A quick primer for Disney’s ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’

With Disney’s “Oz the Great and Powerful” about to hit theatres, it’s amazing to think that it’s been almost 30 years since moviegoers last visited author L. Frank Baum’s fictional Land of Oz on the big screen.

Walter Murch’s cult 1985 film “Return to Oz” (an unofficial sequel to the 1939 MGM classic “The Wizard of Oz”) was Disney’s first journey to the mythical land of witches, munchkins, and flying monkeys. Unfortunately, the critical and financial failure of the film put the House of Mouse’s plans for future Ozian adventures on hold.

Jump ahead a few decades, and the success of fairy tale updates like “Alice in Wonderland” and “Snow White and The Huntsman” have paved the way for a new return to Oz, this time in the form of a star-studded 3D prequel.

Here are a few things you should know about “Oz the Great and Powerful” before seeing it.

Who is in it and what is it about?
Actor James Franco (“Pineapple Express,” "Spring Breakers") stars as the titular Oscar “Oz” Diggs, a travelling circus magician and con-man who is transported to the whimsical Land of Oz after his hot-air balloon is sucked into a tornado. Oz arrives in Oz to find a kingdom divided: the King is dead, and in his stead two witches -- sisters Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Theodora (Mila Kunis) -- rule from Oz's capital, the Emerald City. Believing him a wizard, the witches reveal to Oz that his arrival has been prophesied and that he is destined to save the land that bears his name from the Wicked Witch. Along his journey, Oz is helped by another witch, Glinda (Michelle Williams), Finley the Flying Monkey (voiced by Zach Braff, who also appears as Diggs’s circus assistant Frank) and China Girl, a living glass doll from China Town (voiced by child actress Joey King).

See also: Mila Kunis's 'Oz' interview is pretty adorable (VIDEO)

Who's making it?
"Spider-Man" trilogy director Sam Raimi steps up to the plate, re-teaming with Franco for the fourth time. Despite its "Alice in Wonderland"-like appearance, "Oz the Great and Powerful" has nothing to do with filmmaker Tim Burton. However, the fairy tale film is produced by Joe Roth, the person responsible for bringing "Alice" and its expected sequel to the big screen.

Lions, and tigers, and bears
Though it's essentially a prequel to 1939's "The Wizard of Oz," "Oz the Great and Powerful" is an unofficial tie-in at best. Disney doesn't own any rights to the iconic original film, which made making a movie like this a challenge for the studio. There are plenty of subtle nods to the original, including cameos by munchkins, scarecrows and cowardly lions, along with sets and locations that closely resemble the other film. However, for legal reasons the studio actually had to use a different shade of green for the Wicked Witch's makeup and could not include famous Oz artifacts like the ruby slippers.

In many ways, "Oz the Great and Powerful" is the culmination of nearly 80 years of planning by Disney. Before MGM scooped up the rights to Baum's stories in the '30s, Disney had planned to make a feature length animated film based on the "Oz" books. The studio managed to secure the rights to Baum's literary sequels though, and subsequently made "Return to Oz" in the 1980s. All of the characters and locations that appear in "Oz the Great and Powerful" had to be drawn from the sequels and not the original "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" book.

Disney is hoping the huge success of its "Alice in Wonderland" adaptation (whose Lewis Carroll penned source material was itself an inspiration to author Baum's Oz story) will mean big things for "Oz the Great and Powerful." The movie's enormous $200 million plus budget shows that Walt Disney Pictures are big believers in the Land of Oz.

"Oz the Great and Powerful" hits theatres on March 8.