Remix: The Wiz and The Wizard of Oz

 “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.” If I were to give you one guess, I’m sure you could tell me what movie that quote is from (Hint: The Wizard of Oz). I know this because The Wizard of Oz is a classic. Now, what if I were to say “Ease on down the road.” Is that one a little tougher? That quote is from the 1978 movie, The Wiz, which is a famous remix of The Wizard of Oz. A remix, in this situation, is a recreation of a text in order to for a new piece with a new purpose. According to Dustin W. Edwards in “Framing Remix Rhetorically: Toward a Typology of Transformative Work”, it “builds upon or re-purposes already existing material” (Edwards xix). These two movies, The Wiz and The Wizard of Oz, have a similar plot, but their purposes and impacts are extremely different.

            Both of movies feature the same storyline, but certain adjustments created an entirely new movie that became a symbol for rising above adversity. When you get down to the bare bone of each movie, they both feature a young woman who finds herself in a strange place meeting strange people. They both learn a lesson and understand the world around them in a new way. The differences, however, are what make The Wiz a successful remix, specifically appropriation which is defined as a situation that “urges us not to look back, but it also encodes a knowledge of past sources that might otherwise have little home in contemporary culture” (Lethem 57), in “The Ecstasy of Influence” by Jonathan Lethem. The Wiz uses New York and African Americans in order to make the movie progressive and more relatable to a broader span of people; not every protagonist looks the same and experiences the same obstacles. In The Wiz, characters faced issues with confidence and finding one’s voice. They ultimately learned to be themselves and speak out against the people and ideas that oppress them. The Wiz used the notoriety of The Wizard of Oz to gain recognition, but it is the progressive ideas and characters that produced an innovative story.

            These movies also differ in their claims. The Wizard of Oz claims we are all in search of something, but it is up to us to make it happen. On the other hand, The Wiz claims that we have to believe in ourselves, despite what society expects from us and never let anyone overpower us. They both use emotional appeal, or Pathos, in order to demonstrate these claims. The Wiz has a group of crows that torment the scarecrow, which allows the audience to feel that sense of vulnerability, to convey the importance of confidence in one’s self. The Wizard of Oz uses the disappointment of finding the wizard to prove that we will not always be content with the results of our goals. At the end of the day, they use the same appeal, but they ultimately have a different purpose and claim.

            Remix is a writing tool that can allow a writer to apply their views and ideas to a previous text. The purpose of creating that remix might vary from author to author, but remix is meant to be collaborative and grant the opportunity to expand on one’s beliefs. Without remix, we would only be exposed to one set of opinions, resulting in an uneducated and unoriginal culture. Remix is what makes our society unique.