History YMMV / TheWizardOfOz

** As Dorothy's house is being carried by the tornado, she sees several bizarre sights from her window--a coop of clucking chickens; an old lady in a rocking chair; a mooing cow; and two men in a rowboat. The people all exchange friendly waves with Dorothy and seem curiously blasé about being suspended in the sky. None of these people or animals are identified or ever mentioned again, and the entire sequence veers into absurd, borderline cartoonish territory that goes beyond even the fantastical elements of her later Oz experiences. It's actually the most truly dreamlike sequence in the movie. (The final sight she sees from the window--Miss Gulch riding on her bike before transforming into the Wicked Witch on a broom--is directly relevant to the story and therefore doesn't qualify as a BLAM. It still doesn't quite fit into the continuity of what she experiences after landing in Oz, as it reveals the connection between the people she encounters in Oz and [[AndYouWereThere those she knew in Kansas]], something she mostly forgets about while she's in Oz apart from one brief moment she quickly shrugs off.)

* AudienceColoringAdaptation: For many viewers, this movie is the main influence in the way in which they perceive anything related with the ''Franchise/LandOfOz'' media, from details such as Dorothy wearing ruby slippers instead of the silver ones from the book, as well the portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West as a green woman instead of having only one eye as she is originally described. The personalities of the characters in Oz-influenced media tend to reflect their movie personalities instead of the literary ones.

** Lions and tigers and bears! Oh MY!

** When the Wicked Witch tells Dorothy that she only has until the sand in the hourglass runs out to be alive, does this mean that the Witch plans to come back and kill Dorothy when that span of time was up? Or if Dorothy hadn't escaped from the room, would she have just dropped dead as soon as the sand ran out?

--> ''As coroner/''
--> ''I must aver/''
--> ''I thoroughly examined her/''
--> ''And she's not only merely dead/''
--> ''She's really most sincerely dead!''

* DracoInLeatherPants: The Wicked Witch of the West being played by the [[MeanCharacterNiceActor kind and loving]] Margaret Hamilton really helped this. And ''Wicked'', which many people have taken as actual canonicity with this movie.

** "It's a twister! It's a twister!"

** "Toto, I've a feeling we're NotInKansasAnymore."

** "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"
** "I'll get you, my pretty. AndYourLittleDogToo"
** We're OffToSeeTheWizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

* OneSceneWonder:

* When the Wicked Witch tells Dorothy that she only has until the sand in the hourglass runs out to be alive, does this mean that the Witch plans to come back and kill Dorothy when that span of time was up? Or if Dorothy hadn't escaped from the room, would she have just dropped dead as soon as the sand ran out?

** As Dorothy's house is being carried by the tornado, she sees several bizarre sights from her window--a coop of clucking chickens; an old lady in a rocking chair; a mooing cow; and two men in a rowboat. The people all exchange friendly waves with Dorothy and seem curiously blasé about being suspended in the sky. None of these people or animals are identified or ever mentioned again, and the entire sequence veers into absurd, borderline cartoonish territory that goes beyond even the fantastical elements of her later Oz experiences. It's actually the most truly dreamlike sequence in the movie. (The final sight she sees from the window--Miss Gulch riding on her bike before transforming into the Wicked Witch on a broom--is directly relevant to the story and therefore doesn't qualify as a BLAM, though it doesn’t quite fit into the continuity of her journey in Oz, where she never directly remembers the connection between the people she meets in Oz and those she knew in Kansas—until she [[AndYouWereThere wakes up at the end]].)

** As Dorothy's house is being carried by the tornado, she sees several bizarre sights from her window--a coop of clucking chickens; an old lady in a rocking chair; a mooing cow; and two men in a rowboat. The people all exchange friendly waves with Dorothy and seem curiously blasé about being suspended in the sky. None of these people or animals are identified or ever mentioned again, and the entire sequence veers into absurd, borderline cartoonish territory that goes beyond even the fantastical elements of her later Oz experiences. It's actually the most truly dreamlike sequence in the movie. (The final sight she sees from the window--Miss Gulch riding on her bike before transforming into the Wicked Witch on a broom--is directly relevant to the story and therefore doesn't qualify as a BLAM, though it doesn’t quite fit into the continuity of her journey in Oz, where she never remembers the connection between the people she meets in Oz and those she knew in Kansas.)

