Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz: Emerald Thumb

Ozma needs ingredients for a potion, but they can't find enough growing wild. Dorothy suggests planting a garden, but as often happens when creating something by committee, everyone has their own ideas of what to do. The Scarecrow wants to build the scarecrow first, the Tin Man tries to break up the soil with his axe, the Lion uses the rake as a backscratcher, and Toto just wants to dig. But Dorothy manages to straighten things out and sow the seeds, meaning a few weeks' wait for results. The Wizard comes by and puts a little magic into the garden to hurry things along, against Ozma's better judgement. Sure enough, a beautiful garden grows almost instantly. The next morning, though, all the plants are gone! It looks like a monster or a giant came and ate them all, and then skedaddled down the yellow brick road. Some giant holes at first seem to indicate gophers, but instead some giant Audrey II-style plants, with eyes and mouths and long twining arms, emerge. (The Wizard thinks his spell may have worked a little too well!) The encounter does not go well, and it soon becomes clear that the plants need to be stopped before they can gobble up all of Oz. Meanwhile, Wilhelmina is trying to give Frank and Lyman their biannual bath, but are interrupted by the plants climbing up the castle walls! Wilhelmina tells them to stop, and they do! She's green, so they appear to respect her. She puts them through their paces, and then has them try to capture Dorothy and the gang when they turn up. A little wilting magic from Ozma stops them, but then Wilhelmina fortifies them with more green magic. It backfires, however, and the plants turn on Wilhelmina and the Wicked Witch. Another zap from Ozma doesn't stop them this time, so Dorothy figures frost will stop them. Nope, they just throw snowballs back. A plague of insects doesn't work, either. Finally, Toto suggests a rabbit. Ozma conjures one up (a classic magic trick, of course), the Wizard uses his magic to make it grow, and the giant bunny eats the plants. The day is saved, and Wilhelmina and the Witch aren't terribly grateful! Now the problem becomes what to do about the giant bunny as it takes a bite out of the Emerald City.

I think it's fair to say that this show has become a slapstick farce. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Yeah, it was silly, but the plants do add an air of menace, and Dorothy does manage to use her Kansas smarts and logic to deal with the problem. Now if only the Wizard can learn the limits of his own magic, they can actually get things done!