Scarecrow (Oz)

The Scarecrow has appeared in nearly every early Oz film, portrayed by different actors each time.

• The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays (1908): Frank Burns
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910): Robert Z. Leonard
• The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914): Herbert Glennon
• His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914): Frank Moore
• Wizard of Oz (1925): Larry Semon (just a man in disguise)
• The Land of Oz (1932): Donald Henderson

Ray Bolger, The Wizard of Oz 1939

In the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow was played by Ray Bolger in what is arguably the actor's most famous role. He was originally cast as the Tin Woodsman, but Bolger had always wanted to play the Scarecrow, he was so upset about it since he wanted to switch roles with Buddy Ebsen, who was originally going to play the Scarecrow. Ebsen didn't mind the swap, so Bolger and Ebsen swapped roles. While Ray was pleased with his role as the Scarecrow, the aluminum dust from Ebsen's Tin Man make-up nearly choked him to death (causing Ebsen to have to give up that role). Ebsen was replaced by Jack Haley for his role of the Tin Man. Bolger's costume consisted of a straw-stuffed suit and a light face mask of rubber designed to simulate burlap. The mask was fragile, and usually had to be completely replaced at the start of each new day of filming.[3] Bolger's Scarecrow costume, minus the mask, is part of the collections of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.[4] Bolger was a talented dancer, so The Scarecrow was given an extended dance sequence in the movie. However, to shorten the movie, much of this sequence was edited out since it would slow down the pace of the film. While Bolger admitted in a 1939 radio broadcast that he was too young to have seen Fred Stone play the Scarecrow in the 1902 musical extravaganza, he told Stone on the broadcast that the first play he was allowed to see was The Red Mill featuring Stone, and that his performance in that play was an inspiration.

During the scene where the scarecrow gets his "brain" (an honorary PhD diploma) from the Wizard he incorrectly recites the Pythagorean theorem, emphasizing that the real gift bestowed upon the characters was confidence in qualities they already possess.

Bolger also portrayed the Scarecrow's Kansas counterpart, Hunk (one of Aunt Em and Uncle Henry's farmworkers), newly created for the film by screenwriter Noel Langley.[5] A scene which was written in the script, but dropped before filming commenced, ended the movie by sending Hunk off to agricultural college, with Dorothy promising to write. The scene implied the potential for a romance between the two characters.

He helps Zeke (Cowardly Lion's alter ego) and Hickory (Tin Man's alter ego) repair a wagon. Unlike Zeke, Hickory and Hunk lose their hats with Uncle Henry as they struggle to open the cellar when the tornado approaches their farm. He closes and locks the cellar with Zeke when Dorothy arrives at the farmhouse. Hunk reunites with Dorothy when she awakens from being unconscious. He is seen with Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, Zeke, Hickory, and Professor Marvel (The Wizard's alter ego).

In 1996, they made a cartoon animated The Oz Kids. The Scarecrow now rules the Emerald City and has a son named Scarecrow, Jr. His son is smart and knows everything just like him. Scarecrow, Sr. is voiced by Andy Milder.

In the 2003 musical of Gregory Maguire's interpretation of the Oz franchise titled Wicked, this version of the Scarecrow was Fiyero Tigelaar, the love interest of Elphaba Thropp. Fiyero attends school with Elphaba and Glinda the Good, while they were all still young. Fiyero takes a special interest in Elphaba. However, he is highly sought after by Elphaba's roommate, Glinda. Fiyero and Elphaba share a secret romance, and when she leaves for the Emerald City, he gives her a long and meaningful goodbye. Many years later, after Elphaba goes into hiding, we are shown that Glinda and Fiyero are to be wed. However this is not because of love, at least not on Fiyero's part, for he still loves Elphaba. Once she reappears in the Emerald City, they escape together, much to Glinda's discontent. Elphaba then goes to the site of her sister's death (Dorothy's arrival into Oz). Here she is ambushed by guards, and about to be taken away, when Fiyero saves her, but he is merely sacrificing himself to save her. Elphaba in a fit of rage and heartbreak reads a spell to keep Fiyero safe, with the words of the spell including pleas to let him feel no pain and never die however they try to destroy him. Although Elphaba abandons the spell as she believes it is not working, it is not until the end of the production that we are shown that Fiyero is still alive, and has been transformed into the Scarecrow from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz".

