10 Amazing Facts About Return to Oz

[Music] in 1985 returned to us traumatized its way into theaters no doubt terrifying many of the young children and probably their parents for that matter who watched it it had been 45 long years since the Wizard of Oz came out and it seemed that finally fans of the 1939 musical were given the sequel that they had been waiting for but there was no happy joyful singing munchkins and returned to us there was no somewhere over the rainbow and no happy fairytale landscapes nope instead Return to Oz was more of a horror film it was dark and brooding and very daring with its subject matter and fear factor a film that was completely torn apart by film critics who didn't like the movie because it in no way resembled The Wizard of Oz Hank the movie was so hated even Siskel and Eva put it in their worst movies of 1985 list yep back in the happy time of 1985 people didn't want to see Dorothy getting electric shock treatment and going on a sinister adventure in an apocalyptic Oz complete with a witch with removable heads and evil rock demons without a doubt this movie was ahead of its time especially considering in this day and age everything must be dark and brooding and despite the negative criticism it did receive from critics it did gain a cult following from the kids who grew up watching it and now it's time to finally see return to us for the daring masterpiece it truly is you know it might just be that Return to Oz is the most frightening children's movie of all time seriously I'm a grown-ass man with no now and there are still parts of the film that make me nervous so to celebrate this fantastic movie we are going to look into 10 amazing facts about return to so let's check it out before the wheel is turned up it's not terrifying everyone [Music] what are those Oh when you're ready we'll just put them over your ears and pretty soon number 10 returned to Oz isn't a sequel it is popular belief that returned to Oz is a long-awaited sequel to Wizard of Oz but in fact it isn't Posadas The Wizard of Oz was released by MGM and returned to was was released by none other than Disney both movies also look nothing alike not visually or totally and Wizard of Oz was a musical where as returned to Oz as a contemporary movie without any music numbers also there is a huge age gap between the actresses who played Dorothy with Judy Garland who was 17 when she played the role and firoozeh bulk who was just 10 and looked much more like a little girl I think that the fact that the word return is in the movie's title causes people to assume the movie as a sequel but the movie is more of a follow-up to the elf frank Baum book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz there are some things however that do connect the two movies for example bulk like garland had brown hair unlike the book where Dorothy was blonde and of course the use of the ruby slippers which is a concept entirely made up for The Wizard of Oz film as in the books Dorothy's powerful footwear of mystical powers were in fact silver shoes my guess is this is because the ruby slippers were really iconic thanks to the 1939 film and they probably felt that they had to use that concept or otherwise the younger viewers would get confused number 9 Return to Oz is based off 2 Oz books yeah that's right unlike The Wizard of Oz which was just based off the one book Return to Oz is based on two of Pam's books it's based off the second book in the series the marvelous land of Oz and the third entry Ozma of Oz the marvelous land of Oz doesn't even feature Dorothea but is instead about a boy named tip who tries to stop an evil witch called mombi the book introduce concepts seen in the movies such as the powder of life mombi Jack Pumpkinhead Gump and the deadly desert Ozma of Oz features Dorothy whom like in the film gets swept tors thanks to a storm where she must face the Nome King and dreaded Wheeler's along with teaming up with Tik Tok the mechanical man and of course Princess Ozma it really is fascinating that the movie is based on two books because in the movie the two stories just gel together so well number eight Christopher Lloyd was considered for the role of the Nome King yeah Great Scott indeed but according to some sources when the movie was in early days of production none other than Doc Brown himself was considered to take on the role of the evil powerful rock like being the Nome King it definitely would have been interesting to see Lloyd in this movie but sadly we never got to see a flux capacitor powered Nome King as Lloyd turned down the role probably due to the fact that he was making back to the future at the time I don't know why but I just would have loved to have seen the Nome King screaming out about 1.21 jigowatts number seven the movie has a place in the Guinness Book of Records yeah although the movie may have failed to impress upon its release in 1985 it was still achievement worthy enough for the Guinness Book of Records for being a sequel that was made for the longest period of time after the original okay I've already established that technically this isn't a sequel but once again I think it comes back down to many people thinking that it is I guess if you want it to be technical