Podcast catchups!

 So, this year, we have no less than four new adaptations of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus to enjoy.

First off is one I had a little hand in from The OzConnection, the YouTube channel of OzCon International. The OzConnection presents videos about Oz as well as other fun videos for Oz fans, many in connection with its Zoom hangouts that have served as a temporary substitute for Oz conventions. Some OzCon presentations have even been revived on The OzConnection as videos.

In this adaptation, Raymond Wohl—who previously presented a one man show about L. Frank Baum—prepared and performed a one-man abridgement of Baum's Santa Claus novel, now told through the POV of Claus himself. In the abridgement, however, the story of the Awgwas was dropped. My involvement was helping to promote it when it was streamed live over Zoom, as well as finding scans of the color plates from the Mary Cowles Clark illustrations, which are used to illustrate the story. Raymond Wohl makes for a jolly Santa Claus. The YouTube version is presented in six parts.

Another adaptation is through Lifeline on the Air's podcast, which adapts the story with a full cast, borrowing the adaptation angle taken in the Rankin-Bass adaptation with the Immortals' deliberations to grant Claus the Mantle of Immortality becoming the framing story. It also omits the Awgwas. The

One I haven't listened to yet is from The Empty Space, which offers their adaptation for $10. Listed as an "Audioventure," it seems the Awgwas here become the "Gorpoks."

Finally, Aron Toman released his adaptation of the story as part of The Chronicles of Oz in his Crossover Adventure Productions podcast. It's a largely faithful adaptation, hitting most of the highlights of the book's story, just now tying it closer to Oz. Just as we've come to expect from the first three seasons of The Chronicles of Oz, there's a few twists and turns to keep the purist guessing! There was one point where I expected one twist to happen, and wound up getting another one.

I did get involved with this one as I actually have a cameo in it! The link says who. There's also my dear OzCon friend Erica Olivera. It's a well-produced adaptation with a cinematic-worthy sound design and even features an original song.

In other podcast happenings, Tara and Em Kay of Down the Yellow Brick Pod have concluded their first season, as they read through The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, one chapter a week. The two are not Oz historians, but do turn to some good sources about the work and offer their own commentary on the story and W.W. Denslow's original illustration. Their energetic nature makes the podcast a delightful listen. I'd recommend it even to seasoned Oz fans as it may inspire them to think about Oz in ways they haven't before.

In addition to their commentary about the work, they talk to other Oz fans in special episodes, as well as present the monthly "Yellow Brick Crossroads" episodes in which they talk about their interactions with their listeners. A major way to interact is on their Instagram, in which they post several different illustrations, as well as offer recaps in their stories. They have also launched a Patreon page, which will offer more ways to interact in return for some cash to keep the podcast running. They'll launch their second season soon, which will look at musical adaptations of the story, especially the MGM film.

The Chronicles of Oz Season Three: Ozma of Oz review

Aron Toman and company have done it again with the third season of The Chronicles of Oz, a series in the Crossover Adventure Productions podcast that adapts the Oz series with each book turning into six episodes.

I might as well address that the series debuted later than writer/director Toman had intended, but I'm certainly not one to judge. The series is still just as well-produced as ever and still doesn't carry advertising or fundraising pleas, although if they had to turn to that, I would understand. The production took longer, Toman still has a job and other commitments, a podcast that doesn't directly produce revenue (outside of merchandise available through their website).

A change in this season was that episodes were released weekly instead of biweekly as the first two seasons were. For us in the US, that meant we got the episodes late on Saturday afternoon or early evening. Trailers for the next episode were released midweek. This was a nice pace of release, but still.

If this is your first exposure to The Chronicles of Oz, Toman voices the Scarecrow while various performers voice other characters: Kirsten Page as Ozma, Kara Dennison as Dorothy, Jennifer Alyx as Billina, Rob Lloyd as Tik-Tok, Scobie Parker as the Tin Woodman, Tom Denham as the Lion, Elise D'Amico as the Wicked Witch of the West and David Coonan as the Nome King.

If you're wondering why the Wicked Witch is around, hang in there.

I recently commented to Toman that if the Oz books were like Marvel Comics, then his series is like the Ultimate universe: a new incarnation revised for modern audiences that can be enjoyed alongside the original and other versions. "Just I don't hate all the characters except one or two," I added.

There will be some spoilers from here on, so if you want the joy of experiencing it for yourself the first time, look up "Crossover Adventure Productions" in your podcast service of choice or go to ChroniclesOfOz.com.

Each episode starts with Ozma telling of the history of Oz. It's here that we can be sure that while Toman is giving an interpretation of Baum's work, it is not meant to be actually Baum's world as some will notice bits that don't quite gel with Baum lore. Many of these contain Easter eggs to other adaptations of Oz: queens named Tryxie (after Tryxie Trifle in the original Wizard of Oz musical extravaganza) and Azkadellia (from the Wicked Witch incarnation in SyFy's Tin Man). The last episode actually skews away from this format, but I won't spoil it.

The story proper begins not with Dorothy and Uncle Henry, but in the Emerald City as Ozma prepares to hang the Magic Picture that she tries to enchant with her fairy magic. As the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Lion arrive, Ozma prepares to go on a mission to answer a call for help from the Land of Ev from beyond the desert. The army and Hungry Tiger are not included as Toman decided that it created too many characters who didn't contribute to the story much. That said, he has said that the Hungry Tiger might pop up later. The first episode ends with Ozma and her company arriving at Langwidere's castle where an angry mob is outside and the vain princess seems oblivious but is angered when the Lion discovers that Dorothy is in the tower room and forces Langwidere to free her.

Part of this change to the story's format was to not feel like a retread of Disney's Return to Oz, but also to make Ozma the central character. The story is named after her, but in Baum's original, she's very much upstaged by Dorothy and Billina. It's a smart storytelling decision. allowing Ozma to step up as a ruler and prove herself, not just to Dorothy and her famous friends, but also to herself.

Ozma agrees to help quell a rebellion in Ev by freeing the Royal Family (reduced to just the Queen and her two children here) and restoring them, with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Lion, along with Tik-Tok and Billina.

Oh, and one other character who only Dorothy knows is around: the Wicked Witch of the West, who is now haunting Dorothy as a voice in her head.

Toman has been planning this adaptation for some time and an expanded role for the Wicked Witch is a part of it, and was teased at the start of Season 2 when she vows to find Ozma after the Wizard takes over. Where this plot will go already has me interested in future seasons.

The Nome King doesn't really pop up until the end of Episode 4 with that episode and the previous one featuring the characters having many new adventures on the way. There's the Giant with the Hammer, but also none other than Dr. Nikidik, who wants to study some of the more curious members of the party. While looking for water, Ozma runs across none other than the Phanfasms! There's quite a bit of "Season 6" foreshadowing.

