Return to Oz (1985)

United Kingdom, United States of America

Adventure, Family, Fantasy

Oz Productions Ltd., Silver Screen Partners II

Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, Matt Clark, Sean Barrett

Walter Murch

Walter Murch, Gill Dennis

Taglines: An all-new adventure down the yellow brick road.

princess, donkey, electric shock, sequel, pumpkin, imaginary land, mental institution, mechanical, based on young adult novel, mirror

Dorothy, saved from a psychiatric experiment by a mysterious girl, finds herself back in the land of her dreams, and makes delightful new friends, and dangerous new enemies.

Reviews:

Author: r96sk
'Return to Oz' is alright, I personally didn't enjoy it though. I did like the horror edge it has to it for the first portion of the film, it's something I wasn't necessarily expecting so it was pleasing to see. That's about all I did rate from this though, with Oz itself not looking as magical as it should while the non-human characters are boring to me. Talking of the onscreen lot, Jean Marsh as Princess Mombi is the only performance I felt entertained by - she's very good. Away from her, there's not much to note. Fairuza Balk is solid in the role of Dorothy, nothing really to say about her other than she does an OK job; considering her age. The Wheelers are kinda interesting, they do look cool. It's a shame they don't make use of Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and Tin Man - the latter I'm actually glad they didn't, given how awful his design was. I get why they don't feature more, given the source material, but it feels a needless change-up especially with Billina, Tik-Tok and Jack Pumpkinhead being so lame. I read that this is apparently true to the original book series, which is respectable. However, the point of a film is to make it a good film first and foremost - this doesn't quite do that in my opinion. Each to their own, of course!