and bring up the ruby slippers then I guess you could probably say it's a soft sequel but regardless on the account that Wizard of Oz came out in 1939 and returned to us came out in 1985 placing a 46 year gap in between movies earns it a spot in the Guinness Book of Records and furthermore the next big cinematic oz adventure didn't come out until 2013 with oz the great and powerful merely another 30 years later well gee whiz at this stage by the time the 4th oz movie comes out we'll be dead number 6 Return to Oz is the first movie to ever use the blue Disney logo we all know the famous blue Disney logo and have no doubt seen at some stage where we see a blue silhouette of the Disney Castle along with a shooting star flying over it a well known logo that is certainly now evolved with the times well Return to Oz was the first movie to use this iconic logo you see this film was kind of a big deal for Disney who were trying to branch out in live-action movies at the time nowadays it seems that Disney owns all the big popular movies from Marvel movies to Star Wars but back in the 80s they weren't so successful and had many failed attempts at getting into the mainstream movie scene at that time thanks to other not so successful attempts like Tron and flight of the navigator and so I guess because they were taking a shot with the Oz name they thought it'd be the perfect time to branch out with their new logo number 5 the other actresses who auditioned for the role of Dorothy okay so fur is a balk was perfect as Dorothy Gale despite her age she is very believable and sincere and never gets annoying or obnoxious like a lot of child actors do and while watching the movie I always find myself worrying for her and hoping that she'll be okay I think when you're a little kid especially for children we all want that magical place to disappear to we all want to be able to go to another world but bulk wasn't the only young actress to audition for the role according to imbd some of the other young actresses to try out for the iconic part of Dorothy Gale include drew Barrymore Juliette Lewis and Alanis Morissette what helped that would have been different but faithfully though bulk got the part and the rest was history I think that Return to Oz is an incredibly unique surreal amazing film and it's got a lot of really serious fans number four the Whalers are impractical villains okay one of the most terrifying elements associated with this movie is without a doubt the wheelers everyone who watched this movie as a kid seems to remember these guys and the subsequent nightmares they caused and probably therapy sessions that matter you have to come out sooner or later boy did these bastards terrify me I think it's because of the fact they have big wheels for hands and feet and it just looks so weird and so unnatural but despite the post traumatic stress disorder these guys have caused you have to ask yourself are they really that menacing I mean apart from laughing and screaming there's actually not really a lot that they can do on the account of course that they have no hands or feet okay well after thinking about this long and hard there is only two ways a wheel I can actually cause you any physical harm one is they run you over but in order to do that they would have to charge you at a really fast speed and that's knock you over and then run over you but honestly their wills per se in the move don't look strong enough to actually go over a human body the only other way they could possibly hurt you is if they get really close to you and try and bite you but once again just push them away they can't do much as they don't have hand and feet coordination still I guess the way they say the word chicken and is pretty intimidating so I guess there's still that either way they may be a villain that can't cause any harm but due to their funky 80's attire and taunts of ripping poor Dorothy Gale into pieces and dumping her in the deadly desert they were still pretty intimidating and menacing number three it was a one time film for director Walter Murch that's right this movie was directed by one time director Walter Murch who actually really wanted to direct the movie as he had a vision of the Oz universe and lobbied to Disney to give him the position of the movie's director and even had Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas to back him up and help convince Disney to give him the chance to direct Murch is actually a big name in the business as he is a well-established movie editor and before directing Return to Oz he had edited well established movies The Godfather and Apocalypse Now so the guy who directed Return to Oz previously worked on The Godfather and Apocalypse Now and people were surprised the movie was dark well I'll tell you what it doesn't get any darker than the Godfather and Apocalypse Now what did people expect sadly merch never went on to direct anything else after Return sir was I really hope that's not because he felt disheartened with all the negative criticism the movie got it's a shame as I feel like Return to Oz is directed brilliantly and confidently and we missed out on seeing more movies from a potentially great movie director still we will always have returned to was