Anybody else checking this out? Very interesting interpretation of the original book by L. Frank Baum -- as much as I enjoy all the singing and dancing in the 1939 film version, this is really pretty good so far, edgy dark and moody the way it oughta be. Got a kick out of Richard Dreyfus as the Great and Terrible Mystic Man, and they did a nice job on the mo-bats.

It does seem to be kinda catching. Will be watching tomarrow, after HEROES of course. A full night of good scifi.

anyone have any production notes on Tin Man?

I was pretty sceptical, but it won me over. I like the 'sideways' spin on the whole story. Production values are pretty good. I think the actress who plays "DG" is the weakest link however.... everyone else is a real delight.

I think the actress who plays "DG" is the weakest link however.... everyone else is a real delight.
I agree. Funny how the father looks a lot like Frank Morgan (1939 Wizard). I'm sure that's just coincidence. So far, I'm enjoying it.

Watched it last night, enjoyed it. It was fun to correspond some of the scenes to those in the Judy Garland version. It was kind of an OZ meets Dune feel for me (as best I can describe it).

I was reading something the other day that said there were 6 or was it 9 movie versions before the 1939 version starring JG, anyone know their titles, or if they are available. Might make for some interesting viewing.

Not sure I agree with the criticism of Zoey as DG, its really tough to create a character that isn't what the viewer expects especially as a 25 year old portraying what a 17 year old? I viewed her character as a straight-forward no holds barred, damn the torpedos full speed ahead type.

It was kind of an OZ meets Dune feel for me (as best I can describe it).That's just exactly what I thought too.

...there were 6 or was it 9 movie versions before the 1939 version starring JG, anyone know their titles, or if they are available.Not a fan of this site due to its copious inaccuracies, but here goes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz#Adaptations

See also opening paragraphs of http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/oz/ozsect2.html

I thought her name was Zooey, to 'o's.

Just not a lot of range in her acting or expressions so far. It's always a tough call, playing the ingenue... but I'm not seeing more than a smart alecky waitress here... Perhaps she'll have more arc as the show goes on. I have a shoot tonite, so I'll miss it.

As not a fan of the original Wizard of Oz, but known to love it... i kinda liked the new one... i just wasn't prepared at first. i thought it was just an updated wizard of oz, but i didn't expect half the things, i really really like it... it just has the feel of a SG1 or SGA type of bad scifi, i looked at some shots trying to color correct it with my eyes...

But the story is good so far, as i was going in expecting a new wizard of oz... i didn't like it at first


But then again, the tinman graduated from my school, and we're about to do the wizard of oz play and warner brothers is coming out to film a documentary of it



Z

Richard,

I thought it was two o's but then wasn't sure so I opted to be conservative. LOL.

Watching the 2nd part last night, I commented to my wife that I wasn't sure if she wasn't a very good actress or if she intended to make her character appear the way she has. ( I hope its the latter, but still not sure of the motivation). the wide eyed stare is kinda odd. I do hear some vocal similarities with her sister.

Definitely a different take on the story, and I like it a lot. but will she wake up and it all be a dream?

I loved the little 'homages' to the Oz flick they keep inserting here and there. The shot of the TinMan and Scarecrow looking over the hill at the 'queens guards' was nice... I almost expected to hear the guards chanting "Oh We Love the OLD ONE..." (Yeah, that's what they are chanting in the movie.)

Last nite, Zooey really got on my nerves... the flat delivery for almost everything. ONly when she flashed back on how the wicked sister got wicked, did we see any emotion... and then it was a faucet of tears.

No Sci Fi channel at my place.

I really wanted to see Tin Man, partly because Neal McDonough's acting intrigues me (loved him in Band of Brothers). How's he doing?

This "making of" on YouTube was pretty fun for me...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-MqpOT1rQY

watched the second piece....not what I expected at all...intresting take, but as mentioned the girl playing DG is awful. She should have been playing an android with her lack of expression and emotion. I literally sat there watching with my brothers and I started making robotic movement noises when she was moving her head around and delivering her dry lines, and we all cracked up because it fit so well. She definately ruined the chance that`d I`d watch part 3. Even her childhood counterpart was a little better, but still had the same blank stare most of the time. Maybe thats what they wanted, just rubbed me the wrong way since she`s the main focus and NOT an android.

