When this reviewer saw the original “Wizard of Oz” at age 6, he became terrified of the Wicked Witch and hid behind the couch. “Oz the Great and Powerful” is, by and large, a decent enough children’s film. But Sam Raimi is a former horror-film director, so certain images made the reviewer, at age 53, feel slightly in need of the couch again.
Of course, today’s 6-year-olds are used to seeing way worse. Still, a 6-year-old, ideally, should have a couch-free existence.
James Franco plays Oscar Diggs, a traveling-circus magician out of Kansas, circa 1905. Being a bit of a rake, he runs afoul of the resident strongman, escapes a beating by jumping in his hot-air balloon, and flies smack into a tornado.
As we all know, anything sucked up in a tornado in Kansas will get deposited in the Land of Oz. As in the original “Oz” film, Kansas is shot in black and white. Oz is multicolored. With multiethnic Munchkins. It’s a new era.
