Review of Return to Oz (1985) by Tim L — 19 May 2010

I can totally understand why people would hate this film at first sight. Trying to make a sequel to one of the most groundbreaking and beloved films of all time, some 40 something years after it was made seems pretty much unforgivable. However, two things manage to salvage it for me. Firstly, L. Frank Baum wrote 14 Oz books (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz being one, and this film being based on two of the others), so the idea of doing another Oz film isn't such a strange one. Secondly, this film is so very different from the original as to make it stand out on it's own merits. Whilst it could never achieve the same sorts of achievements as the original 1939 film, it doesn't really try to, relying more on natural scenery than set pieces, employing a much darker tone overall (although nothing could be darker than the original wicked witch!) and steering the series in new surprising ways. Gone is the chirpy optimism of the original, replace with electric shock treatment (to 'cure' Dorothy of her visions of Oz and the sleepless nights she is having as a result) and creepy 'wheelers,' who take on the characteristics of 1950's bike gangs.

Whilst it doesn't stand up too well when compared with the revolutionary 1939 classic, it does stand up rather better when compared with it's 80's fantast contempories, such as Legend or Never Ending Story - to both of which it is much more alike than the Fleming version.

Well worth watching for a very different view of Oz; as long as you don't judge it on the merits of the original.