Thursday, January 14, 2021

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz: The Wizard Gets Witched

I seem to have a little extra time on my hands, for once, so I may as well see if I can knock a few more of these out and play some catch-up. The Wizard is feeling lonely, and has no one to share his successful (?) magic with. The Wicked Witch, spying on him, decides to use his loneliness to marry the Wizard! Wilhelmina points out that the Witch is really not his type, but goes ahead and whips up a love potion for her auntie. Not having any fairy dust, however, Wilhelmina uses ordinary floor dust. (Okay, I already sense trouble coming. But I have now seen a lot of this show.) The Witch covers a green shoe leather pie with the potion and, as she heads to the Emerald City, sings a song! (Oh, good, someone finally remembers that the original movie was a musical.) She offers the Wizard the pie as a peace offering, he takes a big slice, and sure enough, the Wizard falls in love with the Wicked Witch of the West! (Wow, a phrase I never thought I'd ever type.) Dorothy, the boys, and Ozma turn up as they get engaged and try to talk the Wizard out of it, but to no avail. Dorothy, suspicious that the Wizard is under a spell, asks Ozma if she can undo it, but being a good witch, Ozma can't undo a bad witch's spell. At what I like to think is the Wash and Brush Up Co., the Wizard sings a love song about the Witch while being primped. Back at her castle, the Wicked Witch continues the song about making Oz pay while Wilhelmina and the monkeys make her up. At the wedding chapel, everyone is still trying to talk the Wizard out of it, but the blushing bride flies in on her brooms and the Wizard is lost fo good. Wilhelmina starts the ceremony, which gives Dorothy an idea. If only a bad witch can undo the spell, there's only one person who can help. During the vows, the Wizard goes on about how they'll always be together, do everything together, start a family together, and nothing will ever be the same again. It's too much, even getting her powers back isn't enough to entice he Witch to do that, so she calls it off and asks Wilhelmina to break the spell. A little more dust, and it's done. The Witch and the Wizard run away from each other, and Wilhelmina vows never to get married or plan another wedding. She's still not happy that she isn't going to get her castle back to just herself, though. Back in the palace, Dorothy assures the Wizard that there's someone out there for him, as there are lots of bricks in te yellow brick read.

Okay, first, the almost-marry-the-villain-because-of-a-love-potion story has been done to pieces in cartoons. But this one also felt like it was going somewhere, but then didn't. The fairy-vs-floor-dust thing was a non starter, and Dorothy didn't trick Wilhelmina into undoing the spell, she just managed to use a little psychology on the Wicked Witch by having the Tin Woodman ask to hear their vows. Maybe this was a case of the script needing one more pass to tighten it up. The songs, however, were fun, and made this episode a little different.

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