Always a slight problem with the Wizard of Oz is the fact that Dorothy wants so much to go back Kansas, a place the book describes as monotonous and colorless and where a girl laughing at her dog is enough to give her aunt a shock.
In the book it's largely explained by just how young Dorothy is. Unlike in most film versions, the book Dorothy is perhaps 7 or 8, maybe even younger looking at the Denslow drawings, and when she gets to Oz she is left entirely to take care of herself. She wants to go home where she's safe and everyone loves her. In the MGM movie, they have a different idea. They make Dorothy older and have her run away from home. Through the course of her adventures in Oz, Dorothy is meant to learn a lesson about the value of home and family, that perhaps she feels most strongly when she's locked up in the Witch's castle crying for her aunt. But after that part is over, her yearning for Kansas is brought into question by audience, and when Glinda tells Dorothy, what she was supposed to have learned from her experiences mildly offends the more skeptical members of the audience.
The moral of the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is to believe in yourself and you can handle the misfortunes life throws at you, this is not only Dorothy's story, but it is repeated in the stories of each of her friends who learn to believe in the very qualities they believe themselves to be missing. The moral of the movie, The Wizard of Oz, is "There is no place like home." And this movie, Rainbow really flies with that idea. In this movie, Dora runs away from home and to another life and another family, and learns that family is the people who love her. Moreso than in the '39 movie, we feel this with Dora, and I think a large part of that is that in the '39 movie, it's forgotten about for long sections of singing and jokes and merriment, but it this film Dora's quest is always at the forefront. The important characters, the Wizard, The Witches, Glinda, and Aunt Em/Uncle Henry have a stronger connection to Dorothy and each other, and that allows for all the smaller adventures to no longer stand alone but to exist as part of one cohesive narrative.
Additionally, the roles of the characters are well-cast, the cinematography, editing, and music are all delightful. The movie just has a cool factor that makes you feel like it's part of the 21st century.
I suppose I gave the story only 9 out of 10 for a small reason, and that is that with all the extra focus on Dorothy, there's much less time for her friends. They are well cast, and instantly recognizable, but you don't really get to see them learning too much alongside Dorothy. That's okay, this movie doesn't have to be everything. But maybe it could have been if it had been a miniseries instead of a film.
