Return To Oz (Return To Oz (DVD))

Member Name: sharktrager

Product:	Return To Oz (DVD)
Date:	23/08/01 (233 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's a good sequel

Disadvantages: It's a little scary for little kids

Although a sequel to the 1939 movie THE WIZARD OF OZ, RETURN TO OZ is a very different film indeed. Set months after the previous movie, we find Dorothy having trouble sleeping. Aunt Em thinks that Dorothy is mad because she talks about a magical country that she has visited. She is taken to be treated with electro-shock therapy, but before this can take place, a thunderstorm causes the equipment to malfunction, and Dorothy manages to escape with the help of another girl, but she is then swept away by a flood caused by the thunderstorm. The following morning Dorothy wakes and discovers herself to be back in Oz, which is nothing like it was when she left it – it is now in quite a bad condition. There she meets Tik Tok (a mechanical man) and Jack Pumpkinhead (a kind of a scarecrow) and she manages to destroy the Nome King who has taken control of Oz. After the Nome King has been destroyed Dorothy frees Princess Ozma, who is the true ruler of Oz, and
returns back to Kansas.

One of the most obvious differences between the two films is that THE WIZARD OF OZ was a musical, whereas RETURN TO OZ is not. There was a gap of fifty years between the two movies, and whereas musicals were highly popular in the 1930s, by the 1980s this was no longer the case. Dorothy is played by a young Fairuza Balk, who has since gone on to feature in films such as THE CRAFT and AMERICAN HISTORY X. This Dorothy is much closer to the age of the character in L. Frank Baum’s original books – when Judy Garland played the part in 1939 she was noticeably older than she should have been to anyone who had read the books or seen the original illustrations.

Speaking of the illustrations, the other characters are clearly based on them (the illustrations I am talking about are those which appeared in Baum’s first editions, drawn by John R. Neill). Tik Tok and Jack Pumpkinhead could almost have come straight of the page, they look so right.

The productio
n qualities behind the film are amazing. The sets look fantastic, as are the special effects. The only poor aspect of the movie is the talking chicken (yes, that’s right there’s a talking chicken in the movie!). This is as annoying a character in this movie as Jar Jar Binks was later to be in the latest STAR WARS movie, THE PHANTOM MENACE.

Overall, RETURN TO OZ is a great movie. It’s a bit dark and scary for very young children, and it is unlikely to be loved by fans of the 1939 Judy Garland film, as it is so different, but taken on its own terms it is very good.

Summary: