A Tornado (sometimes called a twister, whirlwind, or cyclone) is a violent and deadly rotating column of powerful air that is in contact with both the clouds of the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth, usually brought on by thunderstorms. It is a very large, massive and dangerously strong funnel that reaches from the sky and hundreds of miles down in length until it touches the ground. It moves very, very fast in an uncoordinated circular motion across the land. They are rather common in American states such as Kansas. Because wind is invisible, it is hard to see one unless it forms a condensation funnel made up of water droplets, dust, dirt, and debris. They are the most violent and fatal of all atmospheric storms.
While tornadoes and cyclones are technically different phenomena according to meteorology, the Oz mythos tends to treat them interchangeably.
In L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in circa 1899-1900, one was responsible for transporting a little orphan girl named Dorothy Gale, and her pet dog, Toto, to the undiscovered magical Land of Oz while aloft in their farmhouse.
When the tornado deposited the house, it fell on top of the Wicked Witch of the East and killed her. She had ruled the eastern quadrant of Oz known as the Munchkin Country. But when the house killed her, the native Ozians of the east called the Munchkins were set free from her bondage. And as a thank you, they and their close friend, the Good Witch of the North, gave Dorothy the charmed Silver Shoes that the Witch had been wearing when the sun dried her up and turned her to dust.
Only one appears in the story. It is never explained why it chose to pick up the farmhouse and carry it over the rainbow and all the way into the other dimension known as Oz--it just happens.
Dorothy and Toto were picked up in their house by the tornado without demolition after some fright and Toto fell out of the open trap door. But the strong pressure of the air kept him from falling and he was rescued by Dorothy who caught him by the ear and pulled him back into the room. After that she went to sleep on her bed with him at her side.
Since Toto was levitating in midair, he was floating by the same type of power that was holding up the farmhouse. Both were subject to the same forces of gravitation that gave them identical motions. Dorothy most likely floated around inside the farmhouse as if she was an astronaut in outer space floating with no gravity and becoming weightless. Although Baum does not specifically say that this happened to her, realistically speaking, it is very possible it did occur when the tornado transports her, Toto, and the farmhouse to Oz if such a peculiar thing were to happen.
Adaptations[]
The Wizard of Oz (1939)[]
- "It's a twister! It's a twister! "
- ―Zeke (1939)
Failing to get home in time after running away, Dorothy was left behind and unable to get safely inside the storm cellar with her relatives when the tornado hit. She rushed into the farmhouse to take cover, but the strong winds caused her bedroom window to blow off its hinges and the frame hit her on the head, causing her to collapse onto her bed with Toto.
In her dream, the house was then picked up by the tornado without demolition and carried over the rainbow to the magical Land of Oz. During the trip, she saw various animals and people also caught in the tornado go flying past her window including Miss Gulch, who made a hideous transformation into the Wicked Witch.
The person who made the tornado in the 1939 film was a man named Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie, who served as the head of special effects at MGM on more than 180 feature films. The "tornado" was a thirty-five-foot-long muslin stocking, photographed with miniatures of a Kansas farm and fields. Gillespie rigged up a gantry crane, rotated by a motor, that traveled the length of the soundstage.
The base of the tornado was fastened to a car below the stage, where the crew moved it along a track. The farmhouse, fence, barn, and prairie all were done in miniature, and clouds were painted on glass. Wind machines and dust added the final touch. They filmed the tornado sweeping across the prairie from several angles, at distances, coming close to the camera and going away from it.
This scene was narrated by Debra Winger in the 1995 television stage performance which was a benefit for the Children's Defense Fund. She also played the Wicked Witch in it.
The Wiz[]
In the musical version from 1974 and live version from 2015 the tornado was a group of dancers dressed in black and grey fabric waving around Dorothy's house. In the 1978 movie version, it appears as a blizzard on a street in New York City, and Dorothy gets caught in it when she runs after Toto who had escaped out an open door. It was conjured up by Glinda.
Return to Oz (1985)[]
- "Billina, This is our old house! The one the tornado blew away. This is how I got to Oz the first time."
- "Looks like it was a rough trip."
- ―Return to Oz (film) (1985)
In Disney's 1985 cult classic film Return to Oz, no tornado appears. But it is indeed referred to several times and even shows the old farmhouse it carried away and dropped in an apocalyptic Munchkin Country.
Lost in Oz (2002)[]
The same tornado that carried Dorothy to Oz has been bottled by Loreleidere and can be used as a weapon. Ultimately, Alexandra Wilder got ahold of it and used it on the witch, defeating her.
Tin Man (2007)[]
D.G. is taken to Oz in a giant tornado.
Inkheart (2008)[]
The tornado from The Wizard of Oz is brought out of the book when the chapter The Cyclone is read aloud.
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)[]
Oscar Diggs, a carnival magician, escapes from an angry strongman in his balloon which then got caught up in a tornado. At its eye, he experiences a strange magical effect where gravity ends and everything is suspended in mid air, and the balloon is then carried to Oz.
Once Upon A Time (2014)[]
In ABC's Once Upon a Time, Dorothy is brought to Oz in a tornado, and she is then found by Glinda and Zelena aka the Wicked Witch of the West.