Wicked Witch of The West - Later Works

Later Works

• In Alexander Melentyevich Volkov's The Wizard of the Emerald City, her given name is Bastinda. March Laumer uses this name for the witch in his Oz books. Like in the 1939 movie, she is the sister of the Wicked Witch of the East. Sherwood Smith uses this name for a new Wicked Witch of the West in her 2005 book The Emerald Wand of Oz.

• In The Wiz (1975), The Wicked Witch Of The West is given the name Evillene (portrayed by Mabel King). She is the malevolent ruler of the Winkies. She is the sister of MissOne, Glinda, and Evermean, the other three witches of Oz. In the film version, she runs a sweatshop under Yankee Stadium with the slogan, "Manufacturers and Exporters of Sweat", and extracts it not only from the Winkies, but the Crows, the Poppy Girls, and the Subway Peddler. Her magic creates urban variations on the Kalidahs (evil growing dolls sent by the Subway Peddler), Fighting Trees, (mobile pillars) and the wolves (living and carnivorous trash cans), all in the Subway system. She then sends the Flying Monkeys (a motorcycle gang) to capture Dorothy and her friends.

• In the anime film, The Wizard of Oz (1982), the Witch (voiced by Elizabeth Hanna) is purple-skinned, white-haired, and wears an eyepatch similar to W. W. Denslow's original illustration. Her telescopic eye, however, is replaced by a magic mirror. Her soldiers are completely magical, disappear at her demise, and are quite distinct from the Winkies whom she uses only for labor. She wears an old-fashioned peasant dress and possesses a staff, through which she generates her magic.

• In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz anime series, the Witch is purple-skinned once again, and has long white hair with a blood-like red streak. She possesses both eyes and is dressed in a long, black hooded gown. Her eyes have the power to turn people into stone, and turn blood-red when such transformations are effected. One of the Winkies actually tries to crush her to death with a huge boulder, but the Witch causes the boulder to disappear, and turns the man into stone. Like in the 1982 anime film, a magic mirror shows her everything she wishes to uncover. The Wicked Witch makes it clear to Dorothy that the Good Witch of the North's kiss cannot serve as protection from her apparently superior power, and it's the Silver Shoes that safeguard the girl. The Witch also reveals that the Wicked Witch of the East was her sister, and that the Silver Shoes could triple her own powers. This version gives the witch the most prolonged and dramatic death scene of all versions; it also differs from previous adaptations by suggesting that Mombi was her protege.

• Gregory Maguire's 1995 revisionist novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West takes the familiar Oz story and inverts it, with the Wicked Witch (given the name Elphaba in homage to L. Frank Baum) as the novel's protagonist and Dorothy as a hapless child. The name is retained in the hit musical version, Wicked.

• In the animated TV series The Wizard of Oz (1990–1991) by DiC Enterprises, the Flying Monkeys that were loyal to the Wicked Witch of the West (voiced by Tress MacNeille) perform a ritual that resurrects the Wicked Witch of the West where they place her hat, dress and cloak on an effigy. Afterwards, she terrorizes Oz again by tarnishing the Emerald City, stealing what Dorothy's friends treasure the most (the Scarecrow's brain diploma, the Tin Woodsman's clock heart, and the Cowardly Lion's medal of courage), and making the Wizard fly off-course in his hot-air balloon by creating an evil wind. Of course she still has a weakness to any type of water causing her to evade at all times. The series was canceled before an ending could be produced, so her fate remains a mystery. This incarnation of the character was clearly based on the 1939 MGM movie, to which the series itself served as an unofficial sequel, although the witch's garments are purple here rather than black.

• The Witch appears in a little known 1995 version of the original story made for British cable television, which combined elements of Baums original story, the 1939 movie, and the 1985 semi-sequel "Return to Oz". She first appears after Dorothy lands in OZ, demands to know where the Ruby Slippers are, threatens Dorothy, then leaves. The Munchkins then reveal they hid the Slippers to keep the Witch from getting them, force them onto Dorothy, who then leaves to find the Wizard. At the end of the film, after taking the Slippers while Dorothy is sleeping, the Witch turns her loose in a room full of large rocks, says she's turned Dorothy's companions into rocks themselves, and will give her three chances to pick which ones are her friends, but if she guesses wrong, she will become one herself. To be fair, she turns the Slippers into a rock and hides them in the room. Dorothy, however manages to find the Tin Woodsman, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion. The Witch, enraged, grows to giant sized and holds a boulder over Dorothy, who then finds the Slippers and wishes for the Witch to lose her power. The Witch loses her strength and falls backwards, and the boulder kills her instantly.