** As Dorothy's house is being carried by the tornado, she sees several bizarre sights from her window--a coop of clucking chickens; an old lady in a rocking chair; a mooing cow; and two men in a rowboat. The people all exchange friendly waves with Dorothy and seem curiously blasé about being suspended in the sky. None of these people or animals are identified or ever mentioned again, and the entire sequence veers into absurd, borderline cartoonish territory that goes beyond even the fantastical elements of her later Oz experiences. It's actually the most truly dreamlike sequence in the movie. (The final sight she sees from the window--Miss Gulch riding on her bike before transforming into the Wicked Witch on a broom--is directly relevant to the story and therefore doesn't qualify as a BLAM, though it is still a more typically dreamlike moment than most of her Oz experiences.)

** Was it all in Dorothy's head or did the characters all just suspiciously look like family members of hers? For that matter, if the people in Oz look similar to people in Kansas, is Oz some kind of parallel dimension?

** While the costuming for Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr themselves looks very impressive for the time, [[ObviousStuntDouble their wide-shot doubles are wearing much less sophisticated suits and makeup]]; compare the shot of a rather lumpy Tin Man and a scruffy-looking Lion are climbing up the cliff face to the immediate cut of Haley holding on to Lahr's tail. When the Tin Man is dropped to the ground and has to be helped back up, the stuntman's white T-shirt is clearly visible above his aluminum tights.

* BeamMeUpScotty: The voiced-over [[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet "Wherefore art thou Romeo?"]] in "If I Only Had a Heart" is spoken in its usual wrong way, misinterpreting the original. Creator/AdrianaCaselotti delivers it as if she were asking "Where are you, Romeo?" not "Why are you Romeo?"

** The scene where everyone panics on the farm and rushes to Dorothy's aid when she falls in the pig pen. Most these days see it as [[ComicalOverreacting unintentional hilarity]], but those who have raised pigs on a farm would know the risk of pigs killing and trying to eat small children.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** Back in 1939, the idea of a fantasy world ''on film'' (as opposed to books like those by Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs or Creator/JulesVerne) was presumed to be very novel to film audiences -- so much so that the studio took issue with it (see ExecutiveMeddling). However, countless other works featuring fantasy themes and motifs have been released since ''The Wizard of Oz'' came out.
** The movie somewhat zig-zags it. On one hand, it's ''definitely'' shown its age (the backgrounds and special effects were more comparable to what you would see on ''stage'' than an actual ''film''), but on the other, it was so far ahead of the curve that [[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd James Rolfe]] has mentioned meeting people who were ''shocked'' to find that the movie was made in the ''thirties''. Part of this can be attributed to its popularity in UsefulNotes/TheFifties.
** While the film as a whole is generally considered timeless, the transition from monochrome to color generally isn't considered anything special by modern audiences' standards, when it was a groundbreaking feat back in 1939 for the film to [[DancingBear be in color at all]], and as such, the BaitAndSwitch aspect of it is not considered surprising any longer.

** Back in 1939, the idea of a fantasy world was very novel to film audiences, so much so that the studio took issue with it (see ExecutiveMeddling). However, countless other works featuring fantasy themes and motifs have been released since ''The Wizard of Oz'' came out.

** The set backgrounds look enthralling to a younger viewer, but no adult would be fooled. This is an unfortunate consequence of the film being characterized by its use of Technicolor, as it glaringly shows up the scenery as solid walls. The ''WesternAnimation/EarthwormJim'' cartoon even did a ParodyEpisode poking fun of this, by the characters all running into the walls as a RunningGag.

** The Munchkins in general, due to being enormously kind to Dorothy after accidently killing the Witch of the East and having very catchy songs.

* "It's a twister! It's a twister!"

* BaseBreakingCharacter: The Cowardly Lion is either the funniest character or the most annoying, due to Bert Lahr's affectedly dopey "Puh-huh-huuh!" shtick. It perhaps doesn't help for detractors that Lion doesn't really get any chance to demonstrate his actual courage the way Scarecrow and Tin Man are given chances to flex their respective intelligence and emotions (all the Wizard's gifts are meant to be a MagicFeather for the real strengths each of them already possessed), and his big musical number "If I Were King Of The Forest" is pretty underwhelming and forgettable compared to the other, far more iconic songs in the movie (barring the "Whadda they got that I ain't got?" exchange at the very end).