I've just returned from a short trip to NYC for the New York Antiquarian Book Fair. It's always fun to get out to see some shows, and catch up with friends in the area, although there never seems to be enough time to do everything!
One of my stops was the MOMA exhibition of Tim Burton's work - lots of drawings and sketches, as well as movie costumes, props and puppets. Of Oz interest were two sketches relating to the abandoned
Lost in Oz project - the images I'm showing are from the MOMA website, and very small. They are a Winged Monkey, and a character named Dick Tater - a many-eyed potato on a throne. John R. Neill created a character named Dick Tater for
The Scalawagons of Oz. I don't know if Burton was referring to this specific character, or had come up with his own idea - the concept was certainly the same!
As an Ozzy coincidence, one day for lunch I ended up at a small restaurant called Le Singe Vert - or The Green Monkey - very appropriate as a
Tin Woodman of Oz reference!
One of my stops was the MOMA exhibition of Tim Burton's work - lots of drawings and sketches, as well as movie costumes, props and puppets. Of Oz interest were two sketches relating to the abandoned Lost in Oz project - the images I'm showing are from the MOMA website, and very small. They are a Winged Monkey, and a character named Dick Tater - a many-eyed potato on a throne. John R. Neill created a character named Dick Tater for The Scalawagons of Oz. I don't know if Burton was referring to this specific character, or had come up with his own idea - the concept was certainly the same!
As an Ozzy coincidence, one day for lunch I ended up at a small restaurant called Le Singe Vert - or The Green Monkey - very appropriate as a Tin Woodman of Oz reference!
Posts
4 comments:
Never been to US but I think I will get the chance. NYC is a great city and sometimes it is city I dream to and also the American Dream.
Woot woot! Scalawagons shoutout! :-)
I'd definitely be curious if that was specifically based on the "Scalawagons" character or not. Have any of the Neill characters been used in any adaptations?
I believe the Neill characters are not in public domain, as the books were written in the 40's and Neill's widow did renew the copyrights in the 1960's. My guess is that Dick-Tater is an easy enough pun to come up with, without reference to Neill - but I suppose someone would have to ask Tim Burton to get a real answer!
Ah, that's right. I forgot that the Neill characters were still under copyright.
Thanks for posting this, wish I could check out the Burton show myself!
Post a Comment