The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Effect: How Hollywood Has been Inspired by the Yellow Brick Road
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has got to be one of the most adored and influential novels famous among children across the world.
Written by L. Frank Baum, the novel has been reprinted various times over the years, but popularly as ‘The Wizard of Oz’. The novel has served as an inspiration for many Broadway musical shows, a popular movie and several other games including various slot games.
Everyone probably knows that the protagonist in the novel is a young girl called Dorothy Gale and it’s about her adventures in the land called Oz.
As already mentioned, the novel has been inspiring generations and has become an integral part of the American culture. In fact, it has been translated in various languages.
Movies Inspired from The Wizard of Oz
Several movies have been made inspired by the novel. Various movies have been shot and released several times over the years, including 1910, 1925, 1933 and 1939.
The most recent was Mila Kunis, James Franco and Rachel Weisz starrer, Oz the Great and Powerful released in 2013. A 3D movie, this one was in fact a prequel to the 1939 movie and set 20 years before the events occurred in the original movie.
Of all the movies, the 1939 version remains the most innovative due to the songs, special effects as well as the use of Technicolor.
A Brief Synopsis of The Wizard of Oz
Dorothy is a young girl living in Kansas on a farm, till the time where a cyclone miraculously picks her up, along with her dog and takes her to an unknown land of Oz.
The adventures in the Land of Oz are both confusing, yet amazing, which makes the little girl miss home. She manages to find a good witch in the Land of Oz who is known as the Witch of the North. She also is quite unhappy due to the bad Witch of the West.
The bad Witch of the West firmly believes that Dorothy is responsible for the death of her sister, the bad Witch of the East and hence, has revenge on her mind.
Dorothy meets many strange creatures like Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion here. She interacts with all of them, but stays brave and keeps her composure with one motive in mind, to go back home.
Always Rose in Popularity Charts
Within a year after the release of the novel, the author succeeded in selling more than 10,000 copies of the novel. The popularity never came down the graph and the copies of the novel were bought at a very high rate.
With no surprises, by 1938 over a million copies of the famous novel were reportedly printed and three million copies were sold by the year 1959.
The Slot Industry has Been Inspired Too!
There are various slot machines in America, but only a few among them are a part of the Elite group, which are both, famous and entertaining at the same time.
One of them is the Wizard of Oz slot. The slot takes players to the Land of Oz where they begin their magical journey.
The online version of Wizard of Oz slots are not too different from the ones found in the land-based casinos. The players have the option of converting up to five reels to wild in the online version of the slot game. What could be better than enjoying your favourite novel in the form of a slot game and winning a great sum of money in the process!
Final Thoughts
The novel has had a great impact on the lives of the people and has helped bring out their creativity. No wonder it soon became popular in the American culture because it provided creative freedom to people, so that they could relate to the story of a young girl, and other creatures and characters from the Land of Oz.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz remains as one of the most memorable novels that everyone’s read so far. Those who haven’t had the chance to read it yet, they definitely need to consider reading this novel, which will allow them to explore new places outside their imagination and creativity!
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