Return to Oz

Return to Oz is a 1985 American fantasy film directed and written by Walter Murch, co-written by Gill Dennis and produced by Paul Maslansky. It stars Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, and Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale in her first screen role. The film is an unofficial sequel to the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film The Wizard of Oz, and is based on L. Frank Baum's Oz novels, mainly The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) and Ozma of Oz (1907). In the plot, Dorothy returns to the Land of Oz to find it has been overthrown by the villainous Nome King, and must restore it with her new friends Tik-Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead, and Princess Ozma.

In 1954, Walt Disney Productions bought the film rights to Baum's remaining Oz books to use in the television series Disneyland; this led to the live-action film Rainbow Road to Oz, which was never completed. Murch suggested making another Oz film in 1980. Disney approved the project as they were due to lose the film rights to the series. Though MGM was not involved in the production, Disney had to pay a large fee to use the ruby slippers created for the MGM Wizard of Oz. Return to Oz fell behind schedule during production, and, following a change of Disney management, Murch was briefly fired from the project.

Return to Oz performed poorly at the box office, grossing 11.1 million dollars in the United States on a 28 million dollar budget, and received mixed reviews. However, it performed well outside the U.S and has since acquired a cult following. It received an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects.

Plot
In October 1899, six months after returning from the magical Land of Oz, an insomniac Dorothy Gale cannot stop talking about her adventures in Oz, troubling her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, who believe she is suffering from trauma after the tornado. On the Kansas farm, she finds a key with an Oz insignia, believing it is a sign from Oz. Aunt Em takes Dorothy to a nearby clinic to see Dr. J.B. Worley for electrotherapy to cure the girl of her Oz "delusions", leaving her under the care of stern Nurse Wilson. As Dorothy is about to receive treatment, a storm hits and the clinic is struck by lightning resulting in a power fail. Dorothy is freed from her restraints by a mysterious girl who tells her that Dr Worley's machines damage the patients. They escape, with Nurse Wilson in pursuit, and fall into a river. Dorothy clambers aboard a chicken coop, but the other girl vanishes underwater.

Dorothy awakens in Oz with her chicken Billina, who can now talk. They find the yellow brick road has been demolished, Emerald City is now in ruins and its citizens (including the Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion) have been turned to stone. Cornered by Wheelers, menacing men with wheels instead of hands and feet, they escape into a room Dorothy unlocks with the Oz key. They meet a mechanical man, Tik-Tok, who explains that King Scarecrow locked him in the room and told him to wait for Dorothy.

To get more information about the Scarecrow's whereabouts, the three visit princess Mombi, who collects beautiful heads. Mombi explains that the Nome King kidnapped the Scarecrow and destroyed the Emerald City. Mombi then decides to imprison Dorothy to eventually take her head. In a locked room at the top of Mombi's castle, Dorothy meets Jack Pumpkinhead, a man made of sticks with a carved pumpkin for a head. Jack explains he was brought to life via Mombi's Powder of Life. They assemble a creature with furniture, rope, and the head of a moose-like animal called the Gump. Dorothy steals the Powder of Life from Mombi, but awakes her many heads, thus alerting a headless Mombi. A girl in a mirror guides Dorothy back to the tower, where Dorothy uses the powder to bring the Gump to life. He flies them across the Deadly Desert to the Nome King's mountain. Mombi sends the Wheelers after them, but they are halted by the Deadly Desert.

In his underground domain, the Nome King explains to Dorothy that the reason he destroyed Oz is because the emeralds that decorated the Emerald City were stolen from his mountain. He then reveals that he has turned the Scarecrow into an ornament. He will allow Dorothy and her companions exactly three guesses each to identify which ornament he is; if they fail, they will become ornaments themselves. The Gump, Jack and Tik-Tok each fail. The Nome King reveals to Dorothy he has obtained her discarded magic ruby slippers. He gives Dorothy the chance to return home but Dorothy refuses, determined to save her friends.

