Pretty much everyone knows the story of the Wizard of Oz and how Dorothy Gale met the scarecrow without a brain, the Tin man without a heart, and the cowardly lion on her way to see the Wizard so that she could return to her home in Kansas. What Tin Man does is take this classic story and turns it on it's head and brings new life to the story.
In this mini-series produced by Syfy we are introduced to DG (played by Zooey Deschanel), a waitress from a small town in the US. The first part starts with DG dreaming of something which she's dreamt of before, and a woman she has no idea who she is. Within the first few minutes she arrives late for work and gets a speeding ticket, and she can't see how her life can get any worse from there. She has an argument with her parents over wanting to go to Australia, but that night Azkadellia (an evil sorceress played by Kathleen Robertson) sends some of her "Longcoats" from the O.Z. using a tornado to the "other side" to try and kill DG as she is seen as the last hope for the O.Z. (Outer Zone). Thing don't go according to plan however and DG and her parents have to jump into the tornado to escape.
When DG awakes she finds she is not in Kansas any more, she's in a forest with tall trees and the place has two suns. The forest itself I think looks a little like the one used for Endor in "Return of the Jedi", which is made all the more amusing by the fact that Tatooine in the same film is also part of a binary star system. In a further comparison to Endor this forest is also populated by a diminutive race that live in the trees, akin to how Ewoks do. These people assume that because she is tall she must be a spy so they suspend her in a cage high above the forest floor. Inside her wooden prison is another captive, Glitch who was formerly the Queen's advisor but had half his brain removed. As the Longcoats track them down, DG has an idea to escape and the two of them make a run for it into the forest.
After wandering around the forest for a while they encounter a small cabin where some Longcoats are attacking a family, but before DG can stop them it turns out that is a 3D hologram being projected, and someone in a tin suit is being forced to watch it over and over again. When they release its prisoner he is introduced as Wyatt Cain (played by Neal McDonough), a cop from Central City (referred to as a Tin man), and that he wants revenge for Zero killing his family. Where Glitch brings some depth to the story of the scarecrow without a brain, Cain is analogous to the tin man without a heart - he has lost his family and so from a certain point of view has lost his heart and is now bitter and cold. Can explains to DG that Glitch is a "head case", a criminal who has been re-educated by the state by having part of their brain removed. In seeking Zero to exact revenge Cain is heading for the old brick road which leads to Central City, so DG and Glitch tag along.
Around this part of the episode is when when Azkadellia is informed of the Longcoats failure in capturing DG at which point she kills her chief Longcoat and promotes Zero in a very Darth Vader-like manner.
Zero, you've just been promoted
On the way to the old brick road we find Cain, DG and Glitch have to cross the fields of Papay - a place which is supposedly incredibly dangerous. Whilst there they come across a cocoon like sack which is holding a creature prisoner, ready to be eaten. DG convinces Cain to use his razor to cut the creature free and it turns out to be a "viewer" called Raw (played by Raoul Trujillo) who can see into people's minds. Raw is a cowardly creature, and plays the part of the cowardly lion from the original story. Raw doesn't look human, but does bear a close resemblance to humans and appears to be from a race with limited technology. Raw chooses to join their group and they make their way to the old brick road. When you get to see the brick road it is obvious that a lot of time has passed since it was constructed and was most likely once a bright yellow road leading to the big city akin to what is seen in the original movie adaptation.
When DG reaches the brick road she suddenly remembers a tale her father once said and she dashes off in front of the others and finds Mill Town - the place where her father was from. She realises immediately that her parents weren't from our world, and they were from this strange place. The town initially appears to be deserted, like a ghost town in an old Western story, though it turns out to be populated by robots - including DG's parents. They explain to DG that her real mother sent her with them to the other side to be protected from Azkadellia. Whilst there her left palm is imprinted with a glowing symbol and is told to see the Mystic Man (played by Richard Dreyfuss) in Central City, whom some call The Wizard of Oz. From Mill Town they hitch a ride on an entertainers van and get into Central City without being seen.
In Central City they find the Mystic Man is now working in the entertainment industry, but has succumbed to the addiction of magical vapours supplied by Azkadellia. The Longcoats manage to track DG down to where the Mystic Man is and they have to make a hurried escape, but not before she learns that she can find out more about her past by visiting a place in the mountains. When they reach the snow filled mountains DG remembers a tale her robot-father once told her and she manages to open a hidden door using the symbol on her hand. Inside is the majestic hall of a palace where DG once lived as Princess of the O.Z. wither her mother. In one the rooms they find a mirror and through this Raw is able to show DG her past. She sees her sister, Azkadellia kill her when she was young and her mother bringing her back to life by giving up her own magic. At the end of this flashback we see that Azkadellia has arrived with Zero and some Longcoats and after a short battle DG is captured, Glitch is left unconscious, Cain is shot by Zero and falls out the window and through the ice below with the fate of Raw unknown.
As the second part of the story unfolds we learn that Raw was also captured and is being held in the same tower as DG. Azkadellia is interrogating her, trying to find out what their mother told DG about how to find the Emerald of the Eclipse which must be found in the next few days before the eclipse so that Azkadellia can usher a new darkness over the O.Z. and rule over it forever. As expected DG resists her attempts, and her memories of her life in the O.Z. from before are magically blocked so that no one can force the memories from her - she has to remember them for herself. One thing I've not mentioned up to this point is that their mother is actually still alive and is being held captive in a miniature world. Azkadellia tries to convince DG that she is till good and is doing this for them both, but as expected DG sees straight through these lies and she is sent to a prison cell opposite where the Mystic Man is being held. They know this is just a ploy to get them to talk so they're both very careful about what they say - but the Mystic Man does say enough to give her a clue where to go next to find the Grey Gales. This is where they finally introduce a character as Toto - the evil sorceress had visited a shapeshifter in another cell and convinced him to help DG and the others escape so she could be followed, to do this he shapeshifts into a dog and leads them all out the tower (in the meantime Cain turned out to be alive and together with Glitch they had travelled to the tower to save them).
From here until the end of the story, their quest to find the Emerald of the Eclipse continues and along the way DG discovers that everything that has gone bad in the O.Z., including her sister Azkadellia is because of a mistake she made when she was little. She has to reconcile her past and to use this to save Azkadellia, her real mother and father, and the fate of the O.Z. or else all she loves will be lost.
Although the story is incredibly long (just over 4 hours) I managed to watch it in one sitting based purely on the fact that it was really good story telling and was quite pleasing for a Sci-Fi (now Syfy) channel production. However what I don't know is how some of the story elements compare to the book this is a basically a sequel to (as DG's greatest grandmother was Dorothy Gale, the first person to visit the O.Z. from Earth). So what they've done is to not only modernise the original story, but they've changed aspects of the original story so that it can be seen as a sequel that pays tribute to the original works.
What this production has basically done is to inspire me to read the original book to see if the same magical story telling is present there also. This method of bringing sci-fi elements into a fantasy story did pay off and worked really well, however they have since tried this same story telling technique with "Alice" but I don't think that was anywhere near as good.
Buy Tin Man - 2 Disc Collectors Edition [2007] [DVD] from Amazon UK
Buy Tin Man [Blu-ray] [2007] from Amazon UK
