will like this movie but I think for a low budget movie, they did a GREAT job

Elizabeth lives in a Kansas orphanage, run by a lady who has been there thirty years. Even though twelve year old Liz doesn't want to upset folks, she does. That is because she lives in a fantasy world, where the young gal believes she is Dorothy of the Oz books. Everyone is instructed to call her Doro, which they refuse to do, resulting in punishments galore. Meanwhile, the Tin Man and Scarecrow have landed a balloon in New Jersey and are making their way by train to Kansas. The journey many problems as this duo doesn't understand money, state boundaries and more. Fortunately, they do have a pocketful of emeralds from the E city, which do come in handy. Will they be able to locate Dorothy at the time she really needs them? There may be a tornado approaching, too! This sweet film moves so slowly that some children will give up a view, despite the delightful Tin Man and Scarecrow. It is a well conceived tale, that an orphan girl, rejected by many, invents a dream world to cope. Therefore, Oz characters are part of an imaginary world, which may not be clear to kids, either. Nevertheless, if boys and girls are the patient type, this little film may thrill those who adore the original Wizard of Oz movie.