Top 10 versions of the Wizard of Oz story

Greetings, reader!

I got this idea while back, and had to wait for Wicked: For Good to come out in order to complete the list. L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has been adapted time and time again over the last 125 years, so much so that it spawned a movie that inspired a book that was adapted into a musical that was made into the movie that just got a sequel! With so many versions of the same story out there, I decided to rank my top 10 favorites.

10. Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box (1993 music video)

Okay, to call this a version of the Wizard of Oz story is a stretch, but hey - a top 10 list is more satisfying than a top 9. The music video to Nirvana's eighth-best song invokes imagery from the 1939 movie, from the wacky color scheme to the poppy fields and crows. Of course, there's also the whole thing with Santa being crucified, so it's not just a Wizard of Oz reference. Still, the aesthetic of Victor Fleming's film is prominent enough to put this music video onto this list, but not enough to rank it any higher.

9. The Emerald City storyline from The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997 novel)

Another far-fetched but interesting one, this is one of those times when a book's influence on another book is the very opposite of subtle. Stephen King could've conveyed his love from L. Frank Baum's novel and its film adaptation in any number of ways, but having his fictional multiverse include a world where the Emerald City is real is definitely the coolest possible option.

I don't know what sort of copyright hurdles King had to jump through in order to make this happen, but the end result is most definitely worth it - having the actual locations and motifs from The Wizard of Oz suddenly show up in a different fantasy epic is a mind-blowing reading experience.

8. The Gang Turns Black (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Season 12 Episode 1)

Speaking of far-fetched - here we have a TV episode that is strongly inspired by the movie The Wiz, which is a reimagining of the movie The Wizard of Oz, which in turn is an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's book. Still, it counts.

The title of this IASIP episode had me a bit nervous beforehand - the show's trademark dark and inappropriate humor is on the acceptable, punching-up side of things for the vast majority of the time, but there are some cases where they've gone too far, and The Gang Turns Black sounded like it might be one of them. Thankfully, that wasn't the case - there is no blackface et cetera, and mostly the episode is just playing around with the concept of The Wiz and kick-ass original songs composed by Charlie Day.

Overall, the existence of this episode does definitely enrich the tapestry of stuff inspired by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the amount of stories hailing from the same premise.

7. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900 novel)

Here, on the other hand, we have the very opposite of far-fetched - the original work itself. It does feel a bit sacrilegeous to rank L. Frank Baum's book this low, as it does deserve tons of respect just for being the original work, and coming up with the imaginative stuff that would directly or indirectly inspire the rest of the items on today's list. But still, I can't rank it higher than it is - the trajectory of the Wizard of Oz stories is the very definition of "X walked so that Y could run".

Mind you, it's a really good children's fantasy book, with memorable worldbuilding and exciting characters - but the ideas that L. Frank Baum came up with have been outdone again and again, with nearly every character and location and theme reaching their full potential only in a later instalment. A lot of this has to do with the 1939 film working as a catalyst for further iconic status - as good as the book is, that alone wouldn't have been enough to inspire The Wiz and Wicked and all these cool adaptations and re-imaginings. The movie became much more legendary than the book ever was, and many of the items on today's list seem to have taken more inspiration from that direction.

Still, this is a fun and creative book, the OG work, and in many ways, the blueprint for all that followed.

6. Ted Lasso (2020-2023 TV series)

Before anyone calls this far-fetched, I'll have you know that the showrunners have confirmed the "fan theory" that this entire TV series is a spin on The Wizard of Oz. Yes, elements like genre and setting and character names are completely different, but on a metaphorical level, there's too many similarities for it to be a coincidence.

Think about it - a good-hearted person from Kansas (Dorothy / Ted Lasso) and their furry friend (Toto / Coach Beard) are swept away into a strange foreign land (Oz / England). In there, they end up encountering people who they help on their way - one who needs to find his heart (the Tin Man / Roy Kent), one who needs to find his brain (the Scarecrow / Jamie Tartt), and one who needs to find his courage (the Lion / Sam Obisanya). The parallels are pretty amazing, and they start hitting especially hard towards the tail end of season 3. It's a fantastic series even without this level, but it's also a weirdly powerful Wizard of Oz adaptation albeit an unconventional one.

5. Wicked: For Good (2025 film)

The new Wicked film has been subject to a lot of debate - and not to be a centrist, but on this particular issue I do land right in between the extremes heard on the internet. Yes, I do agree with the masses that the film isn't as good as last year's Wicked: Part I, but no, I do not agree with those saying that For Good was a let-down, let alone a bad movie - far from it.

