Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz is an animated series based on Land of Oz (and its more famous film adaption) that debuted on Boomerang's streaming service in the United States on June 29, 2017 and is seen on all international Boomerang channels.
Dorothy now serves as princess of Emerald City underneath Queen Ozma. Along with Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Lion, Dorothy will go on plenty of adventures having plenty of fun, encountering many characters from the original Oz books, and learning about things like friendship and community.
Tropes pertaining to the series:
- Adaptational Dumbass: Ozma may not have been a genius in the original books, but she was fairly together. This version is most definitely The Ditz.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Unlike most adaptations, Ozma is a blonde. However, The Marvelous Land of Oz describe her as a ruddy blonde (while other books depict her as brunette), while this Ozma is pure blonde.
- Adaptational Nationality: Several characters who were explicitly American in the books are here native to Oz.
- Both Billina and Eureka were brought to Oz by Dorothy in the books, but here they already live in Oz. Eureka even comes from a village of cats.
- Cap'n Bill, Trot and Button-Bright were all Americans in the books (Button-Bright was from Philadelphia, Trot and Cap'n Bill from California), but here they seem to be native to Sky Island. In addition, Trot and Button-Bright speak with British accents.
- Age Lift: In the books, Cap'n Bill is at least past middle age. Here he's a young boy.
- All-Loving Hero: Dorothy is a girl who will stop at nothing to be there for others and be kind.
- Anti-Magic: When you say "Abra Kadabra" in Oz.
- Artifact Title: The show is called Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, but while Dorothy is the main character, the Wizard is completely absent, never even referred to during the entire first season (let alone appearing in the opening intro). The second season rectifies this, though, as he finally appears in the second-season premiere and becomes a regular character after that.
- Berserk Button: The Woozy hates it when people whisper.
- Big Eater:
- The Cowardly Lion has a big appetite. Then again, he is a lion.
- His old friend the Hungry Tiger qualifies by default — though he spends a good deal more time talking about how hungry he is than actually eating.
- Lyman, despite his size. Which ends with him getting a Balloon Belly in "A Cut Above the Rest".
- Broad Strokes: This version of Oz is quite loose in regards to many details to the books but as seen below that's not out of ignorance as seen in Shown Their Work.
- Brought Down to Normal:
- In Season 2, the Wicked Witch manages to use the slippers to regain her body, but as a result of possessing the Wizard at the time, he got her powers. It's said the Witch can relearn her old abilities, but also that it will take time without the slippers or some other powerful artifact.
- Ozma does this temporarily in "The Old Classic" to Wilhelmina to force her to take a vacation (i.e. stop attacking Dorothy every few minutes).
- Canon Foreigner:
- Wilhelmina, the niece of the Wicked Witch of the West and daughter of the Wicked Witch of the East.
- Also Melinda the Mean, Glinda's sister.
- Casting Gag: There was a Random! Cartoons short called Sparkles And Gloom, which centered on two sisters who were opposites of each other. Kari Wahlgren voiced Sparkles, who was unflinchingly nice, and Jessica DiCicco voiced Gloom, who was perpetually unhappy. Here, the characters they voice are pretty much expies.
- Character Exaggeration: The characters have become a little more cartoony and exaggerated compared to both books and movie. The exception is the Patchwork Girl, whose Genki Girl Cloudcuckoolander nature has been considerably toned down from her original book counterpart.
- Children Are Innocent:
- Dorothy represents this, as she always sees the good in everyone and never turns away anyone in need of help.
- Lion's dream in "Kingdom Of Dreams" makes everyone a child because, to him, children are much more optimistic about the world and thus less scared.
- Christmas Episode: "Christmas In Oz" from Season 2. The gang try to throw a Christmas surprise for Dorothy and the Wizard. Even Santa shows up, but then the witches kidnap him to try to claim his magic.
- Cute Kitten: Eureka the Pink Kitten, who retains absolutely none of her Cats Are Mean traits from the books.
- Deadpan Snarker: Frank tends to make wry observations about villainous plots or anything else going on around him.
- Decomposite Character: In the The Marvelous Land of Oz Tip is a boy who creates and brings Jack Pumpkinhead to life then he ends up turning into Ozma. In this show Wilhelmina brought Jack Pumpkinhead to life with Ozma being another character interlay.
- Denser and Wackier: The show has quite a bit more comedy to it than the film's.
- Edutainment Show: Has educational elements unlike the film.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Because Wilhelmina brought him to life, Jack Pumpkinhead keeps referring to her as "Mom." She is not happy, especially when Frank and Lyman begin falling into doing it.
- The Eeyore: King Glum of Merryland in "A Cut Above the Rest".
- Fat and Skinny: Baroness Bunchausen of Bunburry and Duchess Doofus of the Isle of Dofi become friends at the end of "A Cut Above the Rest".
- Genki Girl: Princess Ozma, who has a cheerful, upbeat and perky personality.
- Gentle Giant: The Woozy is enormous, but very friendly and chill. Long as you don't whisper.
- Gibberish of Love: The Scarecrow tends to become tongue tied around the Patchwork Girl.
