Home Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kansas

'The Wizard of Oz' was based on the story 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' by L. Frank Baum and was made by MGM Studios. At a cost of just over 2.7 million dollars, it was the studio's most expensive production up to that point in time. Although a number of different people worked as director on the film, Victor Fleming is the only one to receive official credit in the film's titles.

All original songs for the film were written by the partnership of Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg. They won an Oscar for Best Original Song with 'Over the Rainbow', which was sung by Judy Garland in the lead role of Dorothy Gale.

The earlier scenes of the movie were shot in black and white and followed Dorothy on the Kansas farm where she lived with her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry. While climbing through a window to escape a tornado, Dorothy was struck on the head and lapsed into unconsciousness. The Kansas farmhouse was then blown away to the Land of Oz, filmed in colour, and landed on top of the Wicked Witch of the East and killed her. Glinda, the Good Witch, appeared and magically transferred a pair of ruby slippers the Wicked Witch was wearing onto Dorothy's feet. Dorothy asked how she could get home to Kansas and was told to 'follow the yellow brick road' to the Emerald City and ask The Wizard of Oz. Cutting a long story short, the Wizard wasn't able to get Dorothy back to Kansas so Glinda told her to click the heels of the ruby slippers together and say 'there's no place like home'. Dorothy awoke from her unconscious state in her bed back home in Kansas with family and friends around her.

Answer: Lassie

'Lassie Come Home' was based on the novel of the same name written by Eric Knight. It was the first of what would be a series of seven Lassie films made by MGM Studios in the 1940s. It starred Roddy McDowall as Joe, Elizabeth Taylor as Priscilla and Pal as Lassie.

The film was set in Yorkshire where Joe's parents, suffering from the effects of the Depression, were forced to sell his dog, Lassie, to a wealthy Duke. After escaping many times to return to Joe, the Duke took Lassie to his home in Scotland. His granddaughter Priscilla sensed that Lassie was unhappy in her new home and helped her escape one more time. Through many trials and perils, Lassie eventually made her way back to Yorkshire and Joe.

Answer: Tom, Dick and Harry

An all-star cast was assembled for 'The Great Escape', which was based on the true account of an escape attempt from the P.O.W. Camp, Stalag Luft III, in World War II. The book was written by Paul Brickhill, an Australian serviceman held captive in the camp, and was also titled 'The Great Escape'.

Steve McQueen, Sir Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Garner, Gordon Jackson, Donald Pleasence and James Coburn are amongst the better known actors to appear in the film.

Whilst in the camp, each man was assigned their own pivotal role in making the escape successful, from digging the tunnels, scrounging materials, forging identification documents, tailoring outfits, manufacturing tools and other implements, even down to dispersing the dirt that had been dug out. The escape was precise and meticulous in its planning. When the tunnel code-named 'Harry' was finally put into action, 76 men escaped from the camp; only three were able to make it over the German border, though.

Answer: I'm Going Home

'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' was written by Richard O'Brien and Jim Sharman and was an adaptation of the stage musical 'The Rocky Horror Show', also written by O'Brien. It was a spoof/parody of the B-grade horror and science fiction genres and has gone on to become one of the biggest cult classics in cinema history. In some places it is still screened in cinemas where the audience members participate with the film by mimicking the on-screen action and ad-libbing comments to the dialogue.

Sadly for Dr. Frank-N-Furter, played by Tim Curry, he never got to see his home planet again. Shortly after his performance he was killed by O'Briens character Riff Raff.

To the best of my knowledge, neither Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel or Lynyrd Skynyrd contributed to the soundtrack with new versions of 'Subterranean Homesick Blues', 'Homeward Bound' and 'Sweet Home Alabama' respectively.

Answer: Speak & Spell

'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Henry Thomas as Elliott, Drew Barrymore as his younger sister Gertie and Robert MacNaughton as his older brother Michael. It is one of the most successful and popular science fiction movies ever made and widely regarded as the best.

