Its been a while since I’ve blogged. TBH, I haven’t found the right motivation, blogging about Disney for so many years can get tiring. Tho, I’ve been wanting to return to the world of villains with my favorite thing to do. And if you know me, you know I’ve been obsessed with Wicked lately, it’s easily my favorite movie of last year and dare I say, one of my top ten favorites. Now, the thing of it is, there have been a lot and I mean a lot of takes on Baum’s fantastical world introducing various villains. I’ve already covered a few on my Disney blog including last year when I looked at one of the villains from the darker, Return to Oz and many years ago when I looked at the villains from Oz: The Great and Powerful. Instead of covering every Oz villain to appear in a piece of media, I’ve narrowed it down to three Oz movies which IMO consider to be the most significant in reflecting the era they were released in.
Those being the original 1939 Wizard of Oz, 1978’s The Wiz, and last year’s Wicked Pt. 1. Now yes, that does mean for the final entry I will only be looking half of the story and as someone obsessed with Wicked more than she is Oz in general, I might drop some Pt. II spoilers. Though it might be a while before we get to that entry but I am excited as that also deals with something I love aka adaptional villainy. In simplest terms, that is taking a character who was not villainous originally and making them a villain. Also all three of these movies I’m looking at are adaptions, the 39 movie is an adaption of Baum’s original book that took many liberties. You will see this is a trend. 1978’s The Wiz is an adaption of a Broadway musical that debuted four years earlier and last year’s Wicked is based on the immensely popular musical that is over twenty years old and itself is loose adaption of Gregory Maguire’s book.
Note, I’ve listened to Baum’s original book and Maguire’s Wicked but not for this series, I will only be focusing on the movies. The 39 movie in many respects shapes how we view and think of witches to this day. The Margaret Hamilton depiction of the Wicked Witch differs from how she was presented in the original book. In the original book, she was a short woman with a glass eye.
The movie introduced the idea of how we think of witches with the green skin and the pointy hat. And yes compared to other villains I’ve covered is that The Wicked Witch is a bit more simplistic in her aims and goals but when Baum set out to write The Wizard of Oz, he was writing an American fairy tale. And fairy tales while also used to scare children into behaving, did not have the most complex villains. Keep in mind that is does not mean simple equals bad. The Wicked Witch of the West as depicted in this movie is one of the most iconic villains of all time
Something I hope to convey through this series and I hope you’ve figured it out is the belief that all art is political. This again goes back to how these three movies reflect the era they were released in. The original came out in the final year of the Great Depression
One of my earliest memories of seeing Margaret Hamilton was when she appeared on an episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood putting on her witch costume to show the children watching that there is nothing to be afraid of.
First Appearance
Now technically, we have two First Appearances to look at considering how this movie uses people that parallel Dorothy’s life. And in this case, Miss Gulch is the parallel to The Wicked Witch. Miss Gulch is shown as mean old nosy woman a la a Karen who wishes to harm Toto.
Now, we see The Witch herself when Dorothy arrives in Oz and while so many movies have tried to replicate the iconic scene of her arrival after the death of her sister, nothing will ever top how its done here.
It is filled with so much menace and the Witch strikes you with fear as soon as she threatens Dorothy and Toto. Again, her greatness comes from Hamilton’s portrayal. In this one swift moment, she makes you scared of what is to come as you can tell she is fueled by revenge. And sometimes revenge is the only motivator you need. Plus who wouldn’t be mad if a house was dropped on their sister, that’s just rude frankly.
Personality
Once again, it’s easy to write off The Wicked Witch as a simple villain from a previous time. Considering this movie is nearly a century old (if you round up a bit) but that in my opinion is a misread of her character. You have to look at her through the lens of a fairy tale and how the villains in fairy tales are meant to be scary. This again goes back to the original fairy tales and how they were meant to scare children into behaving.
