Well, we’re just days away from “The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz” premiering on ABC. And though Disney continues to aggressively promote the TV movie (With Miss Piggy appearing on “Live with Regis & Kelly” on Thursday, followed by Ashanti on Friday), the early word on “Oz” isn’t all that great.
Not bad, mind you. But not good either. Early reviews of this TV movie have suggested that it’s a rather middling affair.
Which has got to be absolutely maddening to the “Muppets’ Wizard of Oz” production team. Why For? Because — just prior to the start of shooting — they actually had a teleplay that everyone loved. One that was full of heart, humor & magic. A script that really had the makings of a really great “Muppets’ Wizard of Oz” movie.
“So why didn’t they just shoot the original version of that teleplay?,” you ask. Because — literally less than 10 days prior to the start of production — Disney’s lawyers allegedly announced that they had some serious reservations with this TV movie’s script.
“What was their problem?,” you query. Well — to be honest — these attorneys were reportedly concerned about the number of references that “The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz” made to the 1939 movie version of the story. You know, MGM’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”? That much beloved classic that stars Judy Garland, Bert Lahr, Ray Bolger, Margaret Hamilton & Jack Haley?
What supposedly worried Disney’s lawyers was that the current owner of that film — eccentric billionaire broadcaster Ted Turner — was notorious for being very protective of his property. And given that Mickey had already gone head-to-head with Ted over “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and lost (We’ll get to that story in a minute), the Mouse’s attorneys were understandably reluctant to incur Mr. Turner’s wrath again.
Which is why they forced the “Muppets’ Wizard of Oz” creative team to radically rework their script. Cutting jokes here, entire scenes there. All in an effort to produce an “Oz” movie that wouldn’t have anything in it that could possibly provoke Ted Turner.
So out went the ruby slippers (Which were — obviously — a direct lift from the 1939 film), only to be replaced by the silver ones that appeared in L. Frank Baum’s original novel. Likewise any gags, lines or lyrics that riffed on and/or made fun of the MGM movie.
I’m told that — at one point — Disney’s attorneys were actually insisting that “The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz” production team change the color of the outfit that Miss Piggy was supposed to wear when she was playing the Wicked Witch of the West.
“Margaret Hamilton wore black in the 1939 movie,” said the lawyers. “Which is why you can’t use the same color for Miss Piggy’s Wicked Witch costume.”
“But she’s supposed to a bad-ass biker chick,” the film’s creative team sputtered. “How’s Miss Piggy supposed to come across as a bad-ass biker chick unless she’s wearing black leather?”
In the end, Disney’s attorneys eventually gave in on that one point and allowed “The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz” production team to leave Piggy’s Wicked Witch outfit just as it was. But — truth be told — that was probably one of the only concessions that the Mouse’s legal staff were willing to make.
As a result, “The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz” production team was left with a teleplay with a hell of a lot of holes in it. So — in the few days left before the start of filming — they frantically rewrote the thing. And — even as “Oz” was being shot — they still tried to buff & polish the script.
But the end result … Well … You’ll get to see for yourself this Friday night at 8 p.m.
Don’t get me wrong, folks. “The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz” isn’t a disaster by any stretch of the imagination. By that I mean: This TV movie has got a lot of charm & some great production values. And it’s certainly a step-up from the last production that Miss Piggy & pals appeared in. Which was that lackluster “It’s a Very Muppet Christmas Movie,” which originally aired on NBC back in November of 2002.
But — as for how the folks at Disney actually expect this new Muppet TV movie to do — I think that it’s significant that the people inside the Muppets Holding Company LLC (I.E. The branch of the Walt Disney Company that actually controls Kermit & Co.) are no longer saying things like “Management won’t be making any decisions about what we should do next with the Muppets until they see how well ‘Oz’ does in the ratings.”
Nowadays, the revised Muppets Holding Company LLC mantra goes a little something like this: “Just wait ’til August 9th. That’s when the DVD version of ‘The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz’ finally goes on sale. Once management sees how many units of that title Buena Vista Home Entertainment is able to move, then we’ll see how big a budget we get for our next project.”
Which — to my way of thinking, anyway — doesn’t sound like the folks in the Muppet Holding Company office expect “The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz” to do all that well in the ratings. Which is why I think it’s important (particularly all you folks who keep Nielsen diaries) to watch ABC this Friday night.
I mean, don’t let the Muppets’ potential bright future at the Mouse House be ruined all because a few of Disney’s attorneys are frightened of Ted Turner.
“Speaking of which, Jim,” you interject. “Earlier in this article, you said that you’d talk about the first time that Disney bumped heads with Ted Turner.”
Oh, yeah. That was over the “Great Movie Ride” for Disney-MGM Studio Theme Park. You see, back in 1986, Turner purchased MGM. Only to quickly sell off the historic Culver City studio to Lorimar Pictures, while still retaining the more-than-3650 titles in the MGM film library.
So, when the Imagineers wanted to use MGM’s “The Wizard of Oz” as the basis for the finale of “The Great Movie Ride,” it was Ted’s lawyers that Disney had to deal with. And — in the end — Turner’s attorneys agreed to award WDI the rights to use 3 minutes worth of material (As in: Characters, sets, costumes, music, etc.) from the 1939 classic in this Disney/MGM attraction for an annual fee of $350,000.
Now the key phrase to remember here is “3 minutes worth of material.” Because that’s what eventually came back and bit Disney in the ass.
