Return To Oz cover art

Return To Oz Details

1985 DVD Certificate PG.gif
  • Rated:
  • 60
  • from 2742 members

In 1899 Dorothy Gale returns to the land of Oz, only to find the enchanting Emerald City in ruins, and all her old friends have been captured by the Nome King and the evil Princess Mombi... Read more

Starring Fairuza Balk, Jean Marsh, Nicol Williamson, Piper Laurie
Director Walter Murch
Genres Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

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Return To Oz cover art

Return To Oz

In 1899 Dorothy Gale returns to the land of Oz, only to find the enchanting Emerald City in ruins, and all her old friends have been captured by the Nome King and the evil Princess Mombi...

Starring Fairuza Balk, Jean Marsh, Nicol Williamson, Piper Laurie
Director Walter Murch
Studio WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 45 mins
Certificate DVD Certificate PG.gif
Collections 100 Big Adventures
Genres Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Language English
Released DVD: 22 Mar 2004
Production year: 1985
Format DVD

  • Critics' reviews (3) of Return To Oz

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  • 3 stars out of 5

    Disney recaptures the dark side of L Frank Baum's Oz stories in this exciting sequel to the 1939 classic. Fairuza Balk is wonderful as Dorothy, who ends up back in a ruined Oz facing the evil Nome King and Princess Mombi with her friends Pumpkinhead, Tik Tok the clockwork man and a talking chicken. Sombre in tone it may be, but director Walter Murch's non-musical is imaginative and hugely appealing — the colourful special effects, including Will Vinton's Claymation process that animates the rock faces, are particularly impressive.

    • Radio Times
    • Posted 29 Jan 2006

  • A weird way to treat a children's classic, the result being a movie which appealed strongly to nobody except, possibly, the producer. The Disney people should have known better.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
    • Posted 02 Mar 2006

  • Most helpful member's review of Return To Oz

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  • 6 out of 7 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    Magical

    This film is a cosy film, good to watch on a sunday afternoon. I loved it as a child and still do. The characters that tag along on her quest to Oz are very likable and are loosly based on the original films characters, i.e the lietenant tin man who needs to be wound up to stay alive and the pumkin head who needs to be stuffed with straw!

    There is a great scene where Dorothy has to sneak into a room full of sleeping Princess heads (the princess changes her head eveyday) and it is terrifying as they all wake up and start screaming at her (well I thought it was scary)!!

    Its a great film for kids and adults alike.

      • A customer from London
      • Posted 20 Aug 2004 17:39

  • Most recent members' review of Return To Oz

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  • 2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Leave's Judy's version for dead....

    People who say this pales in comparison to The Wizard Of Oz or lacks due to the fact that it's not a musical have clearly never read any of Frank L Baum's `Oz` books.

    The novels were far darker than The Wizard Of Oz filmed let on, and while the original film is of course well loved, it is not as true to the novels as Return To Oz.

    The lack of song in this movie is perfect. The score is fine as it is, and the thought of this film actually having musical numbers is ludicrous- they'd be amazingly out of place.

    And, while people whitter about the lack of Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow and Tinman, Return To Oz benefits from having other, better characters at it's disposal. Mombi for example is fantastic as the head collecting Princess and her minions, The Wheelers are also brilliant and scared the bejesus out of me when I was a child.

    And while there are obvious differences between Return to Oz and Wizard of Oz, the mirroring of characters features once more such as Nurse Wilson/Mombi, Dr Worley/the Gnome King, The machine at the hospital/Tick Tock, the Pumpkin given to Dorothy by Ozma/Jack Pumpkinhead.

    Far more intelligent than it's predecessor, and although not as camp as Christmas, far more loveable in my opinion (Especially as in addition to the DVD and VHS, I have a version taped from the Disney Channel which has the first half of Cool Runnings at the end! Way to go, Disney Channel, back in the day when you were worth the extra Sky subscription...)

      • A customer from Durham
      • Posted 18 Jul 2006 unknown

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Rating breakdown

2,742 Member ratings
  • 100
280
  • 90
165
  • 80
392
  • 70
426
  • 60
578
  • 50
303
  • 40
250
  • 30
140
  • 20
143
  • 10
65

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      • In 1899 Dorothy Gale returns to the land of Oz, only to find the enchanting Emerald City in ruins, and all her old friends have been captured by the Nome King and the evil Princess Mombi......