This might be one of the best adaptations of Ozma of Oz out there, possibly even better than Disney's Return to Oz by giving both Dorothy and Ozma character arcs, creating an exciting storyline as well as building into a over arcing series. Quite worth checking out!

I'm very much looking forward to whenever Toman and company are ready to send us on a new adventure with Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.

Jay watched more of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz

Well, it's been awhile since I sat down to the first thirteen episodes of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. Several more episodes were released, finally, I decided to sign up for Boomerang for a month and catch up. If you remember my issues with streaming the series, I now have a phone capable of running the app and using the Chromecast feature was a breeze.

If you're a fan of Looney Tunes, Popeye, Johnny Quest, The Smurfs, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, the Jetsons, Tom and Jerry or Scooby-Doo, you'll find the Boomerang streaming service well worth the $5 a month. I was also pleased to find that the older Garfield animated specials featuring Lorenzo Music were available, including some I'd never seen before but had seen the comic adaptations of. Apparently, the service is currently featuring the Captain Planet series for a limited time.

The series continues with more adventures of this kid-friendly amalgamation of imagery from the MGM movie and concepts and characters from the books. Characters from Dot and Tot of Merryland and The Sea Fairies pop up and one episode even took a plot element from The Royal Book of Oz. Each episode is only about 11 minutes long, so they never overstay their welcome. Make sure you see my above linked previous blog entry about the setup for the series.

Of course the series doesn't faithfully follow the books, but you never know that it might wind up being what gets new fans to check out the original books for their own.

• "Wand-erful" - This episode sees the debut of the series' version of Glinda, capably voiced by Grey Griffin as she loses her wand just as she needs to whip up a bubble to protect Emerald City from a storm.

• "No Sleep Sleepover" - When Ozma and Dorothy have a sleepover with their friends (including the Patchwork Girl), Wilhelmina interrupts it using her magic.

• "Lion Catches A Bug" - Dorothy needs Lion to face a threat to the forest, but he's come down with a bug.

• "Tik Tok and Tin Man" - Tik-Tok makes his debut in this episode as Dorothy and her friends find him, but he needs some repairs and joins them to find some new springs. Tin Man feels indignant at the presence of a new metal man.

• "If I Only Had Some Brawn" - Scarecrow goes for a bulkier body to impress Patchwork Girl, but the new brawn seems to decrease the powers of his brain.

• "The Beast Royales" - Wilhelmina kidnaps a popular band and it's up to Dorothy and her friends to find them in time for the concert.

• "Time After Time"- Wilhelmina tries to use a time-turning hourglass to steal the Ruby Slippers.

• "Kitten Around" - Dorothy and her friends find a lost kitten they name Eureka and help her find her home, which has been attacked by a Rak. (It looks more like a griffin, however.)

• "Castle Sitters"- Dorothy and her friends have to care for Glinda's castle while she's away.

• "Stuck on You" - A magic locket makes Ozma and Dorothy get stuck together.

• "Family Matters" - Dorothy and her friends try to help the Woozy find his family.

• "The Emerald of Zog" - To defend Emerald City from the Jewel Mule, Dorothy and her friends go to fetch a sea emerald, but a sea creature named Zog demands the gem.

• "Cooking Up Some Magic" - Dorothy and the gang accidentally make a batch of gingerbread men who come to life.

• "Copy Cat" - Stealing a magical device that makes copies of things, Wilhelmina clones herself to conquer Oz.

• "Snow Place Like Home" - When Ozma makes it snow over Emerald City, Wilhelmina attempts to steal the magical snow globe to make the capitol of Oz freeze over.

• "Mirror Madness" - After stealing a magic mirror, Wilhelmina accidentally creates a monstrous version of herself.

• "Everything Coming Up Poppies" - Lion accidentally uses poppies from the deadly poppy field to make a float celebrating Ozma. Wilhelmina tries to use the situation to her advantage.

• "A Cut Above the Rest" - In her first formal function as a princess, Dorothy is nervous about meeting royalty. Too bad Wilhelmina's monkeys Lyman and Frank slipped magic marbles into Dorothy's dress that causes magical mishaps.

• "Abraca-Oops" - Dorothy accidentally causes Ozma's magic to be temporarily deactivated when the ruler is supposed to compete in a contest in which the winner will get a single wish granted. One of the other contenders? Wilhelmina.

• "Halloween Heist" - The first part of a Halloween special, Wilhelmina attempts to spoil a Halloween party by bringing to life a pumpkin-headed man, Jack Pumpkinhead, however, Dorothy's friendship might be more effective than Halloween scares.

• "Haunt Me Not" - Dorothy and her friends go trick-or-treating and come across a creepy house inhabited by a strange being that steals their candy.

• "Wheelers Of Fortune" - When a stretch of the Yellow Brick Road disappears, Dorothy and her friends have to find the culprit.

• "Sister Sister" - Glinda's evil twin Belinda is introduced. The Munchkins mix up the twins, much to the detriment of Glinda's reputation.

• "Moody Magic" - While trying to keep the Hungry Tiger sated to keep him from Dainty China country, Wilhelmina controls a magic mood ring that makes Dorothy act up.

• "If the Shoe Fits" - When Wilhelmina steals one of the Ruby Slippers, she attempts to use it, sending her to Under, where all broken magical items go. Dorothy and her friends have to find Wilhelmina and retrieve the stolen slipper.

• "Get Smart" - When the Woggle-Bug releases a book about the Great Rulers of Oz, the Nome King is furious that he isn't included. He hatches a plot to take over Oz so he can be included in the next edition.

• "Mission Imp-Possible" - When Wilhelmina gets some imps to play tricks on Dorothy, Ozma sends the fabulous foursome to assist the Zoop.

The Woodsman

When it was announced that I would be chairing OzCon 2018, I knew I wanted to reach out to one potential guest of honor in particular: James Ortiz.

James is the co-creator of the one-act play The Woodsman, a somewhat surreal experience that retells the story of how Nick Chopper came to be the Tin Woodman, based on the account in The Tin Woodman of Oz.

I had to admit, I wasn't familiar with The Woodsman, but I knew about it thanks to editing the Oz and Ends column for The Baum Bugle. A particular contributor sent me several updates about the show, so many that I had to remind him that we couldn't possibly use them all. Just that the show was opening, how long it'd be running, and a broadcast of the recording airing and appearing on BroadwayHD as an exclusive.

Well, now I have seen it. And everything positive I'd heard about the show was true. The show uses mainly music, visuals and human-produced sound effects to tell the story, the most dialogue being in an opening monologue to set the stage of this world. The characters of the Tin Woodman, the Wicked Witch and the animals of Oz are created through puppets, animated by actors onstage dressed as the Munchkins. Being a theatrical production, the audience is to use their imagination to fill in the gaps and pretend those people aren't there.

The show might be considered by some to be dark with the very creepy Wicked Witch and the original story of a man being dismembered being presented faithfully. Yet there's a spirit of whimsy present in the proceedings that feels right for Oz.

Well, luckily for OzCon, James did agree to attend, and he will be talking about some of the creation of the play in addition to screening a video recording of it. So, you can actually see it and learn more about it at OzCon this year if you register for it.

Don't miss meeting @jortface at #OzCon! Register today! Link is in the bio! #Oz #TheWizardofOz #TinWoodman #thewoodsmanplay #TheWoodsman #TinMan

A post shared by OzCon International (@ozconinternational) on Mar 31, 2018 at 5:36am PDT

Oz: Broken Kingdom

 Since switching to a more capable smartphone, I decided to install some of the recent Oz mobile games.

One of the more interesting ones is Oz: Broken Kingdom. At first glance, it looks like a standard fighting RPG with some dark Oz theme.

And...

Well...

It is.

But, it's a book-based dark Oz theme!

The game's story follows a young woman named Ophelia who washes up on the shores of Oz with her cat, who unfortunately died during the trip, but is revived when she's transformed into a crystal cat by Ozma. Ophelia becomes a freedom fighter for Oz, joining with the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and Lion.

A strange darkness has fallen over the Land of Oz. The Wicked Witch of the East has been revived and many creatures and folks have become aggressive, some even reversing their personalities. Dorothy and the Wizard are missing. Ozma has put the magic of Oz into gems to help protect it. It's up to the freedom fighters to travel through Oz and set it free once again.

There are a lot of characters from the books you'll run into during play: Tik-Tok, "Lady" Ann of Oogaboo, Professor Woggle-Bug, Kalidahs, Polychrome, Mrs. Yoop, the three Adepts, the First and Foremost of the Phanfasms, Jack Pumpkinhead, and the Nome King. The big bad seems to be an original villain.

The game is played through a series of battles you enter by selecting "nodes" from a map screen. You pick one of the fighters and before you enter, you can choose what abilities you can use during the fight.

Each node enters a battle that could be one to five waves of no more than three bad guys per wave. You can choose from four abilities. One of these is free to use at all times. The others use mana, which if you've played other RPG video games, is your points for special moves. These can be offensive abilities, healing abilities, or abilities that will prepare you for a major attack on your next turn. Each turn gives you two mana to work with, and defeating a bad guy earns you an extra one.

And being an RPG, you also have a health meter that is drained as the bad guys attack you. You can use healing abilities or defense boosts to try to keep it from reaching 0. If it empties, you can use a life potion to continue your fight, but you can only do this once per battle.

Leveling up and "evolving" your heroes are of course included to encourage repeated play. The team levels up together, and experience points are earned by winning battles, completing tasks, opening chests won in the arena and upgrading abilities and companions. To "evolve" your heroes, you have to collect pearls. To upgrade your abilities, you collect cards and use essence to level them up once you have enough. Essence is earned all throughout the game with each battle, redeeming coins at the Well of Wonders, in chests won in the arena, and it's often given freely as a daily gift.

The game gives you free items every day. When you start the game, there's a screen that gives you a free gift each day, and signing in every day eventually gives you an extra one. The Great Tree of Oz gives you 25 free Emeralds every 24 hours, but the countdown to the next one begins when you collect them. Coins for the Well of Wonders in the Emerald City (which serves as the main base for the game) are given freely: a bronze coin is given once every 4 hours, and a silver coin is given once every 24 hours. The countdown to the next free coin begins when you redeem the last one. You can also purchase more coins with emeralds. Also, keep an eye on the mailbox in the Emerald City as it sometimes contains important messages that include free gifts.

The game also features an "arena," where you can fight other players throughout the world live. You pick two companions (who can be leveled up just like your abilities) to fight a randomly selected other player from anywhere in the world. Winning a match earns you trophies, losing a match costs you trophies. The more trophies you have, the higher your league, but if you lose enough matches, you can go back to a previous league. Defeating an opponent or their companion earns you a star, and when you earn 15, you can open a Star Chest which has more free items inside. Defeating your opponent instantly wins the match and earns you three stars and a chest of wood, silver or gold. Wooden chests take two hours to unlock, silver takes four, and gold takes eight, but you can use emeralds to open them right away or watch an advertisement to take an hour off of your wait time, but you can only do this once an hour. Chests contain essence, cards to upgrade your companions, and a few random items depending on what level chest you got: it could be a gem, a pearl or a coin for the Well of Wonders.

It's also possible to bolster your fighters with gems you can craft. Crafting takes essence and either ore or gems that are not equipped. You can craft ore into a common gem, then craft two common gems into an uncommon gem, and you get the idea. The higher evolved your heroes, the more gems can be equipped to them, and the more you're leveled up, the better the gems you can craft.

To encourage you to play every day, the game gives you daily tasks: upgrade three abilities, craft three gems, redeem five coins, win three battles with each fighter (you can go back and replay battles you're now overpowered for and it'll still count) and also purchasing emeralds (which I don't do). You are rewarded with experience points, essence and keys used to unlock certain nodes that'll lead you to special battles and treasures.

There is also a Rainbow Road event where you earn crystals. In Rainbow Road, you fight through increasingly difficult waves of baddies with handicaps: you only recover health after so many fights. (In regular battles, you instantly go back to full health once the battle's done.) There are also other status effects.

This being a mobile game, there's of course an item shop where you can use emeralds, crystals, essence or actual money to make purchases. Among these are pearls, gems, more emeralds and essence, cards and even adding Jack Pumpkinhead to your team of fighters. So far, I've only bought an occasional number of life potions, which are four for $.99, which seems pretty fair considering it's an item in a digital game. Money might not exist in Baum's Oz, but micro transactions keep the development of the game going. So while I'm not a fan of sinking a lot of money into a digital game, consider making an occasional purchase as a tip to the developers.

Playing through battles costs energy, which is replenished one unit every five minutes. The amount of energy you have increases by one unit every time you level up. You can also replenish your energy with an energy potion. Each series of stages generally use progressively more energy, tapping out at 10 per battle.

Leveling up tip: if you perform really well in a battle, it's marked with three stars. You can replay any battle, but if you earned three stars, you can "raid" it instead for the same amount of energy it would take to play it. Raiding gives you all the rewards you would have gotten for playing through. It's a good way to earn more essence and experience points if you have extra energy and aren't ready to progress further into the game's battles. Note that raiding is not counted towards winning a battle with a character for your daily tasks.

For being this type of RPG, the story is fairly well-done and the graphics are quite beautiful and detailed, although some depictions of the Oz characters are rather unique. The sound is also rather immersive, although it can be turned off. The Android version uses your Google login to record your progress, so presumably (but I haven't tested this) you can continue playing if you switch to another device.