Anyway … The Imagineers were obviously thrilled to land the rights to “The Wizard of Oz.” To be able to use pieces of this genuine Hollywood classic as the inspiration for the finale of “The Great Movie Ride.” So the guys from WDI initially went all out to make the most of the three minutes that Ted Turner’s people had allotted them.
So — as the Disney-MGM attraction was originally designed — your “Wizard of Oz” experience was supposed to begin right after you saw those Audio Animatronic versions of Rick & Ilsa recreating their memorable goodbye scene from “Casablanca.”
Now, I know. What you see next nowadays in “The Great Movie Ride” is that “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” sequence from “Fantasia.” You know, where Sorcerer Mickey uses the magical hat that he “borrowed” from the wizard Yensid to control the cosmos.
But what the Imagineers had originally planned to do in this area of the attraction was recreate that moment in MGM’s version of “The Wizard of Oz” where the tornado is bearing down on Dorothy’s farmhouse. (That’s actually why there are still fans in this section of “The Great Movie Ride” that blow. Those were initially installed there to give you a wind-in-your-face feeling as a huge black-and-white projection of that funnel cloud came closer & closer to your theater car.)
FYI: It’s also important to understand that the guys from WDI originally put an awful lot of thought into what moments went where in “The Great Movie Ride.” That’s why it’s not a co-incidence that that scene in “Casablanca” comes right before where the tornado sequence from “The Wizard of Oz” was supposed to go.
To explain: “Casablanca” was in black-and-white. As was the tornado sequence from “The Wizard of Oz.” And in “Casablanca,” Ilsa is about to board that plane to fly to fly to freedom. Just as that tornado is about to fly Dorothy’s farmhouse to Oz. So obviously there’s an attempt here to connect the color, theme and style of these two scenes in the attraction.
Anywho … Our theater car is supposedly blown to Oz. We roll into a technicolor recreation of Munchkinland and interact with the Wicked Witch of the West. From there, we roll past Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman & the Cowardly Lion (and Toto too!) as they stand gazing in wonder at the Emerald City in the distance.
And — from there … Well, I’m sure that you all know the ending of “The Great Movie Ride” as it exists today. Where your theater car rolls into a big empty soundstage. And — once the second theater car gets into position — you see a film montage that quickly pays tribute to dozens of movie stars & classic films.
But — if the Walt Disney Company hadn’t had to battle with Ted Turner’s lawyers — the original ending of “The Great Movie Ride” … Well, it would have been something really special. You see, your theater car was actually supposed to roll into a recreation of the throne room of the Great Oz himself. Where — with a combination of in-theater effects as well as projections — that huge head would have loomed up out of the colored smoke & fire and said:
“The Great and Powerful Oz knows why you have come. Behold! The history of Hollywood!”
And then the film montage would have gotten underway. Which — you have to admit — would have been a much more fun, far more theatrical way for “The Great Movie Ride” to come to a close.
But — as I said at the very start of this story — the only problem was that the Walt Disney Company had a contract with Turner Entertainment that specifically said the the Imagineers were only allowed to use a total of three minutes worth of material from “The Wizard of Oz” for the finale for “The Great Movie Ride.” Which would have been fine … If WDI had stuck with its original plan to only send one theater car at a time through each scene in this Disney-MGM attraction.
But then — as people within WDW management became to grow concerned about the studio theme park’s capacity — a decision was made very late in the game that two theater cars full of guests would go through “The Great Movie Ride” at the same time. Which totally threw off the timing that the Imagineers had originally built this Disney-MGM attraction around.
Which eventually meant that — instead of it taking three minutes for WDW guests to move through all the “Wizard of Oz” -related scenes in “The Great Movie Ride” ‘s finale — it was now actually taking those two theater cars upwards of 4 minutes to move through this section of the attraction. But surely Mr. Turner wouldn’t begrudge the Walt Disney Company an extra minute’s worth of “Wizard of Oz” -related material.
As it turns out, Ted really did mind. As a result of that extra minute’s worth of material, Turner reportedly made all sorts of demands. I’ve been told that he wanted to double that annual fee that WDI was paying Turner Entertainment for the rights to use “The Wizard of Oz.” When Disney balked at that suggestion, Ted’s attorneys allegedly threatened to file a lawsuit, supposedly insisting that there had been a breach of contract.
In the end, the word came down from Burbank to Glendale to make this problem go away. That the Imagineers were now under orders to get the “Wizard of Oz” sequence in “The Great Movie Ride” back down to the previously agreed upon three minutes. Which is why first the whole “Throne Room of the Wizard of Oz” scene got cut. And then — when this sequence was still found to be running long — the introductory tornado sequence got cut as well.
The end result … Well, while that recreation of Munchkinland is still very impressive and the Wicked Witch AA figure never ceases to amaze … It still makes me sad to think what the finale of “The Great Movie Ride” could have been like. That our theater cars could have got caught up in a faux tornado and then been blown to Oz. And that we could then have capped off our “Wizard of Oz” experience by having an audience with the Great & Powerful Oz himself.
But now — all because Disney’s lawyers didn’t like dealing with Ted Turner’s attorneys — two potentially great versions of “The Wizard of Oz” have been screwed up: The finale of Disney-MGM’s “Great Movie Ride” as well as “The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz” TV movie.
You know, it’s at times like this that I wish that there really were flying monkeys. So that — whenever a Disney attorney dropped by and says “We need to talk” — you could just have your winged ape carry off that empty suit and have them dropped in the middle of the Deadly Desert.
Anywho … That’s the story of how the Mouse’s lawyers loused up two great “Oz” projects. Your thoughts?