Oz: The Great And Powerful Trailer: What Does It Tell Us?

Walt Disney has released the trailer for 'Oz The Great and Powerful'. The movie is part-homage to the classic Wizard of Oz and part modern-day blockbuster and sees James Franco looking dapper as a conjurer, blown off course in his hot air balloon, in his quest to become a "great man." The intro of the trailer reveals a scene much like in the original movie, as Franco's balloon is whisked up, with houses and debris, in a familiar tornado. Shot in black and white, it's a dedicated homage to the 1939 original starring Judy Garland.

With Sam Raimi at the helm, the trailer then bursts into technicolour and introduces the witches: two bad (played by raven-haired beauties Rachel Weisz and Mila Kunis) and one good (Michelle Williams), who informs him "you're in Oz." An array of fairy-tale settings then play out, enchanted forests, palaces, everything that you might expect from such a movie, as Oscar Diggs (Franco) has to figure out which of the witches he can trust, as the people of Oz try to figure out whether or not he really is the prophesied wizard that they have been waiting for. The trailer seemingly ends with the movie logo stamped on the screen. But it's quickly followed by a shot of an all-too familiar green witch's hand, scraping a pair of grim-looking nails across a wooden table, hinting at the darker side of this fairy-tale adventure.

'Oz: The Great and Powerful' has been earmarked for a release next March (2013). Rather than re-telling the well-known tale of Dorothy, Disney has decided to take a sideways look at the classic story and focus on the wizard and how he became to be so. If this first peek is anything to go by, the movie will be a real treat, almost Tim Burton-esque in its vision.