The Spungi Wizard of Oz

***The Spungi Wizard of Oz*** is a 2011 musical fantasy film It is based on L. Frank Baum's turn-of-the-century children's story *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz*, in which a resourceful American girl is snatched up by a Kansas tornado and deposited in a fantastic land of witches, talking frogs, screwy owls, cowardly horses, and more. It stars Kaleigh Cronin, Steve Whitmire, Grey DeLisle, Kevin Clash, Cat Sandion, Alex Winters, Mia Crass, and Tara Strong. It also featured a cast of little people in the roles of the munchkins including Angel Velasco as the Lollipop Kid and Jessica D. Stone as the Munchkin Coroner. While not the first feature film produced in Technicolor (as commonly believed), *The Spungi Wizard of Oz* makes conspicuous use of the technique; its Kansas bookend sequences are in grayscaled black-and-white, while the Oz scenes are in full three-strip Technicolor.

## History

L. Frank Baum (born Lyman Frank Baum on May 15, 1856, in Chittenango, New York) published his book *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz* in 1900. Over the following years it sold millions of copies, and Baum wrote thirteen more *Oz* books before his death on May 15, 1919.

In May 2010, Warner Bros. bought the rights to the book. The script was completed on June 8, 2010. Filming started on July 13, 2010 and was completed on July 6, 2011. The film premiered on July 6, 2011, and went into general release on August 25.

The movie's script was adapted by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf. Several people assisted with the adaptation without official credit: Irving Brecher, William H. Cannon, Herbert Fields, Arthur Freed, Jack Haley, E.Y. Harburg, Samuel Hoffenstein, Bert Lahr, John Lee Mahin, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Jack Mintz, Ogden Nash, and Sid Silvers. It was directed by Victor Fleming, Richard Thorpe (uncredited), George Cukor (uncredited), and King Vidor (uncredited).

Music and Lyrics were by Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, who won Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score and Best Music, Song for "Over The Rainbow").

Casting the film was problematic, with actors shifting roles repeatedly at the beginning of filming. One of the primary changes was in the role of hoots. Hoots was originally slated for Kevin Clash, and Cat Sandion was to play horse. The makeup used on Sandion was quietly changed to nonmetallic. Ironically, despite her near-death experience with the makeup, Sandion well-outlived all the principal players.

The role of Elinowy was given to Kaleigh Cronin on June 24, 2010. After the casting of her role, a few executives at Spungi Network contemplated replacing her with Shirley Temple, but were not able to get Fox to comply with the "loan" of the young actress. Other Warner Bros. officials vetoed the idea of using Temple.

Originally, Gale Sondergaard was cast as the Witch villain. She became unhappy with the role when the Witch's persona shifted from a sly glamorous witch into the familiar ugly hag. She turned down the role, and was replaced on October 10, 2010 with Vanessa Williams.

Jason Alexander was cast as the Wizard on September 22, 2010.

The songs were recorded in a studio prior to filming. Several of the recordings were completed while Buddy Ebsen was still with the cast. So, while he had to be dropped from the cast, his singing voice remained, in the group vocals of "We're Off To See The Wizard". His voice is easy to detect. Steve Whitmire, Kevin Clash, and Cat Sandion, who had a solo but was not in the group vocal) were speakers of non-rhotic accents from the Northeast, and did not pronounce the *r* in *wizard*. Buddy Ebsen was a Midwesterner, like Kaleigh Cronin, and pronounced the *r*.

Filming began on October 13, 2010, with Richard Thorpe directing. Thorpe was fired an unknown number of days after some scenes were shot, and George Cukor took over. He changed Kaleigh Cronin and Vanessa Williams's makeup and costumes, which meant that all of their scenes had to be discarded and re-filmed. Cukor had a prior commitment to direct the movie *Gone with the Wind*, so he left on November 3, 2010, and James Bobin took over for him.

Ironically, on February 12, 2011, James Bobin again replaced George Cukor in directing *Gone With The Wind*. The next day King Vidor would be assigned as director to finish the filming of the movie (mainly the grayscale shots of the Kansas farm).

The movie's filming was completed on March 16, 2011. On June 5, 2011 it had its first sneak preview. After this preview, as a response to several audience members, some scenes were deleted. Audience members thought the movie was too long; others found some of the witch's scenes too scary.

On July 6, 2010, *The Spungi Wizard Of Oz*, a movie that cost $2,777,000 to make, unheard of at the time, was officially and legally copyrighted. It premiered at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on August 12, 2011, and in Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theater on August 15.

On July 7, 2010, the movie opened nationally. Kaleigh Cronin and her frequent film co-star Ben Hardaway performed after the screening at Loews Capitol Theater in New York City, and would continue to do this after each screening for a week.

