Walt Disney has released a new trailer for director Sam Raimi's Oz: The Great and Powerful by way of the studio's "Find Your Way to Oz" app. The film's latest trailer reveals quite a bit of previously unseen footage from the film, which tells the origin story of L. Frank Baum's beloved Emerald City wizard. Raimi's prequel makes its U.S. theatrical debut on March 8th.
When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he's hit the jackpot. Fame and fortune are his for the taking. That is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone has been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity and even a bit of wizardry, Oscar transforms himself not only into a great and powerful wizard but into a better man as well.
@Lexabi80 @Rich Pure Doom @bboisvert
Unlike those of you here already basically saying it will be a bad movie, i'm going to wait until i see it in the movie theater, before judging if it is a good movie or bad movie. It makes better sense to do it that way anyways!
When I saw the first trailer, I was pretty interested. And I thought the impression that the Wizard might be a complex character might make this interesting, like his portrayal in the "Wicked" series of novels, which turns the story into a political battle and in which the Wizard is a tyrant. But this second trailer, in which he's carrying a bland looking cartoon doll (is that supposed to be Dorothy?) completely turned me off. I hope it's better than it looks, but since it already looks like a cartoon, I'm not optimistic. This might be Disney's attempt at having this movie appeal to five-year-olds as well as adults. Bad move if that's the case.
@Sean B. - I'm not "basically saying it will be a bad movie". I'm saying the trailers aren't impressing me. I thought that was pretty blunt and clear. Why try to stretch it into something I didn't say?
I also don't plan to judge the movie until I see it, which I will. But I *can* judge the trailers, which I have seen. And they haven't made me excited to see this.
@ZoetMB - I assume that "cartoon doll" is a citizen of China country in Oz, not Dorothy. The citizens there are made of china (like dishes) and are prone to breaking...
ZoetMB: It's obvious you have a familiarity with Wicked. It's also as equally obvious that you have no familiarity with the original Baum book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". You would know about China country if you did. As much as I like Wicked it is a revisionist novel as are its sequels. L Frank Baum wrote the canon series of novels and locations like China country are typical of the Baum imagination.
@zoetMB - If this is 'child-friendily' to 5-yr olds, it looks a little intense to me from the trailer. I argee the trailer is clearly not giving us any real outline of the sotry line, in my opinion, but trying to impressive with visuals. I remain hopefully though in any case for a balance between story and visuals. The visuals in this Oz trailer seem much more invloved and perhaps it's too early to gague the final film just yet as others have suggested. This could turn out be a little more 'revisonist', as others have also stated compared to other the Oz-realated materials. Or, if this in fact follows more of the original storyline, it may take a some time to re-adjust emotional reactions and feelings towards a movie made from a great series of books, decades old and in a large sense, fairly unknown to most in today's time.
ZoetMB - You also mention that you are worried they will tailor this movie to 5 year olds as well as adults. That is pretty much who Baum was writing for. One of my earliest memories was of my mom reading me "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz" with Jim the cab-horse and Eureka the cat (from a first edition). I don't care if this movie is tailored to 5 year old children. I just hope they avoid excessive modern childish humor and situations that remove childlike wonder. I admit a certain skepticism toward the trailers but I'll reserve judgement until I see the movie. I don't see Disney's decision as a bad move - I suspect this movie will do fine at the box office. As for a darker and more mature version of the world of Oz, Universal owns the rights to Wicked the novel as well as Wicked the musical. It will only be a matter of time before Wicked in some form is made into a movie. But for now if Disney wants to make a competing series of Oz movies for a different audience what is the problem?
GDG-013 - I posted at the same time as you did but I'm in agreement with you. As a modern product this movie certainly has revisionist elements. They are visible in the trailer. Ultimately Disney probably is trying to deal with a juggling act between keeping true to the original world of Oz with its very black and white themes and good triumphing cleanly over bad while satisfying modern sensibilities with its complexities and ambiguities. Still, this looks to be a family movie despite some intense themes and as a Disney product that is what it should be (Quentin Tarentino can do his own movie version). Maybe the Wizard himself will be more complex in this movie than we are giving him credit for? We'll have to wait and see.
I think it looks way better than Alice in Wonderland, but I'm also nervous that it could fall into the same problems as Alice. I really like the fact that almost none of the main actors are being CG altered unlike in Alice in Wonderland
Shatterer - I'd love to see "Wicked" as a movie too, though from my understanding of reading within the past couple of years, the project's been placed on hold a number of times. Apparently some of main stubbling blocks involve music and performance rights, among the many. Nasty issues to be intangled with especially when it goes bad as Wicked has apparently done for its 'movie version'. Don't get me wrong about the 5-yr. old either, I think they should see these too and wholeheartly argree that's who the books were written for and to be enjoyed by in particular. Revisionist 'history' is almost always a new reality anyway so I can't see that being avoided here with this version. I still very much do look forward to viewing it.
Thanks for the information. Yeah, most of my information about a Wicked movie is several years old. That's unfortunate if it's in legal hell right now.
wow this looks amazing! looks like there being semi faithful to the oz books! and regards to the green screen acting, yes some but i read that rami manily used real sets and reference point animatronics for the actors and only cgi when needed so the china girl who was in the books in some scenes is in deed cgi but when he picks her up is an an animatronic.
Walt Disney has released a new trailer for director Sam Raimi's 