If you're a gamer who enjoys Oz, Oz: Broken Kingdom might prove quite a bit of fun. It's available for iOS and Android mobile platforms.

Ages of Oz: A Fiery Friendship

Given the current age of self-publishing, an Oz book released by a major publisher is pretty interesting. Enter Gabriel Gale's Ages of Oz: A Fiery Friendship.

Gabriel Gale has been the subject of a featured article in The Baum Bugle, and has featured at Ozstravaganza in Chittenango, New York. I even had someone heartily recommend the book and tell me about his presentation.

Ages of Oz seems to be a potential franchise of books that they plan to branch into film. In fact, it seems it was originally planned to be a film franchise before they decided to make it into a series of novels first. That seems to explain why the book is written by Lisa Fiedler. Story by Gabriel Gale, written by Lisa Fiedler. The series is planned to serve as a prequel, midquel and sequel to Baum's books (Thompson and the rest are ignored).

A Fiery Friendship follows the adventures of young Glinda Gavaria as she sets out to seek her destiny as she seeks how to rescue her mother Tilda from the wicked witch Aphidina and rescue Ember, the Fire Fairy. Joining her are a number of new friends, chief among these Locasta, a girl from the Gillikin Country who she doesn't get along with at first.

I bought this book in late July, and only just finished today. You'll notice that late July was also when I when I posted my last book review here.

Although I realize that I am also a writer of Oz fiction and may have similar criticisms aimed at my work sometime, I'm going to have to say it...

I found the book exceptionally boring. There was nothing particularly interesting about the characters. Yes, I know, this introduces Glinda and Locasta as young women and supposedly sets up how the order of Wicked Witches took over Oz before the Wizard arrived, but besides that, I was left wondering "so what?" Glinda taking on a task that has the end goal to restore Ozma to the throne is basically something Baum established in The Marvelous Land of Oz, and fan interpretation that she may have orchestrated an event or two in Wonderful Wizard is so common, some of my ideas wound up popping up in another work I recently enjoyed by someone who I'd never contacted.

Oz prequels have been quite the trend. I've even thought of a few concepts over the years and even tried to pen them into stories. The one I did complete, The Way of a Lion, actually won an award. However, I wrote that to complement the events of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to provide a deeper story arc for the Cowardly Lion. The problem with many Oz prequels—including the ideas I've had—is that they try to define how Oz works in a way that limits future stories, or even prevents other stories from taking place in the same continuity. And these ideas are never universally embraced by the fans.

In addition, the story felt like it was the first third of a movie, novelized and stretched out to over 400 pages. A recurring motif that bothered me was splitting a sentence of prose into its own paragraph for dramatic effect, eschewing typical sentence structure. This is fine if you're blogging or writing some piece where you're addressing the reader. In storytelling prose, it's typically not done. It probably bugged me much more because I'd just done a sentence and paragraph structure overhaul of a story a couple of friends wrote.

Perhaps Ages of Oz will go somewhere interesting, but A Fiery Friendship failed to impress me. Okay, the illustrations are impressive, but they don't really feel like Baum's Oz. They're nicely detailed and all, but there's no spirit of fun or whimsy that's a trademark of Baum's Oz. In fact, that's true of the text as well.

The Chronicles of Oz - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Sometime back, I noted that my own The Royal Podcast of Oz was the only podcast I could find dedicated to Oz. And while that's still true, there is another podcast that's doing Oz: Crossover Adventure Productions.

This podcast presents something I'd love to do: full audio dramas with sound effects, a full cast and music. They seem to be famous for Doctor Who dramas, but more recently, they've finished the first season of The Chronicles of Oz, which adapted The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in six episodes.

To be fair, I'm about to start the final episode, but I think I've heard enough to give a good review of it. And I do mean good.

If you're reading this, chances are you've read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and know the story, and yes, despite this being a "reimagining," it follows the plot of the book pretty well. The difference is how they do it.

It's clear that the writer behind the series—Aron Toman—knows his Oz and decided to present an Oz based on the entire Baum series, presented as a unified world. Lurline, Ozma, Jinxland, Oogaboo, Zixi and Mombi get name dropped. The Wicked Witch has an assistant named Ugu.

However, it's not quite as if this is going to be for all ages. There's some language parents would likely not want young listeners listening to, and this take on Oz gets more on the violent side. The death of the Wicked Witch of the East prompts civil war in Munchkinland. Boq is reimagined as a Munchkin who volunteers to see Dorothy to the Emerald City, but he's no longer around by the time Dorothy meets the Scarecrow. This is just giving you an idea of what you're in for, not a list.

There's some additions and changes to streamline the story and make it more dramatic, but since this is a free-to-access podcast, I'm going to let you discover it for yourself.

The voice cast does a very good job and manages to be very entertaining with the script. Being an Australian-based podcast, some non-American accents are present. The sound effects are nicely done and the music is excellent. So, it's not just a free audio drama, it's a free quality audio drama.

That said, I wound up enjoying the presentation. This is what I'd want from an Oz for more mature audiences, one that focuses on mature storytelling over reveling in mature subject matter. Looking forward to finishing the series on my way to work tomorrow morning, and look forward to future Oz stories from this podcast.

You can download the mp3 files from their website, or you can listen to the series on YouTube, or subscribe through iTunes or search "Crossover Adventure Productions" in your favorite podcast app, and if that fails, you can give it the link to this RSS feed.

Jay binged Lost in Oz Season 1

It feels like forever ago when the pilot episode of Amazon's original series Lost in Oz (unconnected to any other project to anything that's used that name ever), and then sometime back, they added the next two episodes alongside it to create Lost in Oz: Extended Adventure. Now, Amazon has a complete first season of 13 episodes, 22-23 minutes in length.

After finding a magic journal, a modern-day girl named Dorothy and her dog Toto are taken in their house to the modern land of Oz. The original story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz happened, but that Dorothy is the great-grandmother of this Dorothy. I don't think the later Oz books by Baum happened in this continuity. There's characters based on the characters from the other books, like an inventor named Tinker, a painter named Smith, a giant Munchkin boy named Ojo whose aspirations go beyond his father's farm, a cowardly lion, a young witch named West, a rag doll named Patches, and a wicked witch named Langwidere (no headswapping, but she is able to make herself look like other people). Ozma and the Wizard don't get mentioned at all. Magic in this Oz is a science based around certain elements, and there's not a ban on it as kids are seen learning it in school. In addition to this, there's the subplot that Dorothy's mother has some idea of what's going on.

The thirteen episode series revolves around a story arc that includes Dorothy wanting to get home as Langwidere tries to take over Oz in a rather interesting manner. (A bit more than "Steal all the magic, take over Oz.") Each episode has a neat mini-arc in its 22-23 minute runtime.

