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Review of The Woggle-Bug Book by L Frank Baum (1905)

Posted in books, movies, pop culture, reviews, Wizard of Oz with tags Baumalong, books, Frank Baum, movies, Oz books readthru, pop culture, reviews, Wizard of Oz on April 30, 2012 by Paxton

Baum wrote a short book published in 1905 right before the third Oz book; Ozma of Oz. It featured a character that was introduced in the Marvelous Land of Oz, the Woggle-Bug. It’s not an “official” Oz book, however, since L Frank Baum wrote it and it features a character from the Oz series, I’m going to include it as part of my ancillary Oz materials reviews. It was called The Woggle-Bug Book.

“Sire, I am a Woggle-Bug, highly magnified and thoroughly educated. It is no exaggeration to say I am the greatest Woggle-Bug on Earth” – HM Woggle-Bug, TE

The book takes the Woggle-Bug character out of Oz and transplants him into a nameless city in America. We aren’t told how he got there and not too many people seem distressed that a giant talking bug in a top hat is walking around the city streets in broad daylight. The bug falls in love with this crazy colored plaid dress, follows it around as it’s passed from person to person and falls in love with whomever has the dress at the time he sees them. After falling in love with a Chinaman wearing the dress as a Chinese robe, the Woggle-Bug mistakenly gets onto a balloon that carries him to Africa where he barely escapes vicious Arabs that want to kill him. He then wanders into a hidden forest with talking animals that feel more like an Oz book than the events in the rest of the book. This hidden animal kingdom is guarded by a group of bears with guns that are awesomely called a “bearicade”. The story really is weird. It’s funny and strange in some ways, but overall, it’s weird. Plus, there’s a lot of ethnic humor which, I guess, was popular at the time. However, it’s rather jarring today.

This book evolved from a series of Oz comic strips called The Queer Visitors from Oz that were used to promote the second Oz book (I’m trying to get a hold of a copy of these strips for review). The strips took popular Oz characters and transplanted them into America for various adventures. Those strips were popular enough that Baum thought that formula would work again. It wasn’t completely out of left field, the Woggle-Bug had become sort of a national fad at the time. There were Woggle-Bug postcards and board games (today, he even has his own Facebook page). Also at this time, Baum was trying to mount a stage musical about the Woggle-Bug to recreate the smash hit 1902 stage version of Wizard of Oz. This book was adapted from that stage play. Unfortunately, the fad died and the Woggle-Bug play and book flopped.

Now, this book is sort of a one-off curiosity. It is not considered Oz canon.

The Pax & Jeeg Show Episode 34: Wrestlemania

Posted in podcast, pop culture, wrestling, WWF with tags Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcast, podcasts, wrestling, WWF on April 24, 2012 by Paxton

Jeeg and I continue our show this week and we are joined by Michael Downs of the Atomic Geeks and Jay from Sexy Armpit. The topic for this week’s throwdown is Wrestlemania.

Wrestlemania

Listen to Jeeg transform into Michael Puffer and introduce the hell out of the rest of us. Also listen to all of us transform into our favorite wrestlers and cut some awesome promos. We also take the time to discuss our favorite Wrestlemania moments and matches as well as our overall favorite Wrestlemania. It’s a grappling good time. Come have your ear Power Bombed by our awesome discussion.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. And yes, we are still on the Zune Marketplace.

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Review of Return to Oz (1984)

Posted in movies, pop culture, Wizard of Oz with tags books, movies, Oz books readthru, pop culture, reviews, Wizard of Oz on April 20, 2012 by Paxton

In my article about adaptations of The Marvelous Land of Oz, I mentioned that the 1984 movie Return to Oz was an adaptation of two of the Baum Oz books. Specifically, it’s a combination of Oz books 2 (Marvelous Land of Oz) and 3 (Ozma of Oz).

After finishing Book 3, I decided to re-watch Return to Oz the other night for the first time in maybe 10 years. Since it’s sort of a cult, underground hit, I thought I would give it a quick review for you guys.

