- 3 months ago
In this episode, we take a look at the dark, underrated adaptation of L. Frank Baum's classic story, Return To Oz.
Originally uploaded on June 30, 2011.
Originally uploaded on June 30, 2011.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Thank you for listening.
00:30Groovy.
01:00Groovy.
01:30Today, viewers and fans of The Wizard of Oz, the musical classic from 1939, tend to remember
01:46little of the original stories it was based on by famous author L. Frank Baum.
01:51The Oz series itself was a huge hit in the early 1900s and made many adaptations, most
01:58of which were silent and deviated greatly from the original source material.
02:02However, in the 1980s, there was a time when the rights of the series would become public
02:07domain and Walt Disney Pictures would seek an opportunity to create their vision which
02:12would be closer to the books and darker than any Oz film in existence.
02:17This was the 1985 cult classic Return to Oz, a film that brought out the darker side of
02:24our imagination and presented Oz in a much grander fashion one would never think to see.
02:29It's funny when you think about it because off the bat, they knew they were going to do
02:35something different from the other Oz adaptations.
02:38In fact, the whole thing started off with a brainstorm session where the production chief
02:43sat back in his chair with anyone else and the director, Walter Murch, recalled that it
02:51simply asked, out of the blue, what are you interested in that we might also be interested
02:57in and Murch just replied, another Oz story and that's when everyone clicked into their
03:03heads that could be actually feasibly workable because they knew in five years the Oz books
03:09were going to be in the public domain so they actually had a chance to do their own version
03:14of what they felt was true to the Oz books.
03:17For Walter Murch to take that sheer image and go for something closer to the spirit of
03:25the books produced, I think, an interesting experiment, so to speak.
03:33I mean, I think most of us have seen the musical and the musical's great, I have huge respect
03:41from the musical, but it does deviate from the book a lot.
03:48Yeah, the original with Judy Garland by MGM had its dark moments, but half of the movie
03:56was all light and whimsical and bright colors.
04:00We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz.
04:03It's a classic, don't get me wrong, but when you compare Return of Oz to the books, it's
04:09a much more faithful adaptation, I mean, the character designs look like the original book
04:13illustrations, there are some very dark elements, like, uh, mommy trying to cut off Dorothy's
04:19head and use it, and the cities and ruins, and the dirty, the dirty desert when you touch
04:26the sands, you turn into sand, that's very, very dark.
04:29It also allowed Oz to move away from the typical conventions, because it's usually Dorothy going
04:39down the road with the lion and the scarecrow and the tin man, and you get, of course, Dorothy
04:46going on this journey with a bunch of characters, but there's a bunch of new characters, Toto's
04:52not even in this thing, so for them to, and they probably had a lot of faith in merch as
05:01well, to be like, well, you're doing your thing, that's fine, I mean, it's not like the
05:09other popular version, but we'll, you know, we'll, we'll let you do what you want, which
05:16might have been the films falling at the box office, but I think because it was different
05:22from the musical, I think later on, it allowed it to stay on its own terms.
05:29But with Return to Oz, they wanted to stay away from that, they wanted something bigger,
05:34something bolder, they had the technology, they had bigger special effects, they had all
05:40this stuff to actually show a much more different take of what Oz could be like, I mean, at the
05:47time it was 45 years since the movie was released, so they felt that they could, you know, take
05:54a different turn with this feature film and produce the Oz that could have been, so to speak.
06:01I might, I might look back on this one and say, I kind of like it better than the 1939 version.
06:10I'm serious, because all that, all the stuff that you saw in the first one, it was all nice
06:20and musical and big, big production, but it was, it was just, I look, I look at it and it's
06:31just so friendly.
06:32Okay, I can, I can applaud that, but, and it's, for its time, it was, of course, a huge
06:41step forward in technology and just showing what the film world could do, but with Return
06:49to Oz, it was truer to the form of the books it was based on, and I find that as an adult,
06:58I kind of like, I kind of like my fantasies with a bit of a dark touch to them.
07:05I don't know what it is, I must be a sick man.
07:10Unlike most Oz films, Return to Oz starts where the original novel ended with Dorothy
07:16Gale arriving home safely, but her aunt and uncle feel she's a bit delusional from the
07:21tornado and sends her off to a mental institution to cure her, but before any treatment can
07:27be conducted, with the doctor's diagnosis of shock therapy, she escapes from the asylum
07:33and winds up back in Oz with the help of Bellina, a chicken from her Kansas farm that can talk.
07:39Unfortunately, their timing couldn't be better, as it turns out Oz is not the wonderland Dorothy
07:44remembered it to be, with the yellow brick road dismantled, the emerald city now crystal,
07:49and her old friends either turned to stone or missing.
07:53It's revealed that the ruby slippers she wore are now in the hands of a tyrannical known
07:57king, which allowed him to take over the once wonderful land, and at his side to rule the
08:02tarnished crystal city is a headless witch named Mombi, with a great variety of heads.
08:09As if all hopes seem lost, she comes across a band of new characters such as TikTok, an
08:15old robot that served in the royal family, Jack Pumpkinhead, a strange stick figure with
08:20a pumpkin head, and The Gump, a magical flying sofa with a moose-like head.
08:26With this ragtag of characters, Dorothy does all she can to restore the once magical and colorful
08:32world from a bleak and nightmarish setting.
08:35The film is based off of two books in the original series, The Marvelous Land of Oz, and Ozma
08:41of Oz, with some elements of the TikTok character coming from TikTok of Oz.
08:46It's interesting to note how this adaption was able to incorporate the original style
08:50and elements of the Oz books that most adaptions like.
08:54One example was the decision of having Dorothy be portrayed as a small child, which not only
08:59caused problems in production schedule, but the idea of having a child return to her fantasy
09:04only to find it in ruins.
09:07You know, as great as Judy Garland was in the musical, I admire and agree with Murch's choice
09:18to go with a younger lead.
09:21Because in the book, Dorothy is about, what, 10, 11?
09:25It's been a while since I've read the book.
09:27But, so, and I think Judy Garland was, what, 1918 at the time?
09:33So, I think it allowed younger audiences to identify with Dorothy.
09:40Not that they did not identify with the old Dorothy.
09:45But I think the young actress who played her did quite a good job.
09:50The funny thing is, when people think of the Wizard of Oz and the character of Dorothy,
09:55the first thing that comes to mind, obviously, is Judy Garland.
09:58Because they, you know, kind of picture that whole country girl, older variation type of characteristic.
10:07And, it's a bit of a problem.
10:09Because when people take a look at the novel, they see this little girl in a world of wonder,
10:15their strangeness, and yet, so much darkness.
10:18And, I think here, they were trying to replicate that in.
10:23And, it was a pretty risky business, sticking to the Oz books as a whole.
10:29And, with this one, they really heightened it quite a lot.
10:36In the beginning of the film, she's about to be given shock therapy, which is pretty dark.
10:42Which is really scary for a kid's film.
10:45And, later, when she returns to Oz, she finds that everything is in ruin.
10:50There are these creatures known as wheelers chasing her.
10:53She later meets up with Mambi, and she says that, you know, she's going to take her head when she's older.
10:58You know, there are a lot of dark and struggling moments for her.
11:03And, you know, it does show that she's a bit more vulnerable than the first film.
11:08But, with everything that's happening now in this film, it does show a dramatic change to what has happened the first time she went.
11:17You know, everything seemed to be, you know, happy-go-lucky or peaceful.
11:22Now, it is in shambles. Everything is destroyed.
11:26So, it does show that she's worried about what's going to happen to her after everything that's happened in Oz.
11:33But, it does show that she's trying to be stronger than she was before.
11:37She's trying to rehash the elements that made her succeed from her previous adventures.
11:44It sets a tone that suggests, okay, so she's at a younger age, she might not be able to take quite as much, and that certainly changes things.
12:01She's still the same character. You can tell that. But, you might feel that while watching it, she's a little bit smaller in this big world.
12:11This big, amazing world. So, that's one of the differences.
12:15She has more of an active role. There's more of a mystery going on. How do I solve this?
12:21And, there's a bit more thinking involved in how she tries to solve things.
12:30I mean, she's just as caring as she was in the other, you know, Oz story.
12:36But, she handles herself well.
12:40And, I think that's a huge credit to the actress who plays her.
12:44And, the writing as well.
12:47They definitely gave her a new interpretation.
12:51And, it works. The Judy Garland version works.
12:54And, so does the Return to Oz version of the character.
13:00Within Dorothy's world and Oz, there are a variety of characters she runs into that either help her or cause trouble.
13:07Aside from some old faces and a new perspective, Return to Oz has a variety of allies and villains that really engage the viewer
13:15and remains their personal favorite to this day.
13:18The characters of Oz as a whole are, I think, a really good ensemble.
13:23They really put a lot of work into bringing these characters to life.
13:28And, for me, it always comes down to two.
13:32One is the Gump. Because I love the Gump.
13:35He's just, I think he's the best thing in the movie.
13:38For the first half of the picture, it's sort of setting up everything in general.
13:43I mean, we know the character of Dorothy.
13:45We see, you know, Oz as a whole, her own reality.
13:48And then, of course, we meet into all the creatures.
13:50But, when we run into the Gump, that is when the picture starts to really pick up and really get interesting.
13:56It's like, oh, they can't make a flying creature out of a sofa, a couple of ferns, and a moose head, or some sort of a strange creature's head.
14:07That's, that's un-possible.
