Thanksgiving in the Land of Oz | |
---|---|
Genre | Animated TV special |
Written by | Romeo Muller |
Directed by | Charles Swenson |
Voices of | Sid Caesar Mischa Bond Robert Ridgely Joan Gerber Frank Nelson Lurene Tuttle Charles Woolf |
Composers | Stephen J. Lawrence David Campbell |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producer | Robert L. Rosen |
Producers | Romeo Muller Fred Wolf Charles Swenson |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Production company | Muller-Rosen Productions in association with Murakami-Wolf-Swenson Films |
Original release | |
Network | CBS |
Release | November 25, 1980 |
Thanksgiving in the Land of Oz is an animated Thanksgiving TV special that first aired on CBS on November 15, 1980. [1] The special was retitled Dorothy in the Land of Oz, with some of the references to Thanksgiving cut out, for the CBS repeat in 1981. [2]
Aunt Em is getting ready for a Thanksgiving feast when Dorothy spots someone getting away with the mince pie. It's the Wizard of Oz, who's created a new, green turkey-shaped balloon in the hopes of renting it out for a Thanksgiving parade. The balloon slips away into the sky, with Dorothy and Toto holding onto it, and they drift to Oz.
Jack Pumpkinhead welcomes Dorothy to Oz, but there's a new threat haunting the land: Tyrone, the Terrible Toy Tinker, who brings Dorothy's turkey balloon to life and plans to take over the Emerald City. Jack and Dorothy need to get to Tyrone's tower and stop him. They find that Dorothy's pie has come to life, and calls itself U.N. Krust: a pie that uses a different accent every time it speaks.
Walking to the tower, Dorothy tells Jack Pumpkinhead about Thanksgiving, lauding the Pilgrims' pioneering spirit. Along the way, they run into more new friends: the Hungry Tiger, who turns out to be a vegetarian, and Tic Toc (sic) the mechanical man. As the group nears the tower, the green turkey picks up Dorothy and brings her to Tyrone. Dorothy scolds Tyrone for being a bad person, and encourages him to use his powers to make toys for Christmas instead.
A victorious Dorothy is brought to the Emerald City, where she meets Queen Ozma. Ozma rewards Dorothy by bringing her uncle and aunt to Oz forever, so they can have a Thanksgiving feast for all of their Ozite friends.
The special included three songs: "Oz Can Be", "Beans in Your Button" and "Christmas, Toys and Oz". [1]
The original special aired on CBS on November 15, 1980. The show was retitled Dorothy in the Land of Oz for its second CBS outing on December 10, 1981 and forever after. The special aired on Showtime in November 1985 and November 1986, [3] and on HBO in 1986 and 1987. [1]
In A Brief Guide to Oz, Paul Simpson wrote, "This animated special isn't well regarded, even though it incorporates some elements of the original Baum saga that rarely turn up elsewhere." [2]
In The Road to Wicked: The Marketing and Consumption of Oz from L. Frank Baum to Broadway, Kent Drummond, Susan Aronstein and Terri L. Rittenburg wrote, "Thanksgiving in Oz introduced what was to become a recurring theme of loss and return in post-70s Oz narratives. If MGM offered Oz to the young at heart, Thanksgiving in Oz used Oz to recall adults to their true selves." [4]
The yellow brick road is a central element in the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by American author L. Frank Baum. The road also appears in the several sequel Oz books such as The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) and The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913).
The Road to Oz is the fifth book in L. Frank Baum's Oz series. It was originally published on July 10, 1909 and documents the adventures of Dorothy Gale's fourth visit to the Land of Oz.
The Marvelous Land of Oz: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, commonly shortened to The Land of Oz, published in July 1904, is the second book in L. Frank Baum's Oz series, and the sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). This and the following 34 books in the series were illustrated by John R. Neill.
Ozma of Oz, published on July 30, 1907, was the third book of L. Frank Baum's Oz series. It was the first in which Baum was clearly intending a series of Oz books.
Dorothy Gale is a fictional character created by American author L. Frank Baum as the protagonist in many of his Oz novels. She first appears in Baum's classic 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels. In addition, she is the main character in various adaptations, notably the 1939 film adaptation of the novel, The Wizard of Oz.
Princess Ozma is a fictional character from the Land of Oz, created by American author L. Frank Baum. She appears for the first time in the second Oz book, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), and in every Oz book thereafter.
The Land of Oz is a magical country introduced in the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow.
Return to Oz is a 1985 dark fantasy film released by Walt Disney Pictures, co-written and directed by Walter Murch. It stars Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, and Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale in her first screen role. The film is an unofficial sequel to the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film The Wizard of Oz, and it is based on L. Frank Baum's early 20th century Oz novels, mainly Ozma of Oz (1907). In the plot, an insomniac Dorothy returns to the Land of Oz to find it has been conquered by the wicked Nome King and his accomplice Princess Mombi. Dorothy must restore Oz with her new friends Billina, Tik-Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead, and the Gump.
Jack Pumpkinhead is a fictional character from the Land of Oz who appears in several of the classic children's series of Oz books by American author L. Frank Baum. Jack first appeared as a main character in the second Oz book by Baum, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), and returned often in subsequent books. He got the starring role in Ruth Plumly Thompson's 1929 book Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz.
Journey Back To Oz is a 1972 American animated adventure musical fantasy film produced by Filmation. It is loosely based on L. Frank Baum's second Oz novel The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), although Baum received no screen credit.
Mombi is a fictional character in L. Frank Baum's classic children's series of Oz Books. She is the most significant antagonist in the second Oz book The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), and is alluded to in other works. Mombi plays a very important role in the fictional history of Oz.
Billina is a fictional character in the classic children's series of Oz books by American author L. Frank Baum. She is introduced in Ozma of Oz (1907).
Uncle Henry is a fictional character from The Oz Books by L. Frank Baum. He is the uncle of Dorothy Gale and husband of Aunt Em, and lived with them on a farm in Kansas.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, known in Japan as Ozu no Mahōtsukai (オズの魔法使い), is a Japanese anime television series adaptation based on four of the original early 20th century Oz books by L. Frank Baum. In Japan, the series aired on TV Tokyo from 1986 to 1987. It consists of 52 episodes, which explain other parts of the Oz stories, including the events that happened after Dorothy returned home.
A Barnstormer in Oz: A Rationalization and Extrapolation of the Split-Level Continuum is a 1982 novel by Philip José Farmer and is based on the setting and characters of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Jellia Jamb is a fictional character from the classic children's series of Oz books by American author L. Frank Baum. She is first introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), as the head maid who works in the royal palace of the Emerald City which is the imperial capital of the Land of Oz. In later books, Jellia eventually becomes Princess Ozma's favorite servant out of the Emerald City's staff administration. She is also the protagonist of Ruth Plumly Thompson's 1939 novel Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz. Her name is a pun on the phrase "Jelly or jam?"
Dorothy Meets Ozma of Oz is a 1987 direct-to-video animated short film introduced by Michael Gross of Family Ties. It is based on the 1907 novel Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
The Woggle-Bug is a 1905 musical based on the 1904 novel The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum, with book and lyrics by the author and music by Frederic Chapin that opened June 18, 1905 at the Garrick Theater in Chicago under the direction of Frank Smithson, a Shubert Organization employee. The musical was a major critical and commercial failure, running less than a month. Chapin, however, had proven quite saleable to the publisher, M. Witmark and Sons, and many of the songs were published. The music director was Frank Pallma. The surviving sheet music was published by Hungry Tiger Press in 2002.