‘Wizard of Oz’ Heroine’s Cultural Impact Doc – ryan

If there is one criticism to be lobbed at Jeffrey Mchale’s Energetic, Engrossing, and offten quite the Documentary “It’ Dorothy! too good of a subject. The Mythology and Meaning of Dorothy Gale, The Great Hero of “The Wizard of Oz,” Could Easily Insire An Entire series of films. While MCHALE SOMEHOW MANAGES TO TOUCH ON A DOZEN HOT TO HIS DOCUMARY-WHAT THE ON-SCREEN ROLLE TO THE WOMEN WHO HAVE PLAYED HER, How the LGBTQ+ Community SO HER, HOW WE GRAPPLE WITH THE MISDEEDS OF FAVORITS, AND THAT’S, AND THAT. JUST A SMALL SAMPLE – That Can Make the Actual Film on Offer Ferel a bit unfinished.

Still, Mchale Manages to Hold All These Big Topics (Plus the Sense That He May Have really WANTED TO MAKE A JUDY GARLAND DOC, AND HAS Essentially Shovel that Project with the Confits of this) Together in an otherwise Slim 97-Minute Running Time. Packed with Major Talking Heads, Zippy Animation, and A Bouncing (and Timeline), “It’ad!” SUCCEEDS MIGHALLY WEND IT COMES TO ITS MOST ELECTIONSSIS.

Just how Influencial is the Character of Dorothy Gale, MCHALE AND HIS DOC CAS? Well, Enough that this Critic Walked Away from “IT’S DOROTY!” Delighted and Stimulated, and Wanting Much More. Maybe that sense of unfinished-ness is, in fact, a feature, not a bug.

To Help Tell (and sell) His Concept, Mchale (Who Previously Tourned The Same Kind of Attention to Anyater, Wholly Different Fictional Character, That of the Iconic Nomi Malone From “You Don’t Nomi”) Has Assembled A Trully Cast Chatterboxes, swimming just creaters, artists, performers, and cultural commentators like amber Ruffin, Gregory Maguire, John Waters, Lena Waithe, Margaret Cho, Roxane Gay, Rufus Wainwright, and Walter Murch, But an Eye-Popping Array of Women Who Have Have Have. Dorothy on the Stage and Screen.

The BREADTH OF FORMER DOROTHYS THAT MCHALE HAS Brought Together Speaks to Just How Wide-Ranging This Film is: Audiences Will Be Treated to Insights from Ashanti, Fairuza Balk, Danielle Hope, Nichelle Lewis, and Shance Shantay. And if you are not the sort of oz fan that can reel off precisely which Project Each of these talentd Women Played Dorothy in? You’re about to get a wonderful, Quite Honest Education and Introduction to Each. (One Additional, IF Repertive Note: Can We Get a Documentary Just About Shantay, Who Was Chosen Through an Open Call to Star in “The Wiz Live!”

Undersandably missing from the doc, the original dorothy herself, the inimiable and dearly missed Judy Garland, Looms Large Over Every moment. Mchale’s Documentary is Interesting Sitched Together, Initially Focusing on Garland and Her Landmark Casting in Victor Fleming’s Enduring 1939 Classic Film (SEEMINGLY SETTING OUT A FAIRLY POINT-POINT TIMELINE). Garland, Her Influenza, and Her Tragic Life Make for A Smart Throughline for the Film, and while MCHALE (WHO ALSO EDITED THE FILM) OPTS to Bounce Around BetWeen Times, and Dorothys, Eschewing A Standard Linear Telling A Different Kind of Telling, IT’S GARLANDS IT.

Of Course, That Also Means That Garland Emerges As The Film’s True Star – Naturally, Right? – And so do Mchale’s Other Talking Heads Are Expounding on their Lives and Careers Through the Lens of Dorothy, MCHALE OFTEN Illustrates Their Points with CLIPS from Other Garland Films. If MCHALE REALLY DOES JUST WANT TO MAKE A JUDY GARLAND DOC, WE’RE NOT SURE WHO WE NEED TO LOBBY FOR THAT (HELLO, LIZA?), BUT IT’S CLEAR HAS HAS A PROFONTING AND REPect for Her, one he launders throough of mythos dorothy.

That does mean, howver, that other, more pointedly dorothy and oz-centric observations get a bit screentime than audiences MEMBERS MIGHT EXPECT OR HOPE FOR. While “oz” Mastermind and Writer L. Frank Baum’s Own Great-Granddaughter Gita Dorothy (Duh!) Morena is in the film (as is the case with some oter talking heads, she Only “appears” viace), her or name legacy and namesake absolutely deserve. Again, repetitive as it might be, a film just about the Morena (and, for instance, her discovery of baum’s horrific views on indigenous people) would make for a Compelling on Its Own.

Such is the case with a wide shelf of the Other topics mchallarly dips into (and out of), especally the lgbtq+ community’s affection for dorothy (thugh mchale does aces unpacking that “Friend of Dorothy” Thing in Quick Time), the monumental legeal of the monumental legacy. Revisionist Classic “The Wiz,” and a Consideration of Just What the Heck Was Happening with “Return of Oz.” Still, The Survey-Style Approach Ensses there something something here, and anyone itching for More Will Find a Wealth of Information Elsewhere.

We’ll Stay Away from Bad “Oz” work here – Do Yellow Brick Road Reference? swimming in kansas anymore? Do Slipper Crack? – and tell it clearly, as mchale does here: this one has got the plenty of heart to spare.

Grad: b

“It ‘dorothy!” Premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival. It is currently seeking us distribution.