The Wizard Of Oz is a 1939 musical fantasy film based on the book of the same name which was the first instalment in Frank L. Baum's Oz series.
Summary[]
Jungle Cruise connections[]
Attractions[]
Jungle Cruise[]
The Wizard Of Oz film is referenced by Albert Awol of AWOL Airwaves in an advertisement for the Elephant Safari Company. Here, Awol says, "Join The Elephant Safari Company as they search for lions, tigers, and bears. Oh, my" which references the film dialogue of, "Lions and tigers and bears. Oh, my!" repeated several times while passing through Oz's forests before encountering the Cowardly Lion.
Film[]
Jungle Cruise[]
Prince Joachim's feet sticking out from under a boulder after his death seems to tribute The Wicked Witch Of The East's death in this film.
Other connections[]
The Great Movie Ride[]
This attraction featured two scenes based on The Wizard Of Oz. Guests and their tour-guide would enter the Munchkin village and assume the role of Dorothy being tormented by the Wicked Witch of the West. After this scene, guests would pass by Dorothy and her friends overlooking the horizon of the Emerald City. A third scene based on the film's twister was planned but discarded due to copyright reasons, being replaced by Mickey Mouse recreating the Sorcerers Apprentice scene of Fantasia (1940).
The Wizard Of Oz is also referenced in the Great Movie Ride's successor attraction, Mickey And Minnie's Runaway Railway as tributes to the Great Movie Ride. While passing through the carnival, the location is devastated by a massive twister (indirectly referencing the film). While being sucked into the twister, one of the objects in the cyclone is a mail-box which reads, "No place like home".[1] The prints of the Ruby Slippers appear outside the Chinese Theatre with Judy Garland's name and the year 1939.[2]
Trivia[]
- The character of The Dreamfinder from Journey Into Imagination was originally pitched for Tony Baxter's unbuilt Discovery Bay expansion of Disneyland under the name, "Professor Marvel". This moniker is likely taken from the 1939 The Wizard Of Oz where it referred to the real-word counterpart of the titular The Wizard Of Oz. Furthering this connection, Marvel would have been the namesake of a balloon-ride connecting Discovery Bay To A Dumbo's Circus area Of Fantasyland.
- The Wizard Of Oz was released a year after the frequently used Jungle Cruise setting of 1938.
- In real-world history, the film was referenced by the LGBTQ+ community as shorthand for identifying one another as being part of the community without alerting the authorities. Namely this came from the expression, "Friends Of Dorothy" being used (predominately by men of Achillean sexuality), referencing an attachment to the fantasy elements of the film and how in the books, Dorothy was in a sapphic relationship with Princess Ozma Of Oz who herself was effectively a transgender girl. In The Jungle Cruise, the characters of MacGregor Houghton and Cap'n Kevin are LGBTQ+ characters in the setting where this terminology might have been used.
- Walt Disney made several attempts in his lifetime to adapt the Oz stories but couldn't due to copyright laws with MGM (ironically the same laws created by Disney to monger and profiteer off the otherwise public-domain stories which he adapted). Live-action segments for the cancelled Rainbow Road To Oz were aired on the Disneyland TV series with Mouseketeers Annette Funicello as Princess Ozma and Tommy Kirk as the vengeful son of The Wicked Witch Of The West (a character created for the film). Following Disney's demise, the company made the live-action films Return To Oz (1985) And Oz The Great And Powerful (2013), the former of which was based on the second and third Oz books (albeit starring Dorothy in place of Ozma) while the third was an original prequel story based on the reimagined characters of the film.