The 1939 film version of L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has become so ingrained in popular culture that its interpretation of the story is tough to counter, even though there have been numerous subsequent adaptations of the material in Wizard and Baum’s entire Oz series. With Tin Man (Sci Fi, December 2-4, 9 p.m.), producers Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert Halmi Jr. have the budget and the time to do a faithful adaptation of Baum’s novel (and probably a few of its sequels, too). Instead, they opt for a nearly unrecognizable retelling, with a repetitive, maddeningly slow pace, cheesy dialogue and one-dimensional characters.
The Halmis have a history of taking well-known bits of classic and modern mythology and turning them into bloated, effects-heavy miniseries and TV movies; they’re responsible for dozens of TV productions, including versions of The Odyssey, The Ten Commandments, Alice in Wonderland and Merlin. Although its take on Baum’s story has been promoted as both dark and more science-fiction-oriented than past versions, Tin Man is nothing more than business as usual for the father-and-son duo.
They reimagine Kansas youngster Dorothy Gale as a twentysomething waitress known as DG (Zooey Deschanel), whose humdrum existence is broken up by prophetic dreams of a mysterious land. That place here is known as the O.Z. (not to be confused with the O.C.), or the Outer Zone, a generic fantasy world that bears only a passing resemblance to the one Baum created. Instead of a wicked witch, this world’s evil ruler is a sorceress with the unwieldy name of Azkadellia (Kathleen Robertson). The familiar elements of the original story (the scarecrow, the cowardly lion, Toto, the titular tin man) are all given similar makeovers.
By the second of the series’ three two-hour segments, the story has virtually nothing to do with either Baum’s book or the 1939 film, aside from a few cutesy references; its standard hero-quest story owes at least as much to Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings as it does to Baum. DG is basically a distaff Luke Skywalker, with her farm-girl origins, unwitting position as the chosen heir to a mystical legacy, long-lost family member as the head of the dark forces and innate abilities that only come about when she believes in herself. Tin Man’s version of the wizard, called the Mystic Man and played by Richard Dreyfuss, is a minor figure in the story, but after he dies he appears to DG in visions in which he might as well be exhorting her to use the Force.
With a story that could easily be told in half the time, Tin Man drags on endlessly, becoming less interesting as it progresses. Lacking the whimsy of the classic film or the out-there weirdness of 1985’s Return to Oz, the miniseries just plods through its plot points, and strangely ends up with a message that’s almost the exact opposite of the original’s: Instead of learning that there’s no place like the familiar comforts of home, DG discovers that the simple, normal world never really was her home, and the down-to-Earth farm people she thought were her parents were actually robots.
Usually charming, Deschanel is pretty much a blank as DG, and Robertson is not very menacing as her nemesis, although she rocks her ridiculous outfits. Title aside, the tin man is no more important in this story than he has been in past versions, but as played by Neal McDonough, he is about the most interesting character in the whole production. McDonough’s steely (or tinny?) resolve can’t make slogging through this mess nearly worth the effort, though.
Tin Man
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