Movie Minx

Directed by: Victor Fleming
Starring: Judy Garland, a lion, scarecrow and tin man

Plot: Farm chick gets transported to land of Oz by tornado. Crushes witch and meets scary munchkins. Other witch tries to kill her, she makes some weird friends, trips down the yellow brick road and meets short dude. Puts on red shoes and goes home. Was it all a dream/LSD trip?

But is it any good?

Yes, if you’re about 5. Then you remember it fondly forever. I don’t feel the need to watch The Wizard of Oz again, but it teaches something crucial when the lion, scarecrow and tin man all learn that they had the qualities they thought they were lacking all along. Awww.

As a grown-up I know a little more now about the background to the film: Judy Garland only landed the role of Dorothy because Shirly Temple’s people at 20th Century Fox wouldn’t let her out of an iron-clad contract; production was a bit of a mess, with directors (five!), writers and actors swapped around; Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ album makes an unnervingly perfect soundtrack.

And if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know the quotes: “Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”, “Fly, fly, fly!”, “There’s no place like home”, etc etc. And the songs: Over the Rainbow, The Witch is Dead, If I only had a heart, etc etc.

Of course it’s dated, but that’s part of the fun: the garish technicolour for the Oz scenes, the freaky little Munchkins with their eerie (dubbed) singing, the bad costumes (man, that aluminium paint on the tin man must’ve sucked). But it’s fun. It’s a feel-good family classic, the kind you see on afternoon TV around Christmastime.

All in all, a sweet, funny and imaginative film that it would be a crime for children not to see. But that Pink Floyd thing is pretty strange.

IMDb’s rating: 8.2/10
My rating: 8/10

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