10 Famous Movie Characters Ruined By Elaborate Backstories
7. The Wizard Of Oz
Speaking of mysterious wizards who got hugely detailed backstories that they didnt need, the wonderful Wizard of Oz was given this same treatment back in 2013. With the movie Oz The Great And Powerful, screenwriters Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire elaborated on L. Frank Baums book series to craft a massively demystifying origin story for the title character. Again, this movie missed the point of having a mysterious character. The Wizard in the first place was an inspirer of much intrigue. How did this normal bloke end up being praised and worshipped as a powerful wizard? was one of the big mostly-unanswered questions of the original text, and its one that Baum clearly knew we didnt actually need the answer for. But Hollywood doesnt like leaving secrets untold if theres a way to make money of them, so instead we got a massive Sam Raimi-directed movie where we see James Franco explaining every beat of Ozs origin to a CGI monkey with Zach Braffs voice. No one needed to know that the witch Theodora fancied Oz, or that he had to use an army of scarecrows claim the kingdom as his own, or that he used a projector to pull off all his tricks. Its all just unneeded padding to a story that was perfect in the first place. It was better not knowing, in all honesty.
