Category: 1970’s

SPOILER ALERT: Skip this bit if you haven’t read the book and are planning to do so!

At the beginning of this story, it is made quite clear that Dorothy Gale (the primary protagonist of many of the previous Oz books), is in the habit of freely speaking of her many adventures in the Land of Oz to her only living relatives, her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.  Neither of them believes a word of her stories, but consider her a dreamer, as her dead mother had been.  She is undeterred.

Later, it is revealed that the destruction of their farmhouse by the tornado back in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has left Uncle Henry in terrible debt.  In order to pay it, he has taken out a mortgage on his farm.  If he cannot repay his creditors, they will seize the farm, thus leaving Henry and his family homeless.  He is not too afraid for himself, but both he and his wife, Aunt Em, fear very much for their niece’s future.  Upon learning this, Dorothy quickly arranges with Princess Ozma to let her bring her guardians to Oz where they will be happier and forever safe.  Using the Magic Belt (a tool captured from the jealous Nome King Roquat), Ozma transports them to her throne room.  They are given rooms to live in and luxuries to enjoy, including a vast and complex wardrobe, and meet with many of Dorothy’s old friends, including the Cowardly Lion and Billina the Yellow Hen.

In the underground Nome Kingdom, the Nome King Roquat is plotting to conquer the Land of Oz and recover his magic belt, which Dorothy took from him in Ozma of Oz.  General Blug suggested that King Roquat have their forces dig a tunnel under the Deadly Desert.  After ordering the expulsion of General Blug (who will not agree to such an attack due to the powers of Princess Ozma) and the death of Colonel (who also refuses) where he was sliced thin in a torture chamber and fed to a bunch of Seven-Headed Dogs, King Roquat holds counsel with a veteran soldier called Guph.  Guph believes that against the many magicians of Oz (the reputation of which has grown in the telling), the Nome Army has no chance alone. He, therefore, sets out personally to recruit allies from other parts of Nonestica.

Dorothy, accompanied by the Wizard of Oz and several other friends, departs the Emerald City in a carriage drawn by the Wooden Sawhorse, intending to give her aunt and uncle a tour of the land.  Many of the people encountered have never been seen in other books:

The living cut-out paper dolls created by an immortal called Miss Cuttenclip.

The anthropomorphic jigsaw puzzles known as the Fuddles.

The loquacious Rigmaroles.

The paranoid Flutterbudgets.

The living kitchen utensils of Utensia.

The anthropomorphic pastries of Bunbury.

The civilized rabbits of Bunnybury.

A zebra who holds geographical disputes with a soft-shell crab.

Other figures, more familiar to readers of previous books, include the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow, as well as the four tribes of Oz (the Munchkins, the Quadlings, the Gillikins, and the Winkies).

The Nome General Guph visits three nations:

The Whimsies are a large and hulking race but possess disproportionately small heads the size of doorknobs.  This causes other species to call them stupid, stripping them of any self-esteem.  To deny this, the Whimsies wear enormous, luridly designed masks that cover all of their heads.  Their Chief agrees to the deal and sends Guph on his way.  The Chief of the Whimsies hopes that when the Nome King reclaims his Magic Belt, he can use its magic to make their heads the size of the masks they wear.

The Growleywogs are muscular giants, possessing no surplus flesh and no mercy.  They are arrogant and cruel. Their Grand Gallipoot agrees to the deal in exchange that they grant them 20,000 slaves from the Land of Oz.  As such, they are eager not only to help the Nomes conquer Oz but also to secretly subjugate the Nomes as well.  Of the latter plan, they say nothing and send Guph on his way.

Last of his meetings is that which is with the mysterious, diabolical Phanfasms of Phantastico.  To Guph, the Phanfasms resemble hairy men but have the heads of various carnivorous mammals, birds, and reptiles. Their true forms, number, standard of living, culture, and extent of influence remain unknown to both Guph and the reader, although both receive hints in the narrative.  The first Phanfasm that Guph encountered was one with the head of an owl after getting past the scarlet alligator on the bridge.  Their bear-headed leader called the First and Foremost agrees to the deal so that they can make people unhappy.  The Phanfasms tell him that they will conquer Oz alongside the other armies, but they have a secret plan to turn traitor and dominate their allies.  Of the latter plan, they say nothing and send Guph on his way.

