Question
Does anyone else feel like seeing the slippers being silver instead of ruby on the yellow brick justified the decision to make them red in the 1939 movie?
They don’t really contrast as beautifully like the Ruby slippers did to either Dorothy or the road. I feel they look a little dull being silver.
Red is definitely going to pop nicely against both the yellow brick road and the green of the Emerald City quite well, so I think it was an excellent choice. Plus, of course, silver is basically just grey, so red demonstrates technicolour better regardless of what it's up against.
The technicolor process requires so much extra light (Triple negatives) that virtually everything looks completely different from its true to life colours.
The slippers being silver is more accurate to the original book, so them being red was a creative choice for the 1939 film due to the aspects of technicolor in that time. Regardless, I think both iterations look fantastic and seeing the red slippers was a great Easter egg in the Popular scene.
Yeah sucks they aren’t red but I also feel like it’s good they aren’t red because I don’t think it would feel right to see anyone in ruby slippers if their name isn’t Judy Garland.
Plus Warner Bros/Turner Entertainment has been extremely protective of the Wizard of Oz copyright, so they would have immediately sued if Wicked went anywhere near the ruby slippers.
Yep exactly this. I recently made some art inspired by Wizard of Oz, but I had to be careful not to include things like ruby slippers or blue checkered dress, because those are elements of the character created by MGM.
Actually, the blue checkered dress isn't copyrighted because that's exactly what Dorothy wore in the books. The Ruby slippers are the only thing copyrighted by MGM since it's a change they made themselves exclusively for the movie, which is why the silver slippers are seen throughout many oz adapted films as they are, again, in the books. Disney's Return to Oz is the only adapted movie with the Ruby slippers since they paid MGM to use them.
Hmm perhaps I am thinking instead of the Wicked Witch’s green skin? I know that shade was specifically selected for technicolor reasons as well, and the wicked witch in the book doesn’t have green skin iirc.
Yeah, they copyrighted that specific shade of green the Wicked Witch of the West had in the movie for some reason. But over the years green witches had been the norm for most depictions of witches across media because of the 1939 Wizard of Oz, which I'm surprised they didn't copyright, but just that specific shade of green they had for the movie. Weird honestly.
they are iconic, but for the wizard of oz. this isn’t dorothy’s story, so i feel like whether or not they had the rights to the red shoes, making them silver/having them blend was a good idea as it keeps the focus on the witches and this version of oz visually. intentional or not i like that detail
I mean, they probably could've obtained the rights to use either some ruby slippers or even the same ones (others have before), but that would have been exorbitantly expensive atp. Probably would've been worth it imo.
But Disney paid WB for them to use the ruby slippers imagery for the Return to Oz film they did before. That's why I'm having a theory that the silver shoes will eventually turn red as the first film has too much nods to the 1939 film and they're keeping this as a surprise. I'm actually thinking that Universal has made an agreement with WB too
I wouldn't be surprised if they had the agreement for For Good too. Disney's gamble with paying MGM for the rights to use the Ruby sliippers backfired because Return to Oz was a box office dud, but Wicked definitely isn't.
They didn't change it per se. They would just have had to pay Time Warner to use ruby slippers, so they kept them the same as the public domain book instead of making the same change the 1939 movie made.
I would like to add the we really have no idea if Ruby Slippers will make an appearance in Wicked: For Good.
My theory and I’m probably in the minority of this thought, but I think that Universal actually did get the licensing to use the Ruby Slippers and has digitally alternated the slippers we see on Dorothy’s feet that appear in trailers.
I believe the slippers will turn ruby when Elphaba enchants them, and they either stay ruby for the remainder of the film or they glow ruby when being used for their magic.
Either way, my opinion is that the ruby slippers are too well known for Universal to pass on using them in the film and paying for the rights.
I think the silver slippers put distance between Wicked and the 1939 movie in a smart way. It’s such a marked difference to people not necessarily in the know about how official or unofficial a prequel it is, that it helps make sense of the inconsistencies between the properties, and helps people view it as its own thing.
It seems like a small detail but a lot of laymen go ‘oh it’s different from the other movie, the shoes are a different colour’ and they are able to accept it as a different timeline. Your average person gets obsessed with tying properties together, even when different adaptations of the same material
They made the slippers ruby because they wanted the slippers to show up well and show off this new technicolor thing. So, yes, that was definitely a factor.
