Just as L. Frank Baum’s Oz series of novels have gone on to become one of the most popular children’s literature of all time, the 1939 film adaptation of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” has become one of the most popular, most successful movies in the history of cinema. Nominated for 6 Academy Awards (winner of two), as well as an honorary Juvenile Award for future star Judy Garland, The Wizard of Oz’s combination of breathtaking Technicolor, distinctive characters and outstanding soundtrack was able to push beyond a relatively poor showing at the box office to become an indelible part of pop culture, and in particular American pop culture. If a person knows anything about Oz, and you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t in some capacity, it’s because of this movie.
Strangely enough, despite the success of the film and it’s near-universal name recognition, the land of Oz has been largely ignored by Hollywood. Oh there’s been countless references in video games and novels, that famous play Wicked, the popular TV prison drama Oz, and I think Alan Moore has Dorothy bang a bunch of Munchkins in one of his comic books, but in terms of film adaptations it’s sorely lacking. It can’t be that film studios are showing respect for a property, I’m not sure they know the meaning of the word, so what’s the reason for the Oz absence. Is it because it’s in the public domain, and less personally exploitable? Do they think it’d be too expensive, or that fantasy movies wouldn’t sell well enough for their tastes? Hard to say, although the lukewarm reception to Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful certainly didn’t help matters. Then again that was a prequel, backstory that we didn’t really need or request. Are movie audiences desperate for some post-Wizard content, in the same vein as Trekkies thirsty for a Star Trek that takes place after Nemesis?
If that’s the case, then they need look no further than the 1985 Disney picture, Return to Oz, directed by Walter Murch and starring Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale and Piper Laurie (otherwise known as Catherine Packard on Twin Peaks). Dorothy Gale has been back home with her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry for a while now and she’s just not feeling it, as to be expected from a child who has went on a grand adventure in a magical land only to find themselves stuck in Kansas. She’s losing sleep, constantly rattling off stories about flying monkeys and talking scarecrows, what are a couple of late 19th Midwestern folks like Em and Henry supposed to do? Praise her vivid imagination, and maybe encourage her to explore creative writing? Nah, better to send her off to the loony bin and have some quack stick some electrodes to her brain. I guess trepanation wasn’t covered in their health plan.
After a quick escape from the asylum, Dorothy ends up getting washed away in a flood and, amazingly enough, ends up in Oz along with her chicken Belina. However, this is not the same beloved magical kingdom that she remembers. The Emerald City is in ruins, populated by a violent bizarre gang known as Wheelers the people have been turned to stone, and the current leader of the land, the Scarecrow, has been kidnapped by a vicious tyrant known as the Nome King. It’s up to Dorothy, and her new friends Billina, Tik-Tok the Mechanical Man, Jack Pumpkinhead and the Gump to travel across the Deadly Desert and into the Nome King’s mountain, and somehow save Oz. A bit more dire than crushing witches and walking down a road, but that’s the thing about (spiritual) sequels. They always feel the need to raise the stakes.
Return to Oz is not the visual spectacle that The Wizard of Oz was, partly because that film was built to be a visual spectacle and partly because Return consists mainly of a bunch of deserted ruins and about 5 rooms. Momby the Witch’s lair is rather exquisite, but otherwise there’s nothing that really stands out in that regard. However, what it may lack in settings I think it makes up for in costuming and special effects, specifically in puppetry and animation. Characters like Scarecrow are a bit less expressive than they were in the 30s (although they resemble their original novel design), but Tik-Tok, Billina, the Gump, they all manage to look and move as you’d expect from a copper bathtub, a chicken and a Gump, without ever breaking the immersion. I also really like that they use claymation to give the illusion of the Nomes moving through rock as if it were liquid, it’s a really nice looking effect. At the end of the day it’s still a fantastical land filled with magical creatures, even if it’s not as fantastical as the Oz we remember.
It’s worth noting that Return to Oz does give the impression that it’s trying to be the ‘dark re-imagining’ that has plagued so many other fairy tales and children’s books across modern times. I mean Dorothy Gale is shipped off to an insane asylum where she’s almost subjected to electroshock treatment and killed (an “Alice in Wonderland” staple), she travels across a destroyed Oz with a living jack o’lantern, running away from nightmarish monsters like the Wheelers and the Nomes, the subdued lighting, it’s all vaguely Burtonesque (Timmy B made his directorial debut the year this came out, by the by). When you get right down to it however, it’s not really edgy or macabre at all. There are some bizarre moments, a lot of which is taken from the source material, but those moments never alter the fact this is a girl going on a make-believe adventure with her imaginary friends and that it all ends happily. If you go in expecting American McGee’s Alice, don’t be surprised when you get more of a Disney's Cinderella instead.
Which is the basis for how I would recommend it I suppose. If you’re a Wizard of Oz fan, or you used up all your Burton bucks and you’re looking for some methadone to get you through the rough times, or if you want a movie that has a bit of a Halloween atmosphere without being too scary, perhaps for a child, then Return to Oz should be what you need. If you’re looking for something more morbid to match your mature dark fantasy tastes, then you’re better off looking somewhere other than Oz. Mass-murdering Alices and heroin junkie Wendy Darlings are a dime a dozen, really.
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