Adaptations of The Wizard of Oz Adaptations of The Wizard of Oz "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is a 1900 children's novel written by American author L. Frank Baum. Since its first publication in 1900, it has been adapted many times: for film, television, theatre, books, comics, games, and other media. Many of the television programs cited in this list are not strict adaptions of "The Wizard of Oz"; rather, they have reinterpreted aspects of the book, such as characters and plot, to create sequels, prequels or side-plots, which are inspired by Baum's original text. There are over 40 canonical Oz books, including 14 by Baum,
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1986 TV series) and has been dubbed in English, Spanish, Italian and numerous other languages. Aside from having the same source material, this TV series bears no relation to the 1982 anime film directed by Fumihiko Takayama and produced by Yoshimitsu Banno for Toho, though both works share the same title in Japanese. However, since the 1982 film was not released in Japan until 1986—the same year in which the TV series was first broadcast—the two productions are often confused. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is split into four distinct parts, or story arcs, each loosely based on different Oz books originally written