Return to Oz

[MissV327]

Does any one know if Return to Oz will ever get a "special edition" treatment on dvd? I think it is such and underrated film. Those wheelers freaked me out so much when I was little!

[Isidour]

I necer saw that movie, what´s about? --besides the returning to the magic land--

I saw a very cool and creepy toys of it, and man how I wished to have them on my hands--at least to the scarecrow--

[Disney Lover]

More than likely probably not. It is a good movie but like you said its an underrated movie.


Tabbi <3

[Luke]

With an anamorphic widescreen transfer, trailers, and the Fairuza Balk interview, heck, by live action Disney film standards, it already IS a Special Edition!

[DisneyHollywood]

Thats not a Disney Movie. Whats it have to do with The Walt Disney Studios? Besides there is only one Widserd of OZ, so what are you talking about?

[oh_bother]

Thats not a Disney Movie. Whats it have to do with The Walt Disney Studios? Besides there is only one Widserd of OZ, so what are you talking about?

Disney did a spin-off of The Wizard of Oz in the 80s, called Return to Oz. It's quite good I guess, though not my cup of tea.

This is what the International Movie Database has on <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089908/">Return to Oz</a>

[DisneyHollywood]

IS the Spin off as good or better then the first one? Is it live action or Animatied? What is it about and how can you get a copy of it? Is it worth buying it?

[oh_bother]

It is a live action film. The IMDB summary says this:

"Plot Summary for
Return to Oz (1985)
Dorothy, back in Kansas, can't stop thinking about Oz, and even believes that her friends have sent her a key. Auntie Em, worried for Dorothy's health, takes her to a famous doctor who works miracles with electricity. When Dorothy escapes from the treatment, she and a chicken named Billina find themselves in Oz. But when Dorothy tries to find her old friends in the Emerald City, she learns that they've all been transformed (turned to stone) by the Nome King. And the evil witch Mombie wants Dorothy's head. It's up to Dorothy, Billina, and their new friends, the clockwork Tik-Tok (aka the royal army of Oz), Jack Pumpkinhead, and a Gump-thing to defeat Mombie and the Nome King and restore the rightful ruler of Oz to her throne."

It's not a musical. I don't think it is better than the first one, it's... different. I've never bought it, but it comes up on British TV from time to time. You might want to rent it rather than buy it.

[DisneyHollywood]

In the Story, does dorthey go to OZ in a dream like last time , or does she go there for reals and how if so? Who play in it? And how well did it follow the first movie?

[oh_bother]

Um...

I don't know whether it was a dream or not. She gets washed to Oz in a flood and at the end of the movie wakes up in the woods. But she is able to see people from Oz in her mirror, so maybe it was real after all...

It does follow the first movie quite well... even though it was made 46 years after the original, it is set six months after the tornado that blew Dorothy's house away. They're busy building a new house, and she keeps talking about Oz so her aunt and uncle send her away to a psychiatric clinic to get "healed".

A very young Fairuza Balk plays Dorothy.

[Luke]

IS the Spin off as good or better then the first one? Is it live action or Animatied? What is it about and how can you get a copy of it? Is it worth buying it?

You can read reviews of various Disney films <a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/reviewindex.htm">right here</a>, including ones that you dismiss as having nothing to do with the Disney studios but are entirely their creation.

[pinkrenata]

I don't think it is better than the first one, it's... different.

If by different you mean much more true to the <b>original</b> books by L. Frank Baum, then, yes, it's about as different as you can get.

[goofystitch]

Ok. Just to clarify, the MGM musical starring Judy Garland was based off a popular series of books about Oz. Return to Oz was the second book in the long running line. Disney adapted that book into a movie, but it really isn't anything like the musical. Dorothy is a little girl like in the book and it pretty much follows the book and acts like the musical was never made, because the musical basicly took the ideas of the book and ran far away from it. The only thing I've noticed that carries over from the musical to Return to Oz is that they kept the slippers ruby, instead of silver like in the books. Everything else was from the book. It is not a spinoff of the movie. It was based off a book.

[mvealf]

I have always loved the Japanese artwork of Disney movies better than the U.S. Isn't it cool?<p><img border="0" src="http://japanld.free.fr/cover/35401-35500/35462.jpg"></p>

[Sunset Girl]

My best friend had a VHS of this when we were kids, and I clearly remember her mother running around the house yelling, "The Wheelers, AHHHHHHHH!!!" in order to freak us out even further. The queen's ability to switch heads also freaked me out.

When I was older, I got interested in seeing the movie again, but it was OOP at the time. I'd rent it occasionally from my local video store, where the SRP was embossed right onto the cover (at the whopping sum of something like $74.95). And we complain about prices now?

This is decidedly darker than the 1930's musical, but as already mentioned here, it's not really a sequel for it as it follows the books much more closely.

With all the other movies I buy, I haven't gotten around to this one just yet (I'm still waiting for it to hit the bargain bins since it's so underrated). But now I'm in the mood for it again, so maybe I'll keep my eyes open. . .

[my chicken is infected]

I adore both movies. The Wizard of Oz is a classic, now, come on! How can you not love singing scarecrows, dancing tin men, and cowardly lions with Judy Garland?

But Return To Oz is a lot more faithful to The Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz, the two books it came from. It's also an 80's classic, and everything about the music and production scream "80's fantasy" in the vein of Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, etc.

I own both movies on DVD and I love watching them both....but not together. I STORE them together, but I could never watch them back to back. To me, they're separate movies with the only thing the same between them being ruby slippers instead of silver shoes.

[Luke]

Very cool cover, mvealf. Very '80s-ish!

[DreamerQ18]

Wow mvealf the cover is frekish that would defintley scare me if I were a child. But hey thanks for posting it for us all to see.

[oh_bother]

I don't think it is better than the first one, it's... different.

If by different you mean much more true to the <b>original</b> books by L. Frank Baum, then, yes, it's about as different as you can get.

Yes, I know I had all the books as a child and read them before I saw either film. I was annoyed when I saw that in both films, Dorothy is given ruby slippers instead of silver ones.

[Sunset Girl]

. . . I had all the books as a child and read them before I saw either film. I was annoyed when I saw that in both films, Dorothy is given ruby slippers instead of silver ones.

Well, as you probably know, the fact that they were using color in the MGM version was a very big a deal. And although the silver market vs. the gold market was an underlying theme in the books, the producers decided to ignore the idea of the silver shoes simply because they didn't show up very well against the yellow brick road. They also probably figured that the gold vs. silver thing was lost on most of the audience by then anyway.

And by the time the Disney film came around, it was probably a wise decision to to stick with the ruby slippers. . . people are most familiar with the MGM film and using silver shoes probably would have been a distraction.