A WARNING ABOUT OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL
Advertised as a prequel to Frank Baum’s classic satire The Wizard of Oz, the animated film Oz is anything but. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man are absent, and the only lion is fierce. Oz (played by James Franco) is a Kansas magician who lands somewhere after a tornado swallows his hot air balloon. He then uses 1905 technology to liberate the people from two witches. If there is anything resembling Baum’s story, it could be that a charlatan is welcomed to banish powerful interests that hold people in fear. Hmm. MH