A dreary, gray day in Kansas already has Dorothy Gale feeling sad and dreaming about what life might be like in other places. She expresses these longings through a song in which she wonders what lies on the other side of the rainbow. Already down and feeling alone, things are about to get even worse for the young orphan girl living with her aunt and uncle on their farm.
Their farm, at least, for now. The town’s richest, snootiest, ugliest and meaning people are about to show up and they are all the same person: Miss Almira Gulch. She arrives with a threat that unless the family hand over Dorothy’s best friend—her little dog named Toto—to comply with a court order, she will make sure her aunt and uncle lose their farm. Toto is handed over to ride back to town with Miss Gulch in a basket on the back of her bike, but even before she get out of sight of the farm, Toto shows up just what an industrious little pooch he is by sneaking away and running back to his best friend, Dorothy.
Dorothy decides that even with Toto back, it is just a matter of time before Miss Gulch is back at the farm making the same threat so she decides the two of them should run away rather than take a chance on her aunt and uncle losing their home. She doesn’t get far before she comes across the caravan of old carney with a fortune-telling act calling himself Professor Marvel. When the kindly old man learns about her dilemma, he show his concern and a little wisdom in choosing how to convince her to return to the farm. Instead of trying to convince it would be what’s best for her, he convinces her it would be best for them. Before she can get back, a storm breaks out and a tornado touches down. Unable to get into the fraidy hole shelter, she runs into the house where the winds blow out a window and knock her onto the bed. At that point, it seems as if the entire house has been sucked into the twister and outside the window she sees that those she loves have been picked as well and are circling around her. Then she see Miss Gulch on her bike. That’s when things start to get weird.
Miss Gulch appears to have transformed into a witch and her bike into a broom. And then suddenly the twister lets loose of the house and it lands with a plop back onto the ground. When Dorothy opens the door what awaits outside is not the black and white world of Kansas. Instead, it is a verdant landscape featuring plants she knew existed blooming in colors she’s never seen before. Then she sees something she never even dreamed could exist: a strange shimmery ball that seems to be floating through the air right toward her. Before her eyes, that ball then changes into a beautiful woman.
Glinda, it turns out is a witch. Not a wicked witch, because only ugly witches can be wicked. Like the one that lies beneath the house that just now dropped from the sky and killed her. Turns out that she was known as the Wicked Witch of the East and hated by everybody. Everybody meaning the strange little inhabitants of this strange place who are the size of children. They celebrate the house falling on the witch and killing her and ever offer Dorothy the position of being their new leader. Things are pretty good for these Munchkins as they are called.
Until, that is, the sister of the witch killed when Dorothy’s house landed her shows up. She’s even more terrifying to the Munchkins than her sister and she arrives for one particular reason: to her green hands on the ruby red shoes on the feet sticking out from the under the house. One big problem: Glinda uses magic to transfer the shoes from the dead witch onto Dorothy’s feet, telling that as long as she’s wearing them, the Wicked Witch won’t be able to them off.
The Wicked Witch seems to confirm because instead of using magic to try to get the shoes she threatens Dorothy. And her little dog. Who now have just one hope of ever getting back home. They must follow the Yellow Brick and head off to see the Wizard of Oz in Emerald City. If ever there was a wizard who can figure out how to get her back home, it’s the wizard who is the Wizard of Oz. And so Dorothy with little dog Toto in tow head off to see the wizard.
Before they make it there, however, they meet a Scarecrow, a Tin Woodsman and a Lion who are capable of talking. All three join Dorothy on her trek to the Emerald City hoping that the Wizard can also give the Scarecrow a brain, the Tin Man a heart and the king of the beasts known as the Cowardly Lion a little bit of courage. Meanwhile, the Wicked Witch of the West has decided to bide her time and keep track of Dorothy and her growing collection of companions, ready to take advantage of the right moment to seize the moment and get the shoes that rightfully belong to her and that Glinda had no right to give away.
Although the Witch makes a last second attempt to keep them from actually making it to Emerald City by using poisonous poppies that puts Dorothy and the lion in a deep slumber. Glinda concocts a snowfall antidote to this obstruction, however, and the four arrive among great pomp and circumstance and preparation to meet the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz. The Wizard takes the form of a gigantic, overpowering and somewhat horrifying head on a screen who informs them that he will help them with all their needs on the condition that they go to the castle of the Wicked Witch and bring back her broomstick. Despite this seeming like a suicide mission, they agree it must be done if it means getting Dorothy back to her home.
Before they can get anywhere near to sneaking their way into her castle, they are set upon by the witch’s army of flying monkeys who disappear into the night sky with Dorothy and leave the Lion and the Tin Man with the job of trying to collect the scattered pieces of hay that make up the Scarecrow’s body. Toto once again outwits a wicked old crone by managing to escape from her castle and track down Dorothy’s traveling companions. They get into a scrape with some of the witch’s guard, but the Lion displays great courage in not running from the fight. Disguising themselves with the uniforms of the guards they sneak into the castle where Toto leads them to the room where the witch was keeping Dorothy a prisoner.
As they attempt to flee the castle and escape the clutches of the witch they run into some more the guards. Trapped and with no direction to go, the Wicked Witch revels in her power by exhibiting a rather sadistic enjoyment of torturing the Scarecrow. She ignites the bristles of her broom with a torch and sets the Scarecrow on fire. Fearing for the life of her new friend, Dorothy acts quickly and on instinct. She grabs a nearby bucket of water and tosses it into the Scarecrow blazing arm. The force of Dorothy’s affection for the Scarecrow causes some of the water to splash onto the Wicked Witch. To the amazed horror of all, this has the effect of causing her to melt away into nothingness. The guards quickly surprise Dorothy and her friends as well by announcing their gratitude at this turn of events. Turns out, the witch was no better liked by her own guards than she was by the Munchkin.
They grab what they came for and head back to Wizard with the expectations of getting Dorothy back home, the Scarecrow a brain, the Tin Man a heart and the Lion some courage. Except that the Wizard is not what he seems at all. Thanks to the curiosity of Toto, the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz is revealed to be a charlatan who arrived one day in a balloon and has been using smoke and microphones and amplifiers and images project on a screen to create the illusion of having powers. The only power he has to get Dorothy back home is that balloon that brought him here.
So, since has no powers to give the others what they want, either, the Scarecrow receives a diploma, the Tin Man a cl0ck shaped like a heart that ticks like a heartbeat, and the Lion receives a medal for valor. After saying her goodbyes, Dorothy and Toto take their place on the balloon alongside the former Wizard of Oz. But Toto spots a cat in the crowd and chases after and Dorothy chase after Toto. In all the confusion, the balloon comes unmoored and starts to float away with just one occupant. A disconsolate Dorothy appears doomed to remain in Oz and never see her aunt and uncle for who knows how long.
It is at this point that Glinda shows up again with some important information about the ruby red slippers that she neglected to tell Dorothy. They have—and have always had—the magical power return her home. All she had to do was click her heels three times and express a genuine and heartfelt desire to go back home. Glinda’s explanation for not telling Dorothy about this earlier is only that she would never have believe it and it was something she had to figure out for herself. A few clicks of the heels and the repetition of the assertion that “there’s no place like home” and suddenly the world is in black and white again as it was when the movie opened. Dorothy realizes that her three friends in Oz bear a distinct resemblance to the three farmhands she’s become friends with. And the Wizard looked a lot like Professor Marvel who has stopped by make sure she got home safe. According to everybody on the farm, she’s been in bed recovering from the injury to her head during the tornado the whole time and that her adventure in Oz was nothing but a dream.