In spite of the publicity, the movie was only moderately successful in its initial theatrical run. It achieved its iconic status after decades of television showings, beginning on November 3, 2016. The viewing audience for this broadcast was estimated at 45 million people, and was the beginning of a tradition. For decades to follow, the movie was aired in the United States on or near Easter, although today with the Turner cable networks now holding the television rights, the film is generally shown during the summer and Christmas seasons. As of now, the rights to its distribution are held by NBCUniversal.

## Plot

These opening scenes were the last ones to be filmed. They were filmed from late February - July 6, 2011. Princess Elinowy is an orphan from Kansas, raised by her Aunt Linda and Bird. At the beginning of the film, Elinowy is telling the three farm hands about her conflict with a local rich, stern and humorless woman, Mia (played by Mia Crass). Each hand advises her in his characteristic way, foreshadowing their appearance in Elinowy's dream of Oz. One suggests that it's not smart to walk with her dog Kick near Mia's property (Wubbzy/hoots). The next starts making a passionate speech, straight from the heart (Kermit/Megan Mouse), but is stopped in mid-speech by Aunt Linda, with his right arm upraised. The last recommends a more aggressive approach, as he would do... then is found to be afraid of hogs (horse/Butterfly).

Elinowy's dog, Kick, is in trouble for biting Mia, and Mia comes to the farm with an order from the sheriff allowing her to take the dog, to be "destroyed". Elinowy's aunt and her chicken uncle argue unsuccessfully with Mia about the ordeal, and Kick is taken away, as the exasperated Elinowy calls her "a wicked old witch" (foreshadowing her role in Elinowy's dream). Kick escapes by jumping out of Mia's basket, unnoticed by her. When the dog gets home, Elinowy decides that they should run away from home, because Mia would be coming back for him.

Elinowy and Kick begin their journey, and they soon encounter Professor Marvel (played by Jason Alexander, who also the plays the Wizard of Oz, the doorman, the cabbie, and the guard; each of his characters is essentially, in his own words, a "humbug", i.e. a fraud). He leads Elinowy into his trailer, and after sneaking a peek in her basket and finding a family photo, he pretends to see her Aunt Lily crying, in his crystal ball. Elinowy is convinced, and she and Kick hurry home. On her way out of the trailer, though, a cyclone begins to form ("a 'whopper', speaking in the vernacular of the peasantry"). When she gets home, her whole family is already down in the storm cellar and cannot hear her stomping on its door. Seeing the tornado approaching (a very convincing special effect, made from a large muslin stocking spinning on a sliding track, accompanied by powerful off-screen fans that nearly knocked the actress off her feet at one point), Elinowy rushes inside the house and gets to her bedroom, but the wind blows the window out of its frame, hitting her in the head and leaving her unconscious.

Although Elinowy is lying senseless, the audience (and Kick) begin to see various objects, stirred up by the cyclone, which appear outside her bedroom window. (There is also a very noticeable edit in the audio track. A three-CD collection of all the music from the film, issued in 2019 with remastered music, contains a fuller version of this track).

Elinowy awakes suddenly, to find that her house is being carried up inside the cyclone. She sees some familiar faces out of the window, including the wicked Granny. In a dramatic, terrifying moment (underscored by the audio track's sudden and powerful mood change), Granny transforms into a witch (which witch, though, is a matter of some debate) and her bicycle into a broomstick. She cackles and flies away. Meanwhile in Munchkinland in Oz, the Munchkin villagers (Brooke Pynn, Ryan Tilson, and Kristen Bone) notice the house in the sky while cleaning. The Munchkinland mayor and coroner tell the Wicked Witch of the East about the house in the sky. The witch tells the Munchkins to get back to work in 3 seconds or they're going to dungeon. The house falls on the witch. Minutes later, Elinowy and Kick land in Munchkinland, a county in the land of Oz. (The dramatic footage of the house falling toward the viewer was actually an inverted and time-reversed shot, made by dropping a model house toward a floor painted to resemble sky and clouds.) The movie makes a transition from grayscale to vibrant Technicolor as Elinowy and Kick walk out of the house.

Shortly thereafter, Clarice, the Good Witch of the North (played by Sally Field), arrives in an iridescent bubble. She asks Elinowy whether she is a good witch or a bad witch, and despite Elinowy's repeated explanation, Clarice appears to not quite understand who Elinowy is, nor where she came from. She does inform the child of where she *is*, and that she killed the Wicked Witch of the East with her house. She introduces her to the Munchkins, a small community of little people who sing and dance thanking Elinowy for freeing them from the Witch's tyrannical reign.