The plots are largely original, using concepts from the books as plot devices rather than plot models (Glinda's lie-detecting pearl that briefly appears in The Marvelous Land of Oz becomes a major item of interest and is called "the Pearl of Pingaree"). The overall story arc is concluded by the end of the final episode, although there is a hook for continuing adventures. (See, Emerald City? That's how you do it.) Animation is excellent, the story is pretty good and enjoyable enough to keep you watching. Those looking for a purist adaptation of the Oz series or a continuation will not find it here, though.

Highly recommended for kids and Oz fans who enjoy different takes on the material.

Adventure in Oz

Last week if you'd asked me "What was the first Oz video or computer game?" I would have said the Windham Classics Wizard of Oz. But I happened to be looking through the Classic Adventure Solution Archive yesterday, and I randomly decided to search "Oz."

As one does.

And I happened to find an entry called "Adventure in Oz." To be honest, I wondered if it was a mis-listing of my own text adventure "My Adventure in Oz." But it was something different, a game from 1983, predating the Windham Classics game by a year.

So, knowing there's a huge subculture of emulating old computer games online, I hit Google to see if I could find more information on this game, or even, find how to download and play the game myself. By the time I went to bed, I found a blog entry from someone who had managed to emulate and play the game and three different downloads of the game, plus finding it in another format and finding an emulator to run it.

The platform for the game was the TI-99/4A, a short-lived early computer from Texas Instruments. How was the game packaged?

This isn't box art. It's cover art. "Same thing," some classic gamers might say, but wrong. This is a book. Instead of putting the games on disks, tapes or cartridges for sale, the code for the game was printed in the book and those wanting to play it had to enter it manually before they could. Well, you don't risk getting a corrupted file. Just have to make sure you do it right and not get a typo. The fun thing is, the book is available for free online viewing at Archive.org. This means that if you REALLY want to play it old school, you can type in all twelve pages of code into an emulator and create the files you'd need to play the game. Luckily for me, it was already done and available in three different places.

"Adventures in Oz" requires a number of expansions to play. In the emulator Win994a, I had to go to preferences, turn on the memory expansion option, turn it to the 16Bit Fast addressing, and the speech synthesizer. Furthermore, you have to load the TI Extended Basic cartridge, which the emulator comes supplied with an emulated version of. After loading the disk and the cartridge images into the emulator, it's time to get started. You press a key to begin the emulator, select the number for the Extended Basic prompt, and then enter the command—in all caps—RUN "DSK1.OZ" and press enter.

Alternately, you could enter RUN "DSK1.RAINBOW" and hear a computer system from 1983 synthesize "Over the Rainbow" in one minute...

Want to hear #OverTheRainbow from #TheWizardOfOz played by a TI-9/94? #Oz This is a side program found with the program "Adventure in Oz," released by Steve Davis Publishing in 1983, the first ever Oz digital game.

A post shared by OzCon International (@ozconinternational) on Jul 29, 2017 at 8:27pm PDT

Anyway, on to the actual game.

The game features fairly decent graphics by 1983 computer game standards, a few synthesized bars of "Off To See The Wizard," as well as some sound effects and the above mentioned version of "Over the Rainbow."

Pressing any key launches the opening text/cinematic that identifies the player as taking the role of Dorothy and gets the idea across that you're carried in your house by tornado to the Land of Oz.

You start randomly in a location in Oz, and yes, all you do is press keys, each location giving you some sort of message. If you're trying to play, pro-tip, keep the caps lock key on as entering commands in lower case does nothing.

What exactly does the Map key do?

It brings up a book-based map of Oz, which shows your location with an X, so it's possible to get an idea of where you are. Steve Davis (no relation, as far as I know) says it's based on the International Wizard of Oz Club's map, which is why the Munchkins are on the right side of the screen, rather than a design matching Baum's Tik-Tok of Oz endpaper map. Yes, the in-game screens are colored to match the region of Oz you're in.

So, the concept of the game is that you go to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard, who promises to send you back if you complete one of four tasks he gives you: get the Woggle-Bug's magic powder, Glinda's ruby slippers, Ozma's magic belt, or the Wicked Witch's Golden Cap. After receiving your orders, you must head out into that section of Oz to find the item you're looking for and return to the Emerald City.

Matching the tone of Oz and pre-dating The Secret of Monkey Island, this is a game where you can't lose and can't die, so you're free to explore Oz as you wish, but the game asks you to play in as few turns as possible. Going to a blocked off area (bodies of water or the Deadly Desert) results in no progress and a turn wasted. Checking the map also uses a turn.

I completed my first game in 88 turns, where I was tasked to get the Golden Cap from the Wicked Witch. I headed west from Emerald City, crossed a river and finally found the Wicked Witch.

I was using the first version of the game that I'd found for this one, which the other guy's blog entry said had typographical errors, so I assume those graphic glitches are a result of that. (Also, "Muncchkin.")

I was a little stuck for what to do here until a little cinematic started. I watched in surprise as a mass of black pixels representing Toto moved across the screen and a yellow patch appeared under the Witch, who disappeared into it.

With that done, it was back tracking to the Emerald City, and the game was complete. With a full round of "Over The Rainbow," I was back at the command prompt.

So, surprisingly, this old game actually has replay value with a varying quest and over 700 locations, probably at least half of them I didn't see on this play-through. Also, the game can be completed in a rather short time.

It's also a concept I'd like to see in a new Oz video game, exploring the Land of Oz with varying quests and puzzles. With the leaps and bounds computer and video games have come in the last 34 years, it could be quite an interesting game.

I stopped my writing to do another playthrough with a different disk image I found. This time I was tasked to get the Woggle-Bug's magic powder (Powder of Life or... ???), ran into a couple "Wishway" locations that can randomly teleport you anywhere in Oz, and a road that takes you in the reverse direction that you want to go in. Also, there was a skywriting witch cinematic in the Emerald City, although if anything comes of this, I don't know. So, the game uses the Land of Oz from Baum's books with music and touches from the MGM film, and also some elements from Ruth Plumly Thompson's books.

If you want to play this game, here's the disk I just played on my Google Drive. If you use Win994a, put it in the "Disks" subfolder in the programs' installation folder.

Now to finish, here's some additional screenshots.

Short and Sweet: The Life and Times of the Lollipop Munchkin

When L. Frank Baum first described the people who live in Oz, specifically the Munchkins, he described them in this manner:

They were not as big as the grown folk she had always been used to; but neither were they very small. In fact, they seemed about as tall as Dorothy, who was a well-grown child for her age...

But when MGM adapted Baum's story for their classic film, they hired Leo Singer to bring his troupe of midgets to depict these pint-sized people of Oz. Why? Perhaps they merged the idea of the Munchkins with the Dainty China Country. Perhaps they were inspired to channel the short and stocky look of W.W. Denslow's pictures of the people of Oz. Perhaps they decided to dial the whimsical nature of Oz up to an 11. Or perhaps having little people in film was a trend and MGM saw a chance to work it into their take on Oz.