Having learned of this through Ozma’s omniscient Magic Picture, the people of Oz become worried.  As the Nomes dig a tunnel for the combined armies to get under the Deadly Desert to the heart of the Emerald City, Ozma uses her Magic Belt to wish for a large amount of dust to appear in the tunnel.  Upon emerging, the Nome King’s allies, therefore, drink thirstily from the nearby Fountain of Oblivion, whose waters make them forget their evil plans.  The Nome King himself avoids the drink but is thrown into the fountain by the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, which erases his memory too.

Ozma uses the Magic Belt to send the Nome King and his allies back to their respective lands.  To forestall a future invasion of Oz, Glinda the Good Witch uses a magic charm to render Oz invisible and unreachable to everyone except those within the land itself.

Read more about The Emerald City Of Oz here.

The above articles were sourced from Wikipedia and are subject to change.   

SPOILER ALERT: Skip this bit if you haven’t read the book and are planning to do so!

While Dorothy Gale is at home in Kansas one day, she and her pet dog Toto meet the Shaggy Man who comes walking past the Gale farm.  He is a friendly, yet slightly senile hobo with an optimistic, carefree mentality.  He politely asks Dorothy for directions to Butterfield, which is the nearest town on the prairie.  The girl agrees to show him the way, bringing her dog with her.  Further on, the road splits into seven paths.  They take the seventh one and soon find themselves lost in what appears to be another dimension.  The trio meets Button-Bright, a cute and wealthy little boy in a sailor’s outfit who is always getting lost.  Later, the companions encounter Polychrome, the beautiful and ethereal Daughter of the Rainbow who is stranded on earth.  Polychrome explains that she accidentally fell off her father’s bow while dancing on it.  The bow ascended into the atmosphere and back into the clouds before she was able to climb her way back on it, thus being left behind.

Dorothy, Toto, the Shaggy Man, Button-Bright, and Polychrome eventually come to the peculiar town of Foxville, where anthropomorphic foxes live.  With prompting from King Dox of Foxville, Dorothy deduces that she and Toto are obviously on another fairy adventure that will ultimately lead them to the magical Land of Oz, just in time for Princess Ozma’s royal birthday party (which is now acknowledged as August 21 by Oz fans, even though the book only refers to the 21st of the month, Dorothy having mentioned that the current month is August in another passage).  The king takes a particular liking to Button-Bright, whom he considers astute and clever due to his tabula rasa-like mind.  Believing that the human face does not suit one so clever, Dox gives him a fox’s head which he is unable to remove.  A similar event subsequently happens to the Shaggy Man, when King Kik-a-Bray of Dunkiton confers a donkey’s head upon him — also in reward for cleverness, even though it is implied that Foxville and Dunkiton exist at odds with one another.  Though both of them ask Dorothy to procure them invitations to Princess Ozma’s birthday party.

After meeting the Musicker, who produces music from his breath, and fighting off the Scoodlers, who fight by removing their own heads and throwing them at the travellers, Dorothy and her companions reach the edge of the fatal Deadly Desert completely surrounding Oz.  There, the Shaggy Man’s friend Johnny Dooit builds a sand-boat by which they may cross.  This is necessary, because physical contact with the desert’s sands, as of this book and Ozma of Oz (1907), will turn the travellers to dust.

Upon reaching Oz, Dorothy and her companions are warmly welcomed by the mechanical man Tik-Tok and Billina the Yellow Hen.  They proceed in the company to come in their travels to the Truth Pond where Button-Bright and the Shaggy Man regain their true heads by bathing in its waters.  They meet the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and Jack Pumpkinhead who journey with them to the imperial capital called Emerald City for Ozma’s grand birthday bash.  Dorothy meets up with Ozma as her chariot is pulled in by the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger.

As preparations for Ozma’s birthday party are made, the guests include Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion, the Wizard of Oz, Jack Pumpkinhead, the Sawhorse, Tik-Tok, Billina, Jellia Jamb, Woggle-Bug, Hungry Tiger, the Good Witch of the North, Shaggy Man, Button-Bright, Polychrome, and characters from all over Nonestica (such as Santa Claus, a band of Ryls, and a bunch of Knooks from the Forest of Burzee, Queen Zixi of Ix, the Queen of Merryland, four wooden soldiers, and the Candy Man from Merryland, the Braided Man from Boboland’s Pyramid Mountain, the Queen of Ev, King Evoldo, and his nine siblings from the Land of Ev, King Bud and Princess Fluff from Noland, and John Dough, Chick the Cherub, and Para Bruin the Rubber Bear from Hiland and Loland) as well as invitations to King Dox, King Kik-a-Bray, and Johnny Dooit.  Though Princess Ozma couldn’t procure an invitation to the Musicker due to a chance that his uncontrollable vocal tic might arouse violence against him.  The Shaggy Man receives permission to stay in Oz permanently.  He is given, in addition to this, a new suit of clothes having bobtails in place of his former costume’s ragged edges, so that he may retain his name and identity.

