Customer Reviews

Scalawagons of Oz

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3 star:		(1)
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This may be the weakest of Neill's four Oz books, and the one with the thinnest and most forgettable plot, but it's still a lot of fun. It is the perfect exemplar of Neill's unique, risk-taking style of Oz book writing. At one point about six or seven storylines are going on at the same time! This book also contains such classic moments as Tik-Tok falling off the top of a mountain, the Cowardly Lion bursting into tears out of pity for the Scalawagons when he learns they're lost, even though he doesn't know what they are, and the most ineffectual and yet entertaining of the many invasions the Emerald City has experienced. Recommended.

Many people say it was poorly plotted, but the novelty of the Scalawagons was what I remembered best of all the Oz books (and I read them all as a child). I acquired my first copy of The Scalawagons of OZ in the mid-1940s. Of all the books in the Oz series, it is the one I remember best. We still don't have really intelligent vehicles today, yet the scalawagons were smart little cars that managed your every transportation need and served fine food as well. Neill's plot was a little thin in places -- he was accused of not using the central characters to good effect -- but he did round out peripheral characters from the earlier stories. The book is a delightful read and your Oz collection won't be complete without it.

John R. Neill's second authored Oz title, The Scalawagons Of Oz, is a disappointing follow-up to his first, the fully realized The Wonder City Of Oz. In that book, Neill boldly and ingeniously reinterpreted Oz, making it a friendlier, more madcap place, with none of the unpleasant undercurrents that occasionally surface in the Baum titles.

The events in The Scalawagons Of Oz take place one year after those in the previous title, and again feature Munchkin boy Number Nine and partial fairy Jenny Jump as leads. The Little Wizard has cleverly transformed Jenny from a teenager to a child, and in the process has eliminated the nasty elements in her nature, an act of which Jenny, who has been made a Duchess by Ozma, is unaware. But Jenny still has gumption, an independent nature, fearlessness, and a sense of adventure; thankfully, she doesn't talk like an infant. Spunky Number Nine, now free of the older Jenny's negative influence, is the equal to Baum boy heroes Ojo and Woot, and is here enthusiastically employed as assistant the Little Wizard.

A pleasant grouping of Oz inhabitants color the pages: Tik-Tok, the Sawhorse, Ozma, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and Glinda all figure prominently in the narrative. Secondary characters Jellia Jamb, the Hungry Tiger, Jack Pumpkinhead, Aunt Em, the Guardian of the Gate, and the Solider with Green Whiskers make functional guest appearances. Scraps the Patchwork Girl passes in and out of the story like a Greek chorus, continually commenting on the action and behavior her fellows in her distinct brand of hard-on-the-ear rhyming "poetree." Neill's characterizations, as in The Wonder City Of Oz, are vibrant.

There are three definite problems with Neill's story. The opening 60 pages focus on none of the major Oz characters, though the Little Wizard, Number Nine, and Tik-Tok feature briefly. Instead, readers are introduced to new villain Bell Snickle (`Bellsnickle,' an early German name for St. Nicholas), who breaks into the Wizard's Scalawagon factory, tosses factory manager Tik-Tok out a door and down a mountain, frees the Scalawagons, and then briefly torments the Lolly-Pop Village before disappearing. Bell Snickle, whose sole motivation is to "remain mysterious," is the weakest villain in the entire Oz chronicle. Resembling a deflated whoopee cushion or hot water bottle, Bell Snickle's larger intent is never made clear, and while his appearance is only vaguely described, most of Neill's illustrations of him are clear enough. When the poorly conceived Bell Snickle, who "smells like dried mustard," is finally forced through Jenny's magic turnstile, he comes out the other side looking exactly as he went in, only smaller. Though Neill hints repeatedly that his whoopee cushion appearance is only a disguise, and though Jenny says, "Let's see what you really look like," Bell Snickle, who is also called "the Rubber Ghost," has the last laugh, as Neill offers no resolution or punch line to the problem Bell Snickle has presented throughout the book.

The second major problem is that the Scalawagons - which are a cross between a bumper and a trolley car -- barely figure as key components in the story. The Scalawagons are the Little Wizard's new transportation invention, and appear to be at least partial alive; each Scalawagon has a domed top from which `meat' eyes and a head frequently appear. None of Scalawagons have individual personalities, and all are incapable of speech and independent action. The Little Wizard and Jenny want to find the lost cars because they are a planned surprise for Ozma, but as elements of the story, Neill completely fails to tap the potential of his nicely designed, turtle-like vehicles. In anthropomorphic Oz, the Scalawagons have to be the only mute creatures in existence.

