TMS Spotlight: Dorothy Gale's Impact on Fantasy Film Heroines

(MGM Studios)

NOTE: This article was originally written for The Times of San Diego in 2016

It’s no secret how much movie studios, particularly Walt Disney Pictures, have been trying to chase the success of Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz since its release in 1939. It’s also no secret the reason MGM’s fantasy-musical even exists is because of Disney’s own groundbreaking Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs two years earlier. But for all her loveliness and iconic status, Snow’s personality lacks in substance and impact that Dorothy Gale of Kansas appears to possess in pop culture. And it’s all thanks to the #1 hit theme song by Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg, and a performance by one very talented 16-year-old girl.

At the time of production, Judy Garland was an unusual choice for the Oz lead, since she was about five years older than author L. Frank Baum originally wrote Dorothy in his novel. MGM executives weren’t sure what to do after their first choice, Shirley Temple, was denied access from her home studio, 20th Century Fox, as would their second choice Deanna Durbin at Universal Studios. When MGM on ‘the little girl with the big voice,’ they still didn’t know whether to pass Garland off as a child or her own age. After many rewrites, and costume and make-up tests, George Cukor—one of the original directors for the film before Fleming finally took over—convinced producer Mervyn LeRoy to just let Garland play Dorothy as an ordinary farm girl. Her attire would include auburn pigtails, a blue and white gingham dress, and black saddle shoes before attaining the ruby slippers in Munchkinland.

(Walt Disney Pictures)

I can’t help but notice Disney’s own Alice in Alice in Wonderland (1951) also wears a blue and white dress with black saddle shoes, and so would Belle in Beauty & the Beast in 1991. Although, to be fair, if Lewis Carroll and L. Frank Baum existed in the 21st century, Wonderland’s Carroll would have probably sued or at least sub-tweeted, Oz’s Baum for plagiarism and similar character design. All three heroines also pen their own ballads of longing outside their humdrum home lives with Dorothy’s ‘Over the Rainbow,’ Alice’s ‘In a World of My Own’ and Belle’s reprise of her self-titled number.

The late musical composer Howard Ashman once noted that in musicals, there’s usually a moment in the first act where the female lead sits on some kind of post, and sings about her dreams and wishes. This is exactly what Dorothy does with ‘Rainbow,’ as does nearly every Disney Princess who followed after with their own ballad. Even more fitting is how every musical theatre actress who tried out for Ariel of Disney’s The Little Mermaid in the late 1980s was requested to audition with ‘Over the Rainbow’ before being given Ariel’s ‘Part of Your World’ in callbacks.

(Walt Disney Pictures)

What makes Garland’s portrayal of Dorothy so timeless and fresh is that she plays the heroine as youthful, but not childish. She’s sweet and innocent, but not stupid or juvenile. When it was decided after briefly considering rewriting Dorothy as an all-out teenager to match Judy’s own age, the character’s age eventually became ambiguous. With the minimum makeup and an unnecessary special designed corset Garland would have to wear in most of her movies the first half of her career, I think most people assume Dorothy’s age in the film is 16. And what’s interesting is her behavior and reactions are appropriate and fitting as a child or teen because of the tone of the fantasy-musical. This was an era where even Garland stated that studios didn’t know what to do with actresses between 12-17 years old, especially if they didn’t skip the awkward phases. But even though they kept her in kid roles, audiences weren’t fooled in any event. While it’s a tad jarring to see 15-year-old Garland referred to as 12 in George B. Seitz’s Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), her presence is much more natural in The Wizard of Oz.

This young, but brave and adventurous, naivety has since been seen in countless other fantasy film heroines like Belle, Ariel, Alice, Aurora/Briar Rose, Jasmine, Wendy Darling, and—in live-action—Jennifer Connelly as Sarah in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (1986). There was even a cheesy, low budget TV movie adaptation of Babes in Toyland in 1986 with Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves that I remember watching as a kid, and noticing filmmaker Clive Donner took a lot of cues from Oz with its characteristics. While Dorothy Gale and The Wizard of Oz may have not necessarily or directly influenced all of these movies or roles, it’s no doubt the 1939 picture set the bar high for the fantasy genre in cinema and continues to be the standard for family entertainment.