Psycho's Movie Reviews #54: Return To Oz (1985)

Return to Oz is a 1985 dark fantasy film released by Walt Disney Pictures, directed and written by Walter Murch, co-written by Gill Dennis and produced by Paul Maslansky. It stars Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, and Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale in her first screen role. The film is an unofficial sequel to the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film The Wizard of Oz, and it is based on L. Frank Baum's early 20th century Oz novels, mainly The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) and Ozma of Oz (1907). In the plot, Dorothy returns to the Land of Oz to find it has been conquered by the Nome King; she must restore it with her new friends Billina, Tik-Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead, the Gump, and Princess Ozma.

In 1954, Walt Disney Productions bought the film rights to Baum's remaining Oz books to use in the television series Disneyland; this led to the live-action film Rainbow Road to Oz, which was never completed. Murch suggested making another Oz film in 1980. Disney approved the project as they were due to lose the film rights to the series. Though MGM was not involved in the production, Disney had to pay a large fee to use the ruby slippers created for the 1939 film. Return to Oz fell behind schedule during production, and, following a change of Disney management, Murch was briefly fired.

Return to Oz was released in theatres on June 21, 1985. It performed poorly at the box office, grossing $11.1 million in the United States on a $28 million budget, and received mixed reviews, with critics praising the effects and performances but criticizing the dark content and twisted visuals. However, it performed well outside the U.S and has since acquired a cult following. It received an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects.

Plot:

In 1899, Dorothy Gale still talks of the Land of Oz, troubling Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, who believe she is fantasizing. After she finds a key with an Oz insignia, Aunt Em takes her to a clinic to see Dr. Worley for electrotherapy. Under the care of Nurse Wilson, Dorothy is about to receive treatment before lightning causes a power failure. Dorothy is freed by a mysterious girl who tells her that Dr Worley's machines damage the patients and the two escape, but are chased by Nurse Wilson into a river. Dorothy clambers aboard a floating chicken coop, but loses the other girl.

Dorothy wakes up in Oz with her chicken Billina, who can now talk. They follow a damaged Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City, now in ruins and its citizens turned to stone. They are attacked by Wheelers, menacing people with wheels instead of hands and feet, but are saved by a mechanical man, Tik-Tok. The lead Wheeler tells that King Scarecrow has been captured by the Nome King, who is responsible for the Emerald City's destruction. Dorothy, Billina and Tik-Tok are taken to Mombi, Princess of Oz, who collects heads and decides to imprison them in order to take Dorothy's.

Locked in a room at the top of Mombi's castle, they meet Jack Pumpkinhead, who explains he was brought to life via Mombi's Powder of Life. To escape, they assemble a flying creature with the head of the Gump, a moose-like animal. Dorothy steals the powder from Mombi, but awakes her many heads. A girl in a mirror guides Dorothy back to her friends, where Dorothy uses the powder to bring The Gump to life and he flies them across the Deadly Desert. Unable to cross the desert without turning into sand, the Wheelers lead Mombi underground in pursuit of Dorothy.

The Gump crashes on the Nome King's mountain where, in his underground domain, Dorothy is reunited with Scarecrow before the Nome King turns him into an ornament. He allows Dorothy and her companions three guesses each to identify which ornament, but if they fail they will also be turned into ornaments, with each failure making him more human. After the Gump, Jack and Tik-Tok each fail, the Nome King reveals to Dorothy he has her lost ruby slippers, which he used to conquer Oz, and offers to use them to send her home, but Dorothy refuses.

While Dorothy guesses in the ornament room, Mombi arrives and, furious at allowing Dorothy to escape, The Nome King imprisons her in a cage. On her last guess, Dorothy finds Scarecrow and realizes that people from Oz turn into green objects, proceeding to restore Jack and Gump. Enraged, the Nome King grows to gigantic size and goes to consume them all. Jack is about to be eaten when Billina, hiding in Jack's head, lays an egg which falls into the Nome King's mouth, fatally poisoning him and causing his subterranean kingdom to crumble.

