The Weekly Planet - Oz the Great and Powerful - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

in 2013 Sam Raimi decided to try something a little out of his wheelhouse of horror or comic book movies and directed a Wizard of Oz prequel focusing on the great and powerful wizard. Starring James Franco (RIP), Michelle Williams, Milla Kunis and Rachael Weisz it details his arrival into the mystical land, the origin of the Wicke Witch of the West and how the wizard has always been a dog of a bloke. Not a bad one to be honest. Anyways, thanks for watching our Caravan Of Garbage reviewSUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNHelp support the show and get early episodes ► https://bigsandwich.co/Patreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies The Weekly Planet iTunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 The Weekly Planet Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This message comes from BetterHelp. Can you think of a time when you didn't feel like you could be yourself? Like you were hiding behind a mask? BetterHelp online therapy is convenient, flexible, and can help you learn to be your authentic self so you can stop hiding. Because masks should be for Halloween fun, not for your emotions. Take off the mask with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P,.com. Welcome back everybody to another episode of Caravan of Garbage,

where we're wrapping up this Wizard of Oz trilogy of films. We're a couple of wizards of odds. Why do you say that? We're quite odd. Oh, that's not what this is called though, this movie or this series. No, that's true. It's called Caravan of Garbage, not Wizard of Odds or whatever you said.

We could rebrand. That's true. It's not too late to rebrand and be less popular. Do I have to change the thumbnail? Yeah. Nah. Okay, we won't then. We can rebrand but I'll leave the thumbnail the same.

It could be a secret rebranding. What do you think? I love that. Those in the know, no. That's right. Yeah. Anyways, please leave a like because this week we are looking at Oz, the great and powerful... That's right.

He's just a bloke. It's a prequel, folks. That's right. It's a prequel that examines the thesis, could a man exist who is so horny that it leads him to become the ruler of a parallel universe? And let me tell you, brother, we've all been there. I'll tell you what, mate. I'll tell you what.

He's just... he can't control himself, can he? Just being led around by his dick. His old timey dick. Well, Mason, it's a bit of a tragedy, this movie, because as we've talked about before, James Franco has passed away. That's right. And this was probably his last role, or maybe the one where he was trapped under a rock and he drank his own piss.

It was around that era. We don't really- James, that wasn't a role, that was real life. That's how it ended. He immediately finished filming of this and then he went folks I'm just gonna be under a rock drinking my own piss and then they found him. What? Weeks later. Yeah.

Oh my god. That's right. So we'll never know what it was like. We won't know. Yeah. But you know, yeah James Franco in this movie rooting around making green women. What are you doing James Franco? And he's his, his, um, his object of seduction is like a little music box. Oh yeah. He's just carrying around a Batman style utility belt of a billion of those.

Dude, get a necklace. What are you doing with your musical box? Some earrings? Something you can keep in a little pocket? What a dumbass. What a dumbass. Yeah. Sam Raimi is the director of this. That's right. Which I love. Not an obvious choice. This is also Sam Raimi's first PG rated film

in the United States. Every other film has been either PG-13 or R. So he's stepping into a more colorful, vibrant world, which again, like Wicked, is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, but it's not, it's in a different universe than Wicked. It's a multiverse. We're multiversing it. We're doing it.

Do you want some names for the role of Oz before James Franco took it on sure? So we got Robert Downey jr. Okay, and Jonathan Depp. Okay. Well, I mean they both got the chance to do You know weirdos. That's true It's a who's who of crook blokes I mean some less crook than others some of redeem themselves and become Iron Man and do charity and whatever. Sure, sure, sure, sure. You know? But Johnny Depp was- You're saying redeemed himself from being in our link mobile that time.

That's right, exactly. Where he sung? I think he sung in that one, Mason. Maybe everybody's sung in our link mobile. I don't know. We don't remember. Everybody was having a stroke in that show, just looking at a baby twirling in a circle.

Oh, that's right. Unisex bathroom. It was so woke, Mason. It was crazy back then. Can you imagine? But apparently Johnny Depp couldn't do it because he was already committed to the Lone Ranger. A film. A film that came out. It's got a great action sequence at the end with the train. Maybe we'll talk about it one day. So anyway, so this movie, it's a young The Wizard of Oz.

No, he's not a wizard yet. Okay, he's a con man slash magician guy. Sex pest. Sex pest and he's in a roving carnival. He's multi-talented. That's what I'm saying. He's got an assistant who's Zach Raff, but he's chased out of town on a balloon for doing too many sex crimes or something. Sure.

