Enjoyment
I haven't actually viewed my purchase yet, but the condition I received it in was quite satisfactory. I am positive that I shall enjoy it. THANKS! :)

Astonishing, Original, and Funtastic Movie!
100 Snazzes on the 100 point Snazz-o-scale. Perfect!
-Return to Oz is a fantastic and phenomenal movie. It did flop at the time of its release, I'm sad to say. I recall one critic calling it grim and gloomy, saying they could have at least had a little "Over the Rainbow" in it. I also saw a Return to Oz float once at Walt Disney World, during the Main Street Electrical parade. It's a great parade but I think most people looked at the float and thought "What is THAT?"
-But it is a great movie nevertheless. The characters are wonderful; from Dorothy to her friends, Jack and Tic-Toc, to the villains, Mombi and the Wheelers. Mombi stealing lovely young maiden's heads for her own is a frightful prospect. And the Wheelers are very cool looking. They are men with wheels on their feet and hands, and they go tooling about on all fours. I wonder how long they had to practice to learn to wheel about like that?
-Dorothy is played by Fairuza Balk and she does an excellent job, especially noting she must have acted continuously with special effects men, puppeters, and just her imagination. All about her in Oz are wonderous creatures but very few humans at all.
-The character that steals the show though is the Nome King. I think he's one of the greatest villains ever put to film, right up there with Darth Vader. For much of the movie, you only hear him and don't see what he looks like, which builds his menace. You see his nomes. When you finally DO see the Nome King, he's a claymation character made of rock. This was way before computer graphics and he looks astonishing; a large, crowned, bearded face peering out of a wall or a side of a mountain. I do believe Will Vinton did his animation, and he and his company are experts at claymation.
-But the Nome King has more than looks going for him, he is arrogant, powerful, manipulative, short-tempered, selfish, and just plain mean. He has some superb lines.

"That's not fair!" Dorothy cries.
"No? Well it seems fair to me," the Nome King replies. "And MY opinion IS all that matters."

When Mombi arrives at the Nome King's throne room with the news that Dorothy Gale is in Oz and approaching, she gasps and then says "You already know?"
"I know everything," the Nome King replies confidently.

Some of have said it's not a child's movie, being too dark and scary. It may be for older children, but I think it's very enjoyable all the same, and you can't have really good good guys without really bad villains. In addition to the great characters and great special effects, there is also some wonderful humor. Dorothy discovers headless dancing maidens turned to stone in the ruins of the Emerald City.
-"That's just plain careless," notes Belinda, her talking chicken.
-Give Return to Oz a try, you will fall in love with it.

Return to Oz is the real deal!
This movie is the real deal! Check out "Ozma of Oz" and "The Land of Oz," which take place after the events in the "Wizard of Oz" to see how L. Frank Baum envisioned Oz and then compare them to this movie. Walter Murch, not only got the look and feel of Oz right, but he also got the personalities of these new characters correct. Watch this movie to learn what Oz was really like. Jack Pumpkinhead deserves our love as much as the Scarecrow! Bettina the chicken is more Dorothy's pet than Toto. Enjoy the diversity of L. Frank Baum's imagination! You won't be disappointed. This is a GREAT film!!!

I, too, had been brainwashed by the MGM-version of OZ, so much so that I wouldn't even read the OZ book series. It was in my 20's, while recovering from surgery that I started to read the L. Frank Baum books. I found them to be much richer, interesting, darker and with deeper personal relationships than the MGM Wizard OZ-lite version. I was hooked.

When this movie came out, I was enthralled and amazed. There were other people who loved the original stories as much as me! Fairuza Balk is an age-appropriate Dorothy; Dorothy did have a pet chicken named Bettina that is featured in many of the "Oz" books who talked and eventually decided to remain in Oz; the importance of Jack Pumpkinhead cannot be overstated for the rest of the "Oz" books and is an interesting statement on certain stereotypes (which I won't mention because it would be a spoiler); the storyline of how Oz had changed while Dorothy was gone can be seen as commentary of how Kansas had changed after the twister and on how much Dorothy had changed as a result of her visiting Oz; etc. While many people have commented on how scary the movie is, there are also girl-positive, funny and very magical parts to this movie. While it is not appropriate for the very young (and neither is the "Wizard of Oz" for that matter), it is perfect for ages around ten and older. They read, see and hear of more frightening events daily. My suggestion to you is: Go ahead! Give it a try! :) I don't think you'll be sorry!

FOOTNOTE: Prior to Return to Oz's opening, Disney released a "Making Of" documentary that showed how they filmed the claymation of the Gnome King (this was a very novel technique then), how the witch transferred the different heads, how the heads had different expressions while in the closet, the workings of Tic-Toc (who I fell in love with), the animation of the Gump (another lovable creature), how the costumes of the Wheelies were made and the how the actors moved in the costumes and more details. The documentary also presented some amazing-but-true urban myths about the two Oz movies, such as: Fairuza Balk, Walter Murch and Ray Bolger believed that the land of Oz truly existed. Another story was that the coat worn by Frank Morgan, when he played the traveling salesman in "The Wizard of Oz," was bought as a thrift store so that it had that look of wear and dirt. In order to fit Frank Morgan, a seamstress inverted a sleeve and found the name "L. Frank Baum" embroidered inside! This had the effect of totally freaking out the set of the MGM studio, while others felt like they now had L. Frank's blessing. I remember that Frank Morgan himself relayed this story in the documentary. Ray Bolger was very old and possibly, one of the last main characters to be alive at the time of this documentary. He was propped up by pillows and it looked like it took some effort for him to talk. However, he told the story of how, when he auditioned, he pleaded to be considered for the role of the Scarecrow. When asked why, Ray answered something like, to have more time with Do-ro-thy, of course. (You remember the way he said the name "Dorothy," right?) There were other very cool remembrances that I'm sure I've forgotten. But this documentary really helped bridge the MGM-Oz with the Disney-Oz. If anyone knows where to get this documentary, please, please contact me.

Dorothy Takes A Little Trip Back 2 OZ!!!
Return to Oz is pretty good, but it can NEVER beat the original! Dorothy recieves a key from the scarecrow and tries to get back to Oz. No one believes her, so Auntie Em takes her to an asylum to help her. During a lightning storm, 'someone' helps Dorothy escape, and she gets transported back to Oz. With the help of totally new friends, Dorothy flies to the Nome King's mountain to figure out what happened to the Scarecrow. Soon, the Nome King challenges Dorothy and her new friends to a little game; Scarecrow has been turned into an ornament, and if they pick the right one, the Scarecrow will come back, but if they guess wrong, they will turn into ornaments as well. The problems I have with this movie is The Emerald City isn't the same, the yellow-brick road is silly. If you love the original classic, you might like RETURN TO OZ!!!


p.s. When I was about 5 or 6, my cousin, aunt, and I would act out a scene from this movie. It's when Dorothy takes the powder of life from Momby!

Childhood Memories
I watched this movie as a kids and taped it off television when it was playing on the network, now that I have a clean copy where my brother hasn't taped over chunks of the film, I watch it more then ever. I am suprised how many of my friends have actually heard and/or seen the film too!