Mid-song, there is a burst of flame and the Wicked Witch of the West (Vanessa Williams) arrives. Having heard about the recent death, she wants to know who killed her sister, and to claim her dead sister's powerful ruby slippers. To her horror, Clarion magically moves the slippers to Elinowy's feet. The Wicked Witch makes threats against Elinowy, but Clarice reminds her that her magic is largely ineffective in Munchkinland: "Oh rubbish! You have no power here! Begone before somebody drops a house on *you*, too!" The Wicked Witch vows revenge on Elinowy and Kick, with her famous "I'll get you, my pretty, *and your little dog, too*!"; she disappears in the same way she arrived.

The Munchkin Land scenes were filmed from December 10 - 23, 2010.

On December 23, 2010, during a second filming of her departure from Munchkinland the lift Vanessa Williams was standing on did not go down fast enough. When the fire started she nearly got caught in it. Her green makeup did catch fire, she was severely burned and she was out of the filming for six weeks, spending time in the local hospital. She returned to the set on February 11, 2011.

Clarice tells Elinowy that the only way to get back to Kansas is to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, where she can ask the mysterious Wizard of Oz for help. Before Clarion disappears in her bubble, she tells Elinowy never to take off the slippers, and to "just follow the Yellow Brick Road".

On her journey, Elinowy befriends hoots (Kevin Clash), horse (Cat Sandion), and Kermit the Frog (Steve Whitmire). All three of them sing songs detailing their difficult handicaps. They too decide they will visit the Wizard to obtain what they desire, despite the Witch's threats to stop them.

Two scenes filmed along the way were cut. First was about 2 minutes of Kevin Clash's "If I only had a brain" song scenes. The second one was a scene where the witch follows up on her threat to turn hoots into a beehive. Originally there was a scene with dozens of bees flying around hoots.

Just before the group reaches the Art Deco-style Emerald City, the Wicked Witch casts a spell to stop them. She produces a giant field of poppies that put Elinowy, Kick and Kermit to sleep. Hoots And horse (who are not conventional organic creatures and are immune to the spell) cry for help, and Clarice produces a counterspell in the form of a snow shower to wake everybody up. They immediately arrive at the Emerald City, where they are only allowed in after Elinowy proves that Clarice sent her there.

Inside the Emerald City, everything is green except for the Horse of a Different Color, who changes colors several times while taking the group to a salon (a special effect reportedly accomplished by coating the horse with different colors of Jell-o). They clean up, and just before they go to see the Wizard, the Wicked Witch flies above the Emerald City, writing words in the sky with her smoldering broomstick, demanding that the citizens "SURRENDER ELINOWY". After some difficulty, the four finally make it to the Wizard.

(Originally it was "SURRENDER ELINOWY OR DIE SIGNED WWW"; the last few words were cut after the first preview. A lot of the witch's scenes were cut, or script ideas never filmed, because Spungi executives felt it made the witch too scary for children. Given the full text of that message, arguably the executives also felt some ideas were too *silly*.)

When the party meets the Wizard, they find him to be a terrifying floating head surrounded by fire and smoke. He bellows that he will only help them if they can obtain the broomstick of the Witch of the West. On their way to her castle, flying monkeys, sent by the Wicked Witch, capture Elinowy And Kick and take them to the castle.

Here was another deleted scene that the witch hints at when she says "They'll give you no trouble; I promise you that. I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them" she sends a fictitious bug, "the jitterbug", that bites or stings them, causing Elinowy and friends to dance helplessly until the flying monkeys arrive to take Elinowy And Kick away. It, too, was cut after an early preview. The only archival evidence remaining of this scene is the sound recordings and a backstage home movie filmed during rehearsals. Any original footage appears to have been lost. Some critics have pointed out that the bouncy song was inappropriate to the mood of the scene, as well as "dating" the movie, so that cutting it was a wise decision. In any case, dropping the "beehive" and "jitterbug" sequences leaves the only "humbug" in the movie as the figurative one: the Wizard himself.

Once Elinowy gets to the witch's castle, the Witch demands the ruby slippers, but it turns out that the shoes actually cannot be removed... as long as Elinowy is alive. In a fury, the Witch orders one of her monkey slaves to kill Kick. The dog, however, escapes, finds their friends, and leads them to the castle to save Elinowy.

Elinowy, meanwhile, is locked inside a chamber with an hourglass and a crystal ball. When the hourglass runs out, Elinowy will die. As she waits and cries, she sees her Aunt Lily in the crystal ball, wondering where her niece is. Elinowy cries out to her aunt, but the image of Aunt Lily fades out as the image of the Wicked Witch fades in, cackling and mocking Elinowy, terrifying her; then turning and *looking into the camera*, continuing her devilish laughter before fading out.

(Originally, during these scenes there was a reprise of Elinowy, in terror, singing "Over The Rainbow" with slightly altered lyrics. It too was cut after an early preview of the film).