No, no, James, we're talking about Oz the Great and Powerful. We're talking about the movie he was in. Sorry, absolutely right. But in the movie, was in. Sorry, you're absolutely right. But in the movie, he's chased out of town for sex scribes. Oh yeah, it's the same. On a balloon. And he ends up in the land of Oz. That's right.

Where he's very quickly mistaken, or is he, for the- The savior of the land of Oz. That's right. Because it's in dire straits. Yeah, sure. Because there's some witches and some of them are good and some of them aren't. There's some sultans of swing. That's right! Yeah, and other references to that band. Exactly. It's weird that when he gets there

So he meets Mila Kunis who ends up being the Green Witch or whatever, right? Okay. Spoiler alert. A Green Witch Not the for copyright purposes. I mean she is the Green Witch. Yeah, but it's a different shade of green Yeah, you have to do a different shade of green because they own this. Yeah you are right. I am. Yeah. That's correct. It's a Cadbury Milka situation. What's a Cadbury Milka? You know they have this they're both chocolate companies and they have a shade of purple but it has to be a different shade of purple. What there's two Cadbury's? No there's Milka. Oh. Do you remember Milka? No I don't remember anything. Well cut this out then. No let's leave it in. Alright let's make it long then. I want two pictures of these next to each other, I want to see these shades of purple!

Alright. I want to know what's happening! Yeah that's right. We're doing some investigation alright? There's gonna be egg on your face. Good! Anyway so she thinks he's a magician and he's like I am a magician. But it's weird because like he has talents, he's an engineer essentially.

Mmhmm sure. And that's something that he eventually leans into and goes nah I'm just good at like building stuff and making smoke bombs. I think that's good enough. People are still impressed. Yeah. Why are you lying? Just say, yeah, I'm a different kind of magician. Yeah, and I've invented this gun.

Just a regular gun. It's a regular gun. Because that's where it would go. Eventually, it'd be like, well, you know, what if we put some black powder on a projectile and we put it in like a rifle barrel? Yeah. Oh, the witch is coming.

Is she? Bang. Out of the sky. Bang. Oh, I wonder if the witch will return well We're ready bang you didn't want to put up the hologram or whatever no need nice. We're just gonna shoot her with a gun I've invented the Oz Tling gun It's got six barrels it goes red fires a lot of bullets

It's designed to end warfare in the land of Oz by killing everyone. How you feeling about the witches in this? I think Michelle Williams is great. I agree. There's a real goodness to their performance. Yeah, but she's also got an insane earnestness to it, which I appreciate. I thought that was a lot of fun. But there's also like, she's also well aware of what he is and the diastrates situation, sultans of swing, that the land of Oz is in. He wants money for nothing.

That's right. That's another diastrates reference. Oh, he does. He sees all the gold and then he freaks out. Calm down. People are going to know you're a charlatan when you're Scrooge McDuck in it alright? Right exactly. Stop doing that. So I like her a lot but it also raises the question, I guess all of these movies have like a question. So he has a girlfriend or a lost love back in the real world. Who looks exactly like Michelle Williams. That's right, and Zach Braff is the monkey and there's probably others, etc.

Is this like Jordan Peele's Us? Oh, do you think that the actions of the characters in the real world, they have a direct effect on the doppelgangers in the parallel universe? Because the personalities are the same, right? Yeah. Is that what's happening here? No, I think it's just a coincidence. Oh, it's just a coincidence?

Yeah. I think we're all completely interchangeable in a lot of ways. There's probably two YouTubers on the other side of the earth that are basically doing the same thing we are. Should we kill them? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Even if they aren't doing what we're doing. Let's do a world tour where we kill all the other YouTubers.

I think everyone would be okay with that. I think so too. Is there anyone you want to start with in particular? You know. I do know actually. Oh I know. Leave a comment if you know. Mila Kunis though. She plays Egbertha whatever her name is. Egbertha yes. You know what Mason? Go on. I just want to talk about the thing. We're doing the thing next week for camera

I got this was your doing I might as do the I like it. I like this movie. I like it, too I had some memories. I'm like no. This is a this is just fine. It's okay. Whatever upon a rewatch I'm like this is quite a lot of pretty good I like the you know again this one leaned unlike return to Oz this one lean very heavily You know back to the original yeah black and white sequence at the start I love the beautiful world that yeah I thought I thought the black and white world was a lot of fun yeah I think I could have spent even more time in the black and white world and but then when it when it when it goes to the you know the technicolor land of Oz I'm like oh

this is this is nice this is you know this is a Mary Poppins situation it felt like it's got an unreal quality, because almost all of it is visual effects and CGI and green screen. Initially I'm like... I don't know about this. We'll see, exactly. You know what he said?

