Lion of Oz

Starring:Henry Beckman, Dom DeLuise, Gerard Plunkett, Jason Priestley, Lynn Redgrave, Mik Perius, Eleanor Noble, Elizabeth Robertson, Scott McNeil, Bob Goldthwait, Jane Horrocks, Tim Curry, Kathy Griffin, Peter Kelamis, Don Brown, Maxine Miller, Sonja Ball, Teddy Lee Dillon, Dawn Ford, Arthur Holden
Director: Tim Deacon
Studio: Sony Wonder (Video)
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
In this animated prequel to The Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly Lion (Jason Priestley) is a circus animal in Nebraska taken on an after-hours balloon ride by the kindly Oscar (Dom DeLuise). The balloonist puts the souvenir "badge of courage" around the lion's neck before the excursion goes awry in a storm and the pair are separated. They both set down, of course, in the Land of Oz. The Wicked Witch of the East (Lynn Redgrave) finds the lion in short order, confiscates his badge, and forces him on a quest to find the Flower of Oz, a mystical tool that would give her control of the realm. He is joined on his journey by a girl named Wimsik (Jane Horrocks of Little Voices), her doll and soldier toys (Kathy Griffin, Tim Curry), and a springy oddity named Silly (Bobcat Goldthwait).

Description

This one-hour television special done in 1964 from the Rankin/Bass library was the first of many network televsions special produced by Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass.

Based on the original "Wizard of Oz" story and from an earlier Rankin/Bass series "The Tales of the Wizard of Oz" from 1961, this special features Dorothy more as a little girl character. With Socrates the Strawman, Rusty the Tinman and Dandy the Lion, Dorothy and Toto travel back to Oz for an all new adventure rarely seen on television and appearing for the first time ever on DVD !

Customer Reviews:

Return to Oz.......2007-03-22

I actually enjoyed the 1964 atmosphere of this sequel even more than the live action Disney movie made 21 years later. Videocraft (later known as Rankin Bass) have employed some excellent songs, and brought back several characters from "The Wizard of Oz" in a new adventure.
Don't let the primitive animation put you off. It's truly part of the charm.
This feature runs around 50 min and follows from Videocraft's "Tales of the Wizard of Oz" series. PLEASE FANS. GET A FORUM GOING TO REQUEST THAT "TALES OF THE WIZARD OF OZ" IS RELEASED ON DVD.
And while we're at it, can we please have the 1987 CINAR Films Wizard of Oz series released in full, rather than the 4 feature cartoons which are just heavily cut versions of the series?
Anyway, grab this DVD from "used and new" while you can,
Peter

RANKIN/BASS Eye candy!.......2006-05-17

This was the first RANKIN/BASS TV Special, which originally aired on the NBC-TV GENERAL ELECTRIC FANTASY HOUR in February, 1964. It was the first also for writer ROMEO MULLER and I have his original type written script for this one! GENERAL ELECTRIC had a nice tie-in CHARM BRACELET from the special! If you bought an iron, you got the extra! The animation is derivitive of the GREAT UPA style that came out of the late 1950's and early 1960's and was designed by TONY PETERS out of the RANKIN/BASS New York offices. This is also the first time RANKIN/BASS Composer MAURY LAWS got involved with a RANKIN/BASS Project and became Musical Supervisor by doing the orchestrations. MAURY will be taking the RANKIN/BASS Music out on the road during CHRISTMAS 2007 and hitting all of the major symphonies! I will be CREATIVE DIRECTOR on this traveling RANKIN/BASS magical musical! Look for us at a venue near you!

Nice Rankin Bass animation gem from the 60's........2006-04-17

The songs, the excellent voice over characterizations, the clever animation, and fun characters, are what always made Rankin Bass specials a winner. This one is no exception. While the animation does appear dated, it does not distract from this story derived from the characters of the Rankin Bass TV show Tales of the Wizard of Oz, which consisted of over 100 5 minute animated shorts from 1961. It features the same characters from the show, but Dorothy and Toto look different. There's the Wicked Witch, Glinda, Dandy the Lion, Rusty the Tin Man, Socrates the straw man (scarecrow), the Wizard, and of course, Toto. The DVD has no special features, and it does not appear the animation was digitally cleaned up at all (some artifacting present).

This is continuing in a current release line of vintage Rankin Bass releases, which started late last year with the two volumes of the animated 60's King Kong Show, and is continuing with two shows from the early 70's Festival of Family Classics: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Around the World in 80 Days, found on one DVD titled Festival of Family Classics Adventures Volume 1. Numbering that one volume 1, presumably means we are in for more. Keep 'em coming!

