Monday, March 30, 2020

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz: Ozmosis

The legendary Helmet of Ozmosis is discovered, and brought to Ozma for safe keeping. It is said that it can grant the wearer unspeakably unlimited magic power, and used to be the property of an evil sorcerer. Ozma entrusts Dorothy and the boys to take it to the vault in the Castle of Not What It Seems, on the far side of Ix. Of course, the Wicked Witch and an indifferent Wilhelmina are after it. But then the Wizard finds out and follows the witches. Then Frank and Lyman, wondering what's up, follow the Wizard! Dorothy and the gang make it to the castle (in a remarkably short amount of time), and avoid a couple of booby traps to get in. It is not going to be easy to find that vault, however, as there are still many obstacles in the way. The witches and the Wizard then find their way in (with various degrees of avoiding the trap at the front door). Next, Dorothy and company are on the Staircase of No Return, which looks a lot like M. C. Escher's Relativity. The stairs eventually turn into ramps, and they all go sliding into something. The Wicked Witch walks into the next trap, and then Frank and Lyman arrive. They can't read the map, but they do find an elevator. Meanwhile, the witches and the Wizard are finding all kinds of obstacles to dodge, but Dorothy and the rest of the crew finally manage to find their way to the vault. But just as they're about to deposit the helmet, the Wicked Witch grabs it. As she's about to don it, however, the Wizard drops in (literally!) and takes it. Before he can do anything, however, he and the Wicked Witch gets in a tug-of-war over it, and it flies off—landing on Lyman's head just as he and Frank arrive in the elevator! Lyman is transformed into a giant monkey with ultimate power who commands the others to kneel. The Scarecrow says it would take a whole boatload of magic to stop him, which gives Dorothy the idea to use the castle's bobby traps against Lyman! Dorothy taunts him, asd as he chases her away, Scarecrow tells everyone else to split up, and lead Lyman into trouble if they spot him. First up, Lyman chases Dorothy around the Staircase of No Return, but the staircase ramp slides him into Wilhelmina's path. She tells him, "You may be big and powerful, but you still smell like a monkey!" Lyman chases her for a while, but he gets banged up by a bunch of giant suits of armor wielding axes. Lyman chases the Tin Woodman across a giant table, only to then be chased by a giant lobster. He chases the Scarecrow into a hall of mirrors, only to get zapped by his own magic. Finally, battered, bruised, and exhausted, giant Lyman stumbles into the vault room, where the helmet falls off, and Dorothy and the Lion put it in the vault and seal it up. Even the Wicked Witch concedes she doesn't want that much evil power, and everyone heads home.

Wow, this one was all over the place, in a good way! The Helmet of Ozmosis is clearly a macguffin to get everyone to runaround a booby-trapped castle. But it is a surprisingly powerful macguffin that thankfully also turns out to be a Chekov's gun. Yes, someone had to wear it, and thank goodness it was Lyman! I doubt anybody else in that story would have worked, as Lyman would be the one least likely to make good use of it (although I could see a version with Dorothy putting it on and her own kind and generous nature overcoming the helmet's influence). So, to summarize, we have a dark and powerful magic device being used to set up a screwball runaround. But then the helmet gets used, and things get dark, only to result in another screwball runaround! Hey, it works for me. I also liked Wilhelmina being more annoyed by her aunt's latest plan than anything else, and also Dorothy and the boys recognizing her auntie as the bigger threat, as seen by their indifferent reaction when she introduces herself. (Okay, yeah, that's one gag you really need to see the episode to appreciate.)

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