I almost expected to hear the guards chanting "Oh We Love the OLD ONE..." (Yeah, that's what they are chanting in the movie.)

OMG Richard, you have just solved one of the greatest mysteries of my life. Thanks for that! I was always impressed (growing up in KS myself) at how well they did the tornado effect for having shot in the late 1930's.

-gb-

No Sci Fi channel at my place. I really wanted to see Tin Man, partly because Neal McDonough's acting intrigues me (loved him in Band of Brothers). How's he doing?
He's one of the best ones on the show. Shame you can't get it, BUT,

http://www.scifi.com/tinman

You can watch it online. :D

Yeah, I recall seeing how they did the tornado effect in the 30's, a MECHANICAL tornado, made of cotton and stuff... rotating against a background... looked amazing. Still does.

Did you note the paintings in DG's bedroom? Looks like one of the paintings is of the tornado from the 30s movie... pretty cool.

Now that I've read Nathan's comments... I'm beginning to wonder if there won't be some great denouement where we find out DG IS AN ANDROID... like her parents? That would explan the wooden acting, and the damn funny way she runs. Did you notice that? There was a shot where they were running through, what looked like turbines in a power generating plant, she's chasing the dog... and she's running with her arms straight down by her side! I saw that, and turned to my wife who said, "Wow... she runs funny, kind of like a robot..." So maybe Nathan's on to a plot twist, and we'll all be amazed at how well she played it off.

I think the writing, the production design and all the revamped changes have been pretty dreadful and unimaginative, actually. It occurred to me the whole reason for this series was to resurrect a classic franchise while at the same time lowering our expectations for it, stripping it of it's sacrosanctity so it could be more modestly repackaged. Baum wrote tons of those books. That's a fat little license to acquire.

Zooey Deschanel is the only reason I'm continuing to watch, but I agree she hasn't been given much to do with her character.

not that she doesn`t have much, ANY character can be brought to life by the right actor. As for the whole story etc, I think its a good idea, I just don't get why they slapped referenced wizard of oz characters on it (besides so its 'recognizable ' by the audience) when they could have made it their own story and taken any liberty they wanted...well they kind of did anyway. But the fact they tried to make it Wizard of Oz related really distorts our ability to see it as its own....or original.

Even her childhood counterpart was a little better, but still had the same blank stare most of the time. Maybe thats what they wanted, just rubbed me the wrong way since she`s the main focus and NOT an android.

When I saw the flashbacks, and the similarity in characterizations I have to believe the director got what he/she (can't remember who it is) wanted. Why? I dunno, but that android thing might have some validity...

hmmm I can't remember, did she use any contractions when she spoke? :-)

OK, if you were raised by androids... wouldn't you naturally pick up on their habits?

haha..i was dissapointed to find out...she was not an android. Just really plain emotionless acting. Yea I watched it...had to know if I was onto something. The cheese factor seemed to reallly come out in part 3 as well...after all...it was a sci-fi channel movie

http://www.scifi.com/tinman

You can watch it online. :D
Because of you I'm ready for the final part; I'm assuming they'll post it tomorrow. Thank you, Edward!

The cheese factor seemed to reallly come out in part 3 as well...after all...it was a sci-fi channel movie

I feel like a bit of a humbug, but I had to switch this show off half way through the first installment. Thought the acting was over-the-top, the visuals uninspired and the the whole thing lacked purpose for me.

oh well.

Charles the humbug...

I don’t watch sci fi anymore but would imagine that most everyone who watched this had to cut it a lot of slack in order to be entertained. In one scene I actually thought of you, Charles—a day for night scene that looked like something you would advise against doing. The writing really suffered, too. Don’t know what to think about Ms. Deschanel’s acting, whether it was direction or just her. Sure is bizarre.

What keeps bringing me out of the story (besides a ton of quirks) are takes from other flicks, eg, a bar scene straight out of Star Wars, a mind meld from Star Trek, a big-eyed heroine just like the hobbit of LOTR.

That said, because I like some of the actors so well (McDonough, Dreyfus) I decided to give it all kinds of room and have found it to be enjoyable enough to finish. I give them all credit for trying something this ambitious on television.

