THE HISTORY OF THE FLYING MONKEYS OF OZ...

As a child, those flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz always scared the crap out of me. I'm NOT scared of flying monkeys anymore. If I ever encounter any... I'll stomp on them with my ruby slippers....Be gone flying monkeys...You have no power here LOL.....

In the original Oz novels, winged monkeys were just what the name implies: intelligent monkeys with 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.

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 kidnap 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.