The Steam Engines of Oz is a 2018 Canadian fantasy adventure animated film written and directed by Sean Patrick O'Reilly. It is based on the comic book series of the same name by Erik Hendrix. It features the voices of William Shatner, Ron Perlman, Julianne Hough, Ashleigh Ball, and Scott McNeil.
Set 100 years after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Emerald City is now ruled by the Tin Man: once one of Oz's greatest heroes, but now a heartless tyrant. Under his rule, the city has advanced to steampunk levels of technology; powered by the mighty steam engines of Oz. Tin Man continues to expand the city's territory, threatening to swallow the Emerald Forest and destroy its inhabitants.
Victoria Wright, a young mechanic who works keeping the gears of the Emerald City turning, is whisked away by flying monkeys to meet Locasta, the Good Witch of the North. She dispatches Victoria on a quest to save Oz from the Tin Man's ambition. Accompanied by the Wizard's brother Phadrig and a munchkin named Gromit, Victoria leaves the Emerald City for the first time. She gathers allies including the Cowardly Lion's son Magnus, a tribe of industrious munchkins, and eventually the mysterious Wizard of Oz himself, reminds them that the Tin Man once had a heart. Together the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits set out on a quest to help find the Tin Man's heart.
Tropes:
- Action Girl:
- Victoria is a Wrench Wench who keeps the gears of Oz turning, but in her first real fight she takes on three lions and very nearly gets the best of them.
- The lioness Lucila is one half of a Battle Couple with her mate Magnus.
- Adaptational Villainy: The heroic Tin Man of the original Land of Oz novels has become a heartless despot:seeking to eliminate all magic in Oz, and to commit genocide on the munchkin race.
- And the Adventure Continues: The film ends with Victoria, Phadrig and Gromit setting sail in a Cool Airship to search for Phadrig's sons.
- Battle Couple: Magnus and Lucila are mates (and, according to their dialogue, he chose her because she was the only female willing to stand up to him) who hunt and fight and together. Fighting side-by-side (or back-to-back) they cut a swathe through the Tin Man's army.
- Blade Brake: When Victoria performs her Suicidal "Gotcha!", Lucila and Heflin jump after her, only to find themselves plummeting off a cliff. Lucila arrests her fall by digging her claws into the cliff face and sliding to stop. Heflin is not so luck (or quick witted).
- Clockpunk: Although most of the technology is Steampunk, some of the Tin Man's automaton soldiers are clearly clockwork. (And, as a Mythology Gag, look like Tik-Tok from the Land of Oz novels.)
- Cool Airship: Ends with Victoria, Phadrig and Gromit setting sail in a steam powered airship propelled by fan-like oars as they go in search of Phadrig's sons.
- Dashingly Dapper Derby: The gentlemanly and heroic Phadrig Diggs—younger brother of the Wizard of Oz—always wears a bowler hat and a monocle. He even sleeps in them.
- Dreadful Dragonfly: The Tin Man's Mecha-Mooks include giant mechanical dragonflies which he sends after the munchkin air force.
- Dual Wielding: When the lions and the munchkins take on Oz's army, Four-Star Badass Sir Blackburn charges Magnus wielding an elctro-sword in each hand.
- Dystopian Oz
- Four-Star Badass: When the lions and the munchkins take on Oz's army, the Tin Man's general Sir Blackburn charges Magnus, the leader of the lions, wielding an elctro-sword in each hand.
- Frontline General: Sir Blackburn, the commander of Oz's army, leads his troops from the front. And, even when many of his troops are breaking and running under the combined onslaught of the lions and the munchkin air force, he instead charges the the leader of the lions and takes him on single-handed.
- Gatling Good: The munchkin planes are mounted with Gatling Lightning Guns operated by gunners positioned on the wings.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: The guards on the gates of the Emerald City are completely unconcerned when their kalidah—a beast specifically trained to sniff out munchkins—starts sniffing with interest at a box on Candace's wagon, and allow her to beat it off with her umbrella and drive out of the city.
- Hanging by the Fingers: Oscar ends up hanging by his fingers when he falls off the side of the munchkins' invisible bridge.
