Holiday Memories: Dorothy in the Land of Oz, AKA Thanksgiving in the Land of Oz

The last major animated Thanksgiving special that premiered during my ‘kidhood’ (whether you calculate that as ending at 18 or graduating high school) was Dorothy in the Land of Oz (1980, Muller-Rosen Productions), or, as it is more commonly titled, Thanksgiving in the Land of Oz. Romeo Muller had been scripting TV Specials from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) to The Hobbit (1977), but this was not another Rankin/Bass effort. Here he joined executive producer Robert L. Rosen with animation by ‘Murokami Wolf Swenson in Association with Toei Doga’ (Toei Doga is a company more familiarly known now as Toei Animation, which has done lots of anime, including Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball) to produce this holiday special, which used elements from the first six of L. Frank Baum’s Oz books, though it is an original tale.

It opens with Dorothy dreaming about her old friends the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, whose designs are based on W. W. Denslow’s original illustrations. But soon she has to waken to a grim reality: the bank is foreclosing on their house so Uncle Henry and Aunt Em must go to live in the Old Folks Home while she will be placed with cousins, thus ending their little family. Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving will be the last they will ever spend together.

Aunt Em has just baked a mince pie for the event and set it on the windowsill to cool (as one does) when it is snatched away by a mysterious figure. Dorothy gives chase into a clump of nearby trees and is astonished to find it is the Wizard of Oz, a Wizard no longer. He had gone back to his old job in balloons but sank all his capital into making a gigantic turkey-shaped float for Thanksgiving parades. But the ugly green monstrosity he produced had no takers. ‘I got the idea one midnight and built it before dawn. But I learned a lesson, my dear. Never create a masterpiece in the dark.’

The wind starts to pick up, and the balloon turkey starts bouncing and bobbing around. It accidentally plucks up the mince pie in its beak, and in her efforts to recover it Dorothy and Toto are whisked away into the sky, carried higher and higher away from the Wizard, Kansas, and her aunt and uncle. After a long journey she sets down in Oz, of course, though she doesn’t realize it at first. The balloon gently sets the pie back in Dorothy’s hands.

Dorothy soon becomes aware of her situation when a pumpkin-headed figure approaches her and surrenders in the face of her gigantic ‘minion’. He introduces himself as Jack Pumpkinhead and explains that he is the guardian of a magical powder which can bring anything to life. In fact, a villain named Tyrone the Terrible Toy Tinker had been in the process of trying to steal it so that he could bring an army of lead toy soldiers to life and conquer Oz, but Dorothy and her startling creature had scared him away. Dorothy explains that it is nothing but a big bag of gas, which causes Tyrone (who looks very much like John R. Neil’s design for the Nome King in Ozma of Oz) to pop up, steal the Powder, use a scattering handful to bring the balloon to life, name it the Green Gobbler of Oz, then fly away to his lair (‘the Castle of Terrible Toy Towers’) atop an extinct volcano.

They have no time to go to the Emerald City and alert anyone, as Tyrone will no doubt animate his army at daybreak, when the Powder’s power takes effect. Jack claims to know the way up the mountain through a tunnel, but it is guarded by a Hungry Tiger who will probably try to eat them. Dorothy suggests that maybe they can offer him the pie as a decoy, but a voice pipes up in protest. It is the pie, who has been brought to life by a stray wisp of the Powder. It introduces itself as U. N. Krust, and he speaks in many accents because as a mince pie he is made from many ingredients from around the world. Dorothy decides they can’t use him as bait.

But the little group proceeds on, hoping something will turn up. Dorothy gives a little speech about bravery to raise their spirits, citing the courage of the original Pilgrims, who were ‘full of beans and backbone.’ At the mention of beans and bones the Hungry Tiger leaps out and demands to be fed. Dorothy pleads for him not to eat them. The Hungry Tiger breaks down and admits that he cannot, anyway. He unfortunately has a Conscience which is stronger than his appetite, and to eat a nice little girl would make him dreadfully unhappy. U. N. Krust suggests that he could eat the evil Tyrone and not feel any regrets for saving Oz from such a villain. The Tiger hungrily agrees and joins the party.

But Jack is not as good a guide as he had claimed and they spend hours wandering through the caves in the extinct volcano trying to reach the castle on top. Dorothy suddenly sees something shiny buried under a fall of rocks. She digs it out, and it turns out to be Tik-Tok, the Clockwork Man. She winds him up, and in gratitude he offers to guide them to the top, as he has very precise mechanical brains.

Finally, they push their way past an enormous rock blocking the tunnel and enter the courtyard surrounding the Terrible Toy Towers. Dorothy tries to sneak forward but the squabbling of her friends (Tik-Tok has accidentally stepped on the Hungry Tiger’s tail) has drawn the attention of the Green Gobbler, who is perching on the roof. It swoops down and snatches Dorothy away from the group and carries her to Tyrone, who is even now on the verge of animating his army with the Powder of Life.

The Terrible Toy Tinker gloats over his prisoner and his immanent triumph. Dorothy realizes that she only has psychological methods to use and pretends not to be afraid at all. She tells Tyrone that he should be ashamed, using his toymaking skills for evil. Why, today is Thanksgiving, and Christmas is soon to follow. What a hero he would be, making toys for all the children of Oz! She sings a little song, “Toys, Christmas, and Oz” which begins to melt his heart. Then the sun rises.

For a moment he is poised to implement his evil scheme, then breaks down and declares that he WILL reform! Unfortunately, just then Dorothy’s friends break into the castle, and unaware of Tyrone’s turn of heart, the Tiger leaps at the Tinker with the intention of Breakfast Aforethought. Tyrone jumps onto the castle parapet, which causes him to fumble the keg with the Powder of Life over the side, where it plunges down into the extinct volcano.

The volcano starts to erupt, now very much alive, and it looks like everyone is doomed. But the Green Gobbler plucks them all up and they escape, just as Castle and Army and Mountain are destroyed in massive explosion. Did I mention that Romeo Muller also worked on Rankin/Bass’s The Return of the King?

They return to the Emerald City, where the new queen Ozma grants Dorothy one wish in return for her services to Oz. Dorothy, of course, has only one wish, and they are soon joined by Uncle Henry and Aunt Em as their farmhouse comes whisking over the rainbow. It has also picked up the Wizard along the way. Now Dorothy and her family never need to part but can live happily ever after in Oz. They are joined by the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion and celebrate with the Thanksgiving feast that Aunt Em already has prepared, and even the Hungry Tiger has enough to eat. Thuh End.

A few notes on the special itself. Sid Caesar supplied the voice for the Wizard of Oz and for U. N. Krust, which allowed him to show off his many humorous accents. While Dorothy’s new friends might seem to merely be knock-offs of her old companions (Pumpkinhead = Scarecrow, Hungry Tiger = Cowardly Lion, Tik-Tok = Tin Man) they are all original characters created by Baum and collected from various individual Oz books. The special took on many different titles, from Dorothy in the Land of Oz, to the more revealing and honest Thanksgiving in the Land of Oz, to Dorothy and the Green Gobbler of Oz, the Scholastic Book adaptation (which I have, and which has been of great help to me in preparing this post).

And this is the last animated Thanksgiving special I will list. Afterwards they sort of petered out, except for scattered outliers like Garfield’s Thanksgiving (Film Roman, 1989). There would still be Thanksgiving ‘special episodes’ made in various series of cartoons, such as Rocko’s Modern Life (1996, Season 8, Episode 2:  Turkey Town/Floundering Fathers), but the old era was mostly over, and we have to be satisfied now with airings of the traditional shows. Perhaps it is for the best.