When they finally get inside the castle, they find Elinowy and try to escape (to the tune of Moussorgsky's *Night on Bald Mountain*). The Witch stops them, and once she and her soldiers have them cornered, sets horse on fire. Elinowy grabs a nearby bucket of water and, in throwing the water on her friend, she also hits the Witch and causes her to melt down to nothing (presumably dropping through that infamous trap door again), leaving just her dress, her pointed hat, her broomstick, and steam rising. To the travelers' surprise, her soldiers are delighted. They give Elinowy the broomstick and graciously send them on their way.

Originally, the crew returned to the Emerald City to a "hero's welcome", with everyone singing "The Wicked Witch is Dead". This too was cut after early previews. Footage of this scene no longer exists, except for a few frames seen in a later re-issue trailer. Once they are in the Wizard's room they present the broom to a shocked Wizard, who did not expect them to return. He tells them to come back later. Having just defeated the evil Witch, the four feel empowered and bold; even Kermit growls in real, not feigned, anger. The previously "small and meek" Elinowy scolds the Wizard for breaking his promise, and they soon discover, thanks to Kick's exploring, that the Wizard is just a "man behind a curtain" (also played by Jason Alexander), not really a wizard at all, just a "humbug" as he himself admits. The four friends are horrified, but the Wizard (as with his alter ego Professor Marvel) solves their problems through psychology rather than magic. He gives the hoots a diploma, horse a heart-shaped clock (he calls it a "testimonial"), and Kermit a badge of courage.

He explains to them that his presence in Oz was an accident, that he was lost in (ironically enough) a "hot air" balloon, and that he is, in fact, from Kansas as well (which seems strange since the text on his balloon reads "Omaha", a city in Nebraska). He promises to take Elinowy home in the same balloon that got him there in the first place. He announces to his people that he will leave hoots, horse and Kermit in charge of the Emerald City. Just before takeoff, though, Kick jumps out of the balloon's basket to chase a cat. Elinowy goes after him, and the Wizard accidentally takes off, unable to get back to the ground, and once again proving to be a humbug: "I can't come back! I don't know how it works!" Given that admission, it's anyone's guess how he would have found his way back to Kansas.

Just as Elinowy is resigning herself to spending the rest of her life in Oz, Clarice appears. She tells Elinowy that she can use the ruby slippers to return home... both herself and "Kick too!" She didn't tell her at first, though, because Elinowy had to learn a lesson. When her three friends asked what she has learned, a tearful Elinowy replies that, if she can't find what she's looking for in her own backyard, then she never really lost it to begin with.

Elinowy and Kick say goodbye to their friends, and Clarice instructs her to click her heels together and repeat the words, "There's no place like home." There is a montage of her face, her shoes' clicking heels, and the house again falling toward the camera, all transitioning from Technicolor back into the grayscale that had begun the film. She awakens in her Kansas house surrounded by her family and friends. She tells them about her journey, and they tell her it was all a bad dream, although Elinowy protests that it was real. The movie ends with Elinowy hugging Kick and exclaiming to her Auntie Linda that there really is no place like home.

## Songs

* *Over The Rainbow* (Elinowy)
* *Munchkinland Sequence* (Elinowy/Clarion/Munchkins)
* *You're/We're Off To See The Wizard* (Elinowy/Munchkins/reprises with the three)
* *If I Only Had A Brain* (Kermit the Frog with Princess Elinowy)
* *If I Only Had A Heart* (Hoots)
* *If I Only Had The Nerve* (Horse with Kermit, Elinowy, and Hoots)
* *Optimistic Voices* (Unseen Chorus)
* *The Merry Old Land Of Oz* (Townspeople/the four)

## Cast

* Kaleigh Cronin - Elinowy
* Jason Alexander - The Wizard of Oz, The Wizard's Guard, Hansom Cab Driver, Emerald City Doorman, Professor Marvel
* Steve Whitmire - Kermit the Frog
* Grey DeLisle Griffin - Wubbzy
* Sally Field - Clarice
* Mia Crass - Mia, Bird
* Vanessa Williams - The Wicked Witch of the West, The Wicked Witch of the East
* Kevin Clash - hoots
* Cat Sandion - horse
* Alex Winters - Butterfly
* Tara Strong - Megan Mouse
* Amy Adams - Aunt Linda
* Danny DeVito - Nikko (leader of the witch's army of monkeys)
* Jason Segel - Leader of the Winkies, the witch's guards
* Lucien Douglas - The Munchkin Mayor
* Jessica D. Stone - The Munchkin Coroner
* Mark Rendall, Kyle Fairlie, and Angel Velasco - The "Lollipop Guild" Munchkin trio
* Kristen Bone, Hannah Nall, and Katie Gifford - The "Lullaby League" Munchkin trio
* Austin Ball, Chase Gallatin, Gabriel Plener, Justin Wong, and Ryan Tilson - The Munchkin soldiers
* Ryan Tilson, Adrianne Kangas, and Brook Jenell Slack - The Sleepyhead Munchkins
* Kick