The Wizard of Oz (1939 film) adaptation of what L. Frank Baum envisioned. In 1995, Gregory Maguire published the novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West", which was adapted into the wildly successful Broadway musical "Wicked". The story describes the life of the Wicked Witch of the West and other events prior to Dorothy's arrival. For the film's 56th anniversary, a 1995 stage show also titled "The Wizard of Oz" was based upon it and the book by L. Frank Baum. It toured from 1995 to 2012, except for 2004. In 2005, The Muppets Studio produced "The Muppets' Wizard of
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film) best films of 1939. Roger Ebert chose it as one of his Great Films, writing that ""The Wizard of Oz" has a wonderful surface of comedy and music, special effects and excitement, but we still watch it six decades later because its underlying story penetrates straight to the deepest insecurities of childhood, stirs them and then reassures them." Writer Salman Rushdie acknowledged ""The Wizard of Oz" was my very first literary influence" in his 2002 musings about the film. He has written: "When I first saw "The Wizard of Oz", it made a writer of me." His first short story,