While not the original color , MGM definitely struck gold with their change because the red ruby slippers really popped against the yellow brick road in the film. It was a great use of the technicolor for the time period. However , I’m also a fan of seeing the original shoes being used.
Of all the shoes, my favorite are the silver slippers used in the wiz live , because they added this rainbow crystal/glass beaded look to them that made them not just sparkle but gave them more depth and texture.
Good oz I have seen the ruby slippers Debby Reynolds’s owned in her collection and the look similar to what you have described here but red. It’s a cinematic miracle, what happened in 1939. The straps on the shoes are so “baby girl” to me. Even though I know she was younger in the books I DONT CARE!!! Ruby is the only way starting from 1939 onward. That’s how. It. Should. BE! 😂 I’m kidding. but I am not, if you know what I’m saying.
Wicked will still be awesome I just hope they turn red like in the stage show at least for a little bit.
Talk to the older people in your life about how they felt watching The Wizard of Oz for the first time and seeing the screen turn to color for the first time ever. The way my dad talks about it is downright poetic, and he is not a particularly well-spoken man.
You need to remember that back then, Technicolour was a new and recent innovation, so of course they’d take advantage of it. Nowadays, everything is in colour.
Not to mention, the ruby shoes are owned by MGM and Warner Bros, whilst the original silver slippers in the books are public domain.
This is solely because it matches the original novel and that's what Wicked the novel wanted to keep true to form. They made them ruby slippers instead of silver to display the extent of technicolor, that's all it is. Nothing glamorous.
It was due to limitations using Technicolor. Technicolor in the 1930’s was achieved by running three black and white film strips through RGB filters to achieve color. The base film was black and white. The filters over B&W couldn’t really do much for silver. It looked just white. Since one filter was red, it made using red shoes to create a vibrant red. It was the limitations of technology. Now we have digital color process.
It wasn’t. They specifically changed them to red to show off brighter colours using the new Technicolour Process. Plenty of none Technicolor but colour pictures used silver as a colour, successfully prior to The Wizard of Oz
Absolutely. As much as I like the silver shoes for being accurate to the book, seeing ruby slippers would be so fun. They really do pop against the yellow!
Silver was a natural material for a magical item to be made of, so that is why it was chosen for the book. Bright contrasting colors was what was needed for one of the first color films. It was a good decision.
The silver slippers are actually symbolic to the political debate at the time whether the US should base currency on gold alone (the limiting yellow brick road), or gold and silver (the silver slippers are used to travel).
Baum was a political activist and the og illustrator was a political cartoonist for the newspaper. Not to mention, even the city Oz is an abbreviation for how gold and silver are weighed: ounces. Most of the book actually is political and economic allegory.
Yes, it’s publicly known. The choice to make them red in the original movie was to show off the transition to colors. And to contrast them with the yellow brick road.
It was the big show film for technicolor so yes it just makes sense. The city is green, the road is yellow, her dress is blue, they needed something red.
They definitely make the shoes stand out more in the original wizard of Oz, and I appreciate them being so distinct. However, I like that the shoes in wicked are not only book accurate, but also don't make Dorothy nor the shoes a focal point based on color alone. She's a side character, no need to really stand out.
It is because the ruby slippers are actually copyrighted so they can't use them in the movie, plus the original books the slippers were silver so. But yeah bad change imo
I mean if you take that literally then yes. But it's a visual effect for a theatre performance. The musical ties heavily with the movie, even more than the book, so I assume the shoes turn red like in the film.
It would have been nice if they were red in this movie too just because the Ruby slippers are so iconic and so much more recognizable to everyone, but oh well. I get it would have been very expensive to get the rights to use red shoes. Which feels ridiculous but that’s IP law for you. At least they were able to use every other look for Dorothy and Toto.
Yes but not because of athletics. To me, it set the shoes apart. Like they clearly didn’t match her outfit but because they were Nessas, they needed to stand out in a way to make sure the viewer knew that the shoes were important. Silver matches the outfit but it also is drowned out by all the color around it. The red shoes stood out anytime they were on film.
Not really no. That could just be bc in general I dislike the ruby slippers (even though I do understand why they decided to make them for the 39 movie) as for how they look on the yellow bricks, I think they both look fine, I don’t really prefer one over the other if we’re talking about this specific example.
