A question regarding the Wizard of Oz movie

[Zsinj]

Two years ago, I learned that not only was The Wizard of Oz movie based on a book by L. Frank Baum, but that Baum wrote a series of Oz books. I'm not really interested in reading them, since they look way too whimsical for my tastes, but I wonder why they never made any more movies based on the Oz series of novels. The only other Oz movie I've seen was Return to Oz, which was pretty good, imo, since it had a dark, Tim Burtonesque feel to it, but whether it's based on one of the books I don't know. Does anyone here know why there wasn't any more Oz movies made from the books?
And also, I have another question relating two the Oz series. There were several characters/creatures that I noticed were in the Wizard of Oz book that they didn't put in the movies, such as these white-bearded guards that were all dressed in emerald green with glasses and carried bayonette rifles, and these really wierd, freaky-looking three headed creatures with long necks, big eyes and ears, and sugarbowl haircuts. Does anyone know what these creatures were, and why they didn't put them in the movie?
Any answers you could give me would be dearly appreciated. Thanx! :D

[Eldanuumea]

I don't know the answers to your questions, Zsinj, but I do rememebr reading in the original Oz books about a society of people who were made of porcelain. I recall being quite fascinated, as young child, to read of people who could shatter so easily.

[Calandra]

The Oz books are amazing, and the Wizard of Oz was probably the worst of the bunch. I remember my dad read them to me as a kid. They are extremely creative and real precursors to the genre. I mean, they were written in the 20's I think!!! There were some great characters like the gnome king, Ozma, Ticktock, Shaggy, Polychome - and very clever creatures. They were also quite scary in parts for a kid. However, they are probably geared to quite a young age group, like maybe 6-10, and if I have kids I will definitely read these books to them.

Maybe there were no more movies made because the other books are quite different and more fantastic in nature. The Wizard of Oz made a good mainstream movie because it had the Kansas element tying it to the real world, and then clear good and evil characters that people could relate to like witches. The other books are more whimsical and strange.

I am glad you brought up this topic because I think that the Oz books are very good works of fantasy, and are strangely rarely ever mentioned on this forum.