Old Friends Return..........2006-03-27

This one hour, made for TV special is Dorothy's animated return to the land of OZ. Although now 40 years old, the film will delight young fans of OZ and bring back memories to those who remember this newly refound, classic animated story. Dorothy returns to Oz (via an fruit tree this time) and once again must battle the Witch of the West, once a puddle now a witch again, for the ownership of the Silver Slippers (no rubies here folks). The animation is typical of it's time; stylized and sparse with muted tones. Still, it's well done and features some great voice work on the part of the cast. Like it's more famous inspiration, the film features some well crafted music for Dorothy and company to sing. A definate treat for young audiences that deserves to be refound by adult fans of the legend of the Land of Oz.

Average customer rating:

Return to Oz
Starring: Return to Oz
Manufacturer: Classic Media
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Average customer rating:

"The symbol of all that is good in Oz."
another good wizard of oz film.wheres the rest?
EXCELLENT FAMILY FUN!
GOOD MOVIE.but it doesnt fit up with the books or the movie.
Not terrific, but still enjoyable.

Lion of Oz
Starring: Henry Beckman , Dom DeLuise , Gerard Plunkett , Jason Priestley , and Lynn Redgrave
Director: Tim Deacon
Manufacturer: Sony Wonder (Video)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

Wizard of Oz - The Continuing Story
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Animation Collection
Journey Back to Oz
His Majesty the Scarecrow of Oz
Return to Oz

ASIN: 0738921955
Release Date: 2000-09-26

Amazon.com

In this animated prequel to The Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly Lion (Jason Priestley) is a circus animal in Nebraska taken on an after-hours balloon ride by the kindly Oscar (Dom DeLuise). The balloonist puts the souvenir "badge of courage" around the lion's neck before the excursion goes awry in a storm and the pair are separated. They both set down, of course, in the Land of Oz. The Wicked Witch of the East (Lynn Redgrave) finds the lion in short order, confiscates his badge, and forces him on a quest to find the Flower of Oz, a mystical tool that would give her control of the realm. He is joined on his journey by a girl named Wimsik (Jane Horrocks of Little Voices), her doll and soldier toys (Kathy Griffin, Tim Curry), and a springy oddity named Silly (Bobcat Goldthwait).

Customer Reviews:

"The symbol of all that is good in Oz.".......2004-09-21

This movie is adorable! While the animation is good and the songs delighfully adictive, it is not a sequel...it is a prequel. Any Oz collector will be interested. It features the voice of Tim Curry, which is really cute!

I loved this little cartoon. It gives a whole different view. You'll enjoy it!

God bless!

another good wizard of oz film.wheres the rest?.......2004-09-11

this is from the series of books that spawned the wizard of oz film.in this one,the lion must find the ultimate icon of good or something to that effect.i belive its a flower.dorothy is along for the ride too.the witch has a evil icon that spreads evil to everything it touches.only the flower can stop the witch.the kids like it some.its a fantasy/adventure type deal.the wizard of oz movie was far better than this cartoon.ive never read the book but i think it would be quite excellent.id love to see the other books turned into films also.

EXCELLENT FAMILY FUN!.......2002-07-26

I taped it off of Toon Disney. I'd never heard of this movie before, but me being the Oz fan that I am, I thought I should check it out. Overall, it was a pretty good movie. I like how they developed the friedships between Wimsik and Lion and Caroline and Captain Fitzgerald. Silly is an interesting character but he lightens the movie up a bit. There are some beautiful songs even if Wimsik's voice was digitally worked to make her sound better. They depicted very well the hatred the Wicked Witch of the East had for her sister. It also has a bit of a mystery to it which was very creative. The animation was very nice. It's worth the watch! Check it out!

GOOD MOVIE.but it doesnt fit up with the books or the movie........2001-06-30

Lion Of OZ was excellent!i really liked the songs!Especcially the one in the munchkin village!theres two things that dont add up!1. the wicked witch of the east is not wearing the silver shoes!she has on black shoes!2.it shows that the lion is good friends with the wizard but in the book and movie he has never met him before!did those poppies give him brain damage?oh!and it said the wizard was a young man in the book and movie when he drifted to OZ1 in the movie hes really old!but over all i give this movie 5 stars!i really recomend it!

Not terrific, but still enjoyable........2001-05-01

If you're like me, when you saw that this movie was about the Lion of Oz, you immediately thought of Bert Lahr's performance in the 1939 film. And you thought you knew the character pretty well.

And you come to find out, there's more to him than you thought.

Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser have written two of my favorite animated films (the underrated films "Balto" and "Cats Don't Dance"), and once again, they do a nice job with the script here. Like I mentioned above, there's more to this Lion than you thought. They do a nice job of tying into the original story at the beginning and the very end, but the majority is brand new material. The voice cast (Dom DeLuise, Bob Goldthwait, Jane Horrocks, Tim Curry, et al) does a serviceable job, though I believe they have given better performances. The animation is good, and of higher quality than some direct-to-video productions I've seen.

The only things I did not care for were the songs by Michael and Patty Silversher. They have done much better work before (their theme song for Disney's "Tale Spin" has got to be the single most irresistibly catchy theme song ever). Here, the songs just really didn't seem to do much, and I didn't really care for the vocalists' performances much. (Dom DeLuise has done MUCH better singing before.)

But this film is called "Lion of Oz," after all, and fortunately the best aspect of the production is the title character (appropriately called--Lion.) The animation of him is very good, and Jason Priestley's performance is wonderful. I love the way he delivers his lines, especially the "asides." His performance is the best one.

Amazon.com

This long-forgotten 1925 silent version of the children's classic, cowritten by L. Frank Baum's eldest son, had a character named Dorothy and a house transported to Oz by a tornado, but you won't recognize much after that. This film served mainly as a vehicle for comedian Larry Semon, who played the Scarecrow. You'll also have a chance to see an early appearance by Oliver Hardy, playing the Tin Woodsman, two years before he first teamed up with Stan Laurel. Its slapstick comedy routines and surrealistic setting make this an interesting curio and a treat for silent movie fans. --Elisabeth Keating

Customer Reviews:

The Wizard of...Oz?.......2006-12-27

An interesting movie to watch for anyone who wasn't or was aware of this silent "Oz" movie. However this movie does not include the yellow brick road, the munchkins, the ruby slippers, the talking trees, the dog Toto or the witch. The farmhand who would become the Tin Man is kind of a bad guy trying to win Dorthy's heart, like Brutus would Olive. Apparantly Dorthys uncle is also a bad guy who chases the farmhand, who would become the scarecrow, around the farm for what feels like half an hour. It's all a bunch of Charlie Chaplin slapstick comedy with the bad guy not being able to catch the hero of the scene. A weird twist occurs when, in Oz, the three farmhands, who also travel to Oz with Dorthy, dress up in disguises, in an attempt to hide from the soilders of oz and pretend to be the infamous characters that Dorthy meets (in the book and 1939 version) along the way, altering (or destroying) Dorthy's experience of actually meeting a talking lion, a man made out of tin and a talking scarecrow. The movie is so different from the 1939 movie and 1900 book that I actually liked how each scene was becoming more bizzare and distant from the classic Judy Garland movie that has become impregnated in our minds since we all first saw it as kids. For a unique interesting movie, five dollars is a generous price. Enjoy a really different version of a classic American story. For two more older versions of Oz, check out the three-disk version of the 1939 movie. Included on the third disk is an older 13 minute version from 1910 and an 8 minute animated version from 1933. It also has this 1925 version as well as 2 other Oz movies, "His Majesty, The Scarecrow Of Oz" and "The Magic Cloak Of Oz", both from 1914.

Not a masterpiece, but not a trainwreck either.......2006-07-25

I'm rather embarrassed that I believed all of the negative hype about this film (how it was racist, unfunny, and just in general a bad movie) without ever having even seen it to be able to judge it for myself. Hearing what a lot of other people have had to say about any given product can give one a good general idea about what to expect, but that doesn't compare to actually seeing it for yourself and being able to form your own opinion. I found myself rather liking this film and being very impressed by Larry Semon, whom I'd long been interested in anyway. One wishes that more of his films survived and were easily-accessible instead of in archives, museums, and out of print videos. It's not fair to judge him as a comedian and his entire body of work based on this film, which came rather late in his career and thus isn't entirely reprensentative of what he was capable of.

