THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) isn't great because it was an achievement for its time--it's great because it's a wholly inescapable whirlwind of brilliance. It's the sort of film that children beg to see over and over again, and that adults routinely need to revisit just to remind them just how magical a movie can be. Well, we're happy to oblige.

Dorothy is a young farm girl in rural Kansas living with her aunt and uncle. After a dust-up between Dorothy's trusty dog Toto and the evil Miss Gulch, the sheriff orders the canine be destroyed. Dorothy flees and, in her escape, finds herself caught up in a tornado that whisks her away to the mystical land of Oz, where music, munchkins, lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) await her.

Dorothy's absolute purity of heart is countered by the wretchedly awful Wicked Witch of the West in one of the greatest good versus evil battles of all time. After an inadvertent house-crushing of the Wicked Witch's sister, Dorothy must flee to the Emerald City to speak to the Wizard of Oz and get herself gone before the Wicked Witch gets a hold of her precious and all-powerful ruby red slippers.