Return To Oz- Classey or Dreadeful?

Great movie.

Is this out on DVD? I haven't seen it in years.

It was on telly a couple of weeks ago but we only caught the last 20 minutes or so. I used to love Ozma when I was little.

I think of it as the "Kokomo" to Wizard's "Surf's Up.

P.S. I can't stand the original Wizard . There, i said it.

i just saw this for the first time! it was utterly fantastic.

among other things, it did a more-than-decent job of mashing together the best bits of two of the oz books (l. frank baum must be the least "plot"-adept classic kids' writer ever: every book consists of "and then they did THIS! and then they did THAT! and then at the end they went HOME!"). sadly it cut out the bit from "marvelous land of oz" about the army of SUFFRAGETTES who take over the emerald city by threatening to poke everyone with their knitting needles.

i haven't seen it in years, but it's really good. truer to baum than the 1939 movie (no slur against the 1939 movie, which is of course one of the greatest things ever made). fairuza balk where are you now?

Oh, poor Fairuza.

Apparently her last roll was as someone's mom in a movie called "Wild Tigers I Have Known" (!)

I just re-watched this movie about a month ago, after not having seen it since I was five. It was one of those recalcitrant "revisit childhood mindblowing movie" rentals...half of the time or more they end up being disappointments. But this one certainly wasn't.

One, having grown up as an Oz book fanatic, it definitely retains the dark insanity of the books, as well as the clever and fun wackiness of it all. This movie, man, SO impressive visually. The costume design of the Wheelers is spot on, just as intimidating and otherworldly as the book. Same with Tik-Tok, the insane chamber of the woman's heads, and especially the Nome King's lair. The stop-motion and special effects were so splendid. It really made me miss the days before CGI when someone would make something so tangible and inventive and *REAL* feeling, without all the quickly-dated textures of CGI, which always seems kind of removed from its surroundings (even in the best examples such as Lord of the Rings, it was a huge distraction).

It's the rare "children's movie" that doesn't talk down to its audience, that isn't afraid to represent the whole range of emotions, settings and imaginations that can really impact and enchant a child. It worked on that level when I rewatched it recently. It's kind of amazing the things they showed, especially at the start when poor Dorothy's family took her to get early electroshock therapy. But the grim world of Kansas' adults intentions was really no less scary than Oz, but there she had the options and trust of others in the world and could actually make an impact. That's something that really resonated with me as a child. Sort of like what was being discussed on Tuomas' Harry Potter thread, but Dorothy, although she had magical accessories and friends, ultimately had to get by on her own tenacity and threatened hope.

Here's a quote from the producer which kind of paraphrases the whole thing...they had an INCREDIBLY hard time making/finishing the movie (Disney fired the director until George Lucas came and told Disney it would be great):

We had an interesting test screening with the National Research Group, where we screened it for a mixed group of parents and children. The parents, I think about 75% of the parents, felt it was way too scary for kids below 12, I think. Some of the kids who were young were a bit scared. But when the research people spoke with the kids, they said they liked it a lot, they had a great time. The parents of those very same kids said they felt that their kids would never want to see anything like this film.

abbott otm, from what I can remember from when I saw it last, which was about 10 years ago on some college lark rental. I saw it as a kid, and liked it, and saw it as a late-adolescent (let's face it, college kids are not adults) and LOVED it. And iirc, the effects hold up.

Apparently her last roll was as someone's mom

Okay, *now* I feel old.

This movie was a huge flop, was it not? Shame.

Yeah, hella huge flop. They didn't even try to market it, tho.

Last time I saw Fairuza Balk it was in Adam Sandler's "Waterboy." :(

Life is shit for child actors. This is proven again and again.

Okay, *now* I feel old.

Hell, I feel old, and I'm twenty.

Oh shit, don't start feeling old when you're 20...you'll have plenty of time to waste on that 5-10 years down the road at the very most.

Oh, I didn't phrase that very well. It makes me think I should feel old to have Fairuza Balk, who I mainly remember for that witches in high school movie that we all watched in school and thought was super-cool and bought incense to do spells with and stuff.

I got stuck watching The Craft tonight, in fact, and the first thing I thought was "I really want to watch Return To Oz" right now. I don't think I've seen it in 20 years, when it scared and entertained the hell out of me. Kind of gloriously unnerving, no? Can't decide if I should netflix or leave the memory pure.

This is one of my all-time favorite movies.

J.D. so OTM upthread. I've been rereading the Oz books and they are so awesomely episodic (at best), it's like some kiddie Theosophist Rasselas drowned in bad puns.