"Bold reimagining" indeed!

That's how the SciFi Channel plugged their Wizard of Oz revamp, "Tin Man," and I'm inclined to agree with that assessment. It aired at the beginning of last week, but I'm just getting around to talking about it now because I'm slow, and not just in the short-bus sense. Besides, if you missed it, or want to catch it again, it'll be on at least one more time (next being Monday, December 24, starting at 5p EST).

So, what did I think? I'm pretty sure I'm sweet on Zooey Deschanel, as I thought she was simply awesome. She's nothing like the Dorothy we met in the 1939 technicolor classic, a version of which makes a brief appearance in "Tin Man." Deschanel's DG handled herself and her bizarre circumstances in a charming and endearing fashion. She's a nice balance between capable self-sufficiency and childlike vulnerability, as she and her acquired friends make their way through the strange environs of the Outer Zone.

The new Tin Man, played by Neal McDonough, was a very cool and complex character, who used the struggles of others' to work through his own issues. His story was a little heavy on the schmaltz for my taste, but engaging nonetheless. Very heroic.

Just once I'd like to see Alan Cumming do a crappy job in something, just so I stop feeling like such a slavering fangirl. In "Tin Man" he played the brainless Glitch, a scarecrow of a different stripe, and was nothing short of delightful. While I was not so hot on the inconsistencies of the character's brain issues, they were easy to overlook as I just enjoyed Glitch so much.

Richard Dreyfuss as the Mystic Man updated the Wizard in the most wonderful way. Who ever thought the Wonderful man himself would be a drug addict?!

The new version of Toto left me with mixed feelings, probably because I grew up with a cairn terrier and have always had a soft spot for the original Toto. However, even though the Toto in "Tin Man" didn't get enough screen time, I appreciated that he was made a significant character who had some impact on the course of events.

The story itself is not especially near & dear to my heart, so I had no complaints regarding the changes that were made. I really liked that the entire adventure wasn't a dream, that DG had a mother and a father who were actually instrumental to the story, that the wicked witch possessed the heroine's sister, that the O.Z. was radically different from Oz, and that there weren't any munchkins of the sort from the '39 movie. I didn't even miss Glinda. Something I really appreciated was that so many of the supporting characters had actual fleshed-out stories and were so much more interesting than the two-dimensional companions with whom the original Dorothy traveled. Of course, it was nice to see Callum Keith Rennie as Azkadellia's right-hand baddie, Zero.

All in all, an enjoyable, well-presented story, with lots of pretties, a good serving of darkness and some really wonderful set & costume designs.

Oh! and the mobats were definitely pretty fuckin' cool!