Yes, there is a new version of Total Recall coming soon, but they’re just doing a straight
remake. But they could have gotten the whole Wicked audience had they done a reinventing of the subject
with a new twist: Toto Recall.
Here’s how it would work:
Toto was a soldier of fortune sent by the Munchins to save
them from the Wicked Witches, but he was captured outside the castle of the
Wicked Witch of the West, whereupon he had his memory erased and was turned
into a little dog and sent through time and space to Kansas to be Dorothy’s
pet. Oh, but the Good Witch Glinda sent a portal back to Oz in the form of a
tornado, and hence Toto was sent back on his mission in a different form! And
that’s why the Wicked Witch always said she was going to get Dorothy’s “little
dog too”: because she knew he was a highly-skilled commando sent to destroy her
(even if he didn’t remember this fact yet)!
And how else do you think Dorothy knew that the pail of
water would destroy the Wicked Witch of the West? Why, it’s only because Toto
(the dog form of the crack commando) sent her that information telepathically!
But he had had his mind erased before, until they first visited the Wizard of
Oz, who secretly reinstated Toto’s memory to help Dorothy kill the Wicked Witch!
It wasn’t a fool’s errand after all! For the Wizard knew how to kill her, and
that Toto was sent for such a purpose, but he wanted to keep his involvement
out of it for fear of reprisals from the Wicked Witch Galactic Council, who
always sends replacement Wicked Witches whenever one gets squished by a house
or melted by water or whatever (But due to red tape and stuff, it always takes
so long for them to send new Wicked Witches, it always makes sense to knock
them off whenever you can!). And that’s why the Wizard of Oz always pretends to
be a charlatan: so the Wicked Witch Consortium doesn’t suspect he’s their
deadly enemy (even though he is: but please don’t tell them)!
And at the end of The Wizard of Oz, Toto secretly gets his chance to be restored to his
rightful form, but he decides he and Dorothy have been through so much together
and he loves her so much that he has his memory erased again and returns to
Kansas with her to continue being her dog, rather than take a chance that she
might reject him in his natural form, or question his motives at any time of
their companionship. (Once again proving the loyal character of dogs in
literature! And the end credits music can be “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, by the
Stooges.)
Maybe this can be the next big Wizard of Oz spin-off musical?
