Dive into the magical world of Oz as we unravel the most perplexing inconsistencies between "Wicked" and "The Wizard of Oz"! From winged monkey mysteries to shoe-related plot holes, we're breaking down the moments that'll make fans scratch their heads.
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00:00Aren't you forgetting the ruby slippers?
00:02Slippers?
00:03Yes.
00:04Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the times
00:08Wicked doesn't just stray off the yellow brick road laid down by the Wizard of Oz,
00:12but practically creates its own off-road path.
00:15And yes, we are aware Wicked isn't L. Frank Bomb Cannon.
00:18Also, since some of these points address plots that should take place in Part 2,
00:22this is your spoiler warning.
00:24Here, Scarecrow, wanna play ball?
00:26Number 10.
00:34What is the deal with those winged monkeys?
00:36We don't think we'll ever outgrow the terror of those winged beasts haunting our nightmares.
00:45Yet Wicked gives them a new backstory that could certainly conjure up some sympathy from the
00:49audience.
00:49Don't let her get away, this Wicked witch.
00:54In Wicked, we learn how they got their wings and allied with Elphaba, aka the Wicked Witch.
01:00L. Frank Bomb's books also enrich their tale,
01:02giving them the power of speech and explaining how they're controlled by a magical hat.
01:07But sticking with the 1939 film for a moment, after Dorothy melts the witch,
01:11one monkey seems especially overjoyed by this turn of events.
01:15If Elphaba treated them as kindly as Wicked implies,
01:18surely this wouldn't be a moment of celebration.
01:23She's dead. You killed her.
01:25I didn't mean to kill her. Really, I didn't. It's just that he was on fire.
01:31Hail to Dorothy! The Wicked Witch is dead!
01:34Number 9.
01:35How can the witch be an animal advocate after what she tried to do to Toto?
01:39A major theme in Wicked is Elphaba's devotion to animal kind and their rights.
01:44Listen to me! You're not being told the whole story!
01:47You can't permit this. I'm afraid he's out of our hands.
01:51Are we all just gonna sit here in silence? Well, someone's got to do something.
01:55She sacrifices nearly everything to stand up for them.
01:58Yet in The Wizard of Oz, one of her most famous and often parodied lines is,
02:02I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too.
02:07Now, granted, that's quite vague and more about punishing Dorothy than sweet little Toto.
02:11Yet later on, after she's captured Dorothy,
02:14the witch threatens to drown the pup unless Dorothy gives up those slippers.
02:18Oh, please give me back my dog!
02:20Certainly, certainly, when you give me those slippers.
02:25But the good witch of the north told me not to.
02:28Very well. Throw that basket to the river and drown him!
02:32No, no, no! Here, you can have your own slippers, but give me back Toto!
02:36You could argue it's just a scare tactic, and she never truly intended to harm the dog.
02:41Even so, she takes quite a few dangerous risks
02:44for someone supposedly committed to animal welfare.
03:00Number 8. So the lion isn't the only animal who talks?
03:04While talking animals in Bombs books are nothing out of the ordinary,
03:07in the 1939 movie, the only creature we see with the ability to speak is the cowardly lion.
03:13Look at the cycles under my eyes. I haven't slept in weeks.
03:17Why don't you try counting sheep?
03:19That doesn't do any good. I'm afraid of them.
03:23Other animals appear, of course, but they silently serve their human masters.
03:28If you haven't read Bombs books, it might have surprised you to think
03:30that this one character inspired an entire oppressed culture in Wicked.
03:34Each rabbit would show respect to me. The chipmunks genuflect to me.
03:42Though my tail would lash, I would show compassion for every underling.
03:50The musical also tries to explain why the lion is cowardly,
03:53though the reasoning feels a little confusing.
03:56Still, there's nothing in the story that makes him seem like he's in more danger than his friends.
04:00That said, given what we now know,
04:02bringing him straight to the wizard doesn't seem like the smartest move.
04:06You ought to be ashamed of yourself! Frightening him like that when he came to you for help!
04:12Number 7. Why does Glinda send Dorothy to the Emerald City?
04:16We all know how Glinda let Dorothy take the scenic route home
04:19instead of just telling her to click her heels there and then in Munchkinland.
04:22He lives in the Emerald City and that's a long journey from here.
04:25Did you bring your broomstick with you?
04:28Uh, no, I'm afraid I didn't. Well, then you'll have to walk.
04:32Dorothy's role in Wicked is significantly smaller,
04:35yet Glinda still sends her off to see the wizard.
04:38Why? She was there when Elphaba exposed him as a fraud.
04:41What good did she think that would do?
04:43You have no real power.
04:46That's why I need you.
04:48Was she just trying to get Dorothy out of the way?
04:50If only there were magical shoes to send her home instantly.
04:54There they are, and there they'll stay.
04:56In Baum's books, Glinda is actually the good witch of the south
04:59and isn't even involved in this part of the story.
05:02It's all just very confusifying.
05:04Number 6. Dorothy's companions don't seem to have a prior beef with the witch.
05:09We have so many questions about how Dorothy's companions connect to Wicked,
05:13but let's start with the obvious.
05:14I'll see you reach the wizard, whether I get a heart or not.
05:18Beehive, bah! Let her try and make a beehive out of me.
05:22If the Tin Man or Lion had passed run-ins with the witch that made them hate her,
05:26wouldn't that be a great icebreaker with Dorothy?
05:29Like, oh, she's after your shoes? Yeah, she turned me into tin.
05:32What a witch, right?
