As much as I enjoy L. Frank Baum's Oz books, I have to admit that the one being adapted here, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, is not one of my favorites.But even Baum's lesser efforts are still a heck of a lot of fun!
Continuing the tradition of Dorothy Gale traveling to Oz by means of a disaster, she's visiting relatives in California when an earthquake strikes, and she falls deep underground, along with her cousin Zeb, his horse Jim and Dorothy's cat Eureka.
They find themselves in a mysterious underground world where cities are made of glass and the people are actually plants. They're joined by the Wizard, whose hot air balloon was also swallowed up during the quake.
It's all a bit silly, but what can you expect? It's also quite charming, even as the group fights to escape from the surprisingly inhospitable plant people.
Eric Shanower adapts the story, and his script captures the characters perfectly.
I could rave on and on about Skottie Young's wonderful art (which has almost Seussian overtones here), but I adore his depiction of Eureka the kitten, which is all eyes and mouth and attitude.
As the characters go from one adventure to another, what a delight to follow along through new eyes. Shanower and Young are simply doing tremendous work on this series - I can only hope that they'll manage to do all the Baum adaptations!
Grade: A
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