In Oz: The Great and Powerful trailers, the Disney castle transformed into the Emerald City.
Walt Disney Pictures and its associated businesses have multiple connections with the Oz literature.
- The studio's first great popular hit, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, helped to inspire the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz. Walt Disney planned to make an animated film based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but found that Samuel Goldwyn had already bought the rights, and later sold them to Louis B. Meyer. However, the MGM producers considered soliciting Disney himself as a consultant, but never followed through on the plan. (Adriana Caselotti, the voice of Disney's Snow White, sings one line in the Oz film — "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" in the Tin Woodman's "If I Only Had a Heart." Pinto Colvig, who provided the voice for Disney's Goofy, contributed to the sound of the Munchkins.)
- The studio purchased the film rights to L. Frank Baum's last thirteen Oz books (that is, all but the first) in 1954.
- From July 1955 to January 1956, a women's clothing store at the Disneyland park featured a robot called "The Wonderful Wizard of Bras" who explained clothing styles of the 19th century.
- Disneyland Records released several records containing original story books including The Songs from The Wizard of Oz, The Story of the Scarecrow of Oz, The Story and Songs of The Tin Woodman of Oz, and The Story and Songs of The Cowardly Lion of Oz.
- The studio released the film Return to Oz in 1985. The Emerald City that appears in the film is re-created in the Disneyland Paris version of Storybook Land Canal Boats. There was also a commemorative (short lived) float dedicated to the film's release during the Main Street Electrical Parade. Tik-Tok also serves as a Beetleworx enemy in the video game Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.
- The studio made the 2005 television movie The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, and released a recording of its soundtrack.
- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse had a special episode called "Minnie's the Wizard of Dizz" featuring Minnie as Dorothy, Goofy as the Scarecrow, Mickey as the Tin Man and Donald as the Lion.
- The studio released the film Oz the Great and Powerful in 2013. The home video releases include a bonus feature documenting various Oz-related projects Disney produced, or attempted to produce, before it.
- Starting in 2014, ABC Studios (parent owned by Disney) began using original Oz storylines in its television series Once Upon a Time.
- Marvel Comics has produced comic adaptations of L. Frank Baum's first six Oz books, the last five released after Disney purchased the company.
The Disney organization also mounted unsuccessful attempts to exploit the Oz materials at its disposal. In 1958 a projected TV program called The Rainbow Road to Oz, featuring the Mouseketeers, failed to gel. A planned Emerald City attraction at Disneyland also did not materialize. The Wonderful World of Disney attempted to air a TV version of The Wiz in the late 1990s, but rights issues with Universal (who distributed the 1978 movie) forced them to abandon their attempts. (Although, two of The Wonderful World of Disney's producers, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, did get to air a 2015 TV version on NBC, which shares a parent company with Universal.)
(links below go to the Disney Wiki)
Though not related to Oz, some films along with televsion shows have similar plot devices such as Rapunzel in Tangled being stolen as a baby and her royality kept secret from her like Ozma was. In the animated series Elena of Avalor, one episode entitled "Spellbound" has a evil wizard turn the kingdom's citizens into stone not much unlike how the Nome King did in Return to Oz
Gallery
