Dazzling ‘Oz’ prequel hits all the right notes - Entertainment, Movies - Navy Times

Dazzling ‘Oz’ prequel hits all the right notes

When you mess with the mythos of a classic film so beloved, so iconic, so ingrained in our psyches that it may as well be part of our DNA, you know you’re walking into a minefield.

If director Sam Raimi had any anxiety about signing on for Disney’s “Oz the Great and Powerful,” he never shows it.

Raimi, one of the great pulp directors of the last 30 years (“The Evil Dead,” “Darkman,” “Hercules,” “Xena: Warrior Princess”), hits just the right mix of reverent homage and tongue-in-cheek send-up with this brilliantly rendered, fast-paced, thrill-packed fairy tale.

For fans of eye candy, it’s a feast. Every frame is stuffed with vibrant color. Add in some of the most seamless 3-D touches since “Avatar” and you have a superb addition to the “Oz” film canon.

But the film’s look is just the outer shell. As the Tin Man knows, you’re nothing without a heart, and the heart of this film is its characters, both human and digital. Collectively, they provide us with an irresistible answer to a decades-old question: Just how did a Kansas carnival con artist arrive in the Land of Oz and become that famous and powerful “man behind the curtain”?

Since this is a prequel set decades before the original, we know how it ends; the fun lies in learning how the arcs connect.

After a dizzyingly creative opening-credits sequence (how many films can be praised for that?), the story opens with the first of many delightful nods to the 1939 original: The early scenes are shot in black and white in 4:3 ratio that takes up only the middle third of the screen.

Oscar Diggs (James Franco) — “Oz” to his friends, wink, wink — is a callow magician for a traveling carnival (Baum Bros. Circus — get it?) in 1905, the dawn of nickelodeons and moving pictures (an important reference point later).

When Oz runs afoul of the carnival strong man over a girl, he makes a getaway in his hot-air balloon. But he’s no sooner aloft than one of those famous Kansas twisters scoops him up.

Oz’s ride through the storm cleverly plays off Dorothy’s terrifying trip, with some new twists. Then the storm wanes, the image opens to full screen and a kaleidoscopic explosion of color smacks you as Oz floats down on an alien world.

But it might not be so bad; the first native he meets is a gorgeous witch named Theodora (Mila Kunis, amping her big, dark-eyed gaze to such a sultry level that it’s a wonder the screen doesn’t melt), clad in a flaming red jacket, matching wide-brimmed hat and black leather pants tight enough to make a Munchkin squeal.

In short order, he acquires two more companions: a cuddly flying monkey in a little bellhop outfit named Finley (Zach Braff) and a damaged porcelain doll from “China Town” (Joey King).

Next stop, Emerald City, every bit the glittering jewel that its name implies. There, Oz meets Theodora’s sister, the witch Evanora (Rachel Weisz), and their colleague from the north, Glinda (Michelle Williams). They believe Oz is a powerful wizard whose coming to this currently leaderless land has long been prophesied.

All three are not necessarily happy about that; for a while, the film keeps you guessing which witch eventually morphs into the evil, green-skinned harpy who put skid marks in my short pants as a wee lad (and more importantly, why this change occurs).

Initially, Oz wants no part of this weirdness. But with a trio of hot women flitting around him, and access to a vast treasure vault that would make Scrooge McDuck’s tail feathers quiver, he decides to stick around.

No more plot spoilers, but rest assured many familiar touches pop up along the way and play integral roles, among them Glinda’s “airborne bubble”; the Wicked Witch’s winged monkeys (not the goofy creatures of yore, but vicious, fanged beasts); the poppy fields outside Em City; and, of course, the Munchkins.

Look for sly inside references tucked into the background, too. In one scene, Oz strolls past some grazing horses — “horses of a different color,” to be precise.

I saw the film in IMAX 3-D, so here’s my familiar gripe about the 3-D glasses muddying the color palette to the point that I’m compelled to see it again in plain 2-D. (Could this be part of Hollywood’s 3-D marketing strategy? Hmm.)

But that aside, “Oz the Great and Powerful” is a spectacular nostalgia trip back to a place that feels both comfortingly familiar and brand-spanking new.