BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Lee Eisenberg A quarter century before Dorothy and her compatriots danced and sang their way down the yellow brick road, L. Frank Baum founded a production company and made some movie versions of his novels. One was "The Magic Cloak", which won't be immediately recognizable as part of the series. It centers on a cloak that grants the wearer a wish, but the story jumps around a lot. The best part is when the Rolly Rogues invade the town: these big fat guys look just like what anyone would toss into a movie for comic relief.It's an OK movie, but the other two in this series were better. Even better still is the 1925 adaptation of Baum's most famous novel, featuring Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man.A historical note for this one is that Fluff is played by Mildred Harris, who was married to Charlie Chaplin for a few years. Milla Jovovich played her in Richard Attenborough's "Chaplin".

Cineanalyst This is the second addition to Frank Baum's personally produced trilogy of Oz films. It's essentially the same childishness as in the other two pictures, although I consider it preferable to the others because it's shorter. As in the other films, there are performers in animal costumes, an adult woman pretends to be a boy, and the characters and plot jump all over the place while the camera-work is static. This time, at the center is a magic cloak that grants wishes, and the boy played by a woman is made a king.Most of the special effects are witnessed at the beginning. Fairies are represented by multiple-exposure photography. And, there's a man in the moon that looks just like those made by Georges Méliès years before, most famously in "Le Voyage dans la lune" (A Trip to the Moon) (1902). Méliès's imaginative fantasies and creative trick effects made him the leading pioneer of early cinema, and the films he made around the turn of the century were far better and even technically more advanced than this trifling Oz series.

Michael_Elliott Magic Cloak of Oz, The (1914) *** (out of 4) The fairies of Oz create a magic cloak, which will give one wish to the person who wears it. Once again the production design is very good here with wonderful and magical sets. The story is quite touching and I'm sure kids would love this version just as much as adults. The highlight of the film is the scene where a horse (played by a human in an outfit) is scratching his butt up against a tree and tries to teach a monkey how to do it.Wizard of Oz, The (1910) *** (out of 4) Nice if strange version of the classic tale. The production values here are actually pretty nice and it's a rather strange trip seeing humans in outfits playing the various animals including the lion.Wizard of Oz, The (1933) *** (out of 4) Pretty good Technicolor cartoon based on the book. The animation is rather nice and the scarecrow and tin man are pretty funny here as well. This was the first version to show Kansas in B&W and then Oz in color.

Snow Leopard This adaptation of L. Frank Baum's "The Magic Cloak of Oz" is an enjoyable fantasy feature that is also quite resourceful for its era. The settings and costumes are often lavish, and most of the special visual effects work well. The story is complex and lively, making for good entertainment.A number of sources indicate that Baum himself directed this feature, replacing J. Farrell MacDonald after the first of the three Oz features in this 1914 series. Whether or not Baum actually did the direction, he certainly had a clear image of what he wanted the Oz world to look like, and you can clearly see his influence in the way that the characters and the Oz locations are brought to life.The story, like all of the Oz stories, is a fun one that takes numerous exaggerated, imaginative characters and weaves them into the same narrative. As the main plot device, the magic cloak is the focus of the characters, and the story wisely makes restrained use of its actual powers so as to keep the focus on the characters themselves.The cast includes several performers who also appeared in one or both of the other features in the series. Mildred Harris and Violet MacMillan, as Fluff and Bud, make sympathetic main characters. As Nikodemus, Fred Woodward gets the chance to show his skill with animal costumes, and several other good costume animals also appear. Juanita Hansen as Queen Zixi, the silly-looking Rolly Rogues, and the rest of the characters all get some moments of their own.The movie features plenty of imaginative details, and the settings work well in bringing you into Baum's fantasy world. Although this is not quite a full-length feature, it's quite a bit longer than the average film was in 1914, and much of the production is creative and innovative for its time. It's an enjoyable movie that still holds up rather well for those who enjoy silent movies.