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Let's give it up for The Wiz!

swirly

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Hi everyone,

I just thought that I would spread a little positivity! I'm watching The Wiz at the moment and it is so feel good, and Michael plays an absolute amazing part I think. He really becomes the part, everything about him is great; his voice, his costume, the way he walks, the way he gets excited over everything as the scarecrow; the way he talks, his movements..

The majority of the songs are so feel good, Michael sounds amazing :) He's so amazingly cute in this I just wanna squeeze him all up :)

You can get this DVD as cheap as £6.00 now, it's well worth a watch, if not just to see Michael.

What does everyone think of it?

Actually some of the songs remind me quite a bit of the Off The Wall album!

Here's some pictures;

the-wiz-dvd_l.jpg


thewiz.jpg


wiz_the_1978_685x385.jpg


MichaelJackson_wiz5.jpg


:wub:
 
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yea a great film and michael is amazing - qunicy jones produces the songs right and also produces off the wall -- guess michael like his style on the wiz so asked him to do off the wall and keep it the same
 
ooooooooooooh, I loove the wiz! I bought it on dvd a while ago. Michael is excellent in it
 
i've only ever watched it once or twice, but i ordered the dvd last week :)
 
I took it out and watched it 2-3 times two weeks ago.
Michael was adorable in it...he really WAS the Scarecrow.
"Thou shall never EVER get down offa this here pole!"

I love the part where Diana gets him off the pole and he practices walking around it...falling clumsily and all that. But two minutes later, he starts spinning and dancing like a pro. What the? :lol:
Too cute. :)
 
I still haven't got round to watching this yet!
I plan to over the summer hols :)
Didn't it win like 5 oscars? :
 
Nope...the movie was a commercial flop, actually. :(
It received 4 Academy Award nominations though.

But I love it anyway. :) It's a lot darker than the Judy Garland movie. Very urban.
 
swirly said:
Actually some of the songs remind me quite a bit of the Off The Wall album!
Click to expand...
I would guess so since Quincy Jones was the musical director for the film, lol. Some of the songs were written especially for the movie and weren't in the original stage play. I still wish Stephanie Mills had played Dorothy though. Ted Ross, the lion, is the only person in the movie that was also in the play.
 
ThankyouMichael said:
Nope...the movie was a commercial flop, actually. :(
It received 4 Academy Award nominations though.

But I love it anyway. :) It's a lot darker than the Judy Garland movie. Very urban.
Click to expand...

There was a lot of criticism at the time for allowing Diana to play Dorothy etc. It is a pity as it is a good film all in all. Michael is excellent. If he had wanted to, he could have made a great actor.
 
Seven said:
There was a lot of criticism at the time for allowing Diana to play Dorothy etc. It is a pity as it is a good film all in all. Michael is excellent. If he had wanted to, he could have made a great actor.
Click to expand...

People wanted Stephanie for the role, didn't they?
If the criticism was about Diana's age, then I don't get it because you don't have to be a teenager to have the problems of Dorothy.
Diana was so fantastic. She really put her entire heart into the role, 100%.
 
Stephanie played the role on Broadway and the critics wanted her to play the role. Berry wanted The Wiz as a vehicle for Diana and Motown in the movies. Personally I never saw the issue with her age. She is not playing a school child like Judy Garland did but a teacher and she looks young enough to pass for her 20's anyway.

The one thing all the reviews had in common was universal praise for Michael's performance.
 
The one thing all the reviews had in common was universal praise for Michael's performance.
Click to expand...

:yes:

I don't see the problem with Diana playing Dorothy either.. I thought she was awesome in it actually, very well played. Although.. I did find that some of her songs just went on and on a bit :lol:
 
I watched the Wiz a few years ago & really enjoyed it. Though the film wasn't a big hit, Michael received critical acclaim for his acting in this. I thought it should have been a bigger hit but in her autobiography Diana says she thinks it didn't so well because it was too scary for children.

I remember hearing Ease on Down the Road on the radio when this film came out ...
Also, that song and You Can't Win are on the Michael Jackson Ultimate Collection.
 
