A mountain of pure, unadulterated kitsch adorns Sam Raimi’s first outing for Disney’s fantasy world. There are flying baboons, singing and dancing Munchkins, magic bubbles and landscapes of too bright flowers and too verdant trees.
It is all, however, to good purpose since the former horror merchant is paying tribute to The Wizard of Oz in this story of a circus magician (James Franco) suddenly plonked into the land of Oz and hoping everyone will think he’s the real wizard.
He’s met there by three witches (Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz and Mila Kunis), who sensibly doubt his credentials. But throughout the resulting adventures, he realises that his ambition to be a great rather than a good man was wrong. He can be both if he tries hard enough.
There is one musical number — Almost Home sung by Mariah Carey. Otherwise, Raimi accomplishes his task with a series of visual tropes that gently remind us of the classic film without quite convincing that the whole thing is a bit of a waste of time.
The screenplay is not perky enough and Franco is miscast. Added to that, the three witches needed lessons from Macbeth to fully convince.
Still, it looks nice and has a good heart. Raimi has done his best to prove he’s a softie after all.
