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Today’s the day ladies! Oz the Great and Powerful opens in theaters across the U.S. and I am so excited to get to share my review with you. If you have hung out long enough with me here, then you have read my interviews from Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, director Sam Raimi, and James Franco. There are more coming next week, but for today — I get to tell you what I thought of this movie.
I am not a movie spoiler, so if that is what you are looking for, you won’t find that here!
My first thought when I sat down to watch this movie was — where will this story start in Oz? I made sure not to read any material about the movie beforehand, because I wanted an unbiased review of the whole thing. The minute that the opening scene came on the screen, I was transported back to my 5 year old self as I watched for the first time. I could picture scenes from the original Oz, like when Dorothy meets Professor Marvel when she runs away from home, and the tornado that swept her away from her home to the land of Oz. The writers and directors did a marvelous job pulling me in right from the get go.
All through the movie, I kept saying to myself, “Oh! I get it now. I totally understand that from the original movie.” Things like, the original Oz balloon makes sense now. How Oz came to be makes much more sense to me now. How the wicked witch, became the wicked witch — my eyes were opened and real understanding began to happen to me.
I think more than that, what I really loved about this movie was the underlying tone of encouragement that I felt. While many people will ooh and ahh at the graphic effects and the CG animation used for some of the characters, the main thing I took away from the movie was this — even when we do not believe in ourselves, there is always someone in our corner rooting for us to make the right decisions.
While Oz kept saying he was just a good man, Glinda always believed that he was a great man and would help them save Oz. She believed in him even when he did not believe in himself. That is powerful.
When I left the theater that night, I felt encouraged and uplifted. Sure, there are the evil scenes — but if I’m honest, I don’t think they were any more evil than the original Oz. They are not too scary, and there are of course some characters that you will fall madly in love with!
All night long, I felt myself rooting for Oz, pleading with him to do the right thing.
Does he come through for the people of Oz? Find out tonight! Go to theater for the opening of Oz the Great and Powerful. Your whole family will be on the edge of their seats with Disney’s newest film!
I was sent on an all expenses paid trip to the premier of Oz. All reviews and opinions are my own.
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