While Dorothy makes her guesses in the ornament room, Mombi arrives. The Nome King, furious at having allowed Dorothy to escape, imprisons her in a cage. On her last guess, Dorothy locates the Scarecrow, and realizes that people from Oz turn into green ornaments. After she finds Jack and Gump, the enraged Nome King stops the game and eats the Gump's couch body. He prepares to eat Jack, but Billina, hiding in Jack's head, lays an egg and it falls into the Nome King's mouth. As eggs are poisonous to nomes, the Nome King and his subterranean kingdom crumble. Dorothy finds the ruby slippers and wishes for the group to be returned safely to a restored Emerald City. There, they mourn the loss of Tik-Tok until Billina notices a green medal stuck on one of the Gump's antlers. Dorothy restores him.

At a celebration within the palace of the Emerald City, Dorothy is asked to be Queen of Oz but declines, saying she must return to Kansas. She learns that the girl in the mirror who helped her escape Mombi and from the clinic in Kansas, is Princess Ozma, the rightful ruler of Oz, who had been enchanted into the mirror by Mombi. Ozma takes her place on the throne and Dorothy hands over the ruby slippers. Billina opts to stay in Oz. Ozma sends Dorothy home, promising that Dorothy is welcome to return. Ozma also tells Dorothy she will be looking in on her from time to time.

In Kansas, a search party finds Dorothy on a riverbank. Aunt Em reveals that Worley's hospital was struck by lightning and burned down, and Worley died trying to save his machines. They see Nurse Wilson locked in a cage on a passing police buggy. Back on the farm, in a newly completed farmhouse, Dorothy sees Billina and Ozma through her bedroom mirror. She calls out for Aunt Em to come and look, but Ozma signals at Dorothy to keep Oz a secret. Dorothy agrees and goes outside to play with her dog Toto.

Cast

 * Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale
 * Nicol Williamson as Dr. J.B. Worley/Nome King
 * Jean Marsh as Nurse Wilson/Princess Mombi
 * Sophie Ward as Mombi II
 * Fiona Victory as Mombi III
 * Piper Laurie as Aunt Em
 * Matt Clark as Uncle Henry
 * Emma Ridley as the Girl at the hospital/Princess Ozma
 * Justin Case as the Scarecrow
 * Pons Maar as Lead Wheeler/Nurse Wilson's assistant
 * Bruce Boa as Policeman
 * Tansy as Toto
 * John Alexander, Rachael Ashton, Robbie Barnett, Ailsa Berk, Peter Elliott, Roger Ennals, Michele Hine, Mark Hopkins, Colin Skeaping, Ken Stevens, Philip Tan and Rob Thirtle as the Wheelers

Puppeteers

 * Mak Wilson as Billina
 * Michael Sundin & Timothy D. Rose as Tik-Tok
 * Brian Henson & Stewart Larange as Jack Pumpkinhead
 * Lyle Conway & Steve Norrington as The Gump
 * Deep Roy as the Tin Man
 * John Alexander as the Cowardly Lion

Voice cast

 * Denise Bryer as Billina
 * Sean Barrett as Tik-Tok
 * Brian Henson as Jack Pumpkinhead
 * Lyle Conway as the Gump
 * Pons Maar as Nome Messenger
 * Beatrice Murch as Princess Ozma (uncredited)

Development
Walter Murch began development Return to Oz in 1980, during a brain-storming session with Walt Disney Productions production chief Tom Wilhite. He recalled: "One of the questions he asked was, 'What are you interested in that you think we might also be interested in?', and I said, 'Another Oz story.'... And Tom sort of straightened up in his chair because it turned out, unbeknownst to me, that Disney owned the rights to all of the Oz stories. And they were particularly interested in doing something with them because the copyright was going to run out in the next five years."

The film is based on the second and third Oz books, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) and Ozma of Oz (1907). The element about Tik-Tok being "The Royal Army of Oz" derives from Tik-Tok of Oz (1914), in which he is made the Royal Army of Oogaboo, and also makes frequent cries of "Pick me up!" That book was itself based on a dramatic production, The Tik-Tok Man of Oz (1913). Murch also used the book Wisconsin Death Trip as a historical source for the film.