After everyone has presented their gifts and feasted at a lavish banquet in Ozma’s honour, the Wizard of Oz demonstrates a method of using bubbles as transportation by which to send everyone home.  Polychrome is finally found by her rainbow family and she is magically lifted into the sky when she climbs back onto her bow.  Button-Bright goes home with Santa Claus in a soap bubble with the Sawhorse loaned to Santa Claus. Dorothy and Toto are finally wished back home to Kansas again by Ozma’s use of the Magic Belt.

Read more about The Road To Oz here.

The above articles were sourced from Wikipedia and are subject to change.   

SPOILER ALERT: Skip this bit if you haven’t read the book and are planning to do so!

On an ocean voyage with her uncle Henry to Australia, Dorothy is blown into the sea by a storm.  She takes refuge on a floating chicken-coop, which washes ashore, along with the coop and a hen in it.  The hen is able to speak; Dorothy gives it the name Billina.  Exploring the land, Dorothy and Billina are menaced by a tribe of brightly dressed “Wheelers”, who have wheels instead of hands and feet.  They also find a clockwork man named Tik-Tok (one of the first intelligent humanoid automatons in literature), who joins them.

Tik-Tok informs Dorothy and Billina that they are in the Land of Ev, which currently has no competent ruler, its king having committed suicide after selling his family to the Nome King.  The three visit the castle of Princess Langwidere, who has many exchangeable, detachable heads.  When Dorothy refuses to let Langwidere take her head and add it to her collection, Langwidere has a tantrum and locks Dorothy in a high tower within the palace.

Luckily, Princess Ozma and her Royal Court of Oz (many of whom appeared in the two previous Oz books) just happen to cross over the Deadly Desert on a mission to free the royal family from the Nome King.  Upon arriving, Ozma takes charge and has Dorothy, Billina and Tik-Tok released from Langwidere’s custody.  The three join Ozma’s expedition to the Kingdom of the Nomes.

When they arrive, the Nome King reveals that he has magically transformed the royal family into decor ornaments.  When Ozma asks him to release them, he offers a bargain: the Oz people may enter his chambers and try to guess which of the Nome King’s many ornaments they are, but if they fail to guess correctly, they will also become ornaments themselves.  Ozma, the twenty-seven soldiers of the Royal Army of Oz, including the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and Tik-Tok, all suffer this bizarre fate.  Dorothy luckily selects one ornament which turns out to be one of the royal family’s young princes.

That night, Billina overhears the Nome King discussing his transformations with another Nome, and learns how to recognize, by colour, which ornaments are transformed people.  She also learns that the King’s magic powers come from the Magic Belt that he wears.  She is, therefore, able to free all the transformations.  By exploiting the Nomes’ fear of eggs, the Oz people are able to capture the magic belt and escape the Nome Kingdom with the royal family of Ev.

After returning the royal family of Ev to their throne, Ozma, Dorothy, and the others finally return to the country of Oz where a great victory celebration is held in the Emerald City’s royal palace.  Dorothy is officially made a Princess of Oz, Billina elects to remain in Oz, and Ozma uses the magic belt to send Dorothy to Kansas where she is happily reunited with her Uncle Henry.

SPOILER ALERT: Skip this bit if you haven’t read the book and are planning to do so!

Dorothy is a young girl who lives with her Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, and dog, Toto, on a farm on the Kansas prairie.  One day, she and Toto are caught up in a cyclone that deposits them and the farmhouse into Munchkin Country in the magical Land of Oz.  The falling house has killed the Wicked Witch of the East, the evil ruler of the Munchkins.  The Good Witch of the North arrives with three grateful Munchkins and gives Dorothy the magical silver shoes that once belonged to the Wicked Witch.  The Good Witch tells Dorothy that the only way she can return home is to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City and ask the great and powerful Wizard of Oz to help her.  As Dorothy embarks on her journey, the Good Witch of the North kisses her on the forehead, giving her magical protection from harm.

