"Only bad witches are ugly."

Rating: 6/10 (6 January 2001)

What a curious lesson in morality that is. But then there's plenty more in this dated musical about a redneck girl's Day-Glo daydream.
With self-conscious sentimentality this film is so sanitised that a chubby Judy Garland can fall into a pigsty without being covered in a single drop of pig muck. However, it's impossible to criticise the film in modern terms Â– Garland's stagy, melodramatic performance was typical for the time Â– and the whole movie has the sense of the classic, if not actually the sense of being any good.
The picture's transformation from monochrome to Technicolor is justly praised, though the painted backdrops are a little obvious and two-dimensional. It's images seemingly inspired (and were improved by) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. There the Oompa Loompas would dole out social commentary in song form; here the Munchkins chant asinine phrases. And just how irritating are the Munchkins? It's all really quite twee and forced, and despite entering the collective consciousness, songs like "Follow The Yellow Brick Road" are really quite annoying when heard for real. It's all very ambitious, but there's also an unsettling lack of genuine wit.
Much better are the talking trees, wicked witch and flying monkeys. All silly now of course, but absolutely terrifying to children. I still remember being scared silly at the witch being dissolved with water. There's also a scene with the Tin Man where his dance causes him to almost topple over in moves mimicked by Michael Jackson in Moonwalker. Jackson would later play the Scarecrow in the all-black version, The Wiz. That's the character without a brain. How curious.
Of course, this is definitely not one to watch with an after-Christmas hangover, the "lions and tigers and bears" chant being particularly grating on the senses. Brash and unremittingly childish, The Wizard of Oz is less a cinematic experience, more like spending 100 minutes being shouted at by a hyperactive toddler.