Return to Oz

[Alisa]

I loved this sequel to The Wizard of Oz.  Very disturbing for some reason and the wheelers and Queen Mamba were scary.  Tick-Tock kicked arse.  What are you guys'  thoughts on Return to Oz?

[Abby]

I saw this in a theater when I was in middle school. Dorothy was Fazuka Balk (sp) -- the girl from 'The Best Christmas Pagent Ever' who went on to do 'The Craft.'

It came out at the tail end of those weird Disney Days when Touchstone hadn't fully blossomed and they were making darker kid's flicks like 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' and 'Watcher in The Woods'.

I read a few of the Oz books when I was a kid -- 'Return To Oz' combined two of the books, if I remember correctly. It did a pretty good job of staying true to the spirit of the books (which was markedly different than the musical Wizard of Oz).

I saw this again about a year ago. It was a little slower and tackier than I remembered, but visually interesting if nothing else.

I don't know if you play video games, but there's a 3D shooter called 'Alice' that's all the rage. The premise is that Alice (from Alice in Wonderland) is in a mental institution and wonderland at the same time. Remind you of anything?

Wes Craven is turning Alice into a movie.

[Sarah]

I remember seeing it on the shelf at the video store for years...I finally decided to rent it when I was about 7...for me the film was very hard to follow at that age...I thought Dorothy would be cooler...she was just a whiney little p***y.

Anyways, the movie freaked me out a little...here's why:

*Ok...who's that chick who's haunting Dorothy?
*Dorothy's a friggen nutcase
*Jesus Christ, that pumpkin is scarey
*What about Tick-Tock? What if you found a gold robot that resembled Teddy Roosevelt in a dark alley?
*What the hell are those pin-wheel people things doing...
*Yeah, Im sure that a moose head attached to a couch is really THAT compassionate...
*I think Jack wants Dorothy
*Queen Mamba is spooky...the heads freaked me out pretty bad.
*The rock dude is weird...clay animation at its worst

Other than that, I liked it :)

[Mofo Rising]

I saw it when I was little too.  It might have freaked me out, but by that time I'd already been through LABYRINTH and THE DARK CRYSTAL.

I was a pretty big fan of the books too.

I recently rented the DVD from Netflix and thought it held up pretty well.  I wrote a post about it a month or so ago.  I liked Tik-Tok.  "I have always valued my lack of life."  Those Wheeler guys can go to hell, though.  Also, the girl haunting Dorothy is explained at the end of the movie.

So RETURN TO OZ is truer to the books, but nowhere near as iconic as THE WIZARD OF OZ.  How many people have "Surrender Dorothy" burned into their minds?