The Scarecrow is also a minor character in author Gregory Maguire's revisionist novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and is made a more prominent character in its Broadway musical adaptation Wicked. In the musical, the Scarecrow is revealed to be the remnants of Fiyero after he was captured by the Wizard's officials, but made impervious to injury by Elphaba's incomplete spell. The Fiyero-Scarecrow executes a plan to save Elphaba through using the rumor that water will melt her; thus she stays alive and the two move out of Oz. This has no basis in the book other than that in the final scenes Elphaba hopes that the Scarecrow is really her beloved Fiyero in disguise, which is proven to be a false hope when he is attacked and she sees that he is nothing but straw. The Scarecrow is featured more prominently in Son of a Witch, Maguire's sequel to Wicked. In that novel, the Scarecrow helps the Witch's son Liir avoid political turmoil in the Emerald City after the Wizard's departure. Later, various powerful interests place a different Scarecrow on the throne of Oz to serve as a puppet ruler; the suggestion is that most residents of Oz are unable to distinguish one Scarecrow from another. In the musical, the Fiyero-Scarecrow's appearance and style of walking are based on Bolger's portrayal of the Scarecrow in the 1939 film.

In the 2013 film Oz the Great and Powerful, the Scarecrow's origins are explained; being fabricated by the townspeople of Oz as a diversionary tactic during the retaliatory attack on the Emerald City.[6]

• In the 1925 film, Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man were actually human farmhands, who were blown to Oz by the tornado along with Dorothy. Dorothy, in another major departure from the novel, turns out to be the rightful ruler of Oz, having been exiled to Kansas as a baby.

• In the 1961 animated TV series, Tales of the Wizard of Oz and its sequel, the 1964 NBC animated television special Return to Oz, the Scarecrow (here named Socrates) was voiced by Alfie Scopp.

• Hinton Battle originated the role of the Scarecrow in the 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz, and Michael Jackson played the Scarecrow in the 1978 film adaptation. This version of the Scarecrow was a more tragic character before Dorothy rescues him; while hung on his pole, the crows he is unable to scare, who force him to humiliate himself and entertain them, torment him day and night. They force him to sing the song, "You Can't Win", meaning that he cannot escape the crows' rule and his bad luck. While Stan Winston created Jackson's makeup, it was applied to Jackson's face by Michael R. Thomas who portrayed the Scarecrow in Barry Mahon's The Wonderful Land of Oz (1969), as well as doing the makeup for that film. Elijah Kelley portrayed the Scarecrow in the TV special The Wiz Live!, as well as the farmhand Sticks.

• In the animated film Journey Back to Oz (produced in 1964 but not released until the 1970s), the Scarecrow was voiced by Mickey Rooney.

• In an episode of The World's Greatest Super Friends titled "Planet of Oz," Aquaman temporarily became the Scarecrow after a tornado took him, Superman and Wonder Woman to Mister Mxyzptlk’s Planet of Oz.

• In a 1981 episode of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Shaggy is dressed as the Scarecrow after a tornado took him, Scooby, and Scrappy to "Ahz", a direct spoof of Oz with a different spelling by its enunciation.

• Justin Case, an English bicycle acrobat, appeared briefly as the Scarecrow in the 1985 film Return to Oz. He was turned into an ornament by Nome King. Scarecrow was restored when Dorothy quoted Oz upon touching a green ornament. When Princess Ozma was freed from her mirror prison, Scarecrow allows her to regain the throne.

• A character inspired by the Scarecrow appears in Alan Moore's Lost Girls. In the work, a young farmboy becomes Dorothy Gale's first sex partner. However, she soon grows bored of him because of his lack of intelligence and imagination, comparing it to having sex with something you use to scare the crows. The "scarecrow" tries to prove to Dorothy that he does have a brain and writes her a poem.

• Jackson Browne performed this character in the 1995 television special The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True. The Kansas farmworker Hunk does not appear in this production. Browne sang a folk music tempo of If I Only Had a Brain and the bridge verses sung by the Scarecrow in Nathan Lane's longer version of If I Only Had the Nerve.

• In the 2005 ABC television movie The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, Kermit the Frog plays the role of the Scarecrow. Kermit's other role was himself. Prior to Dorothy's journey, he organizes a talent scout for a star for a new show. After Dorothy's return, he hires her.

• In the 2007 Sci Fi television miniseries Tin Man, the Scarecrow is re-imagined as the character named "Glitch" (played by Alan Cumming). Formerly a chief adviser to the queen of the Outer Zone (O.Z.) named Ambrose, he resists her usurper (and daughter), the evil sorceress Azkadellia and has his brain removed by the physician as a reeducation measure. In the series, he wanders the O.Z. searching for his brain and becomes a companion of the protagonist, a girl named DG.

