For anyone who read the books...
Is this movie accurate on anything, like was OZ that big of a jerk when he first got there, or Theodora was somewhat good before becoming evil?
shareThere was no Theodora in the books. The Wicked Witch of the West was already established as evil in the first book ("The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"), and had no backstory. She wasn't even all that much of a major character. She was yellow, had one eye, wore white, and was afraid of the dark.
The Wizard had a little bit of backstory, but not much. There was nothing to imply that he was a much of a jerk as in this movie, but nothing to say that he necessarily wasn't either.
Basically, this movie takes a period in Oz history about which there is little written in the books, and tells its own story. A few things in it directly contradict things in the books (in the books, the Wizard had the Emerald City built, in the movie it was already there; Glinda and Ozma are more or less combined into one character in the movie by making Glinda the daughter of the King of Oz, etc). Other parts, like Oz being a Jerk and the Wicked Witch of the West starting out as a naive woman named Theodora don't necesarily contradict anything in the books, but there also isn't anything in the books to imply them.
Courage, men! We've not sunk before, and we'll not sink now!
Ah, thank you for your reply.
shareWhat set me askew was that this seems to take place 30 years before Dorothy's journey, say, 1910 or so, yet the Emerald City is full of skyscrapers like 1930s New York, complete with electric lights.
The 1939 movie was set in the same time period of the Oz books (around 1900) as evidenced by the Kansans turn-of-the-century style of clothing, the lack of automobiles or other machines on the farm, and Professor Marvel's horse-drawn wagon. When the 1939 movie was made, the art deco style of the Emerald City was seen as ultra modern if not futuristic. The 2013 movie seems to have borrowed some of the 1939 movie's interpretation of the Emerald City because it would look "right" to people familiar with the classic.
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