So, WOW, the first twenty minutes of this movie are DEPRESSING. This movie starts a few months after Dorothy has returned to Kansas. The farm is destroyed from the twister. I mean, everything is in shambles. Uncle Henry and Auntie Em are trying to rebuild everything. Uncle Henry broke his leg and now just sits around drinking all day doing nothing. Em is stuck doing all the work. Everytime Dorothy brings up her trip to Oz, Em just shuts her down. No one believes Dorothy’s trips were real. She’s starting to believe they weren’t real. Em takes Dorothy to a “mental hospital” to have a psychiatrist take a look at her. The psychiatrist actually intends to hook Dorothy up to a machine for shock treatments. SHOCK TREATMENTS. This movie was actually showing Dorothy in this creepy old asylum about to have her head lobotomized. I didn’t remember any of this and started to question whether I actually wanted to finish the movie.

So I continued on, Dorothy is saved by a mysterious girl and runs out of the asylum into a thunderstorm. Dorothy is knocked out and wakes up back in Oz. The movie essentially takes the framework for the third book, Ozma of Oz, and adds the characters from the second book, Marvelous Land of Oz. The main changes to the story in Ozma for the movie were to remove everything having to do with the fairy Land of Ev. All of the events in the movie happen in Oz. And not just Oz, but a dilapidated, ghost town of Oz. Also, while they appear on the poster, the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion are relegated to cameos at the end. The other 15 characters in the poster above were given all the screen time. Another change is that Mombi is the main villain (and the current ruler of Oz which is why it’s so run down). We do get to see the awesome Nome King from Book 3, however he looks like Ice Man from the pilot of Misfits of Science. And although he’s the King of the Nomes, you really don’t see any other Nomes. He’s a king of one, I guess. He’s the one telling Mombi what to do.

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The Pax & Jeeg Show Episode 33: Kung Fu Fightiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing….Movies

Posted in movies, nostalgia, podcast, pop culture with tags movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, nostalgia, podcast, podcasts, pop culture on April 17, 2012 by Paxton

Episode 33 has gone LIVE! This week, CT is nowhere to be found and we inaugurate The Pax & Jeeg Show. Expect complete and total CHAOS. And AWESOME-ness. And Jackie Chan-ness.

Dragon Pax

On this, the first episode of The Pax & Jeeg Show, we are again joined by Jeremy from GeekChunks.com to discuss modern martial arts movies. We discuss stuff like Enter the Dragon, Drunken Master, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Wire Fu, subtitles and Ong Bak. It’s an info packed episode so Crane Kick this awesome episode into your iPhone or web browser.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. And yes, we are still on the Zune Marketplace.

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Of Holy Grails and white whales….Call me Ishmael

Posted in comic books, movies, pop culture, soda, Star Wars, The Flash with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, LEB, movies, pop culture, soda, Star Wars, The Flash on April 13, 2012 by Paxton

Brian has released this week’s assignment for The League. This week he wants us to talk about, as collectors, our Holy Grail items. He also mentions our white whales. I see these two concepts as different. Our Holy Grails are something we’d love to own, but we realize that, for whatever reason, we will never own it. “If I had all the money in the world I’d……”

White whales are something we are always on the lookout for. Something that, if we found it, we would be able to bring it home. There is hope with a white whale, but with Holy Grails, there usually is very little.

I’ve been a collector for many years. I don’t really do it as much as I used to, but I still manage to “collect stuff” without meaning to. Action figures, books, DVDs, soda cans, etc.

So, let’s start with my Holy Grail. What do I think would be awesome to own, but I’m 99% confident that I’ll never own? I’d have to say the Holiest of my Holy Grails would be:

Showcase #4 – Published by DC in 1955. Features the first appearance of the Barry Allen Flash. Also considered the beginning of the Silver Age of comics. I’ve been a huge fan of The Flash since I started collecting comics. I have several reprints of this issue, I just think it would be cool to own the actual issue. However, unless I win the lottery, I just can’t fathom ever owning an actual copy of this. And since we are dreaming that I won the lottery, I would also like the other three Showcase issues that feature The Flash as well as the entire run of the Barry Allen Flash series (#105 – 350). However, I have a lot of the Barry Allen series, so I’d just need to complete it.