Focused on a mission for Ozma to find a memory flower, Dorothy neglects Toto, who just wants to play fetch and get some belly rubs. Wilhelmina, noticing the situation and longing for a pet of her own, sends Frank and Lyman out to kidnap Toto. She bribes Toto with balls, toys (including a squeaky squirrel!), balls, kibble, anything a dog could love, but Toto still pines for Dorothy. Not to be denied, Wilhelmina finds a spell to turn Toto's love to her. Meanwhile, having found the flower, Dorothy realizes Toto is missing. The empty banana peels indicate that flying monkeys were involved, and they quickly figure out that Wilhelmina kidnapped Toto. They go to her castle, but Toto ignores Dorothy, until he gets a whiff of the memory flower. His happy memories of all his time with Dorothy is enough to overcome the spell, and our friends head back to the Emerald City. Wilhelmina, meanwhile, realizes they may not quite be pets, but Frank and Lyman are enough, and she plays fetch the squeaky squirrel with them.
This show may often aim for the funny bone, but this episode shows it has a heart, too. The flashbacks to Kansas are adorable (particularly when we see some of the same events from Toto's point of view), and done in colors so washed out that they evoke the sepia tones of The Movie. But it had its laughs, too, such as when Dorothy tells Toto no tummy rubs, and the Lion gets up from an identical position and says, "Oh, yeah, yeah, right, no belly rubs. Yeah, no time for belly rubs," as he sheepishly slinks off to keep looking for the flower. (Now I have visions of various versions of Dorothy giving tummy rubs to various incarnations of the Lion.)
1 comment:
I pretty much spent the whole episode relating moments to my dogs. My old dachshund, Roxie, used to roll on her back for tummy rubs, Gus has a squeaky squirrel, and Obie loves to play fetch and ignores everyone but Dad.
Post a Comment