- Happiness in Slavery: In the beginning, Victoria lives in the dungeons and spends her days maintaining the engines that keep Oz running. She is completely happy with this because she believes that the Tin Man is a kind and benevolent leader who is never wrong, so if her part in his grand design requires her to live in a dungeon and toil underground then so be it. She even thinks that part of the reason for her being kept in the dungeon is so that the dungeon guards will have employment.
- High-Class Glass: Phadrig wears a monocle all the time. He even sleeps in it.
- Insistent Terminology: There are no prisoners in the Tin Man's dungeons. They are all 'honoured guests'.
- Lightning Gun: The munchkins have Gatling lightning cannons mounted on their planes.
- Losing Your Head: The Tin Man decapitated his advisor Scarecrow for daring to question his plans to modernize Oz. The heroes find Scarecrow's head in the Emerald Palace and are shocked when it calmly starts conversing with them.
- Lost in Imitation: Oz's ruler is called the Tin Man, as he was in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, rather than the Tin Woodsman, as he was in the original Land of Oz novels.
- Love Makes You Crazy: It was losing his love Nimmie Amee that caused the Tin Man to go crazy with grief and remove his heart, and gradually become a Tin Tyrant: seeking to destroy both magic and the munchkin race as the two factors he considers responsible for her death.
- Meaningful Name: Victoria is a mechanic named 'Wright'.
- Mecha-Mooks: The Tin Man uses automatons as powerful shock troops and cannon fodder. These include giant mechanical dragonflies and brass foot soldiers (who, in a Mythology Gag, look a lot like Tik-Tok from Ozma of Oz and Tik-Tok of Oz).
- Nightmarish Factory: To reach the secret chamber where the Tin Man has hidden his heart, the heroes have to pass through the Great Steam Engine of Oz. It is blisteringly hot, everything is bathed in a hellish red glow, it is filled with smoke and steam, and coal keeps raining down upon their heads. Phadrig and Gromit both almost pass out from the exertion it takes to get through.
- No OSHA Compliance: The machine Victoria is working on at the start of the film is one that obviously requires regular maintenance (after all, that's her job), so surely it would have made more sense to design it so that all parts that will need replacing can be accessed without the mechanic having to climb up the outside of the machine with no ladders or safety lines, and over the top of exposed whirring gears? Or, at least, have some way of turning the machine off while it is worked on?
- Parasol of Pain: Cool Old Lady Candace drives off the kalidah (a creature with a body like a bear, a head like a tiger, and claws long and sharp enough to tear a lion in two) that is sniffing at the box where Victoria, Phadrig and Gromit are hiding by whacking it repeatedly with her umbrella.
- Self-Restraint: At the start of the film, Victoria has keys not only to her dungeon cell, but the other cells and the main doors of the dungeon. She lets herself out each morning to go work, and locks herself back up at night. It never occurs to her to escape because she does not consider herself a prisoner: instead believing that being kept in the dungeons is her part in the Tin Man's grand design.
- Shock Stick: The Tin Man's troops carry electrified swords.
- Spikes of Doom: The munchkin village is surrounded by a huge ditch (essentially an empty moat) which is lined with sharp spikes at the bottom. The only way to cross is via a single invisible bridge.
- Steampunk: The Tin Man is now the ruler of the Emerald City and has turned the city into a steam powered Utopia, driven by the eponymous steam engines. Now he seeks to expand his rule over the rest of Oz, and wipe out magic and replace it with technology.
- Suicidal "Gotcha!": When Victoria is cornered by Lucila and Heflin in the Emerald Forest, she takes a step backwards and drops off the edge of a cliff. The two lions leap after her, only to find her hanging from a tree root a short distance below the rim. Lucila stops her own fall by digging her claws into the cliff face, but Heflin face plants at the base of the cliff.
- Tin Tyrant: The Emerald City is now ruled by the Tin Man: once one of Oz's greatest heroes, but now a (literally) heartless tyrant. Under his rule, the city has advanced to steampunk levels of technology; powered by the mighty steam engines of Oz. Tin Man continues to expand the city's territory, threatening to swallow the Emerald Forest and destroy its inhabitants.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Tin Man honestly believes that his grand plan to bring all Oz under his rule, to destroy all magic and replace it with his Steampunk technology, and to wipe out the munchkins are all actions that are for the benefit of Oz.
- Wrench Wench: Victoria Wright is a young mechanic who works keeping the eponymous steam engines of Oz running.
- The X of Y