• In the 2007 VeggieTales episode The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's, the Scarecrow and his Kansas counterpart from the 1939 film were played by Mr. Lunt the Gourd.

• A commercial for GE smart-grid technology, which first aired during the Super Bowl XLIII, featured a computerized Scarecrow dancing clumsily on a radio tower singing "If I Only Had a Brain".

• American voice actor Michael Gough voices the Scarecrow in 2011's direct-to-DVD animated film Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz.

• The Scarecrow appears in the 2012 film Dorothy and the Witches of Oz played by Ari Zigaris. He appears on Earth in the form of a man named Allen Denslow who works as the illustrator of Dorothy Gale's books.

• The Scarecrow appeared in the animated film Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (which is based on Dorothy of Oz), voiced by Dan Aykroyd.

• The Scarecrow (along with his other friends from OZ) are playable in the Nintendo 3DS game Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.

• In the 2014 Dorothy Must Die series by Danielle Paige that details a darker depiction of the Land of Oz, the Scarecrow and Dorothy's other companions have been corrupted by their gifts and Dorothy's use of magic. The Scarecrow has become a twisted 'mad scientist', performing various experiments on the animals to turn them into spies or warriors for Dorothy's army, as well as extracting their brains to increase his own. He is 'killed' in the second novel in the series The Wicked Will Rise, when the Wizard takes his brains as part of a plan to bring Oz and Kansas together.

• In Emerald City, a more modern retelling of the series, the Scarecrow equivalent in the series is "Lucas" (portrayed by Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and is an amnesic man who is rescued by Dorothy when she finds him being crucified at the start of her journey. In the course of the film it is revealed that he is actually Rowan, the husband of Glinda, with his amnesia the result of a spell Glinda casts so that he couldn't betray her secrets if he was captured, but the restoration of his memory puts him and Dorothy at odds, as his devotion to Glinda leaves him incapable of recognizing Dorothy's real objections to Glinda's extreme methods to train younger witches. Psychologically torn between his memories as Rowan and his new relationships as Lucas, he eventually forces Dorothy to stab him to stop himself strangling her, culminating in Dorothy leaving him strung up like a scarecrow to symbolically reflect his desire to have never met her. Despite this, he appears in Kansas in the season finale, accompanied by Toto, to ask Dorothy to return with him to Oz.

• The Scarecrow appeared in the Once Upon a Time episode "Our Decay", voiced by Paul Scheer. Many years ago, Zelena the Wicked Witch of the West targeted him for his brain as part of her attempt to create a time-travel spell. Before she can remove Scarecrow's brain, Dorothy and Toto arrived where they managed to get away from Zelena. With help from Hades who enchanted a bicycle that was found at the remains of Dorothy's house, Zelena was able to locate where Dorothy and Scarecrow are hiding. After magically freezing Dorothy, Zelena successfully removed Scarecrow's brain and was about to show it to Hades only to find that he is not there.

• Scarecrow appears in Lego Dimensions, voiced by William Salyers. During the part of the game that takes place in the Land of Oz, Batman mistook Scarecrow for his Scarecrow.

• Scarecrow appears in Lost In Oz, voiced by Stephen Stanton.

• Scarecrow appears in Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, voiced by Bill Fagerbakke.

• Scarecrow appears in The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. Alongside Dorothy and the rest of her friends, Scarecrow is somehow transported from the Land of Oz to Harmony Town in the Systar System.

• In the pages of Shazam!, Scarecrow is a resident of the Magiclands location called Wozenderlands. He and the Munchkins find some of the Shazam Family in their part of Wozenderlands. When Billy Batson, Mary Bromfield, and C.C. Batson are teleported to Wozenderlands, they are taken by Scarecrow and the Munchkins to meet with Dorothy Gale. Scarecrow stated that Dorothy Gale and Alice united the Land of Oz and Wonderland to save them from the threats that came from the Monsterlands. They are attacked by Cheshire Cat near the Blue Brick Road that goes through the Queen of Hearts' forest causing Billy and Mary to drive him off. When Mamaragan appeared and also teleported the rest of the foster siblings to Wozenderlands, White Rabbit then gives Scarecrow the axe that belonged to the Tin Man while apologizing for what the Queen of Hearts and her Card Soldiers did to him.[7] When Mister Mind has Shazam cast a spell to unite the seven Magiclands, Scarecrow and White Rabbit start to see the effects of it.[8]