We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz

I have to admit that I'd never seen this movie. Never in my childhood, not even in my teens. So watching it, especially while taking this class was very interesting. Because even though I'd never seen it, not even parts of it, I knew the entire story. The dialogue, the plot, and even all of the character's names. So I started to ask myself why? Why do I know all of these things when I'd never actually experienced them?

First I will start with the dialogue. So many lines from this movie have been used in numerous other movies and shows. For example the lines like: "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too," the song "Somewhere over the rainbow," the song "we're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz," the song 'Ding, dong the witch is dead," "Follow the yellow brick road," "lions and tigers and bears, oh my," "tap your heels together, 3 times," and so much more. I honestly found myself singing along, and reciting the words that I've never heard in that context before. It was surreal, to have never seen something, but know all about it, almost like deja You.

There are also certain scenes that from other movies, that now that I've seen 'the Wiz' make so much more sense. For example, the little Wizard having a huge voice is found in Disney's Chicken Little. At the end of that movie, after the town has been taken over by aliens, you find out that the alien with the huge voice (from the alien who was trying to find his son) was actually a tiny little alien, whose wife even made fun of him for using his 'big voice.' Another specific example, is in the new Peter Pan film released by Columbia Pictures, has a scene in which Peter is trying to bring Tinkerbell back to life and he chants: "I do believe in fairies, I do, I do!" which is very similar to the scene in "The Wizard" where the lion chants "I do believe in spooks, I do, I do!" There is also the hourglass in Aladdin where Jasmine's 'time is running up', like Dorothy's. Another (though not as strong) example is in Mel Brook's Robin Hood, Men in tights when Robin is trying to save them from the knights, and he cuts the rope to make the chandelier fall. At first he cuts the wrong one "wrong rope," but then he cuts the right one "right rope." This is similar, although a satire of the scene in the 'The Wizard' when the scarecrow cuts the rope to make the chandelier fall on the evil monkeys.

I found these similarities, and the lines I knew without seeing this movie before striking, and so very interesting that I had to comment on them. I'm sure that there are a ton more things that I will actually understand now after seeing this movie, and I might even have to watch it again.