This 1985 fantasy directed by Walter Murch and written by Murch and Gill Dennis is considerably more melancholic that The Wizard of Oz, Wicked, or just about any other adaptation of the famous story you can imagine. For the film's noble defenders, such as Harlan Ellison, who commented that the film "ain't Judy Garland, it ain't hip-hop, but Return to Oz is in the tradition of the original Oz books," this is a good thing. For those who want Oz to be devoid of any dark fantasy, this isn't the movie for you. I didn't mind one way or the other when I saw it as a young boy, though the only concrete memory I have from my first viewing was of Jean Marsh abruptly opening her eyes, signifying a considerable amount of danger for Dorthy Gale, and becoming the stuff of nightmares. Unfortunately, I was a lot more bored watching it as an adult.
Dorthy is played here by Fairuza Balk, who was about ten years old during the filming. She's the only fantastic part of Return to Oz, effortlessly capturing the character's curiosity, kindness, fear, and bravery. Dorthy is back in Kansas in the year 1899, six months after the tornado whiskered her from Kansas and into the magical Land of Oz, and yet she's different since before the storm. Kansas here isn't a sepia-toned sound stage but a muddy real location. (The live locations, as well as the sets at Elstree Studios, further help demonstrate the superiority of The Wizard of Oz.) Dorothy is being treated by a doctor who promises her family to cure her of her sleeplessness through electric-shock therapy. Inevitably, she escapes and winds up all the way back in Oz, this time not joined by her dog, Toto, but by a talking chicken from her farm named Billina (voiced Denise Bryer). Oz, however, isn't how she remembers it. The Scarecrow is not the king anymore, and the land is ruled by the menacing Nome King (Nicol Williamson), who hates chickens for an unexplained reason. Dorthy's other friends, like the Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion, are all frozen, and she's chased by a cackling group of hooligans called the Wheelers (who look kind of ridiculous).
Fortunately, there are some adversaries and allies who make the film at least somewhat interesting, such as Tik-Tok, a mechanical soldier voiced by Sean Barrett, and Jack Pumpkinhead (voiced by Brain Henson, the son of Jim Henson and the current chairman of The Jim Henson Company), both of whom try to fill the void and protect Dorthy on her adventures. Williamson as the Nome King isn't as intriguing as one would think he would be (he was once called the greatest actor since Marlon Brando, afterall), especially as it is eventually revealed that the king curiously has stolen the ruby slippers and wears them on his feet, flaunting them to Dorthy before her. However, his henchman—the Nome Messenger (cleverly animated on a rock wall and voiced by Pons Maar—is a neat touch and the only villainous character who works here.
It may be unfair to keep comparing the two, as most adults should hopefully be able to recognize that this is not a sequel. Before the public domain reforms of the early 1990s, works remained under copyright for fifty-six years, so The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the 1900 book in which writer L. Frank Baum first introduced his readers to a a young girl from Kansas and her whimsical friends in the Land of Oz, entered the public domain in 1956, almost thirty years before Disney took their own shot at Baum's stories. There is no Baum book called "Return to Oz," but the story mostly takes its inspiration from the second and third entries in the series: The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz. However, the filmmakers did try and establish a few links to the 1939 films, mainly the fee Disney paid MGM to use the ruby slippers, which were the intellectual property of the latter studio and not in any Baum story (and therefore not in the public domain).
Return to Oz must have seemed like a winning ticket for the studio, and the spent massively promoting it. It didn't matter. Return to Oz was a critical and commercial flop, earning only half of its budget at the box office and further signifying Disney's lowest point before their renaissance. It might be permanently forgotten if not for those who are just now discovering Baum's characters through Wicked, which is, as of this writing, one of the highest-grossing films of 2024. These new fans might eat up all the Oz they can get. Return to Oz might not be hip-hop or Judy Garland, but it's not much of anything else, and only those who love all things Oz and/or prefer this darker, probably more faithful tone would enjoy it. For everyone else, they can continue belting out along to "Defying Gravity" to their hearts' content.
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