The audio play series, The Chronicles of Oz, is back, baby! This time, Crossover Adventure Productions is taking on Wonderful Wizard’s sequel, The Marvelous Land of Oz. We have a new season with a familiar story, but at the same time with many, many new twists. Just like in the first season, you feel like your heart is trying to jump out of your chest. Why must you make me feel things, Chronicles? Why?
As before, there will be spoilers.
Like season one, our protagonist is also our narrator. We meet Tip, who like Dorothy is a teenager. Immediately, we start to get deviations from the story. Tip gets more of a backstory to why he is living with Mombi. I mean, maybe in 1904 it was normal for an orphan kid to live with some random creepy old lady, but this is 2018 and nowadays CPS would be called. In this case, he’s her apprentice and spends his time relabeling bottles and cleaning. Basically, he’s an intern. It’s pretty cool to see Tip have an actual purpose to living with Mombi since taking in a small child has never really seemed in her nature. The only disappointment I experienced is the lack of jokes involving the phrase “just the tip”. Call me immature, I don’t give a flying fuck.
Mombi is described by other characters as an old woman but her voice makes her sound no older than her 40’s. She was mentioned a couple of times in season one by the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda and her (former) position as a Wicked Witch was hinted at. Now we have confirmation as she constantly reminds others that she is a powerful witch. She still treats Tip like shit and he responds with quips that get on her nerves (personally, that seems like a REALLY stupid thing to do, but he seemed to know what he was doing).
The “tipping” point of their fragile relationship is when Mombi has a chat with Jocasta who is keeping tabs on her and ensuring she isn’t practicing dark magic. After asking about her dealings with the Wizard so many years ago, she decides to do something drastic to keep her secrets (you can figure out what).
My precious pumpkin-spiced cinnamon roll Jack Pumpkinhead comes into the story when Tip made him for an autumn festival. You know the next parts: Mombi uses the Powder of Life, Jack says some adorable things that make my heart melt, Mombi does magic, Tip puts two and two together, he nabs the Powder (I think I’m gonna start calling it that now because it sounds like cocaine), splits with Jack, Jack says more cute things including calling Tip “Daddy” (*heart melts*), Tip uses the Powder on a Sawhorse, and this is where we leave them for now.
Meanwhile in between scenes with "Just the" Tip and Mombi...the Munchkin civil war is winding down. It ends with the general of the Resistance army getting executed in the Emerald City. The Scarecrow has been king for six months and he is bored out of his darling, delightful mind. He fights with his Guardians to visit Munchkinland on a mission of goodwill (really just an excuse to get out of the palace and go on an adventure, kinda like Bilbo Baggins at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring). As he tries to escape from his duties, the news channels are speculating on whether or not if the Revolution was over or not. An CNN-sequel anchorwoman interviews HM Wogglebug TE, who has been working with the Munchkins for months, on the issue. In Fox News style, he answers questions without answering them, implying that he has no fucking clue about politics.
Too bad my homie, Woggle, doesn’t know shit about what’s going on in Munchkinland because the real shit is about to hit the fan. Jinjur, the second-in-command and daughter of the now-executed general of the Resistance, has received word that her father is dead. Now she is pissed and set on revenge in the form of a coup d’état because grief counseling didn’t even cross her mind.
Season two is proving that it is taking a different direction in its storytelling than season one. In WWoO, while some plot points were changed or added, the overall story remained the same. Here in MLoO, we are seeing an entirely reinvented story line. In a way, we are entering uncharted territory and that is not a complaint. This new version of events offer more dimension to the MLoO that we know and love and have seen done with WWoO, and we are seeing an updated version. I love the 1904 story, but many people just getting into the Oz stories may not. Stories have changed dramatically in the past 100 years and audiences want more. More explanations, more origin arcs, more drama with their comedy and vice versa.
So bring it on, Crossover Adventure Productions. I’m ready for feels, laughs, and a fuck-ton of reinventing.
Mombi is described by other characters as an old woman but her voice makes her sound no older than her 40’s.
ReplyDeleteObviously they're going with Paul Dana's explanation that Mombi takes a form much older than she really is to intimidate people. :P
I think cocaine pretty much WAS Powder of Life for businessmen in the eighties.