Return to Oz

This film from 1985 is a sequel to the original wizard of Oz from back in the day. The film takes place a few months after Dorothy gets back from the Oz. She hasn’t been sleeping and her Aunt Em is concerned about her mental health. Em decides to send Dorothy to the doctor for some electro shock therapy, since it’s all the rage.

Dorothy spends the night in the hospital and just as she’s about to get zapped, there’s a power outage and an odd girl helps Dorothy escape. The two girls fall into a river and when Dorothy wakes up, she’s back in Oz with her pet chicken. Yeah, Toto has been upstaged by a chicken. Oz isn’t the same when she gets there. The yellow brick road is all grown over and the Emerald City has been overrun by the Wheelers – guys who skate around and thug people for their mistress. Dorothy enlists the help of a copper robot and a pumpkin head guy to find out where the king has been taken (the king is the scarecrow who has risen to power). The kingdom was overrun by the king of the gnomes who took back all of the emeralds the citizens of the city had stolen from him.

The film is pretty dark, although I’m not sure how much darker than the original – that one was pretty dark as well. Almost all of the characters are creepy in this movie including Dorothy, the wheelers, the scarecrow especially, and just about everyone else in the film. It’s shot well (mostly) and is a good story (it’s based on one of the sequel books written about Oz, so it’s got to be a good story, right?). I basically just got a creepy vibe from the film, which is probably why a lot of parents were disappointed when they ran their kids to the theaters to see the follow up film. It’s odd, but it’s probably worth seeing if you’re a fan of the original.