Of course nothing can compare to the 1939 screen version of L. Frank Baum's classic novel, but taken for what it is, the 1925 version also tells a good story even though it does take more liberties with the storyline. The first half I found to be very funny, with Dorothy (Semon's real-life wife Dorothy Dwan, who was significantly younger than he was), her aunt and uncle, and the three hired hands (Larry, Spencer Bell, and Oliver Hardy) working around the family farm. There are a lot of funny scenes, like the one with the swarm of angry bees and the ones where Larry and Ollie are competing for Dorothy's romantic attentions. Larry Semon really was a born clown, with his funny physical appearance, clever pantomime, and great physical reactions. Along the way we discover that Dorothy is really a princess who was left on the doorstep as a baby, and that on her 18th birthday she is supposed to return to Oz so she can rule and marry Prince Kynd. (I loved the funny names the Oz characters had, like Prince Kynd, Lady Vishuss, Ambassador Wikked, and Prime Minister Kruel.) While the family are hiding from a bunch of bad guys who don't want Dorothy to find out the secret of her birth, a tornado strikes, and they find themselves in the Land of Oz. Once in Oz, Dorothy is welcomed, but her family's farmhands are not. They proceed to disguise themselves (Larry is the Scarecrow, Ollie is the Tinman, and "Snowball," played by Spencer Bell [who is shockingly billed as "G. Howe Black"], is the Cowardly Lion. (I got the impression that this film was horribly racist, though apart from the "G. Howe Black" thing, I didn't really find anything that offensive about "Snowball." He does act in an overly caricatured way, but that was kind of par for the course in most films in 1925, and just because someone is made to act in a stereotyped fashion doesn't mean that he's an unsympathetic character.) Most of the rest of the film takes place in the dungeon, where Uncle Henry and the three farmhands have been banished to, but which they are trying to escape so that Dorothy won't marry the wrong man (in their opinion at least). The scene in the dungeon is a bit long drawn-out and not quite as funny as the first half of the film, though it's not without some good moments. And in spite of the less than enlightened portrayal of "Snowball," this character is actually instrumental in saving the day. Larry might not have escaped from the dungeon if it weren't for "Snowball."

I think the real problem with this film isn't that it takes so many liberties with the book or isn't the movie version most people are familiar with, but rather because it's just not as well-developed or tightly-plotted as it could have been. There are a lot of scenes that are good or interesting in and of themselves, but which don't really contribute much or anything to the overall storyline. Things happen that never go anywhere, and there are a lot of unresolved bits of business. The end in itself is also kind of in media res, and I totally understand why a lot of people say that this movie was just a big ego trip for Larry Semon, whom they feel cared more about trying to be funny even if it meant sacrificing a coherent smooth plot. The individual scenes are good, but together they don't really add up to a perfect whole. It also helps if one is watching a good print with an appropriate soundtrack. Usually I dislike it when people complain too much about print quality and soundtracks, as though everyone's idea of what appropriate and inappropriate are is the same, and as though we should expect all films that are this old to have wonderful print quality, but here it really is true that neither are appropriate. The best version out there, print-wise and sountrack-wise, is the one included as a bonus feature on the deluxe three-disc edition of the 1939 version of this famous tale.

Joke.......2005-06-03

Although I love the actual film I think it could have done with out the narrator. I mean, it's a silent film with swome annoying lady reading to you. Her voice made me want to scratch my eyeballs out. It was like listening to a book on tape, and completely makes a joke out of the movie all together. But I would also like to say that just because a few of the previous customers didn't realize that this film was made in 1929 which would make it silent and means it is NOT the film starring Judy Garland doesn't mean that it was bad. Also I'm disappointed that others think they have educated themselves on Frank L. Baum or any of his books. The 1939 Wizard of Oz only involves some of the stories since there are over 14. Besides Baum helped with this film, meaning he was creating a story there himself. Just because they didn't pick up a book and act out every word doesn't mean it wasn't Baum's creation. This film was another of Baum's story using another medium.
With that said, although the film's music and narration is a joke, I suggest seeing it and keeping your minds open to the fact that there was a world before Judy Garland.

the worst.......2005-05-24

the only intersting part was the sword fight with kynd and kruel.It was very sad. dorthy is so shallow.

HORRIBLE!!.......2005-03-24

I didn't realize I was buying the 1925 silent version of this movie when I bought it . It is SO boring! Thank God I only paid $1.00 for it!

Average customer rating:

"The symbol of all that is good in Oz."
another good wizard of oz film.wheres the rest?
EXCELLENT FAMILY FUN!
GOOD MOVIE.but it doesnt fit up with the books or the movie.
Not terrific, but still enjoyable.

Lion of Oz [Region 2]
Starring: Henry Beckman , Dom DeLuise , Gerard Plunkett , Jason Priestley , and Lynn Redgrave
Director: Tim Deacon
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( L ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Family Films | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Animation | Genres | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Wizard of Oz - The Continuing Story
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Animation Collection
Journey Back to Oz
His Majesty the Scarecrow of Oz
Return to Oz

ASIN: B000069JGF

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

"The symbol of all that is good in Oz.".......2004-09-21

another good wizard of oz film.wheres the rest?.......2004-09-11

EXCELLENT FAMILY FUN!.......2002-07-26

GOOD MOVIE.but it doesnt fit up with the books or the movie........2001-06-30

Not terrific, but still enjoyable........2001-05-01

If you're like me, when you saw that this movie was about the Lion of Oz, you immediately thought of Bert Lahr's performance in the 1939 film. And you thought you knew the character pretty well.

And you come to find out, there's more to him than you thought.

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