THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The Wizard of Oz has been looked at as one of the best adaptations ever made, but moviegoers can forget that it wasn’t the only story ever written by L Frank Baum.
PLOT
Inspired by both ‘Ozma of Oz’ and ‘The Marvelous Land of Oz’, 1985’s Return to Oz takes place only 6 months after the tornado that caused young Dorothy Gale have her first encounter in the Land of Oz. Because her Aunt Em & Uncle Henry (Piper Laurie & Matt Clark) do not believe of what she experienced, they send her to a sanatorium where Doctor Worley and Nurse Wilson plan to administer electrotherapy on her to be cleansed of such memories. Before they could begin, a strike of lightning causes a power outage and the child is guided out of the place by another girl who stays there. They run away together and float onto a river with a chicken coop, but the other girl doesn’t resurface. When Dorothy wakes up the next morning, she is joined by her pet chicken Billina who can now talk. As they travel together, they find the yellow brick road in ruins and citizens turned into stone. After being chased by Wheelers, people who have wheels on their limbs, they get saved by a mechanical man named Tik Tok who was told by Scarecrow, Oz’s previous king, to await her return. In search of the king, they roam around the castle to meet Princess Mombi who has a collection of wearable heads. And once she realizes who Dorothy is, she threatens to do the same to her. She runs away which leads to her finding Jack Pumpkinhead, a Jack-o-lantern who has a tree body that was brought to life by the magical substance, ‘Powder of Life’. The group escape together when using said powder to construct a creature with a couch and a taxidermed head of a Gump. When flying far enough to be away from the evil princess, they stop at the mountain of the Nome King, a powerful nome who is responsible for Oz’s devastation. As Mombi pursues them with the Wheelers, the Nome King reveals to Dorothy he turned Scarecrow into an ornament and gives her and her group three chances each into finding him in a room full of ornaments. If they do not find him in three guesses, they turn into ornaments as well. Before Dorothy takes her turn, the Nome King reveals he’s conquered Oz thanks to the Ruby slippers that were originally passed to her. Rather than taking his offer to use them to go home, she goes forward with the game to save her friends that all turned to ornaments. Once she finds Scarecrow, he helps her find the others. By the time Mombi arrives, the Nome King would be infuriated that the girl overcame the odds. He almost eats Jack until Billina drops an egg onto his mouth, which was his poison all along. Once she regains the slippers, Dorothy uses them to wish for Oz to return the way she remembered it. With Oz back to prosperity, the people desire her to be the new queen but she wishes to go home. Just when she makes her decision, Princess Ozma, who was the same girl from the sanatorium (Emma Ridley), ascends the throne after being freed from Mombi’s confinement. Ozma sends her back, but promises she can return if she wants. Once the child returns, she wakes up in a riverbank in Kansas, being found by her aunt & uncle who reveal Worley died in a fire caused by the lightning; Nurse Wilson would also be arrested for taking part in his experiments. The film ends with Dorothy seeing Ozma and Billina in a mirror, but promise to keep it secret this time.
THOUGHTS
I always knew nothing was gonna top the magic that was made in 1939, so I had to keep the expectations low. In this non canonical sequel, Director Walter Murch was able to make something quite a ride despite being far from what we've seen before. The practical effects are intentionally bizarre because while we see a big difference on Scarecrow, as well as the cameos of Tin Man & Cowardly Lion, they went loose on Jack Pumpkinhead, Tik Tok and the Gump. The costumes done on the wheelers were creepy as hell because the faces on their helmet gave me chills. And the stop motion on the rock spies and the Nome King were pretty good decades later. All of these aspects made me appreciate the set pieces in this different take of Oz itself. I think the whole point of this tale is its way to say hold onto hope and remember how powerful imagination can be in times of crisis. This is the lesson we capture through Dorothy and thanks to a strong performance by breakout Fairuza Balk, she holds her own. What she does differently from Judy Garland is that she is still afraid from previous challenges and wants to overcome such trauma. And the closer she gets to complete the quest, the more comfortable/confident she feels to be herself again. Like before, she doesn't get there without help of distinctive characters much different from her previous group we're all familiar with. Denise Bryer was likable as Billina due to bringing the spunk before having the most hilarious deus ex machina ever. Lyle Conway was cool as Gump because he had this aura of being stoic despite being only a head. Sean Barrett was cool as Tik Tok for his loyalty and I adored Brian Henson as Jack for his simple-mindedness. With such colorful faces, they help her get through the terror caused by the most despicable compared to the wicked witches. Nicol Williamson & Jean Marsh were indeed a evil pair because whether they were either Dr Worley & Nurse Wilson or The Nome King & Mombi, they were diabolical in wanting to take power they didn't deserve. It's fucking haunting to see a woman have a set of heads to change for the occasion. It's a relief both counterparts of this duo got a comeuppance because the exhaustion would've excelled for Dorothy. And off of that, she'll be able to live in a much more peaceful life. I don't even blame her for keeping Oz a secret this time because it's not worth the hassle. With the option she can go back whenever she wants, that just paves the way she'll have it good as her life goes on. This movie was interesting to sit through, but there way too many things to make sense. For example, if we gotta get into continuity errors, how about the switch for the doctor's device are not on the accurate switch to flip between takes before. Even one of the stoned figures were placed from one to the other as Dorothy is roaming around Emerald City. And I gotta be honest, I don't think a crate can float with a child like Dorothy on it, so there has to be something pushing it up because ain't no way the water was steep. It was even pretty savage of Billina to call out Mombi for her lack of housekeeping in the castle because she is lucky she didn't hear that. It then doesn't feel clear on Tik Tok functions because in one case, he was able to move his arms around when running out of energy only to have them freeze the next time he does. Also, how loud did Mombi's head have to be just to snore when Dorothy is trying to steal the key? Even if hiding it to surprise thieves, it makes better sense to have it on and not waste it time confronting those that cross you. I honestly don't think the Nome King needs to waste time in giving Dorothy a chance if he doesn't want her to succeed by playing his game. He could turn her into an ornament on the fly if he wanted to. And he gets far too lenient for a villain when giving each person in her group three chances to get it right. He says it's fun, but it's a waste of time in all seriousness especially after Dorothy wins. He then becomes a hypocrite in calling out Mombi for letting her escape when he did the exact same thing. If you can ignore these things, you can still enjoy the movie for what it is. In short, Return to Oz is an intriguing fantasy flick for testing our imagination more than we were prepared for. If you're a fan of the Oz book series, check this out when you can.
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