Return to Oz (1985)

Dorothy, saved from a psychiatric experiment by a mysterious girl, is somehow called back to Oz when a vain witch and the Nome King destroy everything that makes the magical land beautiful.

Director:

Walter Murch

Writers:

Walter Murch (screenplay), Gill Dennis (screenplay)

Stars:

Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Fairuza Balk	...	Dorothy
Nicol Williamson	...	Dr. Worley / Nome King
Jean Marsh	...	Nurse Wilson / Mombi
Piper Laurie	...	Aunt Em
Matt Clark	...	Uncle Henry
Michael Sundin	...	Tik-Tok
Tim Rose	...	Tik-Tok
Sean Barrett	...	Tik-Tok (voice)
Mak Wilson	...	Billina
Denise Bryer	...	Billina (voice)
Brian Henson	...	Jack Pumpkinhead (voice)
Stewart Harvey-Wilson	...	Jack Pumpkinhead (as Stewart Larange)
Lyle Conway	...	Gump (voice)
Stephen Norrington	...	Gump (as Steve Norrington)
Justin Case	...	Scarecrow

Storyline

Dorothy Gale has recently come home to Kansas from the Land of Oz is now almost back to perfect health since the incident of the tornado, only she cannot get that wonderful place out of her head. She frequently talks about it and cannot get any sleep at night. Aunt Em worries about her health/well-being. Thinking that she is suffering delusional depression and acute insomnia, she decides to take her to see a special doctor in another town. While he tries to treat her with electro-shock treatment and take those nasty dreams away from her head, she is rescued by a mysterious girl who leads her back to Oz for a new adventure.

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Plot Keywords:

mechanical man | good versus evil | villain | villainess | evil woman | 

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Taglines:

If there's one thing you must do this summer, it's "Return to Oz..."

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Genres:

Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 June 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

Oz

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$11,137,801, 31 December 1985

Company Credits

Production Co:

BMI (No. 9) Ltd., Oz Productions Ltd., Silver Screen Partners II

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min 110 min (uncut) 109 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Judy Garland was 17 when filming Wizard of Oz, Fairuza was only 11 even though Return to Oz is a sequel.

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Goofs

When Mombi wakes up and walks around headless, it is obvious by her stiff jerky movements, and the way she glides rather than walks, that is an animatronic puppet and not Jean Marsh.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Aunt Em: Can't you sleep?
[Dorothy shooks her head]
Aunt Em: It's past 1:00 in the morning, Dorothy.

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Alternate Versions

When it was aired on the Disney channel, the following were cut: When "Ozma girl" unties Dorothy from the bed in the doctor's room, the line where she tells Dorothy that the screaming patients are locked in the cellar is cut. When Dorothy first visits Mombi, much is cut. A lot of shots of the heads behind the glass are cut, and so is a lot of footage when Mombi puts on her head. Because of this, a line is cut where she asks Dorothy how she looks, and Dorothy tells her she looks beautiful. In the TV version, it cuts straight to the line, "And just who might you be?" When Mombi wakes up, many shots of the screaming heads and EVERY shot of the headless Mombi trying to get Dorothy is cut. A few seconds of footage of the Nome King's death are cut, including when his eye turns to stone, and some of the "poison" shots.

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Connections

Version of Priklyucheniya v Izumrudnom Gorode: Printsessa Ozma (2000)

User Reviews

When all you can do, is return to Oz...

As a young kid, The Wizard Of Oz was one of my favourite-est movies in the world. The movie was bright, colourful, cheerful, happy and undoubtedly saccharine. And while it was a Box-Office smash and collected millions of Oz fans worldwide, it displayed nearly none of the points that made the book series so successful. So when after viewing Return To Oz, I was extremely happy.

While thousands blasted the film calling it 'dark' and even 'scary', I thoroughly enjoyed it. New characters, magic powders, creepier witches, talking chickens and flying couches - what more could an imaginative youngster want?!

Faruiza Balk portayed Dorothy Gale exceptionally well, and at times, takes on Judy Garland's version so similair, it's scary! Return To Oz was, I mean, is, better than the original, because it was more based on the books, whereas The Wizard Of Oz was a cross between the original book, bittersweet sets and a symphony orchestra.

While some disagree, I believe that 'Return' was not all a weak sequel, but more of a non-sequel sequel, which had little to do with the original, and had an exciting, haunting, script, which worked really well.

Well it's been about 10 years since I first saw Return To Oz, and I still think that it's one of the best children's movies ever made (however scary) and it's in everyone's best interests to rent it out - even if you hated it's predacessor.