Thoughts on Return To Oz (1985}

[caj]

CBR just put out an article on Return To Oz from 1985 that made me remember how much I loved that film.

https://www.cbr.com/return-to-oz-wiz...to-baum-books/

No, it wasn't full of memorable songs like the amazing original Wizard Of Oz from 1936. But it did a remarkable job at combining two of the follow up books, The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz, that author Frank Baum wrote. I've watched it numerous times over the years and have lent the dvd to my friends to watch with their kids. It is a little scary for young kids but then so is The Wizard of Oz.

What are your thoughts on Return To Oz?

[AndrewCrossett]

I have never seen it. But I want to. I guess Disney+ is the only place that has it for free streaming, but I don't subscribe to that so I might rent it from Amazon, depending on how much it is.

[Coin Biter]

It’s the sort of film that you watch as a teenager or even young adult and find interesting, well-acted, with some excellent design and a lot of creepy elements… and it’s the kind of film which your parents ignorantly let you watch as a younger child which will traumatise you throughout your primary school years

Considering that the 1939 film would be better known than the L Frank Baum novels to most watchers, this unofficial sequel was, to say the least, a bold move. It’s easy to say that it involved a lot of creepy elements from the novels that the first film didn’t include, but I’ve read a couple of the Oz books and honestly this went a lot further, by including (among other things) spoilers:

bloomin attempted electroshock therapy in the Kansas scenes

end of spoilers.

Well, those were different times. Six years earlier The Black Hole had included an unlikely combination of cute funny (albeit annoying) robots and spoilers:

horrifying murders, with the chief villain ending the film in hell, trapped in an infernal robotic body.

end of spoilers

[AdamFTF]

It’s the sort of film that you watch as a teenager or even young adult and find interesting, well-acted, with some excellent design and a lot of creepy elements… and it’s the kind of film which your parents ignorantly let you watch as a younger child which will traumatise you throughout your primary school years

Considering that the 1939 film would be better known than the L Frank Baum novels to most watchers, this unofficial sequel was, to say the least, a bold move. It’s easy to say that it involved a lot of creepy elements from the novels that the first film didn’t include, but I’ve read a couple of the Oz books and honestly this went a lot further, by including (among other things) spoilers:

bloomin attempted electroshock therapy in the Kansas scenes

end of spoilers.

Well, those were different times. Six years earlier The Black Hole had included an unlikely combination of cute funny (albeit annoying) robots and spoilers:

horrifying murders, with the chief villain ending the film in hell, trapped in an infernal robotic body.

end of spoilers

Yeah, they did go beyond the books with the creepy parts. Though, it was also that Baum had a way of playing off the more bizarre parts with whimsy. Like how Princess Langwidere with her many interchangeable heads (Princess Mombi in the movie) wasn't really a villain in the book. Watching the movie, you assume that she must have taken the heads from other people. However, Baum plays it as such a joke about the Princess's vanity that you just assume she goes to some "head boutique" and buys a new head every once in a while. Or the Wheelers, who like to scare people but are stated as essentially being harmless in the book. The statement that the Wheelers are harmless never happens in the movie.

[Gaastra]

this unofficial sequel was

Believe it or not it is an official sequel! Sort of. Disney started filming than was afraid people would not know the slippers from the book as the ruby slippers from the mgm movie was more known than paid mgm for the rights to use the mgm version in the film! They already had made the more book like costumes by the time they got the rights and was on a low budget. (that's why they never fixed scarecrows mask and his mouth stays open the full film!) They had said had they got the rights before the outfits were made, they would be more mgm based! Still would have been just as dark, however.

At the time guinness book of records even had it as the longest time a sequel came out after its first film! Film was attacked by critics for being too scary even though ironic it was closer to the original books than the first movie! Today some see it more as a "soft reboot sequel".

[AndrewCrossett]

I wouldn't mind seeing a TV series that adapts all of the Baum books. Not sure such a thing would be successful, though.

[caj]

I wouldn't mind seeing a TV series that adapts all of the Baum books. Not sure such a thing would be successful, though.

It might would work on a streaming network in the afternoons after kids get off from school and then repeated on the weekends.

Not necessarily produced specifically for kids but maybe kids would watch and adults would see it and get drawn into it.

[AndrewCrossett]

It might would work on a streaming network in the afternoons after kids get off from school and then repeated on the weekends.

Not necessarily produced specifically for kids but maybe kids would watch and adults would see it and get drawn into it.

Heh... streaming networks don't have time slots, though.

I'd like to see it done with really high-quality 2D animation. The series probably couldn't draw the kind of viewership to make live action (which would require much CGI) viable. Not in these days of networks putting their feet down, at least.

[Gaastra]

If you want a closer to the book series hbo had an animated series on in the 80s that was more based on the books. 70s Lois lane herself narrated the show.