Review: 'Guardians of Oz' breathes new life into old tale
Posted Monday, January 23, 2017 at 5:37 PM Central
by John Couture
There is no question that everything related to The Wizard of Oz is hot right now. L. Frank Baum published the original book ("The Wonderful World of Oz") in 1900 and subsequently published just over a dozen or so Oz books in the following 20 years, but despite the passage of time, it is a story that resonates as much today as it did at the turn of the last century.
Currently, many older audiences are finding new outlets for their favorite Oz characters in the musical Wicked or the series of books by Gregory Maguire that the play is based on. But, there seems to be a bit of untapped market for the original audience of the stories, children.
Sure, there was the 2013 film Oz: The Great and Powerful, but I still think that film skewed a bit older than the original stories. Enter this week's new DVD Guardians of Oz and I'm happy to report that they have finally catered a new story to the audience for which the original film was intended.
I just happen to have two kids that are smack dab in the middle of this demographic, so I was really looking forward to watching this film with them. As soon as I showed Guardians of Oz, they were incredibly excited. They loved The Wizard of Oz, but they have had a hard time finding age-appropriate stories set in this world.
If you're thinking that Guardians of Oz is simply another rehashing of the familiar story, then you couldn't be more wrong. This film is a brand new story that takes place after the events of The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy has returned to Kansas, but those left behind must pick up the pieces of her adventures in Oz.
I won't spoil it too much for you as I'm a firm believer that you should always experience films as unblemished as possible, but familiar characters return to help new characters overcome new challenges that do tend to ring familiar to the source material, and yet they also break new ground at the same time.
The film is from the same people that created the incredibly enjoyable The Book of Life in 2014 and you can certainly see that film's influence on Guardians of Oz in several subtle ways. The story is simple enough that my three-year-old had no trouble following it through its conclusion, but it also has enough panache that as an adult viewer I wasn't in the least bit bored.
It's a very fine line between catering to a younger audience and keeping those adults that are legally-mandated to watch with them for fear of tears from tearing out their eyes. Thankfully, the filmmakers here accomplish this task with much aplomb.
As the father of two toddlers, I can appreciate the need to find age-appropriate programming that is both entertaining and holds up to many, many repeat viewings. I'm happy to report that Guardians of Oz fulfills both of these mandates swimmingly. It is definitely a film that the entire family can enjoy.
Guardians of Oz is now available on DVD.
