Oz The Great And Powerful

The teaser for Sam Raimi's Oz The Great And Powerful first proposed the James Franco-starring film's questions of artistic ownership in the corporate sphere—namely by asking whether a Wizard Of Oz "prequel" can truly be accepted as such, when it's not allowed to use any of that movie's ideas or imagery—the second, fuller trailer delves deeper into those examinations of identity. Namely, who is James Franco's so-called "wizard," and if his so-called "magic" is nothing but an act of performance art that reveals the artificiality of creating illusion, is that not its own "magic" worthy of ponderous consideration?

The three talking hats played by Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams, plus a Zach Braff-voiced talking monkey all seem to support this thesis, and they offer Franco a huge pile of gold coins to present his dissertation in the form of defeating the Wicked Witch. However, their sudden appreciation for them is certainly suspect, considering none of them even bother to acknowledge that Franco is also a Yale doctoral candidate with a National Entertainment Journalism award-nominated blog. So, it's unclear as to why he would help them. Do they even know he just put out a poetry book?