Questions you'd like answered
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Wizard of Oz
sharon-straka — 12 years ago(March 23, 2014 10:13 PM)
Does anyone have questions about the movie that you'd like answered? I have one I'll start us with:
- What happened to Dorothy's parents?
I am not a troll, but I believe in them since I see them every day on IMDB.
- What happened to Dorothy's parents?
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jad1986 — 12 years ago(March 24, 2014 08:19 AM)
The book says she was an orphan. For the storytelling of the film, it was unimportant. Neither say how they died. I have my own theories, though, but they apply only to the book, and not the film adaptation, since it was moved forward in time.
2. Why is there no closure over the Miss Gulch dilemma in the film?
What we see and what we seem are but a dream. A dream within a dream. -
cynic2all — 11 years ago(December 16, 2014 02:06 PM)
- Why is there no closure over the Miss Gulch dilemma in the film?
I'm not a big fan of this movie, but I used to wonder if Miss Gulch is supposed to have gotten home, or to wherever she was going to have the dog put down, and she found out he had escaped, so in bicycling back to the Gale farm, she was killed by the tornado you know, the winds of justice. And I've further thought, as I of course did not as kid watching this, whether she had become adept at taking over the farms of dustbowl farmers by such legal threats she set up by conniving to get herself bit by a dog, or setting her own fields on fire when upwind neighbors were burning something. It is said she "owns half this county," but that is probably meant as exaggeration or is it?
- Why is there no closure over the Miss Gulch dilemma in the film?
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silvercometred1 — 9 years ago(April 03, 2016 04:50 PM)
I used to wonder if Miss Gulch is supposed to have gotten home, or to wherever she was going to have the dog put down, and she found out he had escaped, so in bicycling back to the Gale farm, she was killed by the tornado you know, the winds of justice.
Maybe after Dorothy woke up in "the real world" they find Miss Gulch under the farm house. -
beavertoof — 11 years ago(December 22, 2014 07:48 AM)
- Why is there no closure over the Miss Gulch dilemma in the film?
yeah, have seen this movie dozens of times, and for some reason only on this latest viewing has this really bothered me.
Poor Toto has a death sentence on his head! WTF?!?
Why could they not add a simple one line of dialog at the end to insure us that evil Ms. Gulch met her end by the tornado, and Toto was pardoned or something?!?
- Why is there no closure over the Miss Gulch dilemma in the film?
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rocketXpert — 12 years ago(March 25, 2014 01:54 AM)
This question applies to both the movie and the books. How is is it that the Scarecrow came to be alive? In the later books, L. Frank Baum usually provided a cause whenever an inanimate object became animate- such as the Powder of Life- but no such reason was given for the Scarecrow. Baum hadn't fully worked out the rules of Oz in the original book, and I guess he just figured, "Magical fairy land equals talking scarecrow."
I know that the first book written after Baum's death provided an origin story for the Scarecrow, stating that he was the reincarnation of a deceased emperor, but it's my understand that that book is hardcore racist, and I don't personally care to consider any of the non-Baum books within the so-called "Famous 40" to be canon. A different explanation I came across (in the comic book Oz Squad) that I like a lot better is that Dorothy, wishing for a companion on her journey, subconsciously brought the Scarecrow to life through the power of her slippers. -
toking65000 — 11 years ago(December 23, 2014 07:51 PM)
I think I heard they thought the Kansas scenes were already too long, I also heard there was a scene introducing Billie Burk as a neighbor of the Gales also.
Create a society in which you would like to live, not knowing what you're going to come into it as. -
toking65000 — 11 years ago(April 11, 2014 04:59 AM)
As far as your question, I'm assuming they were killed, I THINK in the book that is mentioned.
But mine are:
1.What exact powers did the shoes posses?
2.Where did the red brick road lead?
3.WHERE exactly is Oz.that is if you think it's more than just a dream. Is it on another planet? Another dimension? Somewhere on Earth that just hasn't been discovered yet?
4. Is there a Witch in the South?
5.Does Glinda represent Dorothy's dead mother?
Create a society in which you would like to live, not knowing what you're going to come into it as. -
silvercometred1 — 9 years ago(April 03, 2016 04:56 PM)
3.WHERE exactly is Oz.that is if you think it's more than just a dream. Is it on another planet? Another dimension? Somewhere on Earth that just hasn't been discovered yet?
OZ is supposed to be surrounded by a desert in the middle of Australia. Don't ask me how a tornado from Kansas managed to drop a house in the middle of Australia because Mr. Baum didn't explain it. -
jad1986 — 9 years ago(January 29, 2017 03:04 PM)
Not in Australia. The first book clarifies that Oz is surrounded by a desert, and later books show magical borderlands beyond the desert and magical island kingdoms.
Baum designed a map (which can be seen on the endpapers of the original edition of Tik-Tok of Oz and some reprints of it) that shows Oz and its surrounding countries a huge slab of land with some sea on the right side of the map. Later maps by fans expand this to be its own continent (called the Continent/Island of Imagination in some books, fans have called it "Nonestica" as the ocean nearby is called the Nonestic Ocean).