Short and Sweet: The Life and Times of the Lollipop Munchkin is a memoir by Jerry Maren, who played one of the Munchkins, one who can clearly be seen in several shots in Munchkinland, and is finally revealed as a member of the Lollipop Guild, particularly the one who hands Dorothy the lollipop that quickly disappears from the film. Today, Jerry is the last surviving little person to play a Munchkin in the film.

Short and Sweet opens with a foreword by Sid Krofft who remembers how he came to meet Jerry. A bit more informative is the introduction by Steve Cox, who also has a bit of co-author credit. Cox informs of us of the terms "dwarf" and "midget," and how Jerry doesn't mind the latter term. He gives us a bit of information on how Hollywood used little people in their productions, setting up for Jerry's story.

Cox informs us that Jerry is of few words, but there will be plenty of pictures, which is true. I suspect that Cox's co-author role comes from collecting and possibly even transcribing Jerry's anecdotes on his life and career.

The book comes off as a very personal memoir. Maren rarely drops exact years and dates, which feels what someone trying to recall their life would do: you can remember generally when these happened, but rarely the specific dates.

Maren talks about his childhood, how he coped with being a pituitary midget, how his parents attempted treatments to make him grow taller, and how he got into show business. While the "Singer Midgets" were a troupe, for The Wizard of Oz—Maren's first role in Hollywood—a call went out for little people looking for work. He reveals his father refused to let him work on another film—The Terror of Tiny Town, an all-little people western that other Oz Munchkins worked on—because it wouldn't pay for getting Jerry to where the film would be shooting and the salary wouldn't make it up. But Oz would cover those costs, so Jerry was allowed to go and wound up becoming immortalized on celluloid.

Because so many people have asked Jerry about his work on The Wizard of Oz, he spends a good amount of time detailing that experience. He doesn't directly say it, but his career in show business basically began because Oz brought him to Hollywood and he never left, taking jobs in television and film that IMDb lists as recently as 2010. His work led him to meet many fascinating people, who he mentions briefly. It's very off the cuff.

He also recalls his work in promotions, as Buster Brown for Buster Brown, and one of the little people portraying Oscar Meyer's "Little Chef." He also talks about how he met and worked with Billy Barty, and supported him in found Little People of America. Late in the book, he talks about how he happily met his wife Elizabeth and how they've done many jobs together, including costume work for McDonald's commercials.

The final chapter is titled "Oz Revisited" and he talks about how he and other surviving Munchkin actors reunited and attended Oz events and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In addition, he tells of working on the film Under the Rainbow—a comedy inspired by urban legends about Munchkin actor shenanigans at MGM during the filming of Oz—and the television movie The Dreamer of Oz, where he played a Munchkin once again.

The book is an enjoyable read, not very long or detailed. I suppose someone researching further could create a longer and more detailed biography of Maren, but his own narrative is quite welcome. To anyone wanting to read more about MGM's The Wizard of Oz, I don't think you'll actually find a lot of information you wouldn't find in books like The Making of the Wizard of Oz and the trio of books by Bill Stillman and Jay Scarfone, but you do get to read it from the perspective of someone who was actually there. It's also very interesting to see what else people who have been involved with Oz have also worked with.

So, I recommend this one. And thanks, Sam, for getting it for me sometime back!

The Land of Stories concluded

A couple years ago, I reviewed the first four books of a non-Oz fantasy series on the blog because the fourth book had a little visit to Oz: Chris Colfer's The Land of Stories. In that review, I happened to say this:

There also seems to be an overarching plot in the series, but to discuss that further might drop too many spoilers. It might be coming to a head at the end of Beyond the Kingdoms, or else we might be in for a huge twist.

Turns out I was right as the series has released its sixth and final book, Worlds Collide. There are spin-off books already, from a diary of Colfer's take on Mother Goose, to a treasury book of classic fairy tales that play into The Land of Stories, to a couple of picture books. With the series concluded, a film adaptation of the series is set to begin pre-production, and the author has teased he has ideas for more spin-offs.

Well, for the sake of being complete and the thin excuse that the Tin Woodman reappears in the fifth and sixth books, as well as the Wicked Witch of the West also popping up in the final book, let's take a look at those two books.

An Author's Odyssey winds up being the bridging chapter between Beyond the Kingdoms and Worlds Collide, and I felt was the weakest book in the series. Not that it was bad, but while it introduces many great new characters and has some exciting twists and plot developments, it doesn't really stand on its own.

Using the Portal Potion, Conner and Alex dive into Conner's own short stories to recruit the heroes of his own tales to assist in the fight against the Masked Man and the witches who he's won to his side. There's pirates, space cyborgs, mummies, superheroes, and even a "rosary chicken" who resulted from a misspelling of "rosemary." Meanwhile, things are not developing well in the Land of Stories as the witches prepare for their assault on "the Otherworld." Also, where are all the realized fictional characters going to stay?

This brings us to the last book, Worlds Collide. It opens with an 80 year old Conner at an event celebrating his books, when a fan asks him a question he can't recall the answer to: what happened to his twin sister Alex?

And then picking up where An Author's Odyssey left off, we cycle through a number of plots, leading to a big showdown that goes from the Land of Stories to New York City, starting at The New York Public Library and leading into the streets as the attacking witches have cursed Alex to do their bidding. It's an exciting ending that sees all of the characters come back to make a united front against wicked magic, but will it be enough? And will all of our friends make it out alive?

There is, surprisingly, a scene where a character writes a short story about J.M. Barrie, Lewis Carroll and L. Frank Baum coming back to life so they can use the Portal Potion to consult with the authors on how to defeat the villains they created. Unfortunately, this visit is not described and the character only reports on what they learned. When they talk about consulting with Baum, they briefly mention "it's nice to know the movie depicted something correctly."

Overall, I was glad with how the series ended and would still recommend it to other Oz fans interested in other fantasy series. Colfer keeps his characterizations strong and his gift of giving the characters delightful dialogue is still very much at play. And—as said—there's a few Oz Easter eggs in the series for fans.

Sigh. Well, what do I read now? Hmm, what's this from Christmas last year?

Uh oh.

Jay binged Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz

Well, I think the title told you what I did this morning...

Animation and Oz seem well suited to each other, as both seem to be limited only by imagination. There's only been a handful of Oz animated series, though, with Tales of the Wizard of Oz in the early 1960s, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz anime series in 1986-87, the DIC animated series based on the MGM movie in 1991, The Oz Kids and The Galaxy Adventures of Oz in the mid-90s, and nothing since. Well, this summer, it turned out we're getting not one but two animated series that would be exclusive to video streaming services, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz for the new Boomerang service out now, and Lost in Oz on Amazon Prime coming in August.

