Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1981 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-03-22
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Return to Oz is a 1985 live-action sequel that split critics and audiences alike: you don't fool with Mother Nature, spit into the wind, remake Casablanca, or trash the land of Oz. The 1939 classic musical is so beloved that it's almost impossible to imagine seeing Dorothy in shock therapy, a crumbled yellow brick road, the ruins of Emerald City, and the Tin Man turned into stone. But L Frank Baum, the author of the original Oz books, portrayed just that with his continuing stories of Dorothy. When you get by these tough facts, the film version is solid entertainment for the over-seven set.

Dorothy (a 10-year-old Fairuza Balk in her debut) is back in Kansas, where Aunt Em (Piper Laurie) is at the end of her rope: her niece is not sleeping and going on about a place called Oz. Therapy may be the answer, but luckily the scary clinic goes dark before Dorothy can be, er, cured (but the lead-up will scare the munchkins out of most kids). She wakes up in the land of Oz, now in tatters, and searches for its king, the Scarecrow. A new set of friends, including a tin soldier, a talking chicken, and a pumpkin man, help her against new villains, including Princess Mombi (Jean Marsh)--complete with a set of detachable heads--and the evil Nome King (Nicol Williamson with a great assist from Will Vinton's Claymation). The sole directorial effort of Oscar-winning editor Walter Murch is stuffed with marvellous effects that foreshadow later works by Tim Burton and the Henson non-Muppet films. --Doug Thomas

Synopsis
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...

Customer Reviews

my favorite film!
i fell in love with this film when i saw it as a child and still adore it today. it's much darker than the original oz film and has some fantastic characters - mombi with her collection of heads being one of the best!
another aspect of the film that makes it so special is the way that the two worlds portrayed are parallels of each other; it's not just a childish disney film.
i advise anyone who hasn't seen this to get a copy!

Not for young children
Don't be fooled by it's colourful artwork. This film is extremely dark and in many places, very frightening. Dorothy is sent to a hospital, where doctors use harmful electric techinques, to rid children of dreams. Dotothy manages to escape the very gothic hospital during a storm, and awakes in the land of oz. After exploring her surroundings, she finds that the place has been trashed and the emerald city is no more than crumbling ruins. This is the part where parents should intervene, becuase the characters she encounters next are terrifying. The Wheelers are men with wheels for hands and feet. There arms are as long as legs and they race around on all fours, chasing dorothy to dead ends. If the children are brave enough to continue watching, dorothy then meets princess mombie, who is a sort of witch, she has a hall of heads in cabinents and can freely change her head for another one whenever she pleases. In a later scene where dorothy creeps into the corridor, the heads all wake up and begin groaning and wailing her name, alerting the headless princess to the intruder. This again is very frightening. If you saw the film as a child like i did, you too probably had repeated nightmares about the wheelers. Don't let your children suffer this too.
Watch this film with them. They will enjoy it, but there are a few scenes that are far too scary.

Underated film!
Such a good childrens film- a truely underated classic and, if you have actually read the Oz books (there were 14 of them) you realise that this film matches the orignal vision of L Frank Baum far more than the 1939 version of the Wizard of Oz which deviated quite wildly from the original book. Scary and fun in all the right places it is an excellent family film. I actually prefer it to the 1939 film!