The volume's third trouble is that the narrative is padded with briefly introduced new creatures and characters that add nothing to the forward motion of the plot; the constantly complaining grandfather clock that accompanies Number Nine throughout is especially irritating. The residents of Lolly-Pop Village may raise a few eyebrows, as the family residing in each of the 6 houses in the village is composed of one `Lolly' - a little blond girl - and one `Pop' - a lazy old man who has to lean against the other `pops' to keep from falling over. Both the Lollies, who do all the work, and the Pops, who loaf all day, are apparently made of hard candy. Midway through the book, Neill makes the suggested father/daughter relationship between the little girl caretakers and the shiftless old men clear, though there are no mature women in sight. Plot threads dangle; Bell Snickle steals Jenny's purse of "fairy gifts" but does nothing with them, and a mischief-making savage from the Great Waste hides in one of the cars and thus makes his way to the Emerald City, but his misadventures come to little. Overall, the story is badly structured and dull, though the `present moment' is usually buoyed by Neill's snappy dialogue. Whenever Neill gathers together the extended Oz royal family, the air crackles with tangible Ozian magic.

The Scalawagons Of Oz lacks the wild imagination and energy of The Wonder City Of Oz, but Neill still surprises with a constant stream of small details and fresh interpretations of the country that will delight new or longtime readers. The forests in the Winkie country literally blink (or `wink') on and off, and the sky, shade, shadow, and even the skin color of the inhabitants in the particular kingdoms reflect the dominant color of the region. Much of the action takes place in the Quadling and Gillikin countries, regions not often favored by Oz authors. As in The Wonder City Of Oz, Jenny's hair is in a different style in every illustration, as befits a style guru, though here her hairstyles have gone from bizarre to tasteful. Her encounter with fascist spud ruler "Dick Tater" is hilarious.

Overall, The Scalawagons Of Oz is an interesting, often coloful failure, but certainly a must for Oz completists.

The Scalawagons is another attempt by Oz Illustrator John R. Neill to continue the oz series. tHIS BOOK, is certainly not the best, but will please any oz fan. The plot revolves around the Wizard's new invention, based off of his Ozoplanes (See Ozoplaning With the Wizard of Oz) Tik-Tok is appointed as superintendant of the royal scalawagon factory, but things go haywire when he runs down. Along comes the Bell-snickle, a mystery even to himself, who takes advantage of Tik-Toks helpless condition by loading the Scalawagons with flabber-gas. The Wizard hasn't counted on this and loses nearly all of the Scalawagons. It takes a whole book to tell of the rescue of the Scalawagons, filled with the not so fascinating adventures of Jenny Jump (a character created by Neill), a rubber ghost, the Nota Bells, Bob Up, and Notta Bit More the Clown.

Who doesn't love J.R. Neill's drawings of Oz? His work as Royal Illustrator helps us to transcend the difficulties of continuity between L. Frank Baum and Ruth Plumly Thompson. But Neill's chronicles as Royal Historian, spanning 4 books and at least two editors, are, shall we say, somewhat less esteemed. But I will put it to YOU, the reader, or *ahem* potential reader, to give Neill a chance. Before you plunge in to this book, look at some of Dali's paintings, take a virtual visit to the "World of Tomorrow" at the 1939-40 New York Worlds' Fair, and, above all, put aside some of what you have come to expect Oz to be, whether these expectations are drawn from Baum, from Thompson, or from the 1939 movie. Do scalawagons belong in Oz? Perhaps not. But for a brief moment let them shine, as the cute and handy lil' sentient enclosed spaces that they are. And who knows....someday one may be yours!

Still, that's not saying that much, because, if you're a fan of the Oz books, you'll probably want to read ALL of them. My main gripe with this book is probably the very fact that it introduces the Scalawagons themselves. I don't much care for the idea of automobiles in Oz (not on such a widespread level, anyway), and I've heard people say they found the cars to look kind of creepy. Also on the negative side, John R. Neill is neither the best Oz writer nor the most careful, the latter clearly in evidence when he decides to place Glinda's palace in the CENTER of the Quadling Country, rather than on the edge of the Great Sandy Waste, the location L. Frank Baum established back in the first Oz book. This book doesn't have a strong plot, either, with most of the story taken up by parties of some kind or other, interspersed with easily solved conflicts with second-rate villains, like the rubber Bell-Snickle and an overzealous Mifkit. While not a very strong story, however, the book does have some good points. Jenny Jump and Number Nine, two of Neill's best creations, both have major roles. A cranky clock (wound with a crank) and some live medicine bottles so eager to test their cures that they try to break the limbs of passers-by in order to heal them are amusing creations. As he does in his earlier books, Neill makes an effort to show the Emerald City as a place where things go on outside the palace itself. Overall, this isn't that great as far as Oz books go, and I would NOT recommend it (or any of the Neill books, for that matter) for someone just starting out with the series. If you're already an Oz fan, however, you should go ahead and get this.