Leofwine_draca Although it can hardly be considered a classic like the '30s version, this cheap and undeniably cheery Turkish variant of the tale offers plenty of cheesy entertainment for the cult movie follower. The only thing which may put someone off is that it's in Turkish language only, without dubbing or subtitles. Rest assured that the plot is so simple that its easy to follow and the songs are catchy and appealing in whichever language they may be in. Forget the fact that the production values are equal to those of your average school play and instead concentrate on the colourful, happy fun that the film has to offer if you're in the right mood.It's safe to assume that not a great deal of money was available to the producers of this film, so they had no chance of it standing up against the 30's film. Watching the ways that they ingeniously cut costs is a lot of fun. For instance, there was no chance of having a real tornado at the beginning of the film to transport Aysecik away, so all of a sudden the human characters become poorly-animated cartoons and the tornado is portrayed as a few wiggly lines instead. The effect is startlingly hilarious. Similarly, no money was available to build a real yellow brick road, so instead our characters cavort and dance in lush green fields and Mediterranean countryside.The song-and-dance routines are highlights of the film and range from the abysmal to the annoyingly catchy and lively. Watching them is a lot of fun as the characters dance madly and display little or no self respect. The acting is over-exaggerated and incredible to behold, obviously there's no subtlety in Turkish films, instead people are egged on to be as over-the-top as humanly possible. Aysecik (or Dorothy as she is more commonly known) is played by the incredibly-named Zeynep Degirmencioglu who brings sweetness and light to her performance, one of many similar roles for the actress who was apparently a veteran at this sort of thing. The Scarecrow, on the other hand, is an annoying homosexual stereotype who sets alight to himself and is impaled and torn to shreds in the film's most shocking and intense moment (if he'd have been human, this would have been right at home in an Italian cannibal flick!).The Tin Man is amusing to behold, and his makeup and suit fairly good, although his constant squeaking and rattling soon becomes grating. The Lion, in comparison, is just rubbish, with a poor shabby suit and a badly glued-on mane. The Wizard of Oz himself is just about as stereotypical and obvious as you can get, with his cone hat painted with stars and moons and bright blue robe, complete with straggling beard and huge moustache. The finale sees him fly away on a balloon for some reason. The Wicked Witch of the West is a hammy oatmeal-faced monster who dissolves into a piece of cloth when a bucket of water is thrown in her face! Also appearing are a group of miniature soldiers (a mixture of children and dwarf actors) who have the ability to appear and disappear at will and often pop up to muddy the otherwise straightforward story. A gang of evil soldiers is also slotted in to up the numbers.The "Emerald City" is nothing more than a green child's toy castle, and just as convincing as such. The sound effects consist of weird computery-type noises and the film suffers from disconcerting jump-cut editing throughout. At the end of the film, there's also a battle between dancing cave men (!) and small soldiers for some reason, which involves the use of a cannon. I don't know why but there you go. The film ends with the Good Witch transporting Aysecik back to her own time and place which is of course a foregone conclusion. Although undoubtedly a bad and poorly-made movie, THE Turkish WIZARD OF OZ is lively throughout and worth seeing because it's so foreign and the characters and situations so unpredictable to the western mind - you never know what's going to happen next. Fun for all the family...

Undead_Master This movie is pretty legendary in certain circles for it's unintentional humor and general craziness.... I was a bit let down, but it's pretty fun.I had always read that you could watch this without subtitles and still get a kick out of it (i'm not even sure if it's ever been released with English subtitles or dubbing). The version I watched had no subs and it turns out you *can* enjoy it that way, only you have to be prepared to sit through very long dialog scenes were nothing else happens and it will get very boring in spots.Unlike Turkish star-wars, I wouldn't call this action packed... It's much slower paced. In some ways it's much crazier and it might even be funnier if i could understand the dialog. Unfortunately without access to the language, it bogs down. In my opinion it's probably best to keep the remote handy for fast forwarding. Despite those reservations...My Recommendation would be to check this out for sure. It's got some truly insane sequences...The film is made with a sense of reckless abandon. It's like nobody really cares if it looks professional or not. Nobody is biting they're fingernails wondering what the critics will think. They're going to make a film and they're gonna have a good time doing it, and if they get a crazy idea along the way, they'll throw it in there just for kicks. It's like the film-making equivalent to a Karaoke bar. There is no self consciousness on display at all.If they want to do a fight scene, they do a fight scene, and they don't care if anybody on the set knows how to make it look realistic. If they want an elaborate musical number, they do one... It doesn't matter if anybody can sing or dance... They can't, and the voice they've dubbed in for the girls singing is so obvious that it's comical. There is so much reverb on the voice... it's just wrong, but in a good way..Continuity errors and sudden inexplicable scene changes are all over the place. One minute the characters are in a room and then suddenly for no reason they are outside singing and dancing already midway through a song. There is no attempt to develop any sense of flow from one scene to another. The music just changes suddenly and we're somewhere else doing something else... Sometimes it seems to happen mid-sentence. Any fan of B-movies should Check this out. It's pretty cool and you'll never see anything else like it, but be ready to fast forward through the slow spots unless you speak the language or have access to a version with subtitles.

Scott Andrew Hutchins One of the most faithful adaptations of the L. Frank Baum classic ever made, this film suffers only in the costume design and the fact that Türkiye did not have sync-sound in 1971. The film has a beautiful touch of the surreal, with a small Emerald city appearing in the middle of a Turkish plain. The music is filled with American folk tunes. The cinematography, direction, and editing are brilliant, and the adorable Zeynep Degirmengiolu is a fine Dorothy (called Aysecik, a role Zeynep played in many films for children), though in her age about that of the MGM Dorothy, and not Baum's little girl protagonist. The Scarecerow comes across as a "pansy" homosexual stereotype, though the actor would play Aysecik's boyfriend in _Hayat Sevince Guzel_. The crew must go to visit Glinda, and starts a second quest in the book, to see the good witch, here called Nilifas.