Return to Oz *** (1985, (Fairuza Balk, Jean Marsh, Nicol Williamson) – Classic Movie Review 1420

The Walt Disney studio returns to L Frank Baum’s original stories for this dark-tinged 1985 fantasy about Dorothy’s non-musical trip to a derelict Yellow Brick Road and a ruined Emerald City. It’s based on Baum’s Oz books, mainly the second and third stories, The Marvellous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz.

The first half hour sees Dorothy (Fairuza Balk) sent to a creepy nurse (Jean Marsh) and doctor (Nicol Williamson) who give her electroshock therapy to cure her bad dreams. This results in her being sent back to Oz to defeat the powers of evil, who are now the extremely bad Princess Mombi (Marsh) and the Nome King (Williamson). Along the way Dorothy joins up with chattering chicken Billina, stubby clockwork mechanical man/robot Tik-Tok and pumpkin-headed scarecrow Jack Pumpkinhead. Her companions help her restore Oz to its former glory.

Co-writer/director Walter Murch’s scary, rather weird film is more like a horror movie for children than the expected whimsical fantasy, but perhaps it’s none the worse for that. Murch, an editor and sound designer, bravely takes a different road from the obvious one and puts a personal stamp on Oz that’s light (dark?) years away from the MGM 1939 Judy Garland version The Wizard of Oz.

Dorothy is engagingly played by Balk, stepping comfortably into Judy’s ruby slippers, while British stalwarts Marsh and Williamson enjoy themselves  extravagantly in rousing displays of villainy. It also stars Piper Laurie and Matt Clark as Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.

The sets are impressive, though the effects are modestly done, while Ray Harryhausen-style Claymation effects seem very old-fashioned, even for 1985, but they are still curiously endearing. Indeed the film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.

Obviously, with this scary story, it’s not intended for young children.

Surprisingly, it performed very poorly at the box office, costing $28million and earning only $11million, and received mixed reviews. But it is welcome as a more faithful adaptation of the Oz stories than the 1939 film, and has now gone on to establish a cult following.

By 1985, the Oz books on which the film was based were in the public domain, but Disney had to pay a large fee to MGM to use their Ruby Slippers, that had replaced the Silver Shoes of the original stories.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1420

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