Well, I mean, when you think of entirely CGI world, it's often like, it's not as good as practical stuff, but I'm like, it felt like sort of a Mary Poppins world when they go into the animated world. It felt like Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights, would you you say oh no I don't know what that is I think you've made it up felt like it oh yeah they're very similar okay yeah is it anything like Adam Sandler's 51st eight yes was it anything like Adam Sandler's uncut gems yes it was a little bit wasn't it it's great trilogy of films yeah yeah

no look I agree like I think the problem is the thing is just a fantastic movie we'll talk about it next week yeah Yeah, you're right But no, I genuinely do like this I think there's a reason why we'll talk about how much but it did end up making money It also was released in that era where Disney was doing like gritty Reboots like there was that Alice in Wonderland at least the first one did well You know, they're doing a bunch of this kind of kind of stuff It fell right in that era, but yeah, most of those I don't like this one. I actually do yeah, how do you feel about Mila Kunis's performance? That was egg birther ah

It's okay. Yeah, that's how I felt about it right. I mean I mean you know she she is cursed by a She's betrayed yeah, that absolute dog of a rat man. Yeah, James Franco. He's rooting around making green women Exactly, and then then she then she eats a magic apple that turns a green. Yeah, uh, you know And it's a fable I guess. Boons out our hearts. Yes. It seemed a bit seemed a bit rushed honestly Okay, you know and all for this guy Yeah, this guy is looking in with his weird stubble coming in all dirty all all wet, just coming out of a lake. What's going on? And she's like, I love this guy. Settle down.

Yeah, he's very obviously a liar. All of this, all of this with your tears burning your face, then you turn into a green witch and you want to kill everybody. And I was, for this guy? You kidding me? Dump him, girl. Whoa. Yeah, that's right.

Do you think there's other men in this universe? Maybe, I guess not. I didn't see many. Yeah, sure. There's like old guys and little guys and I don't know, I think there's no- Yeah. Yeah, what she needed was like a 30 year old slacker. Yeah.

That's what she was looking for, clearly. Well, you won! Yeah. She would have been more at home in the Clerks universe. The Viewersk universe. She would have been- She would have been in heaven. Oh my god.

She could have been a mall rat. Right? Yeah. I don't know. I think the problem is I think also Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch is so good. Yeah. And I just think it can't really be topped

and it's not in this. Again, like I don't think she's bad. Well, Rachel Weisz I guess had a much easier time of it because her character is dead already by the start of the original Wizard Wars. That is true. Just so she had nothing to, she was not compared to anything survival of this in the house falls on you that's crazy sure that's nuts man nuts yeah I like it she had that green electricity power oh my god couldn't have done some with that the whole thing turned into fucking revenge of the Sith

at the end did you notice that I did notice that shoot electricity flight around the room yeah yeah went off chops he. Went off chops. It did go off chops. Another sort of a nod to the original. I liked the little gang of freaks that Oz teamed up with. I liked the little China girl and the winged monkey man. The China girl. The other one.

The other one, whatever. There's the other one. There's the tinkerer guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That little China girl, that effect, it's so good. The fidelity on it, Mason. It's got good fidelity. He's gluing legs together.

That's when people who are making movies were allowed to make choices and give people time, give people in the effects department time to give something, as you say, fidelity. Yeah. The technical term. High fidelity. That's right. John Cusack.

Dire Straits. Money for nothing. You better believe it walk of life Down the yellow brick road. Oh, yep. So I also think the ending of this how he does a big hologram trick Yeah, I love all of that. Sure. I think it's just a really wonderful climax Which is probably not what you would experience with James Franco By the man or the character, I assume. I think it's really like, it's so bombastic in the trickery of it and it feels just like

big and epic and it's fun and silly also. I think there should have been a trebuchet though. Or like a ballista or something because the two witches are there and they're like, we've defeated everybody and we're the big winners. And then he shows up in his big puff of smoke or what have you. They need to do something to really thump him. You know what I mean? Because you wouldn't be fooled by that.

