In the all different versions of Wizard of Oz, is Oz finally a failure?

Question

The lack of capacity of the Wizard to make real magic is sometimes treated differently in all versions, going from a Real Magician to a complete numb who cannot really do anything. What is your opinion?

Answer 1

No offense meant at all and the original just ran last night on TV. Have you ever considered the analogy, metaphor, parody of the original?

  Beyond the fact that I don't exactly understand what you mean by Failure, the intent in the original was to MORPH a traveling "SNAKE OIL" salesman into a WIZARD that never truly was any different than when he was living in his wagon, and the entire concept, as SO CLEARLY shown, was SMOKE, defining some ESSENCE of mystery and wizardry, as the Population imagined.

  Certainly the WITCH did the same, in a different sense, and in the end the WIZARD never claimed to do magic, nor did he save the day in a strict sense, other than by the suggestion of what the main characters had residing in them all along.

   I can't know your age, or involvement in the tale, but my opinion obviously differs from yours by no less than 180 degrees.

  I offer another analogy, perhaps more understandable. DALI, a talented Icon, created pictures within pictures within,,,,yada yada yada. Wizard of Oz did the same.

Answer 2

My opinion is that the best imagining of the Classic story is Wicked. It reveals the Wizard to be more than just incompetent in terms of real magic, but also unscrupulous.

Answer 3

My opinion is that you indirectly trashing a great fantasy story into something invalid makes you a bad person.