On her way down the yellow brick road, Dorothy attends a banquet held by a Munchkin named Boq.  The next day, she frees a Scarecrow from the pole on which he is hanging, applies oil from a can to the rusted joints of a Tin Woodman, and meets a Cowardly Lion.  The Scarecrow wants a brain, the Tin Woodman wants a heart, and the Lion wants courage, so Dorothy encourages them to journey with her and Toto to the Emerald City to ask for help from the Wizard.

After several adventures, the travellers arrive at the Emerald City and meet the Guardian of the Gates, who asks them to wear green-tinted spectacles to keep their eyes from being blinded by the city’s brilliance.  Each one is called to see the Wizard.  He appears to Dorothy as a giant head, to the Scarecrow as a lovely lady, to the Tin Woodman as a terrible beast, and to the Lion as a ball of fire.  He agrees to help them all if they kill the Wicked Witch of the West, who rules over Winkie Country.  The Guardian warns them that no one has ever managed to defeat the witch.

The Wicked Witch of the West sees the travellers approaching with her one telescopic eye.  She sends a pack of wolves to tear them to pieces, but the Tin Woodman kills them with his axe.  She sends a flock of wild crows to peck their eyes out, but the Scarecrow kills them by twisting their necks.  She summons a swarm of black bees to sting them, but they are killed while trying to sting the Tin Woodman while the Scarecrow’s straw hides the others.  She sends a dozen of her Winkie slaves to attack them, but the Lion stands firm to repel them.  Finally, she uses the power of her Golden Cap to send the Winged Monkeys to capture Dorothy, Toto, and the Lion, unstuff the Scarecrow, and dent the Tin Woodman.  Dorothy is forced to become the witch’s personal slave, while the witch schemes to steal her silver shoes.

The witch successfully tricks Dorothy out of one of her silver shoes.  Angered, she throws a bucket of water at the witch and is shocked to see her melt away.  The Winkies rejoice at being freed from her tyranny and help restuff the Scarecrow and mend the Tin Woodman.  They ask the Tin Woodman to become their ruler, which he agrees to do after helping Dorothy return to Kansas.  Dorothy finds the witch’s Golden Cap and summons the Winged Monkeys to carry her and her friends back to the Emerald City.  The King of the Winged Monkeys tells how he and his band are bound by an enchantment to the cap by the sorceress Gayelette from the North, and that Dorothy may use it to summon them two more times.

When Dorothy and her friends meet the Wizard again, Toto tips over a screen in a corner of the throne room that reveals the Wizard, who sadly explains he is a humbug—an ordinary old man who, by a hot air balloon, came to Oz long ago from Omaha.  He provides the Scarecrow with a head full of bran, pins, and needles (“a lot of bran-new brains”), the Tin Woodman with a silk heart stuffed with sawdust, and the Lion a potion of courage.  Their faith in his power gives these items a focus for their desires.  He decides to take Dorothy and Toto home and then go back to Omaha in his balloon.  At the send-off, he appoints the Scarecrow to rule in his stead, which he agrees to do after helping Dorothy return to Kansas.  Toto chases a kitten in the crowd and Dorothy goes after him, but the ropes holding the balloon break and the Wizard floats away.

Dorothy summons the Winged Monkeys and tells them to carry her and Toto home, but they explain they can’t cross the desert surrounding Oz.  The Soldier with the Green Whiskers informs Dorothy that Glinda, the Good Witch of the South may be able to help her return home, so the travellers begin their journey to see Glinda’s castle in Quadling Country.  On the way, the Lion kills a giant spider who is terrorizing the animals in a forest.  They ask him to become their king, which he agrees to do after helping Dorothy return to Kansas.  Dorothy summons the Winged Monkeys a third time to fly them over a hill to Glinda’s castle.

Glinda greets them and reveals that Dorothy’s silver shoes can take her anywhere she wishes to go.  She embraces her friends, all of whom will be returned to their new kingdoms through Glinda’s three uses of the Golden Cap: the Scarecrow to the Emerald City, the Tin Woodman to Winkie Country, and the Lion to the forest; after which the cap will be given to the King of the Winged Monkeys, freeing him and his band. Dorothy takes Toto in her arms, knocks her heels together three times, and wishes to return home.  Instantly, she begins whirling through the air and rolling on the grass of the Kansas prairie, up to the farmhouse, though the silver shoes fall off her feet en route and are lost in the Deadly Desert.  She runs to Aunt Em, saying “I’m so glad to be home again!”