also the movie was produced by Gary Kurtz who also produced the original Star Wars trilogy which is pretty cool number two the movie has an impressive cast as mentioned the role of Dorothy was played by legendary firoozeh bulk who would go on to star in the craft and American History X in both of those movies she played a completely crazy person but hey I guess that's what coming face to face of the wheelers does to you in addition to her there was also people Lori who played auntie em and for all those who don't know who people Lori is she played Carey's wacko mother in the original carrier and of course Nicole Williamson who played the Nome King and the shock treatment doctor and to all you geek culture enthusiasts Williamson played Merlin in Excalibur the priest who gets ripped apart in The Exorcist 3 and the ancient warrior in the spawn movie adaptation gene March played the witch mombi and the evil looking nurse she had previously starred in episodes of The Twilight Zone and Doctor Who and was even at one stage married to third doctor himself Jon Pertwee yes indeed guys Doctor Who his wife is indeed the witch from Return to Oz you know it's when we get clashes of fandom with this magnitude that I really like being a pop cultural detective and then there are also the performers of the puppet characters like Jim Henson's son Brian Henson who played Jack Pumpkinhead and would go on to play hoggle in labyrinth then there's the guy who played tick-tock gymnast Michael Sundin who in order to make the robot move had to spend his entire movie scenes bent down Wow the poor guy but it totally paid off number one the movie is about not letting the hierarchy destroy creativity at the start of the movie we learn that Dorothy isn't sleeping much because she often thinks about her first trip to Oz and recollects on her adventures there RTM thinks that these forts are getting in the way of her farming chores so in order to read Dorothy of her daydreams she says Dorothy to a clinic where or if he would undergo electric shock treatment in order to erase us from her header there is a sentiment here about technology being this new industrial manufactured tool used to destroy the Wonder and imagination of a child so Dorothy could be more structured and molded for a work routine dr. Walley tries to assure Dorothy that the machine is safe and even tries to convince her that his machine is fun and playful showing her that the machine has a face which still doesn't make it look any less terrifying seriously look at that thing dr. Walley even describes Dorothy's sports about Oz as quote unquote nasty dreams despite the fact that they aren't nasty and throughout the hospital scenes horrific screams and moans from patients can be heard it's honestly terrifying and during a storm Dorothy escapes where she supposedly goes back to Oz in fact the movie could be interpreted that Dorothy did indeed undergo electric shock treatment and the events that unfold such as her trip to Oz are all part of a lucid dream about Dorothy's internal struggle to save her individuality and imagination hence the fact that Oz looks so rundown and destroyed that represents Dorothy's creativity and imagination being destroyed so Dorothy must save Oz thus her creativity and individuality hence why the Nome King wants to turn Dorothy into an ornament a faultless object of the system and also why with each lightning strike of one of her friends becoming ornaments the Nome King becomes more powerful could the lightning strikes represent the electric currents of Dorothy's treatment to me it's all about fighting mind control and the movie is every bit as horrific as mind control Dorothy must restore us and her friends in order to get back home and to be happy once again where she wakes up apparently fine now without the horrific use of electric shock treatment what I get from this movie is that it's okay for children to be creative and to use their imaginations and to not let the cold-blooded industrial work Orion hated hierarchy destroy the purity of imagination and interestingly enough going back to dr. Walley space machine he's trying to use technology to destroy Dorothy's playful imagination while trying to get her to playfully imagine that his machine has a face which is a flawed and hypocritical ethic oh the irony you well guys that was my loving look into return to us I hope that like me you get a lot of joy out of this movie and give the movie the praise and recognition that it deserves it is definitely worthy of more appraisal and recognition even if the movie is utterly terrifying but hey kids love scary movies another kid I always wanted to watch return to us over the Wizard of Oz anyway I'm minty and if you ever find yourself in the Land of Oz do not take a chicken with you then wheelers they will get in your face and they will I don't know we allowed you to dip or something say ah [Music]

Channel: Minty Comedic Arts

Views: 580,019

Rating: 4.8567624 out of 5

Keywords: Return to Oz, Film, Trivia, list, Wheelers, Mombie, Nome Kin, Dorothy Gale, Fairuza Balk, Scary Kids Film, L. Frank Baum, Review, Return to Oz Review

Id: 5Pup-Dt0BoY

Length: 19min 23sec (1163 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 20 2017