Analyzing the Women of Oz

Third assessment:

Blondes are the epitome of goodness.

michelle-williams-oz

DUDE! Did you guys notice how many minority town people there were in Oz and Emerald City??? It was like, Toto, look’s like we ain’t in Oz anymore.

I really can’t assess the amount of sugary candy that Michelle Williams added into her Glinda, but IT IS Glinda, so I think the sweetness comes with the character. But the amount of sugary candy in the Latino dub seems to have been toned down because I really liked Glinda here. Despite the segment in which she turns into Damsel in Distress, and being the epitome of kind and goodness, and her hippy pacifist side… I was kinda fond of her. And I thought she was quite rocking when Williams had to magic-duel with Weisz.

But all of Glinda’s positiveness takes me to…

Our final assessment:

Girls who put out too soon and are too clingy will turn nasty (maybe even green and Wicked).

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Mila Kunis’ Theodora kisses and “fades to black” with the newly-arrived Oz.

You know what fading to black a kissing scene means, right? We may not be in the Hays Code era any longer, but some things stick. Especially if we’re talking about films that are aimed at children, but AREN’T really aimed at them. Here you have womanizing Oz, just arrived to Oz a couple of hours ago where he meets unsuspecting/suspecting Theodora, who falls for his magical charms and then, after putting out, marvels at the great prospect of reigning side by side with Oz.

Later, of course, easily manipulated by her evil 40-something-year-old-sister, Theodora turns green and becomes the Wicked Witch we all come to know.

In contrast to Theodora, Glinda (despite being the image of Oz’s one and only), meets the disappointment that is Oz from the get-go, knowing that he is good at heart. She doesn’t stop believing and asks Oz to be the fraudulent con artist that he is, because that’s what she needs. When the deed is done, and Oz has completed his task, he somehow makes his move and…

james-franco-michelle-williams-oz-the-great-and-powerful-kiss

After all the struggle… girls put out. Kinda.

Glinda kinda puts out, but instead of fading to black, we’re given the classic Hollywood kiss with typical raising of the heel in a romantic gesture. So she didn’t actually put out that we know of. In this case Glinda only did kiss him.

Oh, Disney. Did we really need that kiss?

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

8 Responses

  1. Did you hear about the producer of the movie saying that he was interested in this story because when he worked at Disney, he felt there weren’t enough children’s stories centered on male characters?

    • amy says:

      @Diandra Rodriguez, OH REALLY? No, I didn’t. And I thought John Carter was centered on a male character just like Prince of Persia was, and though Persia did make money, John Carter was a bomb.

      You got any link?

      • @amy, it came from a Huffington Post interview, which is linked to with commentary here; http://racebending.tumblr.com/post/44985034389/too-many-ladies

        • amy says:

          @Diandra Rodriguez, I find it interesting that men complain there are no strong male leads. I wonder do they think Oz is a strong male lead? He’s a con artist who cheats on women, and his “cheating” is the trigger for Theodora. By the end, do men think Oz becomes a worthy lead? He’s basically a sham. The image of what the people of Oz needed him to be?

      • @amy, While I haven’t seen this movie yet, I think his comment might have been sparked by the heavier marketing presence of the Disney “princesses.” Yet I have a theory that these female characters might have higher visibility because 1) they’re easier to group together than the Disney male heroes, 2) they’re squished into the “princess” trope that girls are encouraged to follow, and 3) girls may buy some of the general and “boy” toys but are also looking for any lead or secondary characters similar to them and, since more movies tend to have male leads, the girls will return again and again to the “princesses” and spend more on a narrower range of characters.

        • amy says:

          @Diandra Rodriguez, makes sense. My niece was watching BackStreet Boy’s Everybody, and instead of picking one of them as in “I’m dracula” or “I’m the mummy,” she chose the girl vampire.

          I enjoyed Oz, but these things really stuck out – not only here, but a majority of movies. A part of me wanted Raimi to whack Glinda and make HER the evil witch haha, but that would go against cannon and fans would be up in arms. I think the sexism people perceive comes with how dated material is. Girls do have something to complain about The Snow Queen, though.

  2. ghost says:

    Could we make similar assessments on other movie witches or other fantasy tales? For example, the last two Snow Whites?

    • amy says:

      @ghost, well. Kinda did? In Mirror Mirror, Julia Robert IS over 40, though the mood of the film is really campy and it’s all kind of historical. In Huntsman, Theron did come off better than Snow White, but that might be our bias against Kirsten. I still think Theron’s character was much better developed in it than Snow White herself.

      Hansel & Gretel does show a witch Famke that’s over 40, and she also has dark hair. And Pfeiffer is a blond over 40 on Stardust.

      If you can name me other movies, we could try and figure it out. In all of the above mentioned examples, we can’t be sure of what the grade of putting out is. We do know Theron does kinda lure men and kills them there… xD

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