As the ornament room collapses around them, Dorothy finds the ruby slippers. She quickly puts them on and wishes for the group to be returned to a restored Emerald City, where Billina notices a green medal on one of Gump's antlers, which turns out to be Tik-Tok. The people of Oz ask Dorothy to be their Queen but she wants to return to Kansas. Princess Ozma, the rightful ruler of Oz who was imprisoned by Mombi in a mirror, then appears and Dorothy uses the key she found in Kansas to free her.

Dorothy hands over the ruby slippers to Ozma, who uses them to send Dorothy home, promising that she is welcome to return, while Billina stays behind. Dorothy's family finds her on a riverbank back in Kansas. Aunt Em tells her the clinic was struck by lightning and burned down, Worley died trying to save his machines and Nurse Wilson is seen arrested. Back home, Dorothy sees Billina and Ozma through her bedroom mirror. She calls out for Aunt Em, but Ozma signals for her to keep Oz a secret. Dorothy agrees and goes outside to play with Toto.

Production

Development:

Walter Murch began development of Return to Oz in 1980, during a brainstorming session with Walt Disney Productions production chief Tom Wilhite. Murch told Wilhite he was interested in making an Oz film and Wilhite "sort of straightened up in his chair". Unbeknownst to Murch, Disney owned the rights to the Oz series and wanted to make a new film as the copyright was soon to expire. In September 1981, Disney president Ron W. Miller announced that the studio would be making the film, not as a sequel or continuation of the 1939 movie, but instead an entirely new story with a different look to the original film.

Return to Oz is based on the second and third Oz books, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) and Ozma of Oz (1907). The element about Tik-Tok being "The Royal Army of Oz" derives from Tik-Tok of Oz (1914), in which he is made the Royal Army of Oogaboo and also makes frequent cries of "Pick me up!" That book was itself based on a dramatic production, The Tik-Tok Man of Oz (1913). Murch also used the book Wisconsin Death Trip as a historical source for the film. Murch co-wrote the screenplay with Gill Dennis, intentionally writing a film that was unlike the original to avoid accusations of blasphemy. Executive Producer Gary Kurtz noted, "We're not trying to make a sequel, although technically the books are sequels to each other", suggesting that the movie would be more faithful to the books than the 1939 film was.

Murch took a darker take on Baum's source material than the 1939 adaptation, which he knew would be a gamble. Between the development period and actual shooting, there was a change of leadership at the Walt Disney studios (with Wilhite replaced by Richard Berger), and the film's budget increased. Despite an original $20 million budget, this eventually rose to $28 million.

The film was developed and produced without the involvement of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio behind the 1939 film. No approval was necessary because, by 1985, the Oz books on which it was based were in the public domain, and the subsequent Oz books had been optioned to Disney many years earlier. The ruby slippers were created by MGM specifically for the 1939 film to replace the Silver Shoes of the original stories and, as the slippers remained MGM's intellectual property, a fee was paid. Another carry-over from the 1939 film was the framework in which real characters from Kansas reappeared in Oz, which Murch kept in order to keep harmony between the two films.

Casting:

Fairuza Balk was one of 600 from Vancouver chosen to audition for the role of Dorothy. Having spent four days in Los Angeles during November 1983, she learned she had secured the role the following month. Speaking of the audition process, Balk said "I just burst with tears because I was so happy. It was a really big thing for me even to get an audition for a real feature film." In casting the relatively unknown Balk, who was the second youngest auditionee from around 1,000 children auditioned across eight cities, Murch said he "wanted to find somebody who might be Judy Garland's cousin once removed." Maslansky believed Balk was born to play the role, saying "She is Dorothy as described by Baum. She is also Dorothy as I think Judy Garland would have loved to play her if she were that age."

Emma Ridley was cast in the role of Ozma, which she described as "a dream come true". In preparation for the role, she would watch visual adaptions of the story and anaylzed the opinions of critics of Ozma. Ridley described how she tried to make her Kansas character "very calm, very studious", opting to wear little makeup and perform barefoot, while wanting a complete difference for Ozma, who was shown with a transformed appearance and attire. There was a gap of several months between Ridley filming the Kansas scenes to the Oz scenes.

