| Flying Monkey | Flying Monkey (The LEGO Batman Movie) | Winged Monkey |
| Flying Monkeys | |
|---|---|
| |
| Character Information | |
| Name | Flying Monkeys |
| Franchise | The Wizard of Oz |
| Occupation | Servants of the Wicked Witch |
| Residence | Oz |
This article is about The Wizard of Oz character, you may be looking for the LEGO Batman Movie character or the vehicle.
Flying Monkeys are non-playable characters in LEGO Dimensions, from The Wizard of Oz franchise.
Background
Winged monkeys (often referred to in adaptations and popular culture as flying monkeys) are characters from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, of enough impact between the books and the 1939 movie to have taken their own place in popular culture, regularly referenced in comedic or ironic situations as a source of evil or fear.
In the original Oz novels, the winged monkeys were just what the name implies: intelligent monkeys with bird-like wings. The Winged Monkeys were once a free people, living in the forests of Oz. They were carefree, but rather mischievous. One day the King of the Winged Monkeys, as a prank, tossed a richly dressed man into a river, ruining his costume of silk and velvet. The man whose name was Quelala was good natured enough, but his fiancée Gayelette was furious and punished the Winged Monkeys by making them the slaves to the Golden Cap she had prepared as a wedding present for her betrothed. The cap allows its possessor to command the winged monkeys three times.
Quelala used the Golden Cap only once, commanding the Winged Monkeys to stay away from Gayelette. Eventually, the cap fell into the hands of the Wicked Witch of the West, who used the Winged Monkeys to conquer the Winkie Country, defeat the armies of the Wizard of Oz, and capture Dorothy Gale and the Cowardly Lion, destroying the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman in the process.
After the witch was melted, Dorothy took the cap and used it. The first time, she commanded the Winged Monkeys to carry her and her companions to the Emerald City. Then she asked them to carry her home to Kansas, but they could not, thus resulting in her wasting the cap's charm. Her third request was to carry her and her friends over the mountain of the Hammer-Heads.
Dorothy finally gave the cap to Glinda, who ordered the monkeys to carry Dorothy's companions back to their homes in Oz, and then to cease to bother people. She then gave the Winged Monkeys the cap as their own to free them.
Nikko (Pat Walshe), the head flying monkey as he appears in the 1939 film of The Wizard of Oz
In the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, the monkeys are apparently intelligent enough to obey commands, but do not speak, as in the book. They abduct Dorothy and dismantle the Scarecrow, but do nothing to the Tin Man or the Cowardly Lion, leaving them free to put the Scarecrow back together and rescue Dorothy. There is no mention of any three wishes in the film, suggesting that the monkeys serve the witch unconditionally. Nikko (the head monkey) is shown again after the Witch orders him to throw a basket containing the dog Toto in the river (an order that Dorothy prevents him from carrying out), with the Witch as she angrily throws down the hour glass after the trio rescues Dorothy, and once more after the Witch has been melted. There is only a brief glimpse of the Golden Cap in the film: after Dorothy and the Lion reawake after Glinda breaks the spell on the poppies conjured by the Witch, she is seen watching them in anger in her crystal ball. Nikko hands her the Golden Cap and she utters the "somebody always helps that girl" line, before throwing the cap across the room angrily. The reason for this brief appearance comes from a scene deleted from the final film. In the script, after the Witch conjures up the poppies that put Dorothy, Toto and the Lion to sleep she orders Nikko to fetch the Golden Cap so she can summon the Winged Monkeys and they can take the Ruby Slippers from the sleeping girl. However, she never gets a chance as the spell is broken before she can. Why the Witch doesn't use the Golden Cap to summon the monkeys when she sends off into the Winkie Forest to capture Dorothy and Toto is unknown. In the film, the cap looks almost identical to the original artwork by Denslow in the book.
Dimensions Crisis
The winged monkeys are only affected by that their master, the Wicked Witch, witnessed the disappearing of Dorothy Gale and her companions via the vortex and battle Gandalf, Batman and Wyldstyle. Shortly after Wicked Witch melted in the end of Follow the LEGO Brick Road, it is implied by the time of Once Upon A Time Machine in the West they are later recruited as part of Lord Vortech's Army as they are seen as one of the enemies that have invaded 1885 Hill Valley.
Trivia
- Something related to these Flying Monkeys is the Winged Monkey.
- They will appear in one of the summer sets of The LEGO Batman Movie but they will look a bit diffrent than this version.
Gallery