Murch took a darker take on Baum's source material than the 1939 adaptation, which he knew starting out would be a gamble. Between the development period and actual shooting, there was a change of leadership at the Walt Disney studios (with Wilhite replaced by Richard Berger), and the film's budget increased. Once shooting began, Murch began to fall behind schedule, and there was further pressure from the studio, leading to Murch being fired as director for a short period. High-profile film-makers including George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola supported Murch in discussions with the studio, and Murch was reinstated and finished the film.

The film was developed and produced without the involvement of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio behind the 1939 film. No approval was necessary, because by 1985, the Oz books on which it was based were in the public domain, and the subsequent Oz books had been optioned to Disney many years earlier. A large fee was paid, however, to use the ruby slippers, which were still the intellectual property of MGM. at the time (as they had been created specifically for the 1939 film to replace the Silver Shoes of the original stories).

Filming
Principal photography began on February 20, 1984, and wrapped in October 1984.

Critical response
The film received mixed reviews upon its release. The film-critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes records 52% positive reviews based on 33 reviews, its critical consensus reads "Return to Oz taps into the darker side of L. Frank Baum's book series with an intermittently dazzling adventure that never quite recaptures the magic of its classic predecessor." Those who were familiar with the Oz books praised its faithfulness to the source material of L. Frank Baum. However, many critics described its tone and overall content as slightly too dark and intense for young children. "Children are sure to be startled by its bleakness," said The New York Times' Janet Maslin. Canadian film critic Jay Scott felt the protagonists were too creepy and weird for viewers to relate or sympathize with: "Dorothy's friends are as weird as her enemies, which is faithful to the original Oz books but turns out not to be a virtue on film, where the eerie has a tendency to remain eerie no matter how often we're told it's not." "It's bleak, creepy, and occasionally terrifying," added Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader. Amelie Gillette of The A.V. Club frequently refers to its dark nature as unsuitable for its intended audience of young children despite it being one of her favorite movies growing up.

Box office
It earned $2,844,895 in its opening weekend, finishing in seventh place. It ultimately grossed $11,137,801 in North America.

Accolades
The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects, but lost to Cocoon. Fairuza Balk and Emma Ridley were nominated for Young Artist Awards. It received two Saturn Award nominations for Best Fantasy Film (lost to Ladyhawke) and Best Younger Actor for Fairuza Balk (who lost to Barret Oliver for D.A.R.Y.L.).

Home media
The film has been released to VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD, and Blu-Ray over the years. The initial release, to VHS, laserdisc, and Beta, occurred in December 1985 shortly after the theatrical release, with the VHS initially priced with a list price of $79.95. Disney reissued it in 1992 with alternate cover art. In 1999, Anchor Bay Entertainment, who had obtained the home video rights to several titles from Disney's live-action catalogue, issued the film on full-screen and letterbox VHS, as well as a DVD release featuring both versions. All three releases featured an intro by Fairuza Balk before the film and an interview featurette with her after it. All three versions went out of print shortly after their release.

In 2004, Disney released their own DVD, which dropped the Anchor Bay disc's fullscreen version and added anamorphic enhancement for 16:9 TVs for the widescreen version, upgraded the audio to 5.1 surround, retained the Anchor Bay disc's extras, and added four TV spots and a theatrical trailer. In 2015, Disney released a 30th Anniversary Edition of the film on Blu-Ray exclusively through the Disney Movie Club, featuring a newly remastered and cleaned up transfer and DTS Master Audio 5.1 sound, but none of the bonus features from the 2004 DVD.

It is featured the “From the Vault” Film section of Disney’s streaming platform, Disney+.

Attraction
The film's interpretation of Oz is featured in the Storybook Land Canal Boats attraction at Disneyland Park in Paris.