New vision of magical classic
The Age
Monday December 28, 2009
THE WIZARD OF OZ L. Frank Baum, illustrated by Charles Santore Sterling Andrew Stephens Reviewer IT'S a tough call to re-imagine a classic, especially one whose primary vehicle to fame was the cinema. Who can see anyone other than Judy Garland as Dorothy? Well, artist Charles Santore can, as he cleverly follows his own instincts in illustrating this "condensed" version of Baum's original children's novel. As Oz authority Michael Patrick Hearn writes in his thoughtful introduction, Santore does not go in for a period piece but a naturalist effect in his suite of 60 magnificent drawings.The Cowardly Lion here is enormous and bespectacled; the Tin Man's head really does look like an oil can, and the Scarecrow looks soft and cuddly. Dorothy, too, seems somehow less glamorous and more girlish €” not at all like Garland €” and the Wicked Witch of the West is much more frightening and grotesque (and she has her famous movie line "I'm meeeltiiing!" taken off her). In short, that tendency to neaten up characters and ideas that sometimes attends American cinema is absent here. That said, the abridgement works in the book's favour, reading more like a European fairytale.
© 2009 The Age
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