| | | | Return to Oz
(1985) |
ike so many brilliant works, Return to Oz was bashed by critics when it first came out. Unlike its 1939 predecessor, this Oz was hardly a land of painted cardboard sets, dancing midgets and upbeat sing-along tunes, and was, in fact, much closer to L. Frank Baum's haunting, disturbing books. As a very small child, I delighted in the antics of the bumbling Tin Man and Cowardly Lion and sang along with "We're off to see the wizard...", so my mother considered it an act of charity when she rented me the "sequel".
Return to Oz is not a film for small children, mind you. Set 6 months after the tornado, it begins with poor Dorothy Gale (Fairuza Balk) lying awake in bed, unable to sleep thanks to a preoccupation with the fictitious Oz. Worried and exhausted with Dorothy's insomnia and farfetched tales, Aunt Em (Piper Laurie) and Uncle Henry (Matt Clark) resolve to send her to a clinic for shock therapy. The following morning, little Dorothy discovers a key with the Oz insignia - in the nest of her yellow hen, Billina.
The clinic, run by the stern, black-clad Nurse Wilson (Jean Marsh) and the mad scientist Dr. Worley (Nicol Williamson), is a dark, foreboding Victorian mansion. Em leaves Dorothy at the mercy of the "head" nurse and her pasty-faced assistants. Just as Dr. Worley places the shock therapy machine around her head, however, a power outage renders it useless and Dorothy is rescued by a blonde girl, who leads her out into the rain, where they are both swept down the river.
And so the adventure begins. Dorothy wakes up in a chicken coop, with her companion Billina, the talking hen. In the ruins of the Emerald City, Dorothy encounters the Wheelers - the greatest movie villains *ever*. Influenced by the hospital assistants (and played by the same actors), the Wheelers are not unlike the Flying Monkeys, minions of the evil witch Princess Mombi (Jean Marsh). Clad in futuristic costumes and frightening helmets sporting evil faces, the Wheelers race around on their wheels - which take the place of hands and feet - laughing madly at anything and everything. Their leader, played by the brilliantly weird Pons Maar, leads them to Mombi's palace. Dorothy also meets Tik-Tok, the "Royal Army of Oz", a friendly copper robot.
Another classic villain, Mombi has the ability to swap heads, and keeps a room full of severed, yet mysteriously still alive, female heads in glass cabinets, and trades them out at will. You can see by now where a little kid would be scared.
Dorothy also meets up with Jack Pumpkinhead, a rather pathetic character made of sticks and with a pumpkin for a head, who insists on calling her "mom", and the Gump, a taxidermied moose head strapped to a couch. Together, they fly (yes, fly) to the moutain of the infinitely evil Nome King (who doesn't like chickens!) who has stolen all of the Emeralds and imprisoned the Scarecrow, the rightful king of Oz.
All evilness aside, the Nome King (Nicol Williamson) is definitively creepy, an old man made of stone who acts unnaturally friendly towards little Dorothy. Underneath his stone robes, however, he wears none other than the Ruby Slippers!
Return to Oz is a beautifully crafted film, both visually and psychologically. Clearly, parallels exist between this film and the Wizard of Oz - both involve a dream in which people in the "real" world manifest themselves as characters in the dream. The characters themselves are echoes of the original movie - the mechanical metal man who longs to feel, the clumsy but loveable beast, the evil witch and her inhuman minions. This reflects either an extreme predictability in Baum's style, or an amazingly successful use of archetypes on the part of both Baum and the film's creators. Like the Wizard of Oz, but certainly more successfully, Return to Oz is a stinging commentary about the impact of the oppressive adult world on the impressionable child's imagination.
With dazzling sets and corny-but-endearing effects, Return to Oz ranks with the best of 1980s fantasy film classics. It's my favorite movie - if you've not seen it yet, go rent it.