First of all, one cannot understate how high a bar was set by Wicked: Part I. Not only was it the best film of the decade so far - it currently sits at the #12 spot on my list of my favorite films of all time. Not being as good as that does not necessarily mean that you've failed - that's like saying that the Hobbit movies are terrible just because they aren't as good as the LOTR trilogy (oh wait, people do that too - God, I hate the internet).

After a lot of analysis, I've come to the conclusion that the second film isn't quite as good as the first simply because it couldn't & shouldn't have been. Dividing the film adaptation of the Broadway musical into two films based on the musical's two halves was undoubtedly the right call, and they couldn't have done it any better. The first half of the musical is slightly better than the second, and more importantly, it is more blockbuster film material. It's more eventful, dramatic and entertaining.

Don't get me wrong, I love the second half as well, and that's where we come to the nuance of "Wicked: For Good isn't as good as Part I but it's still amazing and the best possible version of itself". It was never going to be as bombastic, but that doesn't matter. The two films make up a whole, and no matter how much the first one hits even slightly harder, For Good is still a deeply emotional diamond-quality film, and the right conclusion for the saga.

4. The Wiz (1978 film)

Not only is The Wiz one of the most pure-fun movies ever made - it's also a spectacular spin on The Wizard of Oz. I don't know how some came up with the idea of making a whole new musical with basically the same story and themes, but with an all-Black cast, a zany R&B score and just the most extra set design you'll ever see. I'm just glad someone did, because this cult-classic gem is just so good.

The unique and unforgettable color palette, the groovy songs and charismatic vocal performances, Diana Ross as Dorothy...it's just all fantastic. We're really starting to get to the big leagues here.

3. Wicked (2003 Broadway musical)

This one is hard to rank, because I've never seen Wicked live on stage. I ranked the films separately, so one could argue that I should've left this one out as I'm not an expert by experience. But then again - I know the story, I've listened to the soundtrack, and these are things that the original musical deserves credit for, more than the films.

Obviously, the films deserve praise to how the songs were arranged and specifics in how the story is told, but the whole concept of Wicked is something so amazing that it makes it all the way to third place even though I haven't seen the theater production. That's how f**king great songs like Defying Gravity and For Good are.

Not to mention the absolutely genius inversion of the Wizard of Oz story! Wicked makes powerful points about propaganda and history written by the victors, by casting Elphaba as the misunderstood and vilified revolutionary, the Wizard as the populist leader throwing minorities under the bus, and Glinda the Good Witch as the well-intentioned but weak-willed celebrity torn between knowing what's right and her own comfort. Profound stuff.

2. The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

Can't get much better than this. Not only is this 1930's masterpiece the culturally definitive version of the story and one of the great book-to-movie adaptations in Hollywood - it's also one of the greatest and most influential movies of all time. Not to belittle L. Frank Baum's book, which obviously deserves a lot of credit as well, but it is pretty amazing how so much of what people generally picture when thinking about The Wizard of Oz comes from this film, and not from the book or any of the subsequent adaptations.

Even though the film barely missed out on first place on my list, it is still very much the gold standard in many ways. Elements like Judy Garland's performance as Dorothy, songs like Over the Rainbow, immortal lines like "There's no place like home" and the whole unforgettable aesthetic are forever etched into cinematic history.

1. Wicked: Part I (2024 film)

Yeah, I had to put this at #1 and there's just no way around it. I obviously get that this movie owes a lot of its greatness to the original book, as well as the Broadway musical. But I'd also argue that there's a lot to be said for an adaptation that utterly perfects a story, with all its themes and ideas and characters, that was already pretty damn amazing to begin with. I have never cried for as big a part of a film's duration as I did when watching Wicked in the movie theater, and it immediately became one of my all-time favorite films.

With its grandiose production values, epic pacing, deliciously dramatic arrangements of the beloved songs and exquisite casting, it just quite simply couldn't have been any better. 2024 was also the exact right time for this to be made, with the heavy themes hitting extra hard in contrast to what was going on in the U.S. with the Trump regime. Wicked: Part I is an untouchable masterpiece, and for me personally, the very best version of the many, many Wizard of Oz adaptations and re-imaginings that have been made over the years.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for something - I haven't decided a good post for that slot after my original idea required a little extra work, but I'll come up with something for sure. Open to suggestions!