Return To Oz is very much like a retread of The Wizard Of Oz, with most of the major events of one film repeated in the latter. About the only significant difference is that Return To Oz, while wearing its origins as a Disney production on its sleeve, is a little less saccharine, or sugar-coated, compared to its predecessor. Not so much that it could score ten out of ten from an older audience, but enough so that you could show it to audiences who have more than one digit in their age, and not draw protests. Unfortunately, this does not necessarily make it a good film.
Whereas the cast of heroes in The Wizard Of Oz were very distinct from one another, the heroes of Return To Oz are fairly generic. The plot, such as it is, concerns itself with a Troll-like King who comes out of the stone of one mountain. Somehow, he has acquired the ruby slippers from the previous film, and used them to sack the city of Oz. The populace is found turned to stone, and the streets patrolled by Wheelers, a bunch of ugly human types who look a lot like Johnny Rotten at a roller-disco. The Wheelers are controlled by an evil princess who collects heads to wear, while she is in turn controlled by the Nome King, who I've already spoken about. The plot is very simple and by the numbers, as opposed to how every new location seemed natural or spontaneous in the original. In fact, there are only three or four major locations in Return To Oz, and most of them are passed through in the blink of an eye.
Children who have yet to see The Wizard Of Oz will not notice the most major problem with this sequel. In a nutshell, it is continuity. The Dorothy shown in The Wizard Of Oz was played by Judy Garland, who was about seventeen years old at the time. Disney, in their endless attempt to pander to a child audience, decided to make Dorothy ten years old, in spite of the number of references made to six months passing since the tornado hit the Gale farm. These not-so-subtle continuity faults aside, the story is competently told, and Fairuza Balk makes a decent fist of playing the young Dorothy.
Another plus in Return To Oz is that the support cast is considerably less annoying in its perpetual perkiness. Tik-Tok has more personality than the entire cast of The Wizard Of Oz put together, while Pumpkinhead manages to be dopey without seeming insulting. Something that was utterly beyond the cast of... well, you get the idea. Another plus is that we are spared the agony of the cast breaking into song every ten minutes. The only point where the film falls down is when the weight of the Disney desire to claim that they are making films suitable for everyone when in reality they are only suitable for four-year-olds becomes too much for the screenplay and actors to deal with. Quite obviously, this sequel was churned out in order to make a quick buck, as the minor flood of spin-offs of the time showed. Still, it gets a little closer to the tone of L. Frank Baum's novel, and that can only be a good thing.
All in all, I gave Return To Oz a five out of five. Unlike the "everyone loves it, we say so" advertising that is prevalent in trying to sell The Wizard Of Oz, Disney seem to have adopted a "here it is, take it or leave it" attitude to Return To Oz. Which is the biggest improvement I can think of.
Whereas the cast of heroes in The Wizard Of Oz were very distinct from one another, the heroes of Return To Oz are fairly generic. The plot, such as it is, concerns itself with a Troll-like King who comes out of the stone of one mountain. Somehow, he has acquired the ruby slippers from the previous film, and used them to sack the city of Oz. The populace is found turned to stone, and the streets patrolled by Wheelers, a bunch of ugly human types who look a lot like Johnny Rotten at a roller-disco. The Wheelers are controlled by an evil princess who collects heads to wear, while she is in turn controlled by the Nome King, who I've already spoken about. The plot is very simple and by the numbers, as opposed to how every new location seemed natural or spontaneous in the original. In fact, there are only three or four major locations in Return To Oz, and most of them are passed through in the blink of an eye.
Children who have yet to see The Wizard Of Oz will not notice the most major problem with this sequel. In a nutshell, it is continuity. The Dorothy shown in The Wizard Of Oz was played by Judy Garland, who was about seventeen years old at the time. Disney, in their endless attempt to pander to a child audience, decided to make Dorothy ten years old, in spite of the number of references made to six months passing since the tornado hit the Gale farm. These not-so-subtle continuity faults aside, the story is competently told, and Fairuza Balk makes a decent fist of playing the young Dorothy.
Another plus in Return To Oz is that the support cast is considerably less annoying in its perpetual perkiness. Tik-Tok has more personality than the entire cast of The Wizard Of Oz put together, while Pumpkinhead manages to be dopey without seeming insulting. Something that was utterly beyond the cast of... well, you get the idea. Another plus is that we are spared the agony of the cast breaking into song every ten minutes. The only point where the film falls down is when the weight of the Disney desire to claim that they are making films suitable for everyone when in reality they are only suitable for four-year-olds becomes too much for the screenplay and actors to deal with. Quite obviously, this sequel was churned out in order to make a quick buck, as the minor flood of spin-offs of the time showed. Still, it gets a little closer to the tone of L. Frank Baum's novel, and that can only be a good thing.
All in all, I gave Return To Oz a five out of five. Unlike the "everyone loves it, we say so" advertising that is prevalent in trying to sell The Wizard Of Oz, Disney seem to have adopted a "here it is, take it or leave it" attitude to Return To Oz. Which is the biggest improvement I can think of.