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Return To Oz was always one of those fims I'd catch in parts and never watch the whole thing.  I checked it out of the library the other day and found it enjoyable. 

SPOILERS


I think a lot of the imagery was quite disturbing and dark in the film.  I'm sure it gave many kids nightmares back when it came out.  The witch with multiple heads was freaky as hell and her wheeled assistants were just as creepy.  However the protaganists are fun to watch.  The whole hospital in the beginning reminded me of A Clockwork Orange.


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Anyone else like this film?

I love this flick.  Very underrated in my opinion.  Used to watch the video all the time as a kid.  I should look for the dvd.

Apparently, it wasn't really all that well received initially, due to the fact that it was PG instead of G, and the fact that it's a darker flick.  Not to mention the fact that Scarecrow has a limited role and the others aren't in it. 

But I think it works well as a flick.  I heard it's somewhat more true to Baum's books.  I've only read one or two as a kid, so I can't really remember.

I really liked this one, too. It combines several of Baum's books, but, yes, it is true to them for the most part. The queen with multiple heads, the Wheelers, Billina, the Gnome King, all were Baum characters. Fairuza Balk was quite good as Dorothy, and the effects were good as well. However, there was no electro-shock treatments in Baum's books.

I never got why this film wasn't received so well, even as a kid.  Sure, it was darker, but I guess I was just raised on a lot of darker stuff than most kids at that time. 

The claymation FX date this film a little, but everything from the set design to Fairuza Balk's performance was superb.  It's a great film that reminds us that family entertainment doesn't always have to mean saccharine or talking down to children.

Both my kids and I love this movie. It's dark and twisted enough to appeal to me and fun and fantastic enough to appeal to my kids.  A win win situation.

Heh, I still remember this as one of the only movies, ever, to be played on the Disney Channel with a warning for 'scenes too intense for young children' or some such. I'm not surprised it didn't do well in theatres, but enough time has passed now for it to be loved even more for its nostalgia aspects...just like the 1st.  :wink:

It definitely belongs on a list of family movies that won't give you diabetes.

If anyone has ever read the original Oz novels by Frank L. Baum, this film comes closer to the mood of the novels, which are quite dark, than the "Wizard of Oz" w/ Judy Garland.

Not financially successful, it surprises me that this wonderful film still remains relatively obscure.  RETURN TO OZ (1985) impressed me when it first was available on videotape (probably the year it was released or the year after) and I was not a kid.    Not being a kid probably helped, as it is creepy at times.  RETURN TO OZ is definitely one of the best fantasy films of the 1980s. 

I had a tape of it that we taped off of The Disney Channel when I was younger.  I was 1 when the movie came out, but we taped it when I was around 6 or 7.  I respect the fact that they tried to scare little kids with a headless witch and guys with wheels for hands.