- Glad I Thought of It: On occasion, Frank will point out a rather logical detail pertaining to a given task (e.g. steal the slippers while Dorothy's sleeping, as no one wears shoes in bed). If she likes it, Wilhelmina immediately takes credit for whatever he said and pats herself on the back for being a genius.
- Good Ol' Boy: Dorothy is a girl version of it, due to being a farm girl from Kansas. She's shown to be quite skilled in lasso. In "Mixed-Up Mixer", she teaches Ozma how to square dance; in "Ojo the Unlucky", she mentions she's driven Zeke's tractor; and "A Cut Above the Rest", she mentions she once been to a hoedown.
- Halloween Episode: With the Two Shorts format, Season 1 doubles up. In "Halloween Heist", Dorothy throws a Halloween party at the castle and struggles to be scary, while Wilhelmina crashes the party with her newest creation: Jack Pumpkinhead. In "Haunt Me Not", the gang goes trick-or-treating—ending up down the Red Brick Road at a supposedly haunted house.
- Hammerspace: The Tin Man seems to have borrowed a few pages out of Bender's book for this series, as his chest compartment can hold a lot of things.
- His Own Worst Enemy: Stuck in the Truth Pond, Wilhelmina is forced to admit this about herself.
- Hypocritical Humor: At the end of "Locket, Locket, In My Pocket", when Dorothy and Ozma tell Wilhelmina that she was always welcome to the Oz Jamboree but not to be greedy, grabby or ungrateful, Wilhelmina walks away:Wilhelmina: I didn't want to be at this awful fair anyway! It has nothing I like or want.
Munchkin: Princess Dorothy, on behalf of all of Munchkinland, let me apologize—
Wilhelmina [returning to the fair]: Just want to grab a few cupcakes, and then I'll be on my way! It's not that I like them, it's just... [She can be heard eating the cupcakes]
Munchkin [resumes his apology]: Princess Dorothy, on behalf of all of Munchkin—
Wilhelmina: Could use a little fruit punch to wash those cupcakes down.
Munchkin: Princess Dorothy—
Wilhelmina: Don't suppose I could borrow those ruby slippers, huh? No? Well then, I'm taking this bear. [She takes a teddy bear with her]
Dorothy: How long do you think she'll keep doing this?
Ozma: Oh, until the fair is over.
Scarecrow: Or until they run out of cupcakes! - Lighter and Softer: By virtue of this trope, the positivity here is very sugary sweet. Not that it's a bad thing though.
- Lovable Coward: The Cowardly Lion definitely lives up to his name, being perpetually scared, but still willing to be there for others, especially Dorothy.
- Minion with an F in Evil:
- Wilhelmina wants Jack Pumpkinhead to viciously scare Dorothy. He spends his debut episode being hopelessly friendly and naive.
- In general, Frank and Lyman. Frank is more grounded while Lyman is very excitable, but both are pretty stupid.
- Named After Someone Famous: Lyman and Frank, the Flying Monkeys, after L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz franchise.
- No Ontological Inertia: In "Mixed-Up Mixer", after stopping the magical mixer, everyone and everything the mixer mix-up returned to their normal separate states.
- Noir Episode: "Dorothy's Detective Agency" runs with it. Dorothy solves a minor mystery in the village, so various residents ask for her help solving other ones. Since Uncle Henry used to take her to noir movies, she runs with it by adopting a private eye-like look and office. She also attempts a Private Eye Monologue, only to find she keeps talking out loud. The big case is when Wilhelmina is blamed for Ozma nearly being injured in a magical explosion. Dorothy deduces it was actually the Wizard's fault. It was a complete accident, but he was so embarrassed and ashamed of what happened that he fingered Wilhelmina, who was only nearby to collect some flowers.
- Not So Above It All: In the Christmas Episode, Santa decides to give even the villains a gift: a new crystal ball. The Wicked Witch immediately freaks out, and Santa lets the audience know that's exactly why he did this.
- Oh, Crap!: Dorothy when she learns the Wicked Witch is still alive.
- Other Me Annoys Me: Ozma possesses a Copy Cat charm that allows her to duplicate anything or anyone. The Wicked Witch wants to use it to create a new army of Flying Monkeys, but Wilhelmina opts to create numerous duplicates of herself instead. The Wilhel-army as she calls it proves quite useful but also very annoying to the original, due to each copy trying to take charge and engaging in assorted quirks that sidetrack them from the task at hand.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Literally everyone in Oz knows the Wicked Witch by reputation, even after she loses her powers. Wilhelmina, despite being more active on the series, is sometimes referred to as just "the little one" by recurring or minor characters.
- Pajama-Clad Hero: Or in "Time After Time", Pajama-Clad Villain, where Wilhelmina spends the entire episode in her pajamas while being barefoot, trying to steal the Ruby Slippers.
- Pass the Popcorn: Wilhelmina have some popcorn while watching Dorothy humiliate herself with her out-of-control dress in "A Cut Above the Rest".
- Pet the Dog: When they want to show that Wilhelmina's not all bad, she usually does something nice for Lyman, like play fetch with him or share a banana milkshake.