Elliot first coaxed E.T. into the family home by leaving a trail of sweets on the ground. Initially, Elliot hid E.T. from the rest of the family, but he eventually let his siblings in on the secret. While in the home, E.T. learnt to speak English by watching 'Sesame Street' with Gertie and made his communication device out of common items he found around the house, including the Speak & Spell. On the night of Halloween, E.T. was disguised as a ghost and was taken to a forested area by Elliot where he used this contraption to send a message to his home planet to come and pick him up.

Answer: Hovercrafts

'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' was written, produced and directed by John Hughes and starred Steve Martin and John Candy in the roles of Neal Page and Del Griffith respectively.

Neal's first encounter with Del occurred when he was running to catch a taxi and tripped over a suitcase that Del had left on the footpath. They eventually became travelling partners and a comedy of errors followed them all the way. Taxis were missed, planes were diverted, money was stolen and a rental car was burned. Chicago was reached eventually, however, and Neal, who had realised Del had no family, invited him to share Thanksgiving in his home.

Answer: Two dogs, one cat

'Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey' was a remake of the 1963 Disney film 'The Incredible Journey', which itself was based on the Sheila Burnford book of the same name. The three animal characters of the movie are Chance, an American bulldog voiced by Michael J. Fox, Shadow, a golden retriever voiced by Don Ameche and Sassy, a Himalayan cat voiced by Sally Field.

The three pets were sent to stay with a family friend while their owners were on a holiday but did not understand this situation and thought they had been abandoned. They decided to embark on a journey home through the wilderness and along the way encountered bears, a mountain lion, a porcupine and park rangers. A happy ending ensued as the pets arrived back home to be reunited with their owners.

Answer: Private James Ryan

'Saving Private Ryan' was written by Robert Rodat and, although set during World War II, was actually inspired by a memorial monument he had seen dedicated to four brothers who had been killed during the American Civil War. It starred Matt Damon as Private First Class James Francis Ryan and Tom Hanks as Captain John H. Miller and was directed by Steven Spielberg and won him a second Academy Award for Best Director.

Captain Miller was placed in charge of a band of seven men whose mission was to find Private Ryan. Having accomplished this, they discovered that Ryan was not keen on going home. Instead, he insisted he still had unfinished military duties and that his fellow soldiers were the only brothers he had left. Miller took control of the operation, defending a bridge and destroying a unit of approaching German tanks, and lost his life doing so. The final scenes of the movie showed an elderly Ryan saluting Miller's grave.

'Private Benjamin' is a 1980 film release starring Goldie Hawn.

Answer: Andy

'Toy Story 2' was the sequel to 1995's 'Toy Story' and was the third film to be made by the animation team at Pixar Studios. The film starred most of the characters from the first movie, most notably Woody, voiced by Tom Hanks and Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Tim Allen, but also introduced some new characters. The most important of these new characters were Jessie the cowgirl, Stinky Pete the prospector and Bullseye the horse. These three, as well as Woody, were once all characters from a television show called 'Woody's Roundup'.

In early scenes of the movie, Andy was playing with his toys before heading off to summer camp and accidently tore part of Woody's arm from his body. This forced Andy, who intended to take Woody to camp with him, to leave his beloved toy at home. Some scenes later, Woody was stolen from a garage sale that Andy's mum was having by Al, a toy store owner, to complete the set of the four dolls from the 'Woody's Roundup' television show which he was then going to sell to a Japanese toy museum for a very handsome sum of money. Al got a toy mender to make some repairs to Woody to return him to an as-new condition and the name 'Andy' on Woody's shoe was painted over. Enter Buzz and the gang, however, and Woody was spared from spending the rest of his life inside a cardboard box and returned home to Andy, taking Jessie and Bullseye with him.

Sid was a neighbour of Andy's who finds sadistic pleasure in torturing toys.

Answer: He was deceased

The two main characters in 'Getting Home' were Zhao and Liu, two workmates both in their fifties. After the pair had a night of heavy drinking, Zhao woke the following morning to find Liu had passed away. Zhao then committed himself to fulfilling a promise he had made to Liu about getting him home.

In typical 'road-movie' style, the action followed Zhao as he met many characters on his walking journey, all the while carrying his deceased friend on his back. The original Chinese title of 'Getting Home' is borrowed from a proverb which translates to 'a falling leaf returns to its roots'.