10 Things - Return to Oz: The Version You've Never Seen

[raymondhemphill]

I saw this in the theater as a kid. My mother was appalled but I LOVED every moment of the movie! Still love RTO to this day.

[geminate]

I have read all of the Baum Oz books and love Return to Oz. They did a great job combining those books and it is what an Oz movie should be.

[mattheweisele]

Absolutely one of my favorites growing up and of course Fairuza Balk.

[LORDS.And.Hammers]

My brother & I used to watch this on repeat when I was 5 and he was three, absolutely loved it. Watched it again as a 30 year old and was absolutely terrified. Still love it. 🤘🏾🤘🏾

[ryanjones]

This movie really embodies Don Bluth's philosophy that kids can handle anything in a movie as long as you give them a happy ending to the story.

[Gerard]

I'm a child of the '80s and me and my brothers grew up on this movie. I think we watched it more than the original wizard of Oz.

[sandrahiltz]

I absolutely love Return to Oz, I feel like it's a much better film than the first one, I love the dark vibe :D

[MandragoraXellesia]

I still love this movie so much. A masterpiece

[icreateworlds]

The fun thing is that Return to Oz is way more close to the actual dark atmosphere of the novels and it´s actually a good adaptation of some of the best moments in the initial two sequel books.
The novels are so violent that nowadays they would be totally censored or re-edited by upset editors if they ever came out; which i doubt. The Oz world in the books is a unique dark strange world with no hint of musical keys in sight. ;)
Return to Oz is totally close to the real mood of the novels. The original classic musical fooled generations into thinking OZ was like a cute happy place when in fact it never was in the books. It was just the classic movie that created that idea.
For example in the books Dorothy even tells the TinMan to go kill some innocent wolves in the distance because they were ugly and scary; and then the TinMan goes and chops every wolf with his axe ( for no other reason at all - the wolves were scary ) in a real gory bloody scene. That wouldn´t be exactly a good scene to have a cute musical number in the classic movie. :)
But its funny how the classic musical movie created the wrong idea on people that never got to read the books. People were in for some serious trauma if they really knew the novels well and that was what happened with Return to Oz which was brave enough to actually translate the books well into screen and of course people totally freaked out !!! I still love Return to Oz for that, as I´m reading the original novels currently and I love that this "scary" sequel actually captured the real OZ world present in the books and was brave enough to not try to replicate the fake cute and happy mood of the classic musical. :)
The casting of Fairuza Balk was just outstanding. She was absolutely incredible and totally fit with the original books too, minus the hair color as in the books she´s blonde. But the little girl was incredible in this movie.

[sarahmc]

Absolutely love Return to Oz. It's my all time fav movie, ever.

[gokuisard]

From The Never Ending Story to this. All my favourite movies. Minty, you're awesome! Thank you 😁❤️

[chickta]

Thanks so much for doing this one. Was super excited when I saw it posted. I grew up with Return to Oz and still love it to this day.

[HeavyJammer]

I've always loved the OZ books. This movie is a compilation of book "Marvelous Land of OZ" and "Ozma of OZ". This movie has some of the best claymation and stop motion animation that exists. Been a favorite of mine always. Awesome movie!

[yamanuhem.netjer]

You might also notice that the man who is the primary wheeler is also the assistant pushing the squeaky wheeled gurney in the beginning.

Also, if you look closely, the Ozma girl is carrying a small Jack-o-lantern, a quiet nod to Jack pumpkin-head, which Jack reveals that Ozma is his real mom. She built him to scare Mombi as a prank. They side stepped the Tip storyline.

[TheRadical]

Man, Fairuza Balk should have got an acting Academy Award for her performance in Return to Oz. Think of all the things she had to put up with! Mechanical puppets that were a chicken, the Gump and Jack Pumpkinhead. Acting with green screens that would later become the Gnomes and the fearsome Gnome King. She was really alone and by herself with special effects almost the whole movie. Great job Fairuza Balk!

[joesterlife]

What an amazing movie. I remember watching this on VHS and Disney Channel. I still never understood how so many was horrified out by the Wheelers.. when I was scared out by the headless queen; and heads everywhere.

[philipholder]

People forget that in the MGM movie, The Wicked Witch Of The West was planning to kill Dorothy for the slippers. Dorothy couldn't take them off as long as she was alive.

[speedincooper]

Scared the crap out of me as a kid, but I just couldn't stop re-watching it!

[PaulZebraski]

It was one of the first movies my daughter watched as a child, and she still loves it.

[Deathfacesmiles]

I loved both for how completely different they are but how they also stick to the source material.