In this activity you will spot the differences between the 1930's Holywood film and the book of the Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baulm.
But Firstly some film and book though
If you have ever watched the film of a book that you have read, you will know that films hardly ever faithfully follow the plot of the original. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a famous book - but perhaps the film is even more famous, and many people might not know the orignal. Here are a couple of differences between the film and the book.
In the film Dorothy has ruby rather than silver shoes as in the book. The reason for this is that the ruby shoes showed up better in colour.
The 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz was one of the first films to be shot in colour (Technicolor). One of the awards it won at the Oscars in 1940 was for best Cinematography and colour. The Kansas scenes were shot in black and White however, and the Emerald city scenes in colour - to mark the contrast between the dull prairie, and the magical world of Oz. The directors wanted to make the maximum use of the new color technology, even if that meant making some changes to the story's details.
In the film Dorothy is portrayed as a young Damsel in Distress, but in the book she is seen to be rescuing her companions. In this way, the film takes a more conservative view of a young girl's role than the book does. The Dorothy of the book is more of a "modern" heroine who has lots of initiative.
Maybe you can spot some more differences?
Read the book first and then watch the film. Have a paper and pencil to hand. Note down similarities and differences in these three areas:
-Visual ( what the characters do i.e. their actions)
- Audio ( what the characters say i.e. their words).
Bye Bye
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