But then a giant wooden arrow comes through and absolutely clocks you in the head. What if the Zach Braff monkey just leapt out of it with a sword and just threw the head? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or just a foamy bite. Oh, okay. Maybe he's got land of Osrabies or whatever. He's got flying monkey rabies.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. God damn, I didn't know he had that. He's fun in this. That's a fun character. I agree. I think Zach Braff is unfairly maligned just because that one time he got punked and he got really mad. Oh, and he hit that kid. Yeah. Yeah. But other than that, I think he's pretty cool.

Also, he didn't even crowdfunding one time and everyone's like crowdfunding isn't for you Zach Braff you just scrubs money. You bitch. Do you remember that? I do remember that yeah. Yeah. But I think people uh. Oh oh GardenState ooh look at I'm exploring the infinite void. You like GardenState when it came out. I don't have any opinions on GardenState. Wow. Do you know why? Because I'm cool. Well you wouldn't have been cool when it came out. I don't have any opinions on Garden State. Do you know why? Because I'm cool. Well you wouldn't have been cool when it came out if you had no opinions on Garden State. You'd have been a big nerd. But I was going to say, you'd be surprised how very quickly your scrubs money disappears when you're trying to make a movie.

They're pretty spano. Then you don't get to make a movie. No I don't care, do what you want. Who gives a shit? But then there's a speech that he does where after he finds out that James Franco isn't a real wizard and he does like that speech about how he's just a really good wizard. I think that whole bit is very, very funny. But as I was watching this, there was a few moments where I'm like, but where's like the Sam Raimi in this? I'm not saying he directed this badly. He didn't. He did a really good job. And then at the end, I'm like, oh, there it is. So there's a couple of things. There's the fake army, which happens in Evil Dead 3. And there's the moment where there's a spooky witch. Yeah, absolutely. Like a very spooky witch that will scare children. Yeah, yeah,

she'll be she'll be hauled up in the air by a couple of flying baboons. Yeah, screaming away. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I like that a lot. I thought just something to really like, you know, you thought you having a good time kids? Well, guess what? Here's something to think about for the rest of your life. Blah, blah. I mean, that's a tradition of these Wizard of Odd.

I mean, that's a tradition of these Wizard of Odd's movies. The Wizard of Odd's movies, James. Shut up, idiot. Now I can't take any of that out. Because you've referenced it. So at the end also, he does the thing where he gives everybody a gift, like a fake gift, Shut up idiot. Now I can't take any of that out So at the end also he does the thing where he gives everybody a gift like a fake gift because he sucks Yeah, which is the thing that the wizard does and for Glinda he goes. I've got the greatest gift of all for you I'm gonna give you a smooch beyond this curtain

He's alright, mate steady on Yeah, so, you know, that's um, that's certainly something isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. So you know that's um that's certainly something isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. God what a prequel. Do you know what it's time for? What's it time for? It's time for Oz the Great and Trivia. I love that. Here we go. Here's some little facts. Here's some tidbits. I've been I've been written around the internet. Wait, I've been looking around the internet Mason. Okay, terrific. Michelle Williams's character Annie. She's marrying a man called John Gale. Michelle Williams's character Annie, she's marrying a man called John Gale. Think about this Mason. Director Sam Raimi confirmed that Annie and John

are the parents of Dorothy Gale. The original Wizard of Oz. So James Franco nearly fucking ruin that, didn't he? That's right. God damn it James Franco. Classic James Franco ruin and stuff. I know right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And of course Oz, his dad, Ash from Evil Dead. What? Yeah, that's true. That's awesome, actually. Yeah, it's cool, right? Yeah, that is cool. Yeah, it's cool as hell. Must've been a bad sperm though.

To result in that guy. You were always talking about bad sperms, Mason. No, you are. I have to sit here, and I don't control the edit, so I don't get to cut it out. Do you want to cut it out? No! Okay, that's right. If that's what you want, if you want to talk about bad smoke.

I don't want to do that. We can leave it all in. Director Sam Raimi and composer Danny Elfman, they had a major falling out during, I think it was Spider-Man 2? Mm-hmm. You remember this? Because Danny Elfman didn't return for three. Whoa. And Elfman stated that that would never work together again But of course this movie it reteamed them. Wow. Yeah, I guess there wasn't an Oingo Boingo tour happening at the time

I guess there wasn't isn't he a fucking crook bloke now or something as ugly I can't keep track Mason. We need a board or a chart. We don't know. Yeah Yeah, this is the last feature film of John Paxton, father of actor Bill Paxton. John Paxton, I think, also played James Franco's waiter in the Spider-Man movies or whatever, his housekeeper guy. Oh, right, yeah. Remember he's the one who didn't tell him that his father was the Green Goblin until the third movie? Harry, I forgot to tell you. Your father was the Green Goblin.

