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A Forgotten ’90s Animated Series Was A Shocking Sequel to a Classic Movie (And I Think About It All the Time)
When you have a truly classic and beloved film, it’s natural to want to continue that world and its characters in a sequel. That said, that’s not the only way to keep the franchise alive, as you can explore the realm of TV, animation, video games, and books, though more often than not, a television series or cartoon is the most popular avenue. In 1990, an iconic movie received its own unexpected animated series sequel, and while it’s mostly forgotten these days, it was doing some truly wild things with the canon of the original film.
The 1939 film The Wizard of Oz is regarded as a beloved classic and has since seen a renaissance of attention thanks to the Wicked films. What you might not know though is that it also spawned an animated series in 1990 by the same name, and while the show only ran for 13 episodes, it managed to undo almost everything from the film’s original ending for the sake of bringing the original characters back together. You can watch all of the episodes in the video below.
The Wizard of Oz Undid The Ending of the Original Film, And Then Ran With It
If you recall the original movie, the final confrontation has the Wicked Witch of the West taken down by a bucket of water, which causes her to melt. Dorothy and her new allies then realize the Wizard is really just a man operating a machine, and he is also from Kansas. After a hot air balloon ride gone awry, Glinda tells Dorothy she has the power to return to Kansas with her ruby red slippers, and Dorothy clicks her heels with the now famous “there’s no place like home” line, and eventually wakes up in her bed.
In the animated series, the ruby slippers appear on Dorothy’s doorstep, and she then returns to Oz with Toto. She does the same clicking of her heels, but then says, “There’s no place like Oz”, and suddenly she is back in Oz. She soon finds the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion, but then realizes that something else has happened during her time away.
It’s then learned that the Wicked Witch of the West has been resurrected by her winged monkeys, completely reversing her death in the original. She’s also conquered the Emerald City, and she has trapped the Wizard in an inescapable wind. To make it even worse, the Wicked Witch has stolen all of the gifts that the Wizard gave to the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow, so at that point, pretty much everything from the ending has been undone to create the situation needed for a series.
The show didn’t last very long, as it aired only 13 episodes on ABC on September 8th, 1990. It would return for airings on The Disney Channel from 1991 to 1992, and then aired on Toon Disney from 1998 to 2002, but no new episodes were ever produced. Now we have a new generation of fans thanks to Wicked and Wicked: For Good, and perhaps one day we’ll get another attempt at a cartoon as well.
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