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz takes the familiarity of MGM's The Wizard of Oz as its springboard. However, Dorothy is depicted as an actual little girl instead of trying to actively copy Judy Garland. She has the brown hair in pigtails, white blouse and blue gingham pinafore with Ruby Slippers, but otherwise, they let this Dorothy (Kari Wahlgren) be herself instead of copying Judy's voice or mannerisms. I appreciated that her skin tone is darker than other human (or human-appearing) characters such as Ozma. Whether this Dorothy is supposed to be a person of color or we presume she has tanned skin from being a farmgirl, that's up for debate.

The series regularly features the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion (Bill Fagerbakke, JP Karliak and Jess Harnell), who are cartoon versions of their MGM counterparts and the voice actors channel Bolger, Hayley and Lahr well enough while not being overbearing. Also regularly featured are Ozma (also Kari Wahlgren), identified as the Queen of Oz, who wears a green gown, carries her Oz scepter, and wears a circlet with the Oz logo as in John R. Neill's illustrations, just without the poppies. Wilhelmina (Jessica DiCicco) also regularly appears and is the niece of the Wicked Witch of the West, who appears in a crystal ball, egging her niece on to get the Ruby Slippers. She's assisted by a comical pair of Winged Monkeys, Frank and Lyman (Steven Blum and Jess Harnell).

The premise of the series is that Dorothy and Toto live in Oz, Dorothy being made a princess by Ozma, and with friends old and new, Dorothy and Toto have adventures. Many of these are original, though quite a few are inspired by and based on episodes and elements from the Baum books. The episode you can watch without a subscription or free trial, "Beware the Woozy," features Ozma accidentally being turned to stone by a magic potion, as happens to Unc Nunkie and Margolotte in The Patchwork Girl of Oz, although the circumstances are highly altered. Dorothy and her friends hurry to get together ingredients for an antidote, the major one being three hairs from a Woozy's tail. The Woozy is sadly not the blocky creature described in Patchwork Girl, but can still shoot fire when provoked and is otherwise an agreeable character. The Nome King notices the problems this creates for Oz and uses it to step in as the new ruler.

Many other characters from the Oz series turn up in new incarnations as well, such as Billina, Dr. Pipt, the Wheelers, Ojo, the Hungry Tiger, the Woggle-Bug, the Patchwork Girl, the Orks, and there's even a purple dragon. Whether or not he's inspired by the one in The Magical Monarch of Mo is up for anyone to guess, but when a character later mentions the Valley of the Clowns from Dot and Tot of Merryland, perhaps the writers really read up on their Baum.

There's certainly a big disconnect here between the series and MGM's The Wizard of Oz. Why is Dorothy living in Oz? Where are Aunt Em and Uncle Henry? Dorothy mentions Zeke, one of the farmhands from the classic movie. How did Ozma become Queen of Oz in this version? The opening of the DIC series basically gave you a sum-up of what had happened between the movie and the events of the episodes you'd see. This one starts with Dorothy using the Ruby Slippers to leave Kansas with Toto, then a cavalcade of Oz characters, but I doubt we're supposed to see this as a narrative. I'm not knocking the show, I just want to know what happened in this version. Perhaps if this does well enough, Warner Brothers might even do a direct to video spinoff linking the series' narrative to the classic film a bit more.

The show is clearly meant for children, but I found it to be highly entertaining. I'm glad they're using elements from the books as children might turn to the books after watching the show. The animation is nothing to write home about, but it's rather pleasing.

There are currently 13 11 minute and 18 second stories on Boomerang.com. Here's a list with a brief description of each plot:

• "Beware the Woozy" - When Ozma becomes petrified, Dorothy and her friend search for the ingredients of an antidote.
• "Magical Mandolin" - Wilhelmina sets her eyes on a mandolin Dorothy gets her hands on that has magic properties.
• "Toto Unleashed" - Wilhelmina tries to claim Toto for her own after Dorothy neglects him.
• "Official Ozian Exam" - Dorothy is informed that if she doesn't take an exam about Oz, she will have to leave. Just she can't help but take care of Indigo City's problem with a purple dragon first...
• "Locket Locket In My Pocket" - Wilhelmina uses a magic locket to disguise herself as Dorothy to ruin the princess' reputation.
• "Mixed-Up Mixer" - When Dorothy tries to teach Ozma to cook without using magic, a mixer becomes enchanted and begins mixing up everything it comes across.
• "Ojo the Unlucky" - Noting an unfortunate Munchkin boy, Dorothy and her friends try to help him change his fate.
• "The Lion's Share" - The Cowardly Lion is off to a feast with his friends to celebrate his ruling of the forest. Just they have to get through the dark, dark forest first...
• "Rules of Attraction" - When Dorothy is given the Love Magnet, everyone can't help but do whatever she wants.
• "Brain Power of Love" - The Scarecrow meets the Patchwork Girl and becomes smitten. Wilhelmina isn't convinced that the Patchwork Girl is simply what she appears to be.
• "Jinxed" - Dorothy and Ozma become mute when they pull off a jinx and Dorothy and her friends scramble to find a way to break the jinx.
• "Rise of the Nome King" - When the Nome King gets a hold of a magic magnifying glass Dorothy was using to help people, he makes himself grow giant size (not quite Kabumpo in Oz-scale, however).
• "One-Winged Wally" - Dorothy and her friends try to help a young flying monkey with only one wing get another one.

 The series is also being aired on television in other countries with ten half hour timeslot episodes that use two of these stories each. Wikipedia lists the presumed remaining 7 stories of Season 1, which it's presumed Boomerang will release on their website at a later date, and reportedly, Season 2 is already underway.

• "Wand-erful"
• "No Sleep Sleepover"
• "Lion Catches a Bug"
• "Tik Tok and Tin Man"
• "If I Only Had Some Brawn"
• "The Beast Royales"
• "Time After Time"

A DVD of presumably the first 13 stories will be released in November, and likely somewhere around that time, the series will be available for digital sale as well. At the moment, in the US, it can only be seen on Boomerang, making it one of the exclusives you'll have to sign up for their service to see.

And that brings me to my biggest negative. The site could use some fixing up. I tried to use Chrome to stream the episodes (and also cast them to my TV), but sometimes the stream wouldn't start, or else it would severely lag. Surprisingly, I had better luck in Firefox, even though sometimes the video would freeze for some seconds while the audio played. My big frustration is that it's not like DRM protected video streaming is some arcane technology. It works flawlessly on YouTube on most browsers as well as other sites like Vudu and Netflix.

It seems the mobile version of Boomerang allows for Chromecast support, but for me, my phone is outdated and can't install the app, which I guess isn't their fault. For anyone else hoping to use a Roku, Apple TV, PS4, etc. to watch the show on their TV, check the website's FAQ first.

