smokedragon

just how good is this movie?
I have heard that it is much darker than Wizard.
Is the picture and sound good?Any extras?

Eric F

I saw in on the Disney channel the other day, it was on at like 2am.

I don't know about the DVD transfer, but the damn thing put me to sleep, and it wasn't just because it was 2am.

This is one wacked out film, definately not for kids. Quite possibly enjoyable if you drop acid before, but otherwise I don't see how people can like it.

I know people say it's closer to L. Baum's vision of Oz than the first movie, but I still didn't like it.

kunert

I would compare it to Labyrinth, just not as good. (and Labyrinth is not as good as Dark Crystal to begin with.) It's similar to a lot of Jim Henson's creature shop side-projects. There's no point in comparing it to the classic, which is a musical. They have little in common. I do however, like it more than most people and was pretty pleased with the quality of the DVD. There's some cool stop-motion effects with animated faces on the rocks. The extras are weak, just some interview footage with the girl, now grown up. The girl is not that interesting, she just tries to convince you that the movie is better than it is. I never "get" people's negative comments about any movie being too "dark" for children. That's not a valid criticism. Pokemon's not "dark", and it still turns kids into whiny empty-headed obsessive-compulsives.

Eric F

Not a valid criticism?

I used to work with kids and I can tell you I was shocked by some of the material the parents allowed their kids to watch. I even recall some parent taking their 8yr old to see T2.

Return to Oz is a dark film, is it too dark for an 8yr old? Quite possibly, but for a 12yr old? Probably not.

kunert

Let me clarify Eric F. I don't consider "dark" to equal violent, any more than I advocate children being taken to R-rated movies. I consider parents at the theater who are too lazy/cheap to get a babysitter when they go to R-rated films to be child-abusers, not to mention jerks to the other patrons. I just don't like it when people dismiss otherwise valid children's entertainment, because God-forbid there's some intelligence in the story, there's a struggle to overcome, some character has to make an important sacrifice, etc. Some people are so afraid that if characters in kid's movies aren't all sappy and hugging all the time like Care Bears and Teletubbies that the child will be tromatized. In a recent discussion here, Willy Wonka was called a "dark" film, for example. My wife and I both consider it a great movie for anyone above age 6, and she recently took the DVD over when babysitting. (She even took Pee Wee's Playhouse episodes before -that doesn't go over so well with some parents, heh heh)

In any case, Return to Oz probably has a lower body-count than Wizard! Now that crushed witch, THAT'S violent!