It occurred to me this week, (perhaps it was related to the rainbow paintings the kids have been drawing) to show the children the film The Wizard of Oz, remembering the songs and some of the classic characters, got me quite excited (I need to buy the old books, the original pictures are wonderful, so too the other books in the series).
Suffice to say the kids loved the songs, the Munchkins, the Tin Woodsman, the Lion and the Scarecrow but I had slightly forgotten the potency of that Wicked Witch of the West! Even with forwarding through the scary parts, the memory of the green faced witch had a very lasting impression!!
My middle child, the chocolate loving curly topped girl, could not fall asleep, then woke throughout the entire night with nightmares. Oh the lacking skills! I tried everything, talking about happy thoughts, books, movies characters... but how to remove that witch image from her mind!!?? We are on day three and still she is waking in the night with nightmares. What have I done?! So lesson learned, wait till your children are perhaps over the age of six to show them this film. Although little D at age two seems to be fine, (could be a factor of a more sensitive nature and intense imagination of which the 'sweets' child is).
Other books in the original series
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I am so sorry for the little one. I have to admit that maybe like her, I never liked the movie as a child (and even now) I have no idea why. The only song I like is of course "somewhere over the rainbow,,," other than that I have never found the characters nor the story like appealing--maybe a cultural thing? I have no idea. Alice in Wonderland seems more a tuned, at least to me, than Dorothy away from Kansas...
ReplyDeleteKenza,
ReplyDeleteIt is a bit of a strange film, I suppose I love it because I watched it at a time in my childhood where it just seemed so real and magical, we did have the old series of books, given from a distant relative which we also read. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is only a small bit of the saga, the old drawings and characters are really wonderful, I suppose for me I like any story in which the main character find a secret sort of door into another world. If you ever consider giving them a chance go for Tik Tok of Oz, its very good but does have some scary characters as well. I really enjoyed Alice in Wonderland as well as a child. I also adored the Narnia books!
Yes... a magic but terrifying movie ;)
ReplyDeleteNice post
Oh Juniper, thank you for the advice, I HOPE I remember it... I love this movie as well, have seen it serveral times and I would have not thought the witch could have such an impact on the little ones, although I am very sensible about this (and the kids are just allowed to watch Pippi Longstocking (not the pirates though) or Lotta (also Astrid Lindgren, you get it as a film made from the pictures of the book, very quiet and slow movement) and this only once a week.
ReplyDeleteI never liked the film "The last Unicorn" and me and my elder brother always forbid our younger sister to watch it because we though it woul be too scary and sad but when she watched it she was a bit outraged because she could not understand us not allowing her to watch it - she is 11 and 8 years younger than my brother and me.
Oh my hope the nightmares will not last too long. We only have the book in our house but I am tempted to get the dvd and show it to mine. I just viewed the links and my son was next to me and his eyes glued to the laptop. But then again the video clip is just a couple of the songs. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi Dina,
ReplyDeleteYes, luckily the nightmares have passed. I showed it to the children in parts from youtube over two days (they are in 10 min segments) and sat with them watching (forwarding through any scary parts) but I did miss one, the first initial wicked witch appearance.
The kids are already humming different songs around the house.
Oh dear, glad the night terrors stopped!
ReplyDeletePS. Kees will check out his work schedule this week (he needs to travel during summer and autumn. Then, it's my turn to plan my travel schedule;-)
So looking forward......
xx
Oh I agree with you Juniper, the old books and illustrations are wonderful. I love everything about the movie too, and though I was scared as a kid, not scarred like my husband claims he was. I don't suppose I saw it till I was seven or so. It might depend on the age.
ReplyDeleteBest Mother's Day wishes even if all of Malta is not also celebrating it!
I truly feel for you on this one, our copy of the DVD is hidden away on a high shelf and will stay there for a while I think. I hope your little chocolate fan gets over it soon and that you all get back to sleeping properly. I will definitely look out the other books though, had no idea there were more.
ReplyDeleteOh she sounds like me. Even now, at 13. They call people like that HSP's. (Highly sensitive people.) I do love the movie though. The part that scared me was the tornado. Though the witch wasn't beautiful either...:)
ReplyDeleteI love those vintage books, illustrations are so great!
ReplyDelete