So, with everything I said in mind, I'd recommend Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, just before you sign up for a subscription, use their offer of a free to watch episode to figure out the best way for you to watch it.

Adapting Return to Oz - Long Movie, Short Story Part 2

The next book I look at in reviewing how the 1985 Disney movie is adapted from long movie into short children's book is the Random House edition for "Disney's Wonderful World of Reading".

As described on the back, this series of books by Random House adapted many of the classic Disney films that we grew up with (with little changes - such as Princess Aurora NOT being raised up by the Fairies as a peasant girl in the woods, so she met Prince Phillip when he woke her), as well as adapting other stories that happened been done on films yet (e.g. Mickey was Aladdin with two book adventures with the Magic Lamp).  All the books had simple vocabulary and many lush illustrations, some of which were done by Sheilah Beckett and other artists.

"Return to Oz" may not have been an instant classic or entirely well received, but it was still selected to be amongst the many books helping children to read, along with all the other tie-in story telling books made as merchandise for the film.

Yes, the words are rather simple and so the sentences are rather short, but unlike all the other Random House books or the other Little Golden Books retelling the film, these pages did have new illustrations that looked like cartoon characters; rather, like many of the other bigger storybooks and novels, the pictures used were stills taken for the film, many photographs of which are shrunk, in poor quality and severely cropped.  Many of these pictures are shown only here and have not turned up in any other books or magazines.

In adapting the relatively long and detailed story of the film into a short book for children to read easily, many connections and important factors are left out, making the story seem too convenient and at other times with gaps or without any of the important little things, like emotion.

It briefly says how Dorothy lives on a farm in Kansas with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry until "there was a big storm.  The wind carried Dorothy to the Land of Oz.  When Dorothy came back home, Aunt Em said she had been dreaming.  But Dorothy knew she had been in Oz.  She found a key on the floor.".

When Aunt Em takes Dorothy to Dr Worley's house, she leaves almost immediately with just a good-bye, before the nurse takes Dorothy to talk to the doctor.
(the actual names, Worley and Wilson, are not used here, so their titles are lower case, simple "nurse" and "doctor")

Dorothy is visited by the girl in her room, but there is no mention of the Electrical Healing machine, so the girls make their escape as soon the house is set on fire by lightning.  It is not implied in text or pictures that they are chased.

Dorothy wakes up with Billina "in a beautiful place", gets lunch pails from trees and finds the broken yellow brick road, without seeing or finding her old house.  She doesn't sound the least bit concerned why the road is broken up, just hoping she'll find her old friends in the Emerald City.

Upon entering the ruins and after (only) finding two of her friends in stone, it is just one Wheeler who chases Dorothy into the narrow street where she finds Tik-Topk behind a secret door in the wall.  Tik-Tok seems already wound up, talking to her and shows "another way out of the room" before he fights all the other Wheelers.

Notice how the space behind Dorothy's head is blacked out - usually one of Mombi's head is shown here;  Since the whole image is cropped, so too is the view of Mombi's hands holding her Head no. 4

While looking for Mombi, Tik-Tok says he will hit her with the lunch-pail if she isn't nice to them.

When they find her, she is wearing the same long-haired head as in the film, but the next two page have short black hair (Head no. 4), without explaining the change or even mentioning the Hall of Heads.  Tik-Tok is slow to save Dorothy from Mombi, leaving her and Billina locked up in the dusty tower room, where they find Jack Pumpkinhead.

After Dorothy outs Jack back together, he says how "the next room" has the Gump (which, on the next page, Dorothy expresses the pieces already put together) AND the Powder of Life, which she uses for their escape.

It is not explained or mentioned how Tik-Tok is reunited with them for their flying escape, nor is the scene back in the Palace and Mombi's screaming heads included (however she can be seen in the background as the Gump sets off through the balcony).

They arrive on the Nome King's mountain (no indication of falling or lucky landing), fall into the hole, meet the King (who seems nearly human) and play his guessing game.

The "small box" is actually the green ornament from the film, but is not Scarecrow's enchantment in this book (perhaps the editor didn't know this?)

Dorothy's choices are different from the film and do not reveal what her third guess was.  After the Scarecrow is restored, he actually manages to make a guess and restore the Gump.

  The Nome King is angry at Dorothy's success but does not get interrupted by Mombi, he doesn't disrupt the Game or try to devour Dorothy's friends, he has none of his Nomes to spy on or aid him, most of all Jack does not have Billina hiding in his egg to accidentally drop the egg into his throat and poison him ... yet, he crashes and becomes a rubble where Dorothy reclaims the Ruby Slippers, which have not been mentioned at all until now, which she uses to return herself and her friends to Oz.

  Tik-Tok, apparently has already been restored and he shows "where the Gump and Billina" are, while the Emerald City is "beautiful again".

This is also the first (and last) time the people are mentioned being turned to stone and back to life again during the "wonderful party".

When Scarecrow decides he doesn't want to rule and the people suggest Dorothy to be Queen, her wish to be in both places at once makes "a girl wearing the dress of a queen" stepping out of the mirror.  The girl is Ozma, who Dorothy last saw in the Kansas river.

Shown at left is the "shimmery paper" mirror wall Emma Ridley mentioned "headbut" stepping through as Ozma - the actual film has half the scene warped through special effects

Dorothy says her good-byes ... but there is no indication of what happens to the Ruby Slippers (which caused this mess in the first place), so it is not clarified that Ozma uses them instead of Dorothy ... and she is back in the muddy riverbank of Kansas.

Once clean and back in her bedroom, she sees Queen Ozma in her mirror briefly, wondering if she will go back again some day . . . 

So Random House's adaption of "Return to Oz" is a basic retelling, missing out on several moments that may have been deemed unsuitable or unsettling for children and families.
The most vital thing they leave out is how necessary Billina is to the story: not only is she the one who finds the Oz key in Kansas and guides Dorothy to the door with Tik-Tok, but she is the one who actually defeats the Nome King by laying her egg in his mouth which poisons him (and thereby saving Dorothy, her friends and all of Oz).   Bringing Billina into the story but not retaining her triumph over the Nome King removes her importance and makes her useless.  It's not enough to just be included, there needs to be a purpose (just as Jack's hollow head hides Billina from the Nome King).

Another aspect of the story that is unresolved is what happens to "Princess" Mombi after the Emerald City is restored - there is no indication that she was a witch, or imprisoned, or had anything to do with the Wheelers or the Nome King, or otherwise how she is "ruling" the ruined city in the first place.

While the pictures are lackluster and do not fit the usual approach taken with the other Random House books (having fresh new illustrations made, instead of cropping still photographs), it is still nice to see some unusual photos here that aren't included anywhere else - especially one that gives a hint at the behind-the-scenes mentioned later by Emma Ridley in her interview with Ryan Jay.