05:34It's as the wizard says in the 2024 movie.
05:36The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy.
05:46Instead, their main issue seemed to be A,
05:48she's after their friend who they just met,
05:50and B, she's a witch.
05:52The Tin Man also mentions being rusted, quote, for the longest time,
05:55which makes us question the entire timeline where these two stories overlap.
05:59About a year ago, I was chopping that tree when suddenly it began to rain.
06:05And right in the middle of a chop, I, I rusted solid.
06:09I've been that way ever since.
06:11Number 5. But the Wicked Witch is, well, wicked?
06:15One of the most beautiful things about Maguire's novel,
06:17and subsequently the musical,
06:19is how it challenges our perceptions of good and evil.
06:22Are people born wicked?
06:26Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?
06:30Still, no matter how you spin it, in The Wizard of Oz,
06:33the witch does some pretty awful stuff.
06:36In Baum's books, she wants the shoes to gain more power and rule Oz.
06:40While the movie isn't that dark, she's still pretty cruel,
06:43especially with her repeated threats to Dorothy.
06:46Even her guards seem happy to be rid of her, which says a lot.
06:49Wicked does a great job of making her actions more understandable, which we love.
06:53Still, some of her behavior in the original feels a bit, well, wicked.
07:08Number 4. Isn't Oz meant to be a figment of Dorothy's subconscious?
07:12If you've read the books, you already know the answer.
07:15But let's focus on the 1939 movie this time.
07:18This was a real, truly live place,
07:20and I remember that some of it wasn't very nice,
07:23but most of it was beautiful.
07:26At the end, Dorothy wakes up in Kansas,
07:28and it seems like her time in Oz was just a vivid dream,
07:31while all the characters she met were stand-ins for people from her real life.
07:35Factoring in wicked would mean Dorothy must have one powerful subconscious
07:39to create backstories for all these Ozians,
07:41and also invent an entire prequel, too.
07:44Let me tell you the whole story.
07:46So we're curious, what happens to Dorothy after Glinda
07:49sends her home in Wicked's version of events?
07:51Is it still just a dream?
07:53And do the people she met still resemble people she actually knows?
07:57But it wasn't a dream, it was a place.
08:00And you, and you, and you, and you were there.
08:06But you couldn't have been, could you?
08:08Number 3. Why would Glinda give away those shoes?
08:12It's already strange how, in The Wizard of Oz,
08:14Glinda takes it upon herself to give away someone else's shoes.
08:18Oh, please give me back my dog.
08:20Certainly, certainly.
08:22When you give me those slippers.
08:25But the good witch of the north told me not to.
08:28But hey, better on Dorothy's feet than on someone known as Wicked, right?
08:31Things get even weirder when you consider the relationship
08:34between the witches and the musical.
08:35Pink goes good with green.
08:37Goes well with green.
08:39So does.
08:41As we know, Elphaba and Glinda were once friends,
08:44and Glinda also knew Nessaros, the previous owner of the magical footwear.
08:48So why would she be so happy to see her former friend's sister crushed?
08:52But back to the shoes,
08:54taking Elphaba's last keepsake of her sister and giving them to Dorothy,
08:58whose house just killed her,
08:59isn't exactly giving Glinda the good, if you ask us.
09:02Their magic must be very powerful, or she wouldn't want them so badly.
09:05You stay out of this, Glinda, or I'll fix you as well!
09:09Rubbish! You have no power here!
09:10Be gone, before somebody drops a house on you too!
09:13Number two.
09:14The scarecrow and the witch are what now?
09:17There are certainly flames between the witch and the scarecrow throughout The Wizard of Oz.
09:21Here, scarecrow!
09:22Wanna play ball?
09:29Only they tend to be actual fire,
09:31the kind the witch uses to threaten the scarecrow or actually set him on fire.
09:35We were surprised to learn from the musical
09:37not just how the scarecrow came to be,
09:39but also about a different kind of spark between him and the Wicked Witch.
09:55Now every encounter in The Wizard of Oz just seems baffling.
09:58Plus, why is the scarecrow hanging around Dorothy?
10:01She just seems to be trouble for his beloved.
10:04The musical doesn't clear any of this up,
10:06and we're left just pulling at straws trying to figure it all out.
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10:30Number one.
10:31How do the shoes become Dorothy's ticket home?
10:33So this is something you'll only know if you're aware of what happens in act two of the musical.
10:38Nessa's mad at Elphaba for never using her magic to help her,
10:41so Elphie enchants her slippers so she can walk.
10:44My shoes! It feels like they're on fire!
10:47What have you done to my shoes?
10:49Who did it? Who did it? Who did it?
11:00Yet the 1939 movie never tells us what's so special about those shoes.
11:05In the books, we learn that the Wicked Witch wants them to make her more powerful
11:08and that they offer an instant teleportation service.
11:11When I gain those ruby slippers, my power will be the greatest in Oz!
11:17Again though, if we set bomb book lore aside,
11:20did Glinda just decide to throw in a portal function as a surprise bonus?
11:23That's quite the upgrade.
11:25Now those magic slippers will take you home in two seconds.
11:28Oh, total two?
11:29Total two.
11:30Well, you know what they say.
11:32If the shoe fits, start clicking.
11:34Is there anything about Wicked that is a head-scratcher after watching The Wizard of Oz?
11:38There's no place like the comment section to share your thoughts.
11:41There's no place like home.
11:44There's no place like home.
11:48There's no place like home.
11:53Do you agree with our picks?
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