• In the episode "Water You Thinking?" of Mighty Morphin' Alien Rangers, a witch monster appears by the name of Witchblade, and she seems to be modeled after the Wicked Witch. Her voice and cackle are reminiscent of the 1939 film's portrayal of the Witch. Additionally, most of her lines are paraphrasings of the Witch's lines, such as "How 'bout a little fire, Rangers?". She also refers to the Rangers' Zords as "Tin Men" and to the Rangers as "My pretties". When she's defeated, she cries "Oh, no! I'm falling, falling! What a world!"

• In The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005), Miss Piggy plays all of the witches of Oz including the Wicked Witch of the West. Her basic attire evoked W. W. Denslow's original illustration, with a biker theme. The eyepatch also covered a magical glass-eye that gave her visual powers. This version of the Wicked Witch is only vulnerable to tap water where she is able to bathe in bottled water.

• In the VeggieTales episode The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's, the witch and her Kansas counterpart from the 1939 film are replaced by Chester the Bully (Kansas) and Bobby the Bully (Wonderful Land of Ha's), both portrayed by Gourdon from "Bully Trouble".

• In "Anthology of Interest II", an episode of the animated television series Futurama, Leela is knocked unconscious and dreams about being Dorothy in a version of The Wizard of Oz, with Futurama characters playing the roles of Wizard characters. While Fry is the Scarecrow, Bender the Robot is the Tinman, and Doctor Zoidberg is the Lion, the Wicked Witch is played by Mom, a recurring antagonist from the show, voice by Tress MacNeille who also provided the voice for The Wicked Witch of the West in the 1990 DIC animated series. The Witch sends her flying monkeys, played by Mom's sons Larry, Walt, and Igner, to capture Dorothy/Leela. At the Witch's castle, she reveals that she wants to adopt Dorothy as her daughter, and Dorothy/Leela agrees, as long as she gets to be a witch, too. The Witch/Mom meets her fate when water splashes down on her from the ceiling, causing her to melt, to which the Cowardly Lobster/Zoidberg descends the stairs, mentioning "I think there's a problem with your upstairs toilet."

• The Wicked Witch of the West appears as the primary antagonist of Dorothy and the Witches of Oz played by Eliza Swenson. In flashbacks, it was seen that she had obtained a mystical book (which contained the Changing Word) from the Wizard as part of a deal not to continue her attack on Oz in exchange that the Wizard doesn't plan to reclaim the book. Unfortunately for the Wicked Witch of the West, the Wizard entrusted the key to the book to Dorothy for safekeeping. On Earth, she assumes the form of a female book publishing agent named Billie Westbrook and plans to obtain an artifact that Dorothy was entrusted into holding on to by the Wizard so that she can lead Princess Langwidere, Nome King, and an army of winged monkeys, Nomes, and dragons into taking over Earth upon learning the Changing Word. The Wicked Witch of the West also had plans to invade Wonderland, Neverland, Camelot, and Narnia.

• In Dorothy of Oz, a Korean manhwa by Son Hee-Joon, the Witch of the West is re-imagined as a scientist who rules over the Western Dominion. She is psychopathic and cruel, and in a twist, she (not Mara/Dorothy) is the true orchestrator of the death of the East Witch Selluriah. She is the creator of an army of clones, one of whom is the story's equivalent of the Scarecrow. Whether or not this is a reference to the musical Wicked is unknown.

• On the LP vinyl, "Songs from the Wizard of Oz", produced by Disneyland records, The Wicked Witch of the West is given the name "Smarmy", and sings the song "Just Call Smarmy". The record features both original songs and songs from the 1939 MGM film.

• Named Theodora in the upcoming 2013 Disney film Oz: The Great and Powerful directed by Sam Raimi, she will be played by Mila Kunis.