What? Your father was the Green Goblin. Your father was the Green Goblin. I'm sorry, do you have a tray of food for me? Yeah, just leave it there. You can go. It is a leak fired. Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis, they both made their screen debuts on Baywatch. Did they? I don't know, apparently. I just read that. I don't know whether that's true. I'm just putting in facts. They were probably clinging to a buoy. They needed to be rescued. I saw two kids clinging to a buoy. I wonder if Lawrence found the footage of that. You wonder if he did?

I just wonder if he did. Okay, Sean. They'll probably cling into a buoy. They needed to be rescued. It's not two kids Clean to a buoy Lawrence found the footage of that you wonder if he did. I just wonder if he did, okay Cuz we can't see the footage where we're recording. That's true. There might not be any existing on the internet We just don't know. Yeah. Anyways the box office for this on a budget of two hundred and fifteen million dollars That's really expensive. I don't feel like I feel like they wouldn't do that. I was gonna say they wouldn't do that now. They have done it. It's Wicked. They're doing Wicked. They're doing Wicked. That seems like a lot.

Ah, the return on this was $493.3 million. That's not bad. So a bit of a moderate hit. A sequel was announced straight away. This was... I feel like it has kind of disappeared, but people liked it. Yeah. I saw it in cinemas. Well now it's non-canon, because W wicked is doing a different thing with the origin of the nature Whatever she was always green. Do you think about that? I think it's a think it's alright. Yeah

Oh, I also liked it in this movie. There was a little bit of a nod to musicals Somebody attempts to start a song and it gets very quickly shot down. Hmm. I'm wondering if the producers of wicked Gonna have a kind of a unfriendly welcome. Oh, because they of course have not revealed it's a musical yet. People know that's a musical, right? I think people do. I don't know.

Maybe they think the musical is a musical, but I don't think they think that the movie version is a musical. Maybe part one of Wicked is not a musical and part two is a musical. That's how you get people. They come in and they go, thank God this is not a musical and the part two is just the songs oh sure yes edited back together okay maybe just the songs my part one they're just like and we would put a song here but we're here for you the audience not a musical we don't like we we we hate them too yeah we had the music too exactly so

there's a few things that people requested for this which we didn't get to a lot of people talked about the whiz like why is this enough time? This wasn't really a phenomenon here. No, it also wasn't in the US. We didn't really get it here. Yeah, I've never seen it I know that also the Wizards of Oz the Michael Shanks Australian series Oh, yeah requested that also but that would have mean five weeks of Wizard of Oz content. And quite frankly, I don't think the YouTube algorithm would reward me for that, Mason. Oh yeah. I feel like it's already punishing me for looking at something that doesn't have Spider-Man in it, Mason. Yeah, but that also because you keep saying bad sperm and that's in the YouTube's word filter. I don't know if you know that. You get demonetized every time you say bad sperm. All you need to do is request via formal letter that I stop saying bad sperm and it will be

considered. Okay? Okay, great. If you submit that to Lawrence, it will filter down to me and I will take it into consideration. But until then, we can and will talk about bad sperm. Speaking of bad sperm, next week, Mason, do you know what we're gonna look at? The thing! That's bad sperm personified! I'm excited to talk about it. Oh my god, I'm so excited. If you do actually want to see that earlier, you can head over to BigSandwich.co where videos always go up there early, but that's not the only thing. We do movie

commentaries, we do video game let Let's plays. We do bonus podcasts We also have a podcast called the weekly planet where we talk movies and comics and TV shows that comes out there Sunday as opposed to Monday We'll probably cover wicked when it comes out. Yeah, we probably will you've seen the live version I've seen it a couple of times. That's terrific. Yeah, did you walk out when the song started? Yeah Yeah, that's probably why I had to see it a couple of times. Oh, yeah, that's probably why yeah, but you know, I like it I don't know is the movie good. I don't know. We don't know. Do you think it is? No, it's not no. I don't know. It could be good No, I don't know. Could be good. I like that little train. What little train? Oh, yeah, okay. Looks nice Yeah, cuz it reminds you of the Harry Potter train cuz you love Harry Potter. Yeah. Yeah

Alright, thanks everyone. Grab that gem you guys. We'll see you next week. Goodbye