Featured Image Credit: MGM
Topics: Wicked, TV And Film, Entertainment, Books, Explained, Social Media
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Wicked, TV And Film, Entertainment, Books, Explained, Social Media
Wicked fans have been treated to the brand-new sequel, Wicked: For Good, which hit cinemas just last week (21 November).
Now, whether you're into the fandom or not, you can't deny that the film franchise has been all over our feeds since the first flick hit our screens last November.
But, before these film adaptations of the 2003 Broadway musical of the same name, which itself is based on the 1995 novel Wicked by Gregory Maguire, was the 1939 family-musical, The Wizard of Oz. And that was based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
Yep, there's a pretty historical lore surrounding Dorothy, the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.
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And part of that lore explains the bizarre reason why you won't see Dorothy wearing red slippers again anytime soon, as Wicked fans made a 'crazy' realisation about exactly why.
Now, in both Wicked flicks, the iconic ruby slippers that Judy Garland's lead character Dorothy famously tapped together to escape from Oz in the original movie changed colour entirely, and in the new blockbusters, they're an ethereal shade of silver.
The reason behind this is that even though Baum's novel has been in the public domain since the 1950s, the 1939 film remains copyrighted until 2035.
A court ruling reportedly determined that while the story and characters created by Baum are technically public domain, any aspects of those pre-existing characters that were created specifically for the film (or any other work) are protected by copyright.
And, because the film isn’t an entirely faithful adaptation of the books, all those little changes which went on to become emblematic of the cult-classic movie are protected under the film’s copyright.
So, in short, the iconic ruby slippers from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz are copyrighted and not in the public domain, because they are an original creation for the movie, while the book's silver slippers are not.
MGM, the film's producer, owns the copyright to the ruby slippers as they were changed from silver to red to showcase the new Technicolour film process.
Rushing to social media to react to the fun fact, one X user penned: "Whenever I see a Wizard of Oz reference in a show or something, I love checking what colour they chose for Dorothy’s slipper since they don’t own the rights for the red."
"Same! It’s like a mini Easter egg hunt every time! What colour did they go with this time?" quipped a second.
Another chimed in: "Copyrighting a colour is crazy, and I thought billionaires were heartless!"
"The concept of copyrighting a shoe's colour..." lamented a final X user.