Dee and Friends in Oz: The Movie

Last year, I switched my television provider from a satellite based one to an online streaming service. I'm getting a lot more variety at about the same price, so I'm not at all unhappy there. The two drawbacks are that I still can't get my regional sparts network (not witouh paying a lot more, anyway, which was also the case with the previous provider), and I had to send back the DVR with all the episodes of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz I hadn't watched. So I can't review season 3 until I have the income to buy it, or Max decides to show it in this country. But now I have Netflix, so I can watch another cartoon series, Dee and Friends in Oz. The series begins with an extended single-episode season 1 called Dee and Friends in Oz: The Movie. We first meet Dee Davis, a precocious seven-year-old from New Jersey who is staying with her grandmother for the summer. She is an avid reader, and wants to be the hero of a story. She gets her wish when a portal appears in her room and takes her to Oz. In this version of Oz, the good witch Miss Emerald wants to open a school of magic so that everyone can benefit from all the magic in the country. But her sister, Miss Ruby, is jealous and greedy and wants to keep all the magic for herself. Miss Ruby creates a machine to suck all the magic and color out of Oz, and locks Miss Emerald into a room in the Emerald City. But Miss Emerald has just enough power to send a message to Dee, tell her what's going on, and bring her to the Emerald City. Along the way, Dee meets Tin, Scarecrow, and Lion. Of course Miss Ruby and her minion, the flying teedy bear Stuffkins, try to stop them. But you know they're not going to succeed, right? Once Miss Ruby is dealt with, Miss Emerald invites Dee and her new friends to be the first students in her magic school.

First things first: I am a nearly sixty year old man. This show is not aimed at me! It it clearly aimed at preschoolers and other very young viewers. That's fine with me, I'm perfectly happy introducing people to Oz at any age and in any form. But this show may also be a little too cute and sweet for some viewers. Speaking as an Oz fan, I'm less happy that this version of Oz ignores most of the original version and many earlier offshoots. There is no Wizard, there are none of the usual witches (although Miss Emerald and Miss Ruby are good stand-ins), and Dorothy's three friends aren't seeking anything to improve themselves. I'm less unhappy that Tin and Scarecrow come from entire villages of people like them, as Tin Town and Straw Town are actually neat places. Dee makes for a great modern-day substitute for Dorothy, as she's clever and creative like any good kid visiting Oz should be. So I will have to see this as a version of Oz that's not so close to the books or most of the more well-known dramatizations, but I can live with it. And I look forward to watching the series.