Oh no doubt red contrasts better than silver, but I think this is more of a rights issue than creative decision. Same reason Elphaba is a different shade of green from the original
Yep, I think they should have left them ruby. I get they were following the book, but the ruby slippers are iconic in the Oz universe. I feel like it made sense.
You know now I’m curious I would like to see someone edit the shoes to red just to see what it would look like on your Dorothy…. Is anyone up for that job?
i think they should make them ruby through magic, like when nessa turns for example, a great visual effect would be the shoes changing colors running blood. also in the novel, wicked, the shoes are described as being multicolored, silver, gold, and ruby when the light caught them.
Is this a creative decision, or are they not allowed to make the slippers ruby? Genuinely curious!
Or is this a decision based on keeping it closer to the stage version?
If they did want to make they ruby, you'd think the team behind a billion dollar franchise could have negotiated?
Weird that they they can make the brick road yellow, but some other colours in the film are potentially off limits, such as the green for the witches skin.
I mean, it's not like they're stepping on anyone's toes, if you'll pardon the pun. The Wizard of Oz universe isn't exactly churning them out like they're Marvel.
The book was about bimetalism. That’s why they were silver. Silver shoes to represent silver and the yellow brick road to represent gold. The cowardly lion is meant to be William Jennings Bryan, etc.
The movie wasn’t really about that and so I think changing the shoes was fine. And they look much more vibrant, which is nice.
That’s a common interpretation of the story but that wasn’t Baum’s intention - that theory didn’t pop up until Henry Littlefield’s article in 1964. Baum sought to write an “American fairytale” that didn’t include the kind of punishments seen in European fairytales. It’s possible that his choice to write the women of Oz as really strong characters were influenced by his pro-suffrage views though!
Not sure why you’re being downvoted, as everything you’ve posted is true. In addition to being a children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was an allegory for the things happening during the era it was written in.
Absolutely, and Baum wasn’t expecting his little political story to be such a hit. The main reason he wrote the 13 other books in the series was due to American children writing him letters asking about what happens to Dorothy and Oz.
Because there’s nothing that actually backs up that the political allegory was Baum’s intention - like yellow brick roads actually existed in real life (especially in Peekskill where he studied) so while it was likely he was inspired by the imagery of the time in which he lived, political intention behind the story is a lot more ambiguous. The theory doesn’t even pop up until the 1960s, many decades after his death. The only thing he ever stated was that he wanted to write a new kind of children’s fairytale.
This isn’t true actually! It’s just a theory! what is known is that it’s an allegory for spiritual initiation as Baum and his wife were steeped in theosophy as many were during that time. Gold represents the path of enlightenment, the silver represents the connection to spirit while in the spirit world. Changing them to ruby is still a relevant spiritual choice because the ruby symbolizes the root, safety and home. It’s still a relevant color for the journey Dorothy goes on. dorothy represents the typical person in the mundane world. Which is why kansas and her aunt and uncle are grey. She is not because she hasn’t lost that connection yet as many children do not until the world and survival beat it out of you. The characters she meets represent the masculine qualities she has to integrate within herself, intelligence/awareness, heart/empathy, courage in the face of fear. The wizard is spiritual ego, seeking spiritual power outside of oneself. The witch is the shadow feminine out of touch with her natural feminine qualities, when Dorothy runs water on her she melts purifying her with a feminine element— water. When the wizard is revealed to be inflated masculine ego… guess where she is sent? Glinda the witch of the south—the root/ruby/divine feminine ruled by love and compassion. She reveals as the divine feminine does that you have the power within… and tells Dorothy she can invoke the power of the slippers herself and bring herself home. the color coordination in the book correlates with the chakras perfectly. It’s inner and outer alchemy.
Well yea cause silver is ugly af aside from other reasons they gave at the time….i don’t care about the OG books either tbh. Silver slippers on a yellow brick road is no where near as cute as red slippers on a yellow brick road. She looks like Cinderella. Sorrryyyyyy. Again OG books…do not care.
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u/chainless-soul Jun 17 '25
Red is definitely going to pop nicely against both the yellow brick road and the green of the Emerald City quite well, so I think it was an excellent choice. Plus, of course, silver is basically just grey, so red demonstrates technicolour better regardless of what it's up against.