Film

The Wizard of Oz

Name: The Wizard of Oz
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Family
Released: 1939
Cast: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan

A Kansas farm girl is swept by tornado into a Technicolor dreamland and follows a road of yellow brick toward a wizard who might send her home. Equal parts terrifying and delightful, it set the template for nearly a century of family fantasy adventure. Watch it for the songs, the practical spectacle, and Judy Garland's aching sincerity—still startling for a film this old.

TMDb rating

7.6

If you liked this

The Princess Bride1987

Same fairy-tale scaffolding as Oz—a plucky hero, a quest, larger-than-life villains—but stitched together with genre-savvy wit that never stops being sincere. It's the rare family adventure that rewards repeat viewings well into adulthood.

But The self-aware humour and constant one-liners are a different flavour than Oz's earnest wonder—if you want pure sincerity, this occasionally winks too much.

Labyrinth1986

Bowie's Goblin King, Jim Henson's puppetry, and a teenage heroine navigating a bizarre dreamscape to rescue someone she loves—it's Oz's psychedelic cousin, all practical effects and strange logic.

But The plot is looser than Oz's, more mood and set-piece than story, and some of the puppet designs read as pure '80s strangeness now.

The NeverEnding Story1984

A boy escapes into a book and finds a crumbling fantasy world that needs saving, powered by the same childhood metaphor Oz runs on: imagination as survival. Sweeping, sad, and strange in ways kids' films rarely dare now.

But It gets unexpectedly bleak for a family film, and the pacing shows its age if you're used to slicker modern fantasy.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Pan's Labyrinth2006

Same myth structure as Oz—a girl slips between the real world and a fantastical one guided by strange creatures who set her tasks—but here the real world is Franco's Spain, and escape is a matter of survival, not sightseeing.

It's one of the most visually inventive fantasy films ever made, and its central question—what a child's imagination does under real horror—gives the fairy-tale logic teeth Oz never needed.

But It is genuinely frightening and violent in places; this is not a film for the audience Oz was made for.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory1971

Another odd, colour-drenched moral journey led by an eccentric guide who dispenses harsh lessons dressed as whimsy. Gene Wilder's Wonka has the same unplaceable, faintly menacing charm as Oz's wizard.

But The tone swings from sugary to genuinely unsettling fast, and its episodic structure feels more like a checklist than a story.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory poster

Mary Poppins1964

Practical magic, musical numbers, and a world just slightly askew from ours—Mary Poppins shares Oz's Technicolor-era belief that a song can carry more meaning than dialogue.

But It's gentler and less perilous than Oz—if you came for a wicked witch, the stakes here are much lower.

Alice in Wonderland1951no page yet

Another girl falls into a nonsensical, rule-bending world full of strange characters and stranger logic—Disney's take leans even harder into pure dream-weirdness than story, if that's what you loved about Oz.

But It's more a parade of vignettes than a plot, and the meandering pace can test patience without Oz's clear quest structure.

Peter Pan1953

A child's escape into a fantastical land ruled by its own strange logic, with a memorable villain and painterly matte-painting backdrops that share Oz's studio-era visual imagination.

But Some of its 1950s-era attitudes and humor haven't aged well, and it's thinner on emotional stakes than Oz.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang1968

A family piles into pure musical fantasy—an inventor, a flying car, a menacing Child Catcher—that borrows Oz's trick of turning genuine childhood fears into catchy, colourful spectacle.

But It runs long for what it is, and the middle stretch sags compared to Oz's tighter pacing.

Matilda1996

A different decade, a different register, but the same core promise: an ordinary kid discovers extraordinary power and stands up to a monstrous authority figure. Sharp, funny, and quietly vicious under the sweetness.

But It trades Oz's dreamlike fantasy for grounded dark comedy—less spectacle, more sly satire of adults.

Spirited Away2001

Trade the yellow brick road for a bathhouse for spirits: a girl is stranded in a bizarre alternate world, must earn her way home through strange rules and stranger companions, and comes out changed. Same bones, entirely different cultural imagination.

Miyazaki's hand-drawn worldbuilding is as wondrous as Oz's Technicolor Munchkinland, and the film trusts children with genuine strangeness rather than flattening it into easy lessons.

But It's slower and more dreamlike than Oz, with less clear-cut good-versus-evil, which can frustrate viewers expecting a tidy quest.

A Trip to the Moon1902

Long before Dorothy's tornado, Méliès sent his own travellers hurtling into a fantastical unknown using hand-painted colour and theatrical trickery—Oz's entire visual language of wonder-through-special-effects starts here.

At fourteen minutes, it's the ancestor of every movie-magic spectacle that followed, including Oz itself—a genuinely charming glimpse of cinema inventing wonder from scratch.

But It's a silent short with no real story by modern standards—closer to a magic trick than a film, so don't expect narrative depth.