10. The Wizard of Oz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkZcYMy85lY It's hard to look at early conceptions of The Wizard of Oz from anything close to an objective perspective, such is its iconic cultural status. This task is made even more difficult by the amount of time elapsed since its production. We might ask ourselves, for example, why an entire section of the film was going to be devoted to dancing competitions, or why
Dorothy was originally supposed to have blonde hair and be covered in make up? The answer to these questions, though, is mundane in its timelessness: the producers wanted to attract as wide an audience as possible. They
thought that a 1939 audience was too sophisticated to enjoy something so outright fantastical as the merry old land of Oz, and set about mitigating those elements of the film by shoe-horning in contemporary cultural trends via a sub-plot involving a princess who challenged Dorothy to a sing-off. Production, thankfully, clarified things and ensured that the film stayed focus on its more fantastical aspects, turning the film into a classic and ensuring that it would sync up with rock albums recorded 34 years later.