 Don't forget that Return to Oz is now available to order on Widescreen DVD using our special 80s Retro Assistant...
|
| | | | 
A brilliant, whimsical, dark and compelling world that you'll be sorry to leave when the movie's over.
|
| | | |  | 
Firstly, I didn't know Nurse Wilson was named after me (see trivia below) and secondly, it took 4 to 5 pupeteers to perform Belina the chicken. I was the lucky one to have my hand where the sun don't shine! (Mak Wilson - Puppeteer/CGI Animation Director with Jim Henson's Creature Shop)  -Thanks to Mak WilsonI was originally meant to play Tik-Tok, but a back problem I received during Greystoke put pay to that. It was then down to an audition from the chosen puppeteers as to who would perform Billina, and I was the lucky winner. I was also going to dub the voice, as I did it live during the shoot, but Walter decided to go for the real thing... a woman! -Thanks to Mak Wilson
| |
The lead Wheeler is played by Pons Maar, who has made appearances on Masters of the Universe, The Blob, American Scream and The Golden Child. He also did the voice of the Noid in those old Domino's Pizza commercials. In Return to Oz, he is also the voice of the Nome messenger and appears as a police man and a hospital attendant.
Fairuza Balk went on to play one of the leads in "The Craft" and Adam Sandler's love interest in "The Waterboy". -Thanks to Stephanie
Director Walter Murch is as much in demand in Hollywood for his sound mixing and editing abilities as his excellent direction. A buddy of George Lucas, he mixed the sound on two of George's early movies, "THX1138" and "American Graffiti". More recently he performed editing duties on "The English Patient" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley".
This movie is full of hidden imagery - at the end, during the parade, one can find characters from all of Baum's books in the audience.
Watch the final action sequence where Dorothy et al are in the room of ornaments, on the run from Nome King. Notice that Tik-Tok is absent from this scene. The reason for this is the fact that he would have slowed down the entire sequence, due to him being a rather slow and clunky robot. He then conveniently reappears in the following scene when all the action is over. -Thanks to Koeago
In the book "Ozma Of Oz" which is one of the books the movie is based on, Mombi was not a princess but an old ugly humpback witch. And she did not have 30 different heads. Disney mixed the character Mombi with a different character Princess Langwidere. She had 30 different heads. In the book Princess Langwidere has no affliation with the Nome King. In fact Mombi is not even really mentioned in "Ozma Of Oz". Also, in the book, the Nome king did not look like a man. He looked like a fat dwarf with a long beard. And lastly all the events that took place in the movie did not take place in Oz. They took place in the Land Of Ev, and the Dominions Of the Nome King. -Thanks to Michael Edwards
Interesting to note that, although this film is more true to the Baum books than the musical and subsequent movie it was adapted from (with Judy Garland), there are 3 features that were carried over from the musical/movie due to its familiarity with fans - Dorothy has brown hair (in the books, Dorothy is a blonde - Ozma is the brunette) and the talk is about Dorothy's ruby slippers - which were SILVER slippers in all the books. They were changed to ruby slippers in the play as it was believed that red could be seen from the seats further back better than silver. When the play script was transferred to the movie script - it wasn't corrected. Also, the tendency to have the characters in Oz be reflections of people that Dorothy knows in Kansas (or the 'real' world) was something started with the Musical and thus, transferred to the movie. It WASN'T a feature in the books. -Thanks to David Carpenter
Alas, nothing is sacred in this world - little Emma Ridley, who played the charming Ozma, is now a porn star!
Despite its poor reviews in the US, Return to Oz was a BIG hit in Japan.
This movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but lost to "Cocoon". -Thanks to Jonah Falcon
Academy Award nominee for Best Visual Effects (lost to Cocoon). -Thanks to Jonah Falcon
If you notice the room number that Dorothy is in at the hospital, it is 31. It matches as the same number door that Mombi keeps her original head in. Pretty creepy! -Thanks to Randi
Piper Laurie, who plays Aunt Em, played Margaret White, the religious psychopath in the movie "Carrie." -Thanks to Angelina
Fairuza Balk was also in "American History X", opposite Edward Norton as his ex-love, Nazi interest. -Thanks to Sarah
Nicol Williamson also played Merlin in another great movie, "Excalibur". -Thanks to Diana
Jean Marsh who plays Princess Mombi also portrays 'Bavmorda' the evil queen in the 80's fantasy movie "Willow". -Thanks to Sonia
The books that inspired this film are The Marvelous Land of Oz, and Ozma of Oz.
