Oz the Great and Powerful

What’s it about?

Oscar Diggs is a magician who uses tricks and lies to get what he wants. One day a big burly man threatens Oscar and seems to want to kill him, so Oscar takes off in a hot air balloon. The balloon gets caught up in a hurricane and Oscar lands in the magical world of Oz. When the villagers see him they think he is the King they have been waiting for and that he is entitled to all of the riches of the Kingdom. Oscar thinks he has found a goldmine but is distracted by three beautiful witches: Theodora, Evanora and Glinda.

Oscar is immediately attracted to Theodora but the wicked Evanora turns her into an old hag and the two sisters plot to kill Oscar and Glinda so that they can have the Kingdom for themselves. Oscar has to use all of his old tricks and illusions to battle the witches and transform himself into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.

What to look out for

There’s quite a bit of fantasy violence in this movie such as:

• Theodora gets really angry and starts to shoot bolts of fire across the room, destroying it in the process.
• Evanora and Theodora throw balls of fire at the villagers and destroy the town.
• Evanora sends green strobes of magic into Glinda to cause her great pain.

There’s also much in this movie that would scare younger kids such as:

• When Oscar lands in Oz he wades into a river where he is attacked by ‘river fairies’ which are only small but are fierce looking and have very sharp teeth.
• Oscar comes upon a town that has been destroyed by the witches and he finds a young girl crying because her china legs have been broken. Oscar is very upset by this.
• Theodora and Evanora are both shown physically transforming from beautiful women into shrivelled and bony, ugly witches.

Moral of the Story

The message of the story is that it is much better to be a good person than trying to be a great or famous person.