I think overall, I was let down by the ending. I liked the premise well enough to start. I don't have any problem with 'retelling' or 'repackaging' a mythic story. This has been done since the dawn of time. No reason not to keep doing it. And of course, in the tomb scene and flashback, we see that it's not so much a retelling of the ORIGINAL story, because the original DG is the Grey Gale, but a new extension of the story.

Yeah, the best parts were the homage to other stories and movies.

But I was falling asleep towards the end, it just didn't build enough for me. Or maybe it was just past my bedtime.


And really, why call it the Tin Man? It's not like it was his journey in particular that we followed, it was still DG's story.

At the end my wife turned to me and said incredulously "that's it?"
About the way I felt.

She also brought up an interesting point; how was the original DG the Grey Gale when she clicked her heels three times while wearing the ruby slippers and chanting "There's no place like home..." and wound up back in Kansas?

Overall I found it enjoyable both in spite of and because of the quirks.

I just finished watching and wasn’t disappointed. Still gotta love that icy blue-eyed Neal McDonough…must be why they called it Tin Man—to attract people like me. ;)

Loved the line, “She melted!” LOL! For that I take back my earlier complaint about the writing…almost.

A bench mark for me is the question, “would I watch it again?” With all its faults, yep, I would.

Bill,
Well, I think the storyline established that it was possible to 'move between' the worlds... either by riding a tornado, or taking a hot air baloon. (yeah, yeah, some serious suspension of disbelief necessary) So that could explain that after the heel clicking trip back home, Dorothy comes back to OZ later on. (As indeed, she does in the books, no?) Like travelling back and forth to Narnia.

I think 'uneven' is the way to describe the whole production. Some really interesting art direction in places, some interesting 'fusion' of various mythos and the occasional homage to previous films made for treats that kept me involved. I like Dryfuss' portrayal.. sure, he had a mouthfull of scenery now and again, but compared to Zooey it was absolutely refreshing to hear someone USE language, intonation and inflection. Some effects were cheesy, some were great.

Yeah, 'uneven' but fun in places.

Yes, the "she melted" line was great, as was Raw falling down in the field, the Balloon and the State Fair reference, those were the fun parts. As to Zooey, I still believe she had to be following direction, I've seen some bad acting on Sci-Fi but her performance was just bizzare.

I agree that the lead performance was beyond strange. There is no way that was put in there by accident. No director could overlook that kind of performance. At first I thought she might seem flat because of some over-the-top performances in the rest of the cast, but then I realized the level of fantasy called for some of that creative indulgence. It just seemed to me like she was facing the end of the world with the same emotion as if she was asking for cream in her coffee. Then of course tears would stream down her face randomly. She sure is a cutie, but there was either terrible direction or casting on that one.

I thought most of the rest was interesting in that it was imaginative despite being derivative of the original and elements of other sci-fi stories and characters. I enjoyed watching and remembered to tune in from one night to the next which means I felt some sort of motivation to watch.

Addressing the earlier comment "That's it?": I think there was a problem with the editing in some areas. The beginning and end were far too brief considering the overall length of the piece. DG's character development in our realm seemed relegated to her being late for work once and getting a speeding ticket. There was little character ever put into her both with the performance and the dialog. Then, the end of the movie is easy to predict, brief, and anti-climactic. At least the original had the big gathering where Dorothy clicked her heels and went home. This one simply had them all gaze out on the world and look satisfied that everything will be okay.

Okay, yesterday I stumbled on the only other performance I've seen of Zooey (that I can recall)... a drama called "Winter Passing"... and she gave virtually the same one-note performance. It was an interesting piece, with a great performance by Ed Harris, and a surprisingly subtle performance by Will Ferrell. But I'm singularly unimpressed with Ms. Deschanel's range at this point.

anyone have any production notes on Tin Man?Found this:

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/topstory/8877.html

Anthem's 4:4:4 VFX Work for Sci-Fi's Tin Man, and Lee Wilson on Making The Mobats.

My wife told me Zooey is in Elf with Will Ferrell, I havent' had chance to watch it again, since learning this, but its one of the kid's favorites so I am sure I will see it, again and again and again...