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.
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In the original Oz novels, these 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, a sorceress named 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 Great Oz, and capture Dorothy 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 them the cap as their own, to free them.
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. This makes them seem considerably more "animalistic" and less benign. 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. 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 puts 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.
They were never included in any of the subsequent Oz books, although they are mentioned in The Land of Oz, and Alexander Volkov's Oz - based series briefly feature them once more (and they are also mentioned once more).
Some critics who interpret The Wizard of Oz as a political allegory suggest the Winged Monkeys represent African-Americans, oppressed by an overbearing force and who are relieved to be free of that bondage when the evil force is terminated. Others see them as hired Pinkerton Agents who worked for the Trusts in the 1890s and hounded labor unions. L. Frank Baum made an explicit reference to Pinkerton agents in a later book, "Lost Princess of Oz".[1]
In the film version, the invading army of winged monkeys were an ominous similarity to the attack on Pearl Harbor and other Axis air strikes to follow in the ensuing World War II.
In the film version of The Wiz, the African-American rock adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, the Flying Monkeys are a motorcycle gang, whose leader is named Cheetah, after the Tarzan character. Their metal wings are part of their motorcycles, but these apparently dissolved with the witch's other magic, as they are absent when carrying Dorothy and her friends back to the Emerald City.
In Gregory Maguire's revisionist novels Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and Son of a Witch, the flying monkeys were created by Elphaba (the Witch) as part of her experiments on the nature of the soul and what distinguishes non-speaking animals from intelligent, speaking animals. In these novels, most of the flying monkeys cannot speak, but Elphaba's favorite (named Chistery) has a distinctive speech pattern characterized by the repetition of similar-sounding words.
The 2007 Sci Fi television miniseries Tin Man depicts a re-imagining of Baum's world of Oz, including bat-winged monkeys called "mobats" that are the familiars of the sorceress Azkadellia which come from tattoos on her chest.[2]
They subsequently appear in the early 90's cartoon version of The Wizard of Oz, with one of them named Truckle serving as the Wicked Witch of the West's chief sidekick. He's shown as capable of speech and even gets to wear the Ruby Slippers for a brief time.
Beyond Oz, winged apes called "clakars" appear in "While the Gods Laugh" by Michael Moorcock, the second published novelette featuring his character Elric of Melniboné; the novelette was later republished in different collections.[3] Winged monkeys or flying monkeys have been mentioned in television series such as The Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Two and a Half Men, and have appeared or been referenced in films such as Hunter, Wayne's World, Jumanji and Inkheart.
In 1976, two statues of winged monkeys were erected on the rooftop of a mattress store called "Emerald City of Oz" in Burlington, Vermont. In 1996, the statues were moved to the roof of Union Station (now Main Street Landing), and statues of baby monkeys were added in the winter of 2004–2005. Two more statues of winged monkeys were installed on the roof of the nearby Waterfront Theatre in the 1990s.[4][5][6]