Continuity mistake: When Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion are marching into the Wicked Witch's castle after taking the guards' uniforms, all three of them are shown holding the same types of spears as the guards, so when they go rescue Dorothy out of the locked room and Tin Man chops through the door with his axe, where did the axe come from? (01:22:50)
Other mistake: Toto is listed in the end credits as being played by Toto, when she was actually played by a dog named Terry. A few years after the film was released, Terry's owner/trainer, Carl Spitz, changed the dog's name to Toto due to the popularity of the film, but the credit is wrong for the time.
Suggested correction: It was probably done on purpose to promote him as Toto, not as Terry, even though the dog was well known both before and after this movie for appearing in many movies. Her most famous movie before Oz was Bright Eyes with Shirley Temple.
Continuity mistake: When the Tin Man is attacked by six flying monkeys they take away his axe. Several seconds later he has it again. (01:15:20)
Suggested correction: The "several seconds later" between his axe being taken and him having it back is a 25-second scene of the Scarecrow being pulled apart, and Dorothy and Toto being taken away. There was plenty of time for the Tin Man to retrieve his axe. Also, when we see the Tin Man with his axe again, there are still many flying monkeys on the ground, so it's possible that the flying monkey who took his axe didn't just immediately fly away with it.
Continuity mistake: As the Cowardly Lion chases him, Toto runs off the Yellow Brick road into the bushes twice. (00:50:15)
Suggested correction: He only runs into the bushes one time.
Character mistake: When Dorothy and the others enter the Haunted forest, the sign reads "Witches Castle One Mile." "Witches" is plural. To be grammatically correct, it should have said "Witch's Castle," if one witch, or "Witches' Castle" if more than one.
Suggested correction: Not necessarily. There was a time when apostrophes were not consistently used to indicate possession, and even today, usage varies. In earlier periods, the apostrophe was used more sparingly, and there was less standardisation in its application. Today, apostrophes aren't used on street names (e.g. Queens Road) and many pub names (e.g. The Bulls Head), etc.
Continuity mistake: Just before the Wicked Witch leaves Munchkinland she says to Dorothy, "just try to stay out of my way" and her broomstick is facing upwards. In the next shot it's facing downwards. (00:30:35)
Suggested correction: In between shots, in order to threaten Dorothy more, the Witch leaned down towards her more than in the first shot. Therefore, she had to lower the broom so she could do that without the broom getting in the way.
These shots are back-to-back. There's literally no time for her to have lowered the broom between shots. She would have had to have done it in 1/24th of a second... about 8 times faster than it takes you to blink your eyes once at normal speed. It's just not possible.
Audio problem: When Dorothy and the Scarecrow find the apple trees she says, "Oh, look, apples." The overdub is wrong, if you look closely at her mouth when she turns around toward the camera, she's actually not saying anything. (00:39:20)
Suggested correction: Her mouth does move, and she actually says, "Oh, apples! Oh, look!"
Audio problem: Inside the Emerald City Dorothy says "Can you even dye my eyes to match my gown?" Both the girl on the left and right reply but you only hear one voice speak. (01:01:35)
Suggested correction: Only the lady on the right replies.
Revealing mistake: As the Wicked Witch throws the hour glass down at them the stone statue on the left of the monkey is shaking. (01:24:45)
Suggested correction: It's the monkey that is shaking, not the statue.
Continuity mistake: As Dorothy and the Scarecrow dance off and sing, "We're off to see the Wizard" the flowers that were on the fencepost have been removed. The stepladder by the fence has also been moved without being touched. (00:38:55)
Suggested correction: The flowers are still there.
Revealing mistake: The Scarecrow tells Dorothy to, "just bend the nail down in the back and maybe I'll slip off" but what she actually does is pull a lever. (00:35:40)
Suggested correction: I have the scene up right now, and the nail on the pole just looks like... a huge nail. Then Dorothy bends it, and the Scarecrow falls off. I'm not denying that it's a lever, because it's entirely possible that it is. The thing is, there is nothing in the scene that indicates that it absolutely has to be a lever, and it can't be a nail at all.
Audio problem: As they all stand at the door to Oz, Dorothy reaches for the knocker and we hear the overdubbed knocking sound before she touches it. (00:58:45)
Suggested correction: The sound we hear before she starts knocking is of her grabbing the knocker, and it is right on time with when she grabs it. There is no audio mistake.
Other mistake: When Dorothy's house is falling back to Kansas, just before it lands, there is about a 1 or 2 second shot of what looks like production notes written in blue ink.
Suggested correction: There are no production notes visible anywhere.
Plot hole: When the Gales' house lands in Munchkinland, Dorothy picks up Toto and glances around the house. She looks right out the window. Wouldn't she have noticed that she wasn't in Kansas then, before she got to the door? (00:19:05)
Revealing mistake: When they first meet the Cowardly Lion, he jumps off of a boulder and obviously lands on a trampoline and jumps off.
Suggested correction: There is no trampoline visible. Sure, there is most definitely something he jumps off that is hidden behind the plants, but since we don't actually see it on screen, I don't see how it's a mistake.
Revealing mistake: Right after Dorothy slaps the lion, there is a green smudge on her arm. Looks like the witch's makeup. (00:50:35)
Suggested correction: There is no "green smudge" on her arm. Perhaps this is referring to the blue mark that appears on her arm as she talks to the lion? Because I'm not seeing anything on her arm that is green.
Suggested correction: I'm 63 years old and still watch The Wizard of Oz. If I remember correctly, the axe was taken off a nearby wall.
There is no scene of him taking the axe off the wall, nor is there any axe seen on any of the walls. Plus, it's the same axe he had the whole time. But the 3 also take off their coats/disguises while the camera is on Dorothy and it's possible he had the axe tucked away in the coat.
Bishop73
In the books, the Tin Man always has his axe and he uses it often. Perhaps it is the same in the movie.
Suggested correction: I'm with Bishop73 on this one. The Tin Man has his axe with him when they put on the guards' uniforms, and when they get to the room that Dorothy is in, he uses his axe to break the doors, so it's plausible to believe that he tucked the axe in his uniform, then took it out to rescue Dorothy.
zenee