Disney & Oz Part I: Why Walt's dreams of an Oz movie never came to be

The Oz fill-in we got

Walt was never one to abandon an idea fully. He wanted a fantasy musical of some sort and so turned to a backup project of Victor Herbert's comic operetta, Babes in Toyland. It was obvious this was supposed to be Disney's answer to Oz in the lavish musical numbers and fanciful settings. There was Annette as Mary Contrary, Ray Bolger (who'd played the Scarecrow) as the villain Barnaby, and Ed Wynn (who famously regretted turning down the role of the Wizard) as a toymaker. Then there's how Babes existed in the first place as Herbert's answer to a Wizard stage show. 

The movie wasn't a huge success but Walt still had ideas for the property. He even wanted Oz locations like the Emerald City used in the Storybook Canal Boats at Disneyland and a Rocky Candy Mountain ride. In 1965, he invited Bolger to make the first of four successful LP albums of music and storytelling based on the Oz books, including some of the music intended for Rainbow Road. 

Sadly, any other plans for the property were put aside when Walt died in 1966. Disney held the rights to the Oz books even after the main Wizard story entered the public domain and was used by other studios in various ways. 

It took until 1980 for Disney Productions to get interested in Oz again. And the results…well, that's worthy of another story, one that more than has a stunning legacy of its own.