Great Pumpkins!

Jack Pumpkinheads by my hero Richard Sala.

Friends of Dorothy

I may have mentioned before that I'm a fan of the movie Return to Oz. One of the things that I always liked about it (besides its straight-up creepiness) is the way it builds upon the world of the MGM movie by bringing in characters from the original books, like Billina the chicken and Jack Pumpkinhead.

I read all of the L Frank Baum books as a kid, but haven't thought about them too much over the years. When my wife got us tickets to see the Wicked musical on Broadway, I started re-reading "The Road to Oz," one of my favorites. There are a lot of great characters in there that Disney should consider using if they ever get around to making Return to Oz 2: Return to Return to Oz.


The Shaggy Man

The Shaggy Man is a, well, shaggy man. He's a hobo who dresses from head-to-toe in rags. The Shaggy Man possesses the Love Magnet, which makes everyone love him. The Shaggy Man is a friend to Dorothy, but I always found him kind of creepy.



Button-Bright
Button-Bright is a (possibly brain-damaged) four-year-old when Dorothy first meets him in "The Road to Oz." He answers most questions with "Don't know." He wears a sailor suit for some reason (just like Donald Duck!). Apparently he grows up and marries Glinda in some book I never read.



John Dough the Gingerbread Man
I'd never heard of this book before, but John Dough shows up in "The Road to Oz" along with Santa Claus and Queen Zixi of Ix.



Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter
Polychrome came to Oz accidentally when she slid off her father's rainbow and got left behind. She doesn't do very much in "Road to Oz" except be annoying, but I believe she plays a bigger role in later installments.



These characters all have cameo appearances at the parade scene at the end of Return to Oz, but it would be cool to see them have major speaking parts. With the inevitable "Wicked" movie in production, the nation is about to catch Oz-Fever...now's the time, Disney! Don't make us wait 42 years for another sequel!





Here's a great website about Return to Oz, including a blog.

Read "The Road to Oz" here.