Return to OZ (1985) *Appreciation Thread*
 

So i remember watching this as a kid and thinking "Man, this is way creepier than The Wizard of OZ".
As the official sequel to the 1939 classic, its more faithful to the novels (which i realized years after i saw it) but rubbed alot of people the wrong way while some absolutely loved it.
I recently saw it again and i cant help but love this film, its fantastic. Its so atmospheric and just creepy. Its such a contrast to the original and its just odd (but tremendously insightful) to see things such:

-The Emerald City in ruin
-smashed up Yellow Brick Road
-people turned to the stone
-different character designs for most of the leads
-those creepy ass "WHEELERS" :wtf:
-that chic that kept switching the heads
-the gnome king wearing the red ruby slippers

Anyway, who else here digs this gem?!

always been a big fan. Its impossible for me to compare this to the original film, but its wonderful in its own right.

I've loved this flick since 1985. As a really young kid, five years old, my parents too me to the theater to see this with my pre-school "girlfriend".

I didn't realize that Fairuza Balk was Dorothy in it until this decade, so maybe that's why I still like her so much to this day, heh.

I consider RtO a "classic", and expect it to be considered as such by more and more people as the years go on.

I saw this when it first came out, I was about 5 or 6 and it scared the hell out of me. To this day I consider it to be one of the scariest movies I've ever seen! (of course kids find the dumbest things scary) I haven't seen it since and I'm sure I'll feel stupid for being afraid for so many years but those Wheelers were too freakin' creepy.

The only other things I remember are: the witch with a room full of heads (also creepy), and Dorothy escaping from a mental institution at the beginning.

I really will have to check this out again because although it freaked me out, I still found it very interesting. Still do. And Kudos for the filmmakers for not pussying out and giving kids of the era a truly genuine Oz experience :up:

This movie scared the hell out of me as a kid. I haven't seen it in years though...maybe it's time to revisit it.

Saw it today and believe me, its still creepy. The Wheelers are still freaky, especially the leader who laughs uncontrolably like The Joker.

I love this movie! The part where they have a few tries to find the scarecrow is great.

This film is currently in my top 10 favorite films. I love how they used the original art nouveau illustrations to guide all of the buildings and characters. As much as I love the musical version, the character Tic Toc was so much more memorable that the tin woodsman.

My favorite scenes are when Dorothy steals the key from the hall of heads and the three guesses scene in the Gnome King's castle. The witch Mombi (who also played Bavmorda in Willow) does a great job at portraying a jealous and vengeful woman.

Every time I watch this film I am amazed at how much work that they put into making it look so good. Computer effects weren't used for this film, so everything looks alive and enchanting. Compared to the digital scenery in George Lucas's prequels, I would gladly choose to watch this film.

It's a rare underrated gem of movie for sure I love every moment of it.

This is one of the first movies I saw in theatres. The only thing I remember is the ending where the amulet is stuck on the moose's / elk's antlers.

Unlike many of you I was not a kid (I was 38) when I first saw this film during its first run. I had read most of the books when I was a kid (all 14 of the Baum and all of the others except the dreadful Ruth Plumly Thompson ones which I soon gave up on) and I was blown away by the entire production and the way it was much more faithful to the books than the 1939 film was (don't get me wrong, I love that one too but for entirely different reasons). I couldn't believe the poor reviews and the tepid reaction of the public until I realized that most people expected another musical and would settle for nothing else and few people also had ever read the books except for maybe the first one.

As the years have passed, Return, based on the second (The Land of Oz) and third (Ozma of Oz) Baum books, has grown in stature and appreciation. Perhaps one day it will be seen as the classic it is.

surely in my top 20 favorite movies. this movie brings sooo many memories from my childhood rushing back to me.

the witch and the wheelers are downright scary. And the mental institution thing is pretty out there too- i loved how they brought all the elements from dorothy's world into the "dream world" (tick tock= clock, nurses=wheelers, etc)

great, great movie. and fairuza was perfect for this role.

I was just happy to see an Oz movie without any song and dance numbers.

I was 10 when it came out but i didn't even hear of it until my wife introduced me to it 6 or 7 years ago. I never read the books but i heard that the sequeal was more faithful to them. It has a very creepy feeling to it that if the 39 film was the only time you were exposed to OZ, you'd become rather shocked.

I like it and own it on DVD. Yeah, it was pretty creepy as a kid. And I had read the books as a kid, so I really liked (and still do) how faithful it was to the source material. :thumbsup:

Never saw "The Wizard of Oz" outside of the typical college "Dark Side of the Rainbow" experiment. It has always struck me as dated, campy and lame.

Now "Return to Oz," that's an entirely different story. The fact that it opens with Dorothy about to receive electroshock therapy in a freaky-ass institution had me complete sold from the get-go. It's just an amazing movie from beginning to end.

We even named our cat "Oz" because of it.

I've always loved this film. I remember seeing it in theaters and horrified and and excited the whole time. Definitely a freaky flick.

I'm pretty sure it was after RtO that I decided to read the Oz books. I think I read most, if not all, of the original 14. It was obviously much closer to the source material.

Thanks for reminding me of this flick. I'm going to add it to my Netflix queue as my wife hasn't seen it.