149: "dorothy? who's dorothy?"

has anyone else been going to the free movies at AMC theaters this summer?

we've been going but not every week. some wednesdays we haven't wanted to get up; some we didn't wanna see what was showing.

this week, we went. the girls got up early enough and the early movie (10 a.m.) was one i've always wanted to see on the big screen: The Wizard of Oz.

i've been a Wizard of Oz fan since elementary school. and not just a fan of the movie. i had a bunch of the Oz books. (some people don't know it, but there's a whole series of Oz books. i had some of them and now baby bliss has her own set. i was lucky enough to find her's in the thrift store, along with a set of the Narnia books.)

baby bliss was a big fan of the Wizard of Oz (the movie) when she was very young. it was one of the first movies we bought for her, around the time she started walking. or maybe we really bought the movie for me but she loved it too, from the first time she saw it. she didn't even get scared at the creepy parts.

we've both seen the movie on telly at least once a year since i can remember. and that's the way i've always seen it until wednesday.

it was a real treat to see dorothy and her crew on the big screen. anty em reminded me a lot of my granny, something i somehow never noticed on the small screen. indeed, i saw many things on the big screen that i'd never noticed on the telly.

one of them was really funny. it was that part where the flying monkey things nab dorothy and toto in the forest to take them to the witch. when they showed the long shot of dorothy being flown away, i could tell it was a doll of some sort cuz dorothy's legs moved back and forth in a weird, wooden-looking kinda way. i never even saw that on the telly. maybe it was cut but i don't even recall seeing it in the VHS version we had.

probably cuz it was a long shot which made the images small. small images on a small screen... y'all know what i mean.

the backdrops were a lot more noticeable too. i found myself fantasizing about a Wizard of Oz remake, using modern technology and current actors. it was uncanny how much the scarecrow resembled mark harmon. i thought dorothy could be played by jennifer garner but she might be a bit too old to be believable to today's demographic.

who would play aunt em? who would be the cowardly lion? the wizard? the tin man?

i thought baby bliss would appreciate the fact that i knew most of the songs by heart. but she didn't. i thought she would laugh at the wicked witch and cry when miz gulch came for toto. like she used to do. but no y'all. baby bliss is not that same little girl any more. she waited til halfway thru the movie and said, "um mommy. what time is this over cuz i gotta go to the bathroom."

i guess she wasn't feeling dorothy and toto like i was. too bad. i was thoroughly and utterly blissed.