Leo McKern and Christopher Lloyd were each considered for the role of Dr. J.B. Worley/The Nome King before Nicol Williamson was cast.

For the role of Billina, around 40 real chickens were available during filming, each that were good for different things. Cages were tagged with the chicken's purpose, including perch, sit, carry and run to name a few, as well as chickens that would attack and others to run towards cast members. As Balk's small arms could not handle carrying a full-size chicken, a smaller one was used for those scenes. A mechanical chicken was also used for certain scenes, at times behaving so similar to a real chicken that crew in the screening room were unable to tell the difference. The dog playing the role of Toto was Tansy, a brown-eyed border terrier family pet. Director Walter Murch had already seen around 50 dogs before seeing Tansy.

Filming:

Principal photography began on February 20, 1984 and wrapped in October 1984. Originally, filming was to be shot 75% on location, including Oz-like locations in Algeria and Italy, however due to budget restraints from Disney, the movie was filmed entirely in London at Elstree Studios. Kansas scenes were filmed at Salisbury Plain, which was described as a "natural choice" by Maslansky due to it being flat and within close proximity to London. The temperature at Salisbury Plain during filming was described by Maslansky as "freezing", saying of Balk that "she would cry from the cold, from the pain of the cold – but she would never complain." The original cameraman, Freddie Francis, quit after shooting the Kansas scenes due to impatience with Murch.

Once shooting began, Murch began to fall behind schedule, and there was further pressure from the studio. Five weeks into production, Disney was unhappy with the footage. By then, mostly the Kansas scenes had been shot, however Murch was looking unwell and was fired from the role without protestation. Murch later recalled the experience, saying "had I fought back... they might have said OK, but I couldn't fight back. I felt what the soul feels after it's left the body after a car accident — pain but tremendous relief." High-profile film-makers including George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola supported Murch in discussions with the studio, and Murch was reinstated and finished the film. Lucas guaranteed that he would step in as replacement if any further problems emerged.

Balk and Ridley, the only two child actors on set, had limited working hours per day. Balk, who was in around 98% of all scenes, was permitted to work no more than three-and-a-half hours each day, restricted to between 9:30am to 4:30pm which included breaks and private educational tuition. Balk's privacy was carefully guarded and she was not available to meet with journalists. Whilst Balk did her own stunts, Ridley had a stand-in. Ridley, who was born in London, had her voice in the film dubbed by Beatrice Murch, daughter of Walter Murch, so that the character of Ozma would have an American-sounding voice. Filming for the river scenes took place in a sound stage, described by Ridley as being "like a hot Jacuzzi".

Various scenes, in particular those with the Nome King, used clay animation to achieve the desired effect. When interviewed in 2020, director and animator Doug Aberle explained the process involved in animating the Nome King and other characters with clay, including the technical difficulties encountered. Each section, such as the outside rocks with faces on, was allocated to an animator. Nome King scenes in the throne room were animated progressively, with the character initially made entirely of clay, progressing gradually closer to human form until finally portrayed by Nicol Williamson in live action. Towards the end of the film when the Nome King crumbles, Aberle explains how it took him four attempts to animate this accurately.

The Emerald City scenes towards the end of film had to be fully reshot, as the character of Ozma was originally dressed in a gold lace dress which was deemed unsuitable during post-production. The scenes were re-shot with the actress wearing a white and green dress, described by Ridley as being "very itchy and very uncomfortable", as she had grown by the time filming took place. At one point during filming these scenes, Balk collapsed due to the high on-set temperature

Release/Reception/Box Office:

Return to Oz had its world premiere in the United States on June 21, 1985, opening in 1,300 theatres including the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Disney spent approximately $6 million on printing and advertising to promote the film, as well as adding a scene on a Return to Oz float, including characters from the film which appeared as part of Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade. The film was released in London theatres on 11 July 1985.

