Monday, January 13, 2020

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz: Too Predictable

The Wizard shows off his latest invention: the Predictilizer. It predicts the future, of course. Just about everyone buys into it, but Dorothy is skeptical. But when it predicts the Wicked Witch and Wilhelmina's latest evil scheme to steal the Ruby Slippers, the Wizard is able to easily thwart them. Looking at the predictions, the only recourse Dorothy and the gang have to take care of the witches is to confine them to their castle. The Lion even volunteers for guard duty, since the predictilizer can tell him what they're going to do next. But Wilhelmina manages to get ahold of the predictions, and she and the Wicked Witch figure out what's going on, and concoct a scheme to short circuit it by doing nothing at all! Sure enough, it works, and the predictilizer is on the blink. In the uncertainty, Wilhelmina steals the predictilizer, which allows her to find Dorothy no matter where she commands the Ruby Slippers to take her! Dorothy figures that the way to confuse the predictilizer is for everyone to act unpredictably. The Lion is brave! The Scorecrow is dumb! The Tin Man shows no emotions whatsoever! Dorothy tries to be selfish and unhelpful! (Even Toto tries to meow, but that doesn't last long.) Sure enough, the predictilizer is confused and can't make predictions, allowing the Cowardly Lion to steal it back. Then there is a brief comic chase which ends with the predictilizer smashing to pieces. Oh, well, back to everyone's regular, unpredictable lives!

This was a fun one, with characters doing odd things because they know what will happen next. And then characters do different odd things to try to confuse the predictilizer! The chase scene is fun, too, in that now-clichéd screwball comedy way. Dorothy even grabs the broom out from under the witches! Even the Tin Man gets a laugh in by acting like he doesn't care about how dumb the Scarecrow is acting.

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