Well, my wife and I are watching The Sci-Fi channels "Tin Man" mini-series. Tonight is the very first episode, and given my background in video production and my love of movies in general, I thought I'd do a first impressions review.
Tin Man
http://www.scifi.com/tinman/
a Sci-Fi channel original mini series
First off Tin man is nothing like the original wizard of OZ films. But thats ok, the producers meant it to be different. It is a modern "epic re-imagining of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that gives the story a heavy science fiction fantasy emphasis and gives only allusionary references to most of the original story." -Tin Man WIKI (Visit for a full Synopsis and list of characters)
Ep. 1 synopsis:
Our main character's name is DG (representative of the classic Dorothy). I don't know if it's meant to stand for anything yet. She basically feels out of place in her hometown and longs to get away.
Cut to the O.Z. (the Outer Zone - an alternate world existing alongside ours), the evil Azkadellia, queen of the OZ, longs after more power. In a "see-ers" vision she see's DG as a threat as sends some longcoats after here. They travel to DG's world in a storm portal (tornado), However DG and her parents escape into the storm portal before the longcoats can get them.
From there DG gets captured by "lawn gnomes" and partners up with Glitch (the scarecrown) to escape. Along her travels she finds an ex-tinman (a ex-cop. called tin-men) and Raw (the cowardly lion) who is also a "see-er".
DG doesn't know what she is doing in the OZ, but soon finds out that her parents were actually robots employed by her real mother to protect her and prepare her for her return to the OZ. She is given a message and some sort of magical tattoo to help her find her way to finding her real mother.
On the next leg of the journey, DG and her ragtag troupe head to central city to seek out the wisdom of the Mystic Man (the wizard of oz) to help in finding her mother. In the Tin Man series, however, the mystic man is clearly out of his mind high on Azkadellia vapors which give a euphoric blissful state. DG's tattoo reminds the Mystic Man of DG's mom and gives them directions on where to find her mother. We also find the DG is somehow a "Key" to restoring balance to the OZ.
DG heads off to the Island of the North ( or ice mountain ) and finds her old family home encased in ice. Using her magical tattoo DG gains access into the mansion. DG finds out that her mother was a queen, Glitch was the queens advisor, and Azkadellia is her evil twin sister. They also find out that the Emerald of the Eclipse is the only way to stop Azkadellia and she must find it.
Azkaellia and her henchmen track DG with the forced help of a see-er and attack DG and her party at the mansion. At the end of Episode 1, we are left with the tin man being shot blowing him through a window and down a huge drop off into the icy waters below the mansion. DG and the rest of her troupe are captured by Azkadellia.
My review:
Tin Man is great! It's quirky, magical, imaginative, and bold with a steampunk style! The characters are so deep. So much more than they seem at first. Tin Man gives you enough info so you feel like you know what's going on without feeling like it's so much of a stretch that they have to spoon feed the info to you.Without knowing that this is a modern interpretation of "The wonderful wizard of OZ" I don't think it could be fully appreciated though. It can stand alone, but it gets its greatest audience draw by being such a "weird" re-imagining of it.
The graphics seem to be a bit hit and miss as to the quality and believability. But given that there were over 30 different graphics artist working on this, and it's a TV mini-series, I think they did a very good job.
I can't wait to see what the next episode brings.
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1 comment:
As a lover of Science Fiction,I was very interested in Tin Man, and couldn't wait for it to air.
I was extremly dissapointed in the series. The lead character of Dg, was an awful actress, and I can't believe she was cast in the role. I liked references to some of Baum's original work,but the adaptation was
a little to loose for me. I felt the character Glitch was rather Gay, and Cain looked more like a gunslinger from the old west than a futuristic police officer. The character of Azcadelia was the most interesting in the series. I could not figure out why she kept wearing this armour neck guard all the time. If she was so powerful, who was going to try and attack her? I think the entire production would have been helped if actors, anybody had ever heard of( except for Richard Dreifus)
had been used. The Munchkinesque characters were riduculous and looked like they were going to a mascarade as turkeys. I was entirely dissapointed in the series,and would not reccomend it to anyone.
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