Summary
As Dorothy walks up to one of the apple trees and tries to pick an apple, the tree slaps her wrist and accuses her of stealing. Dorothy and the Scarecrow are startled by the tree, and the Scarecrow insults the tree to get back at it for frightening Dorothy. Suddenly, the tree grabs them and Dorothy screams. "I'll show you how to get apples!" says the Scarecrow, teasing the tree. The tree begins throwing apples at them.
Dorothy chases one of the apples into a clearing, where she finds a rusty man made out of tin, standing with an axe. The Tin Man asks to be oiled, and they oil his mouth first. "I can talk again!" the Tin Man says, overjoyed, and tells them that he rusted into his position a year ago while chopping a nearby tree. He then tells them that the tinsmith forgot to give him a heart, and sings a song a lot like the Scarecrow's about not having a heart.
At the end of the Tin Man's song, Dorothy invites him to come with them to the Emerald City to ask the Wizard of Oz for a heart, but they are interrupted by the cackle of the Wicked Witch, who is standing on the roof of a nearby house. The Witch threatens the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, telling them not to help Dorothy, before throwing a ball of fire at the Scarecrow, cackling, and disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
The Scarecrow and the Tin Man vow to transport Dorothy safely to the Emerald City, and the trio start on their way down the yellow brick road. "It's funny, I feel like I've known you all the time, but I couldn't have, could I?" says Dorothy.
As they go deeper into the spooky forest, more and more wildlife crops up on the yellow brick road, and the group begins to get frightened. The Tin Man informs the others that they are most likely to run into "lions and tigers and bears." All of a sudden, a lion comes bounding out of the woods, frightening them.
The lion growls and challenges the Scarecrow and the Tin Man to a fight. The Tin Man and Scarecrow argue about who will fight the Lion, when suddenly the Lion goes after Toto. Protecting Toto, Dorothy slaps the Lion on the nose and the Lion immediately begins to cry. "Why you're nothing but a great big coward!" Dorothy says, shocked. The Lion agrees that he is indeed cowardly, and that he even scares himself. Dorothy invites the Lion to come along to the Wizard, assuring him that they would never be ashamed to be in the company of a Cowardly Lion. He sings a song, like the others: "If I Only Had the Nerve." They make their way down the yellow brick road, out of the forest.
Suddenly, we see the group through a crystal ball. As the camera zooms out, we are in the Wicked Witch's lair, and she is watching the group from afar. "When I gain those ruby slippers, my power will be the greatest in Oz!" the Witch cackles, grabbing a smoky potion from her table. With her magical powers, she poisons an entire field of poppies.
The group walks down the yellow brick road, spotting the Emerald City in the distance. In front of them, however, lies a giant field of poisonous poppies, which they must cross to get to the city. They run through the poppies towards the city, but when they are almost there, Dorothy begins to get tired and lightheaded. Dorothy, the Lion, and Toto all fall asleep in the flowers, as the Scarecrow and the Tin Man call for help. Glinda comes to the rescue and sends snow to lessen the effects of the poison poppies.
Dorothy, Toto, and the Lion awaken, but the Tin Man rusts up again after crying about the sleepy effects of the poppies. They oil him to revive him. Meanwhile, the Wicked Witch watches them in her crystal ball, bemoaning that "Somebody always helps that girl." She gets on her broom and flies towards the Emerald City.
The group makes their way towards the Emerald City and ring the bell. A guard pops out and scolds them for not reading the notice, before realizing that the notice isn't up. He hangs it and goes back inside the door. The notice reads: "Bell out of order. Please knock." When they knock, the guard pops back out, and they tell him they want to see the wizard. "Nobody's ever seen him!" the guard says, but Dorothy tells him that Glinda sent her, proving it by showing the guard her ruby slippers. Seeing the slippers, the guard is delighted and invites them to all come in.
Analysis
In the world of Oz, nearly anything can happen, and the world of the inanimate often comes alive in shocking ways. The Scarecrow, for instance, initially seems like just a stuffed prop, but it soon becomes clear that he has an inner life when he bursts into song. Then, farther down the road, the tree that Dorothy tries to pick for apples slaps her wrist and begins talking. The anthropomorphism of various elements has alternately delightful and terrifying effects. Dorothy is charmed by the beauty and whimsy of her surroundings one moment, and then the next moment she is running fearfully from a vengeful apple tree. This ebb and flow of terror and delight keeps the film true to its earlier dedication to "the Young of Heart," in that it mirrors the up-and-down emotional response of children; the switches between delight and fear are reflections of how it feels to be a child navigating the world of the unknown.
Just as the Scarecrow is a parallel for Hunk the farmhand, the Tin Man is a parallel for Hickory the farmhand. Additionally, like the Scarecrow, he is missing something: a heart. He sings a song to the same tune as the Scarecrow about wanting a heart, which has been missing because of his tin body, thus folding him into the small coterie of misfits all on their way to ask for something from the Wizard of Oz.
The visual world of Oz continues to be fully and complexly realized. The set pieces are lavish and colorful, and small visual details lend greater mystique and beauty to the fantastical spectacle. As the trio makes their way down the yellow brick road after their run-in with the witch, we see various exotic birds tucked in among the trees, testaments to the wild nature of the surrounding woods. Then, in the forest where the group meets the cowardly lion, vines and wild bushes begin to overtake the yellow brick road, signifying that the group is getting farther and farther from their origins.
The Cowardly Lion is the most comic of Dorothy's companions, and like the others, he experiences a fatal lack. At first, he assumes the posture of a prizefighter, challenging the Tin Man and the Scarecrow to a fight, his animalistic growl replaced with a Bronx accent. As soon as Dorothy slaps him on the nose for chasing Toto, however, the lion becomes comically inconsolable, sobbing like a baby. That such a large and hairy beast becomes so sad is a comical juxtaposition, and it is not long before he too is singing a variation on the "If I Only" song, this time filling in the blank with "the nerve." Naturally, he joins the group, going to Oz in search of courage.
The technicolor imagery of Oz is astoundingly beautiful, every detail of it. After the Wicked Witch poisons the great field of poppies, we see a sweeping shot of the field, an endless expanse of pink and red flowers carpeting a hill, with elegant trees and rugged mountains in the distance. Then, when Dorothy spots the Emerald City, the camera takes a position behind the group, showing them all looking over the hills of poppies at the gleaming green city. The imagery is at once psychedelic and classical; the spacey and ethereal city emerges out of a heavenly pastoral environment, and this contrast heightens the wonder of the image.