- Pungeon Master: Normally Oz is a World of Pun, but in this show the Cowardly Lion gets the lion's share (goofy chuckle) of them.
- The Resenter: Wilhelmina is supposed to steal the slippers or accomplish some other given task for her aunt, but most of the time, she's motivated by Dorothy being beloved by everyone in Oz and just wants to knock her down a peg.
- Rousseau Was Right:
- The Wizard was manipulating the heroes in the hopes of achieving real power and ruling Oz once again. He gets his chance in "The Return Of The Wicked Witch" but can't go through with it, due to the trust and friendship that Dorothy showed him throughout.
- Frank and Lyman spend "The Old Classic" in a very obvious Totem Pole Trench trying to ingratiate themselves to the group in order to steal the slippers. After a day of activities, they come back to the castle talking about how nice everyone was and feeling it'd be unfair to continue the ruse just to betray their trust.
- "The Wicked Wand" does this with magic itself. The Wicked Witch uses a new wand to extract her magic from the Wizard, but it becomes its own being and immediately runs off. Ozma says that magic is neither good nor evil, as it all depends on the user. The time with the Wizard made it fun-loving and benevolent, and it'd rather stay with him than rejoin the Wicked Witch.
- The Scottish Trope: Saying "abracadabra" is this for residents of Oz and for good reason. It creates a form of anti-magic that renders a magical being powerless for a day.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Wicked Witch spends the first season trapped in a crystal ball. She can talk to Wilhelmina and the monkeys, but she's otherwise stuck and needs the slippers to fully return.
- Shipper on Deck: Tin Man supports Scarecrow and Patchwork Girl.
- Shout-Out:
- Wilhelmina's two flying monkeys are called Lyman and Frank, after Lyman Frank Baum.
- In "Mixed-Up Mixer", the magical mixer gives Lyman a rabbit's head and a duck's body. He picked up a carrot and says "Eh, what's up, Frank?".
- Shown Their Work: While the show is based on the Oz of the movie, the creators are clearly very familiar with the original books. A lot of the characters from the sequels appear or are even recurring characters here, such as Ozma, the Patchwork Girl, Billina the Chicken, the Hungry Tiger, the Woozy, the Woggle-Bug, Ojo the Unlucky and Dr. Pipt, and barely an episode goes by without some major or minor reference to the Oz books.
- Signature Laugh: The Cowardly Lion's goofy chuckle, much like the one he had in the MGM movie.
- Spot the Impostor: In "Locket, Locket, In My Pocket", Wilhelmina uses a magical locket which changes her into whoever's portrait is inside, namely Dorothy's. She goes to the Oz Jamboree, causing trouble as an evil clone of Dorothy. Dorothy challenges her to play the mandolin, which she does poorly, and after the disguised Wilhelmina eats a bunch of cupcakes and ropes a Munchkin, the Scarecrow notices that the real Dorothy doesn't have a green streak in her hair.
- Stating the Simple Solution: In response to Spot the Impostor, Lion says he can't tell who is who, so Tin Man advises to just look inside his heart in order to learn the answer. Scarecrow then points out one Dorothy has an unusual green streak of hair.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Wilhelmina lets it slip in "The Wizard Gets Witched" that she has this view of the Wicked Witch. She's helping her aunt trick the Wizard into marriage just to "finally, finally, finally" get the castle to herself again.
- Token Good Teammate: Lyman is consistently happy, friendly to everyone, and seems barely aware he's supposed to be committing villainous acts.
- Wild Card: The Wizard in his debut arc. He's not evil, but he misses being in charge and wants some actual power, so he tries to play both sides to get what he wants. He reforms in the end.
- Worthless Treasure Twist: "Ojo's Treasure Hunt" subverts this. Ojo goes on a lengthy search for a treasure of some kind, prompting the protagonists to look out for him and the witches to claim what he seeks. At the end of the hunt, the box contains a mere cow horn bugle. The witches denounce this as being worthless, but Ojo says that Munchkins consider it a symbol of good luck and so it's valuable to him. As a bonus, after the witches leave, Ojo blowing the horn causes multiple treasure boxes full of gold and jewels to appear. Ojo just wants the bugle, but he agrees to take the treasures back to his village.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Scarecrow spends the first half of "Brain Power of Love" gibbering like an idiot whenever he sees Patchwork Girl. After a while, Dorothy picks up on the pattern and points it out. Dorothy immediately understands this is just a case of Gibberish of Love, but the magical residents of Oz believe it means Patchwork Girl is a powerful witch casting a spell on Scarecrow. This puts Patchwork Girl in quite a bind when Wilhelmina kidnaps her and refuses to release her, until she reveals all her supposed magical secrets.
- You Don't Look Like You: While most of the characters are at least visually recognizable as versions of the classic characters from the books or MGM movie, a few of them... aren't. Most notably the Woozy; in the books he was a blue, almost hairless animal made primarily out of squares and flat surfaces, and about the size of a large dog, but in the cartoon he's a soft fluffy creature about the size of an elephant, with yellow fur and pright pink spots.