« Click
here to add some Return to Oz trivia
Rediscover your favorites! If you like
Return to Oz or 80's Sci-Fi / Fantasy classics, then be sure to
check out this list: ..... Empire Strikes Back ..... Night of the Comet ..... Aliens ..... Back To The Future ..... Last Starfighter ..... Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ..... Circuitry Man ..... Brazil ..... Blade Runner ..... Thing ..... Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan ..... Starman ..... Somewhere In Time ..... Strange Invaders ..... Short Circuit .....[More]
| | | |
Fairuza Balk, aged 10, beat out 400 children for the role of Dorothy, including her co-star Emma Ridley. She was the youngest child who tried out.
Will Vinton who works with claymation and has done such things as,"The California Raisins" and holiday specials seen though the late 80's to the early 90's did the claymation scenes in "Return to Oz". -Thanks to Tara
Bellina, the real size animatronic puppet chicken, took up to 4 puppeteers to operate. There were three versions: hand, rodded and fully animatronic. It was lead puppeteer Mak Wilson's first animatronic puppet and he later went on to puppeteer such characters as Michaelangelo from Ninja Turtles, Babe, Earl from the TV series Dinosuars and many a Vogan from The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Although Lyle Conway takes the credit for the build, Bellina was mostly created by a very young Steve Norrington, the now notorious movie director. -Thanks to Bellina
A the beginning of production Walter Murch the director was almost fired from the movie and three of his great friends, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola came over to the UK and spent a week on set to help him out. -Thanks to Bellina
Just as Dorothy has woken up from the storm, she is in the "Deadly Desert" with the Chicken, Bellina. Then the chicken says, "There goes the water." The camera then goes to a wide view so you can see the water disappearing. Then, when the camera goes back to Dorothy, you can see water to the right behind her head! I wonder where that came from! -Thanks to Sian
When Dorothy first meets Tik Tok, he pledges to be her obedient servant, and bows while lifting his hat. If you watch during the bow, you can see the bobbing head of the puppeteer who's working him. -Thanks to Angela Meil
During the emerald city parade at the end of the film, there is a tiny blooper. At the beginning of the scene, when the oz citizens enter the mirrored ball room, the camera pans out. If you watch closely, the camera man catches himself in a mirrored pillar on the right side of the screen. He's dressed in white, but he's only there for a second.
«
Click
here to add a new Behind-the-Scenes item for Return to Oz
|  |  |  | | Return to Oz
Locations |
|
| | |
 Featured Movie Location: Kansas
Wanna see the real life filming location used for Kansas in the movie? These scenes were actually shot at Countryside, located at Chitterne, WILTSHIRE, UK.
Chitterne, Wiltshire, England [Thanks to Rafe]
Featured Link: Locations Info
Can you help? Do you know any of the UK (or any other) filming locations used for Return to Oz? [Please send them in]
|  | | | | |
This 12-track score created by David Shire is strictly instrumental and provides a hauntingly beautiful backdrop for the film.
It is (or WAS) available on the Bay Cities label. [Thanks to John Eklund for this revised info]
Use our search device to search for a copy.
«
Click here to add new music trivia for Return to Oz
Soundtrack Available:
Used On CD
| | | |
 NEW!
Use our radical Retro Assistant to show you the most accurate information for hard-to-find Return to Oz products anywhere on the web...
At a glance, you can now see all the Movie
releases, Soundtracks
or Movie
Posters, Scripts and Books ever available with online price comparisons, even if they're
rare, out of print or only available in another country!
Over 3 years in development and covering more than 10,000 of the
best products hand picked by our editors, we think it's the most fun and retro way to celebrate the era --and find what you
want.
It covers Return to Oz DVD,
VHS,
Blu-ray,
HD-DVD,
Downloads,
Soundtrack
CDs, Movie
Posters, Scripts, Books and more... Why not give
it a try...
The
80's Movies Rewind is proudly a spam-free
non-commercial site, written by movie fans... for movie fans.
If
you enjoy this site, please help to support us and keep us
POP UP & SPAM FREE by ordering your stuff through our services.
As you probably already know, we
are not a corporation, but just 80's fans like you...
| | |
 | | Recent
Additions |
March 3, 2008: Commando USA / UK Blu-ray Coming Soon.
February 28, 2008: Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Soundtrack Update.
Previous
additions
We're always updating and improving, so please and check back with us regularly...
|
| | |
![[Letterbox -NOT 16:9 Enhanced]](lbx.gif){kind=small}
![[5.1 CH SURROUND]](dd5.gif){kind=small}
