RETURN TO OZ

US, 1985, 105 minutes, Colour.
Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, Matt Clark.
Directed by Walter Murch.

Return to Oz is a sequel to The Wizard of Oz and comes 45 years after the classic film with Judy Garland. This is a Walt Disney production. It boasts excellent special effects, Claymation work for the Nome King, special effects for flight and a range of characters who are designed to resemble the illustrations to Frank L. Baum's original books (rather than to the characters from the 1939 film).

The film is set in 1899, six months after the original adventures. Once again Dorothy is at home in Kansas, once more she is transported to Oz and takes the Yellow Brick Road. However, this time she has to save Oz from the greedy Nome King. With the help of characters resembling the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, she confronts the Nome King. Later she returns home to Kansas to discover that the sinister doctor and his nurse have died (at the time they were destroyed as the Nome King, and Princess Mombi in the Land of Oz.)

The film is very well made but does not have quite the spark and zest of the Judy Garland version.

1. The popularity of the Oz stories? Books, illustrations? The 1939 classic? The decision to make a sequel in the 180s? For a worldwide audience? For children?

2. Production values: British studio and special effect work? The cast? The special effects, Kansas, Oz and its bleakness, the Nome King, ugliness and beauty, action sequences, flight, changes? The musical score?

3. Audiences responding to Dorothy? her experience in Oz? Six months later and her dreams? Aunt Em and her uncle's concern? The decision to take her to the doctor? The memories of the visit to Oz? Her fears? Her being frightened of Dr. Wilson and his nurse? The appearance of Ozma, the storm, the river? A prologue for the adventures in Oz?

4. The transformation to the world of Oz? the water, the desert, the rocks, the arrival at Oz, the ugliness of Oz and its dilapidation, finding the yellow Brick Road, the old house, the Lunch Pail Tree, the Wheelers and their living in the ruins, pursuing Dorothy, an atmosphere of mystery?

5. Tick lock as the Tin Man, comedy and the music, winding him up, the army, its help? Jack Pumpkin and his being fixed up? Gump and his head, sofa, components - a new Cowardly Lion?

6. Mombi as the witch, her gallery of heads? her vengeance against Ozma? With Dorothy? Sleep, powder, the Wheelers and going to the Nome King? Her imprisoning Dorothy? Her defeat? The irony of Nurse Wilson being Mombi?


7. The Nome King and his being made of rocks, the special effects for his presence and transformation, his voice and his shape becoming more human? His appearing, the challenge to Dorothy, the crash, the imprisonment? The quest and the guesses for Dorothy? Her three friends failing? The egg laid by Billina and the Nome King's death?

8. The world of the rocks and their menace?

9. Dorothy and her ability to cope, her wit, flying, avoiding her head being taken for Mombi's collection, her wit during the guessing and recovering her Mends?

10. The restoration of Oz, Ozma and her kingdom, her appearing in the mirror and promising to visit Dorothy?

11. The world of reality and fantasy? Dorothy and her dreams? Eggs and fowls and talking? The return home and the touch of fantasy?

12. The characters of Aunt Em, Uncle Henry? Dr. Worley and his sinister treatment? Nurse Wilson?

13. A blend of delight and fantasy, fright and terror? Ana the finale with: 'There's No Place Like Home'.