In a script for a comical play that was never produced titled "The Girl from Oz," Oz is said to be in the South Pacific. Given that Dorothy washes up on the shores of a borderland after going overboard in a chicken coop in Ozma of Oz on a trip to Australia, it would seem to make sense.
No one discovers Oz because Glinda put a magical barrier around it, rendering it invisible to all outsiders. I'm expanding on that idea as part of a plot for a story I'm writing.
What we see and what we seem are but a dream. A dream within a dream. -
kiddokid — 11 years ago(April 11, 2014 12:16 PM)
One I was thinking about today, why the heck was Judy Garland not wearing her ruby slippers in that now infamous shot where she's wearing black shoes??
I know the wardrobe crew for Wizard of Oz was not stupid, they were very careful when it comes to costumes. What in the world happened that she ended up wearing the black shoes instead of her ruby slippers while the camera was rolling?? You'd think that be obviously, to Garland even, that she's wearing the wrong shoes for an Oz scene! -
rycki1138 — 11 years ago(April 11, 2014 12:57 PM)
- In The Emerald City of Oz Uncle Henry mentions that Dorothy is a "dreamer, as her dead mother had been", so it can be presumed that her father had also died since she was living with her aunt and uncle. But no explanation is given for either of their deaths. The mother and father were rarely mentioned in the books.
Aunt Em once said she thought the fairies must have marked Dorothy at
her birth, because she had wandered into strange places and had always
been protected by some unseen power.
As for Uncle Henry, he thought
his little niece merely a dreamer, as her dead mother had been, for he
could not quite believe all the curious stories Dorothy told them of
the Land of Oz, which she had several times visited.
He did not think
that she tried to deceive her uncle and aunt, but he imagined that she
had dreamed all of those astonishing adventures, and that the dreams
had been so real to her that she had come to believe them true.
The Emerald City of Oz at project gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/517/pg517.txt
All 14 of the L. Frank Baum Oz books can be read at project gutenberg or downloaded to a tablet.
(knock,knock,knock) Penny (knock,knock,knock) Penny (knock,knock,knock) Penny
- In The Emerald City of Oz Uncle Henry mentions that Dorothy is a "dreamer, as her dead mother had been", so it can be presumed that her father had also died since she was living with her aunt and uncle. But no explanation is given for either of their deaths. The mother and father were rarely mentioned in the books.
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CastleH908 — 11 years ago(December 16, 2014 10:17 AM)
I have 2one is a serious question, while the other is actually kinda dumb.
- How did Professor Marvel know that Dorothy had been injured by the window & had been unconscious for the majority of the film?
1b. Did the Gales know Professor Marvel? They don't seem at all surprised by his sudden appearance (no "who are you?" or anything). Or maybe they just thought he was just a kind stranger who came to check on her. - Why did the witch set her broom on fire to harm the Scarecrow? I've always thought that the whole broom (bristles and all) were needed to make it fly (don't know why; just have. Plus it just LOOKS cooler & more badass with all those messy overhanging bristles!). And if that's true, since 90% of the bristles are gone when the Winkie hands it to Dorothy, it wouldn't be able to fly anymore. So what was the witch planning to do with it had she not been melted? Would she have fixed it?
EDIT:
I
just
thought of a 3rd question! - If it was the
slippers
that transported Dorothy back to Kansas, why does Glinda wave her wand?
- How did Professor Marvel know that Dorothy had been injured by the window & had been unconscious for the majority of the film?
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bradford-1 — 11 years ago(January 07, 2015 07:27 AM)
When he walks up to the window, Marvel says something like "I heard that the little girl who lives here was hurt." It was a small community, so obviously the news about someone being injured would circulate. Also, we don't know how much time has passed. Is it the next day, or has Dorothy been in a coma? Uncle Henry answers Marvel by saying, "We thought for a while we'd almost lost her." Sounds like enough time has passed for a doctor to examine her.
May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle? -
CastleH908 — 10 years ago(August 03, 2015 08:03 AM)
This is kind of a dumb question that I just thought of while watching the tornado scene on youtube: what happened to the window that hit Dorothy in the head? We see it hit her and then defy the laws of gravity and fly off at and angle off-camera, never to be seen again. I don't know why this never occurred to me before, but shouldn't it be laying on the bedroom floor somewhere when the house lands & Dorothy gets up & makes her way out to the hall?
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Gubbio — 10 years ago(August 03, 2015 10:03 AM)
but shouldn't it be laying on the bedroom floor somewhere when the house lands & Dorothy gets up & makes her way out to the hall?
Well, as you said, the window flies out of the frame.
I never thought about it after that.
Do we get a good look at Dorothy's room, as she makes her way out? We, the audience, are at the "fourth wall" looking in. The window could be laying anywhere.