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| In later books, The Cowardly Lion often accompanies Dorothy on her adventures. His favored companion is the ]. He is Princess ]'s chief guardian on state occasions. | In later books, The Cowardly Lion often accompanies Dorothy on her adventures. His favored companion is the ]. He is Princess ]'s chief guardian on state occasions. | ||
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| ==The 1939 movie== | |||
| In the classic ] movie '']'', The Cowardly Lion was anthropomorphic and played by ]. Bert Lahr's biography, written by his son ], is entitled ''Notes on a Cowardly Lion''. | |||
| ==Modern works and parodies== | ==Modern works and parodies== | ||
Revision as of 17:44, 26 April 2007
The Cowardly Lion is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. He is a lion, but he talks and interacts with humans.
The classic books
The Cowardly Lion makes his first appearance in the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He is the last of the companions Dorothy befriends on her way to the Emerald City. The Cowardly Lion joins her so that he can ask The Wizard for courage, being ashamed that, in his cultural role as the King of the Beasts, he is not indeed brave. Despite outward evidence that he is a coward, The Cowardly Lion displays great bravery along the way. In the rest of Baum's Oz series, the Lion was never again cast in a major role, used only as a minor character.
In later books, The Cowardly Lion often accompanies Dorothy on her adventures. His favored companion is the Hungry Tiger. He is Princess Ozma's chief guardian on state occasions.
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Modern works and parodies
The Cowardly Lion 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 its Broadway musical adaptation. In both works he is first seen as a Lion Cub (lion with human attributes) who has been torn from his mother and used as an experiment (in the book by Dr. Dillamond's replacement, and in the musical an agent of the Wizard) on the nature of Animals. Elphaba saves the lion cub who in the end of both adaptions becomes a Witch Hunter. He also appears in Maguire's sequel Son of a Witch. As of October 2006, Maguire is writing a third Oz novel entitled A Cowardly War in which the central character will be the Cowardly Lion.
Todd McFarlane's action figure line 'The Twisted Land of Oz', shows the lion as a walking corpse holding his entrails; according to the accompanying story, he was a crusader in a past life that betrayed his men in the heat of battle.
In The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, The Cowardly Lion is played by Fozzie Bear.
In Matt Groening's cartoon Futurama episode "Anthology of Interest II" the Cowardly Lion is mentioned as "the other guy" in the Wizard of Oz parody and is portrayed by Dr. Zoidberg.
The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles#1 comic establishes that, in January 2006, The Cowardly Lion accompanied The Hungry Tiger and two Tin Woodsmen in chasing Alice Liddell, the protagonist of Lewis Carroll's the Lion King. The Lion caught Liddell, but was stopped by Gale before he could do anything else.
Fictional History
Origins
In the original Oz books, the Lion's origins were never explicitely stated. However, many works since then have either hinted at or revealed elements of backstory for the Cowardly Lion. Partly due to the large amount of written material about Oz, many of these stories are contradictory to each other or to the "Famous Forty" Oz books, and many fans don't accept them as 'canon'.
A skittish and frightful lion cub was seen at Shiz University in Gregory Maguire's novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The cub had been the result of cruel experiments by Dr. Dillamond's replacement teacher (In the musical, it was an agent of the Wizard) and was saved by Elphaba and some other students. This was heavily hinted to be a younger form of the Cowardly Lion.
However, the book "Lion of Oz and the badge of Courage" and its accompanying animated feature, "Lion of Oz", show the Lion as having grown up in a zoo in America. His caretaker was the man who would become the Wizard of Oz; this man took the Lion on a balloon ride one night, which resulted in the two becoming stranded in Oz.
Prior to 'The Wizard of Oz'
After landing in the land of Oz (or growing up there, as the case may be), "Lion in Oz" depicts the Lion on a quest to reunite with his friend, the Wizard of Oz. For the duration of the quest, the Lion has a Badge of Courage which makes him exceedingly brave. As he travels across the land, he finds himself repeatedly threatened and manipulated by the Wicked Witch of the East.
At the end of this story, he befriends the Flower of Oz, a seemingly great magical power that the witch seeks; Together the two defeat the Witch. However, the Lion's Badge of Courage is broken in the process and he becomes cowardly. In shame, he leaves his friends and takes off on his own through the forests, where he eventually meets Dorothy, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow.
The Wizard of Oz and further Oz books
The Lion travels with Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and Toto on the yellow brick road on their journey to see the Wizard of Oz. He tells his new companions that he is cowardly and wishes to see the wizard to regain his courage.
However, during the course of the book, the Cowardly Lion seems to be the bravest member of the party, showing a willingness to stand by and defend his friends even if it involves certain death. When the group reaches the Emerald City at the end of the book, the Wizard gives the Lion a placebo Badge of Courage which makes him believe he has regained his courageous nature.
In subsequent Oz books by Baum, the Lion was shown to have continued being courageous and loyal. He befriended the Hungry Tiger in "Ozma of Oz" and the two have become Ozma's personal guards.
Possible Futures
In the comic book series 'Oz Squad', the four original characters from 'The Wizard of Oz' have become crime-fighters in America some thirty years since the events of the original books. In this series, the Lion is a fierce fighter and can also disguise himself perfectly as a human.
Political interpretations
Main article: Political interpretations of the Wonderful Wizard of OzSome historians, such as high school history teacher Henry Littlefield, have suggested that Baum modeled the Cowardly Lion after politician William Jennings Bryan.
References
- L. Frank Baum, Michael Patrick Hearn, The Annotated Wizard of Oz, p 148, ISBN 0-517-500868
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