The film received mixed reviews. The film critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes records 54% positive reviews based on 35 reviews, its critical consensus reads: "Return to Oz taps into the darker side of L. Frank Baum's book series with an intermittently dazzling adventure that never quite recaptures the magic of its classic predecessor." Those who were familiar with the Oz books praised its faithfulness to the source material of L. Frank Baum such as author and critic Harlan Ellison who said, “It ain’t Judy Garland. It ain’t hip-hop. But it’s in the tradition of the original Oz books.”

However, many critics described its tone and overall content as slightly too dark and intense for young children. "Children are sure to be startled by its bleakness," said The New York Times' Janet Maslin. Ian Nathan of Empire Magazine gave the film three out of five stars, saying: "This is not so much a sequel but an homage and not a good one." Canadian film critic Jay Scott felt the protagonists were too creepy and weird for viewers to relate or sympathize with: "Dorothy's friends are as weird as her enemies, which is faithful to the original Oz books but turns out not to be a virtue on film, where the eerie has a tendency to remain eerie no matter how often we're told it's not." "It's bleak, creepy, and occasionally terrifying," added Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader. Amelie Gillette of The A.V. Club frequently refers to its dark nature as unsuitable for its intended audience of young children although it had been one of her favorite movies growing up. Other reviews described the movie as "a horror show flying under the banner of family entertainment."

Neil Gaiman reviewed Return to Oz for Imagine magazine, and stated that "Terrifying and visionary, funny and exciting, Return to Oz is one of the very best fantasy films I've ever seen."

By the time of the film's release, the only surviving cast member from the 1939 film was Ray Bolger, who said in an interview that although he had no desire to watch the film, he noted that "they have a beautiful young lady as Dorothy and what I've seen of the film looks intriguing. It might be interesting for today's young people to see another version of the story.

It earned $2,844,895 in its opening weekend, finishing in seventh place and $6.5 million in the 10 days after release. After the opening weekend, Commonwealth Theatres reported that some venues took between just $300–$400, considered at the time to be poor. Jeff Love, city manager of the theatre chain, believed it may have been due to a bad release time, suggesting that "they should have released it when people didn't have anything to do. It should have been before people got out and started going on vacation". Love went on to suggest that the perception of it being a children's film was another problem". It ultimately grossed $11,137,801 in North America.

My Review:

This movie is nightmare fuel... Which is exactly what Oz is meant to be. I've read a few of the original stories and yeah, the land of Oz is supposed to be this place of nightmares which is where the rest of the movie adaptations fall flat. All except Return To Oz, even though it's the most terrifying it's the most accurate. Which is why this film is my favourite Oz movie... I'll explain.

First of all twits: fairy tales are supposed to be dark and scary because children mostly live very messed up lives a great deal of the time. Adults are cruellest to children. Guess no one studies the history fairy tales anymore. Second of all, the creative work put into making this film is way more outside of the box and imaginative. I love how all the people in the real world reflect/symbolise those she encounters in Oz - Or should that be the other way around? - it sets such a eerie and foreshadowing vibe for what's about to come.

The film combines both our childhood memories of 'The Wizard Of Oz' and Baum's original horrifying ideas to create this critically acclaimed film. Most may view it as a sadly disappointing tribute to the original film, but others watch on as the original's source material - the Oz series from Frank Baum - shines through. It is not a kid's film gone wrong, but an everlasting reminder of what Baum envisioned for his series. Inspiration from H.P Lovecraft and other gothic writers are evident. It is a must watch for all gothic, fantasy and oddity lovers!

What really frustrates me with kids movies now is that Hollywood/studios are afraid of going too dark and sheltering the children. The world is a scary place and kids need to learn that, we should be teaching children that it's okay to be afraid and not shelter them from everything.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this movie if you haven't watched it already; 9/10.

{There's a lot of creepy scenes and imagery in this film, so I'm going to take the liberty of showing the top 3 creepiest things/scenes in this freakshow}.

{3) The Nome King; he legit has the portal to Hell in his throat}

{2) The Wheelers;... wheels}

{1) Princess Mombi;... I'm not gonna say anything, it's pretty self-explanatory}