Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Every time I go to the movies, it's magic....


I have always adored movies. For a long time, I wasn't allowed to go to the movie theater, but my family watched movies at home. At 16, I was going to be a director. I was going to take stories and turn them into moving magic for people.

The Wizard of Oz has always been one of my favorite stories. I read the complete series of Oz books at least twice a year from the time I was 8 until I was 12. We then moved and I had a bigger public library at my disposal, and yet they didn't have the Oz books.

The Wizard of Oz is magic. It doesn't matter how many times I've seen it, whether on my mom's old 13 inch rabbit ear and dial tv, or now on our HD TV with the limited edition DVD. It takes you to a world where practically anything is possible, and so bright and vivid compared to this life.

After church on Sunday while I warmed up lunch, Mr. Curly put our Wizard of Oz DVD in. Curly Girl and Boy were pretty much ignoring it until Dorothy started singing "Somewhere over the Rainbow." Curly Girl was in the dining room. Her mouth fell open, and in absolute awe she walked slowly into the family room and stood in front of the TV.
I won't lie, it brought tears to my eyes.

We didn't finish the movie before nap time Sunday. However, on Monday, we turned it back on to finish it. Curly Girl watched every second and when it was done, said "Watch again, please?"
How can I say no to that? She wants to watch my favorite movie!

When Curly Girl was born I bought the Oz books in one giant volume and read the Wizard of Oz to her before she was even 2 months old. It warms my heart, and yes, makes me cry, to think of the fantastic magic of imagination that I've passed on. The statements at the beginning of the movie are true: For nearly forty years (it's been longer now!) this story has given faithful service to the Young at Heart; and Time has been powerless to put its kindly philosophy out of fashion...."


Title quote is attributed to Steven Spielberg


P.S. - I think we may have picked Halloween costumes!

2 comments:

Rachel said...

three things...

1.) I have actually never seen the movie "The Wizard of Oz..." crazy, right?

2.) I was the Tin Man in our girl scout presentation of "The Wizard of Oz"

3.) Are you going to be characters from "The Wizard of Oz"? My sister did that with her kids (when she only had two) and it was awesome!

Curly-T said...

I weap for you that you haven't seen this movie!!

Curly Girl is going to be Dorothy, she's already agreed to the blue dress, and I've always wanted her to have the ruby slippers.

We also have a lion costume from Curly Girl's first birthday (she was a huge fan of lions) that we are going to dress Curly Boy up in. Maybe. He's also got a Superman costume which is pretty fantastic.