Those songs are awesome :) I love it when he's singing You Can't Win when he's standing on the pole :lol: When you see the film, you will almost certainly love those 2 songs forever more as they are sung so well and they remind you of the fun bits in the film :)
 
I love the Wiz! When I was younger my singing teacher made me sing "home" every week without fail!!! I really loved this and ease on down the road. Singing it I was trying to re create the Diana Ross vibe but I think I looked like a crazy mini whoopi goldberg singing this!!!!...hmmmm. I still have the sheet music so might hit the piano for old times sake!!!
 
I LOVE the Wiz! I've been watching it since I was a kid (I'm 32). I heard about the Diana thing, Berry wanted his new protege to be the big star of the movie, but I think she did okay. MJ was always my fav though, I just thought he was adorable and such a good actor.
 
Diana did a very good job. Have to say though that I heard Whitney sing 'Home' once and that version blew me away. What a great cover she did.

I have some fave things about the movie such as when the Crows are talking to Scarecrow and they remind him of the rules and he says 'Thoust shall never, never get down of of this here pole.' (well close enough :D)
I also love him saying 'Do I have to sing that thing again?' before You Can't Win.

I also like the song Be A Lion.
 
Luther Vandross (who was unknown at the time except as David Bowie's backup singer & did ghost leads for several disco & funk groups.) sings the 1st line in 'Brand New Day'. The version on the soundtrack is different from the one in the movie.
 
Love.him said:
I watched the Wiz a few years ago & really enjoyed it. Though the film wasn't a big hit, Michael received critical acclaim for his acting in this. I thought it should have been a bigger hit but in her autobiography Diana says she thinks it didn't so well because it was too scary for children.

I remember hearing Ease on Down the Road on the radio when this film came out ...
Also, that song and You Can't Win are on the Michael Jackson Ultimate Collection.
Click to expand...
The subway scene with the orange springy guys...does that still freak anyone else out?
 
swirly said:
Michael plays an absolute amazing part I think. He really becomes the part, everything about him is great; his voice, his costume, the way he walks, the way he gets excited over everything as the scarecrow; the way he talks, his movements..

The majority of the songs are so feel good, Michael sounds amazing :) He's so amazingly cute in this I just wanna squeeze him all up :)
Click to expand...

Seven said:
The one thing all the reviews had in common was universal praise for Michael's performance.
Click to expand...

For me, personally, the only memorable thing about The Wiz is Michael's great performance in it, all the more amazing considering he was only 20 years old at the time!

I'll just echo 'swirly' and say that the grace and fluidity of his movement is breathtaking and his believability in the role as transmitted by his voice, gestures, and expressions, make for a truly memorable performance and I'm not just saying that because I'm a die hard Michael Jackson. It's just damn true!

Interestingly, director Sidney Lumet called the film a "disaster":

THE WIZ (1978)

Lumet's adaptation of the hit Broadway musical remains one of the strangest films on his résumé. Starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, The Wiz was both a critical and commercial bomb. Nevertheless, it was nominated for four Oscars.

''It was a disaster. I had this idea that a great fantasy could be made out of New York — that I could make Oz out of reality. We could have the lion statue in front of the New York Public Library come to life and turn into the Cowardly Lion and things like that. But that didn't happen because I didn't know enough technically. Generally I'm pretty good about failure. I don't go hog wild when things are going marvelously and I don't go into despair when they're not. That's why I haven't read a review of one of my films since The Sea Gull in 1968. All the reviews were bad and I thought I had done some of my best work on that movie. So I just figured, What's the point?''

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20173551_8,00.html
 
I love it :D
The other week i was at the cinema and there was this touch screen thingy where you could order blue ray disks and i went on it to see if this is it was on it.. and the wiz was :D so i got the cover up big screen and left it on the screen so everyone could see it :p
 
I only saw The Wiz more recently, but I own the DVD and I've watched it a few times. I love it! I agree, Michael was superb. I wish that he'd done more films. He's an amazing actor.
 
The movie is fun, I love Michael in it...he really imbibes the scarecrow so well. Everything he does just has 100% heart, mind and soul :)

I love the songs too - especially when Michael goes realllllly LOW in You Can't Win, that's just WOW :)
 
i saw it last weekend for the first time in over 10 years...and it scared the bejeezus out of me. LOL! i remembered how much it used to scare me when i was a little kid, and all those scary memories came back the second i saw those graffiti people coming out of the wall making those weird noises. :lol:

i love Michael up, down and sideways, but i can do without The Wiz.
 
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