This also goes back to how villains of old were scary and allowed to be frightening. This isn’t me writing off villains of today as bad but as a Disney fan, seeing a good villain be intimidating and scary feels like dining on a nice steak after being fed a limp burger with some of the more theatrical villains of late.
Sometimes, you just want a villain who is evil and revels in being evil. This is what you get with Hamilton’s portrayal of The Wicked Witch. Yes, there is something scenery chewing going on in the movie but that tells you how dedicated she was to the role.
Grand Desire
On the surface, it’d be easy to say that The Witch is only after the Ruby Red Slippers which is true to an extent but you have to look beyond the surface and the slippers is symbolic.
It’s easy to write off her wanting the shoes because they belonged to her sister but consider we never got to know The Wicked Witch of the East. That’s a different movie.
The Witch believes that they hold power that would allow her to control Oz. The Witch is convinced that the slippers will allow her to control Oz. We know that she’s correct in that the slippers do have magical powers as those are how Dorothy is able to return home.
The thing of it though, this is the only power we see the slippers have in the movie. I believe they might have more powers in the books but we are only looking at the movie and the only power we see being used is to transport Dorothy back home. Yes, we all know it’s a dream by now but let’s look at how the information is presented before the reveal. With that in mind, it makes sense that The Witch would believe these slippers hold power.
This also ties into the aspect of revenge and yes revenge is a motivator for The Witch but not because the house landing on her sister. Frankly for all we know, The Witch could’ve hated her sister. She’s more interested in offing Dorothy to get the slippers as it’s clear that she’s more upset about the slippers being taken away.
Lackeys
We have two sets of henchmen to look at regarding The Wicked Witch
Winkie Guards
IMO, the Winkie Guards are the less iconic of the two types of henchmen that The Witch uses. They are her foot soldiers and while they do have a cool design, I believe they are the less iconic henchmen type. They are effective as they do capture the main characters
Flying Monkeys
Now we have the truly iconic henchmen, the flying monkeys go hand in hand with The Witch. To this day, we still see the flying monkeys in Oz merchandise.
Which is kinda funny in hindsight as the monkeys are just so terrifying. They truly strike fear when they are seen and this is something that has been said by so many people who grew up with this movie.
Most Evil Deed
IMO, I find it hard to narrow it down to one thing when it comes to evil deeds committed by The Witch. She commits so many heinous actions that it almost seems wrong to narrow it down to one thing. Sorry, I know it’s a cop out but that is where I stand. I guess part of me wants to say how she’s able to lure the heroes to sleep with the poppies
But I dunno, I also wanna bring up the cut song, The Jitterbug as that was used to send a creature to attack Dorothy and her friends.
Demise
Again, her demise is iconic. She is melted when Dorothy throws a bucket of water on her. This in many ways introduced the idea of how water melts those are not of pure soul. This again goes back to how this movie operates on fairy tale logic and it is a child’s thinking. Yes Dorothy was trying to save Scarecrow but the water landed on The Witch and it melted her. I do like a theory I saw that the act of kindness melted The Witch as she had never seen kindness before and didn’t know how to respond.
Is The Wicked Witch of The West A Good Villain?
I feel silly even asking this question, of course she is. She’s one of cinema’s most iconic and beloved villains. Everything about her just works to make a foe that all these years later is still frightening kids.
Join me next time as we ease on down the road to make sure we deliver no bad news as I look at
Evilene
About Author
Not only did this movie shape how most Americans would perceive the world of Oz for decades, but Margaret Hamilton changed the perception of witches in pop culture as well. Every green skinned, cackling crone preparing an evil brew over a cauldron can, in a way, be traced back to her. Is it stereotypical? Yes. But is it iconic? Most definitely.
Yep, this movie helped to lay the groundwork for what we think of when we imagine witches today. Funnily enough when shows like Once Upon a Time or movies like Wicked want to depict the Wicked Witch, they have to use a different shade of green from what Hamilton’s witch was.
That I never knew.
Yep, the shade of green used in this movie was copyrighted