Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz: Yellow Brick Road Race

The gang is running down the yellow brick road to catch the ice cream truck when they are run off by a gang of Wheelers. They claim legal ownership of the yellow brick road, but their deed is written in crayon and riddled with spelling errors. That doesn't deter the Wheelers, however, so Dorothy takes them to Ozma to arbitrate. The Wheelers eventually challenge Dorothy to a race—and she accepts! Ozma likes the idea, and it's on, even though the boys think it's not possible to win against the speedy Wheelers. On race day, each of our friends shows up in an appropriate car. The Tin Man has a tin steamer (it should have been a tin Lizzie!), the Scarecrow's looks like a bale of hay, the Lion's is a picnic basket, and Dorothy and Toto are in a little blue roadster. The Wheelers use team tactics and a few distractions to push Tin Man out of the race, but the Wheelers get caught in their own oil slick, almost knocking just about everyone down a cliff. Dorothy, who has been putterisg along, shows up and helps save them, then heads off to catch up to Crank, the leader of the Wheelers. Crank tries to kick up a dust storm, but in the process he breaks a wheel, He limps along to the finish line, but Dorothy's car nips him right at the end. As the new legal owner of the yellow brick road, she declares it open for everyone's use (as you'd expect). Ozma conjures up a bright emerald green flying roadster and challenges everyone to a race to Munchkinland, Dorothy puttering along in the rear.

This was probably the least Ozzy episode of this show so far, with everyone in cars. It struck me as being a cross between Tales of the Wizard of Oz and The Wacky Races (a revival of which was the other new show Boomerang announced alongside Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, by coincidence). Despite that, it was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed this one. In case anyone thinks this has overtones of "The Tortoise and the Hare", I think the writers recognized that, too. There was even a gag of a tortoise passing by Crank as he's limping along towards the end after he breaks his wheel. I was a little surprised when Ozma went along with a winner-takes-all race, as that seemed really out of character for her, but then I suppose there wouldn't have been an episode.