14:09Well, anything is possible in the world of Oz, especially when you have a powder of life.
14:14And, to me, I feel like it was sort of like the comic relief of the film.
14:18Just pulling off these one-liners, these simple wisecracks.
14:22They're sarcastic, but yet sort of humorous at the same time.
14:27But, when you do look at it, there's other forms of comic relief, like the chicken bolina, tick-tock for his motions, and how he's executed.
14:39But, to me, I think the Gump is a really, really fascinating character, and he's by far, I think, the best.
14:46My two favorite characters would probably be Tick-Tock and Jack Pumpkinhead, because they are terrific replacements for the sidekick characters of the original story.
15:02I like how they made it possible for a character with such a frigid, skinny body, and able to make him walk around and everything.
15:14The body structure of it is fantastic to look at, especially since he has, like, this large jack-o-lantern head.
15:21And the thing I like about that is, you don't need to have the character lip-sync or anything, but he can still show emotion to his character.
15:30A prime example is that, you know, whenever he's, like, scared, his head, like, sort of stretches up vertically.
15:39You know, it's like, whoa! And it shakes a little bit when he's scared, as well.
15:43His voice has done rather well, too. I believe it was Brian Henson that voiced him, who was the son of famous Muppeteer Jim Henson.
15:54I mean, I think they did a great job with that.
15:56Jack is a good supporting figure. He's there when needed. He doesn't take away from Dorothy, and he becomes his own.
16:08And I think, I mean, credit goes, as well, I think, to Brian Henson, who was the puppeteer for it, apparently.
16:16And she just brought the character alive as a voice actor. Same goes for TikTok.
16:23I guess, favorite character-wise, both TikTok and Jack Pumpkin had a great...they are great.
16:30My favorite character, in turn, is TikTok. No question.
16:33I just love the character because he's a robot. And it's so cool to see a robot in Oz.
16:41But he's not like the kind of robots you see in Star Wars. He's basically like a giant wind-up toy.
16:47You need to wind up his thoughts, you need to wind up his actions, you need to wind up his speech.
16:52And, to me, that's what makes him unique and also makes him flawed.
16:56And sometimes, a character's flaws are what makes him unique. Plus, I just love the design in the movie.
17:03In the original book, he was short, stout, and fat, but he had these tiny little legs.
17:11It didn't look like it could support him in real life.
17:14So, I like that they gave him, like, spring-coiled legs with these cup feet at the bottom.
17:20I also like his voice. He has that old British army voice that makes him sound important and smart.
17:30Plus, I think he does a good job of being Dorothy's guardian.
17:35Also, I just love how they brought the character to life in the movie.
17:39Yes, he is a person in a costume.
17:42And when you look at him, you think, it's probably a Mitch in a costume, like R2-D2 in Star Wars.
17:46No. It was a full-sized person, but what he had to do, the man had to crouch to be able to fit inside that costume.
17:55And I don't think it was good on a person's back, but whoever did that had to be like a contortionist or something,
18:02because I don't see anyone else doing that work inside of a costume like that.
18:07Also, I just love the sound effects his legs make whenever he walks.
18:11I think, by far, the other character that I really love talking about is the Gnome King.
18:33There's just so much about him that makes him a really worthy Disney villain,
18:38or at least an underrated Disney villain.
18:40I mean, yeah, there's Ma and B with the heads and stuff, but, you know, she was just in there for nightmare fuel, in my opinion.
18:46He's quite possibly one of the most threatening, menacing villains I've ever seen in a live-action Disney film.
18:55You have this character who's sort of self-centered, and he's not the typical bad guy.
19:01He's like, you know, I'm gonna take over Roz and so forth and so forth.
19:05No, he's really, really different from that aspect.
19:08In fact, what I like about this character is how he doesn't show his evil side until in the last few minutes of the film when the climax comes up.
19:18I mean, interestingly enough, when we actually first meet him, we see that he's sort of this menacing character.
19:25He can, you know, shapeshift into anything. He's literally a mold of rock that has no form or shape.
19:34And when he meets Dorothy, he sort of, you know, is calm, serene, like a gentleman.
19:41But the thing is that he was actually able to plan to turn everyone against him into ornaments.
19:47And, you know, and each time that Dorothy's friends become, you know, become ornaments, he slowly turns human.
19:55He starts to have eyes. He begins to have a realistic body to him. He starts to have skin.
20:01His facial hair is starting to show and everything. It's really interesting.
20:05And then once you see his wickedness slowly, slowly develop, it sort of molds into more of a James Bond type of villain with these contests and traps that he likes to do.
20:21And that's what I really like about it, because they build up to his wickedness as opposed to just showing it right off the bat.
20:27So, at first, you're tricked into thinking that this guy's not a villain at all until, at the last minute, you realize, this guy wants Oz, you know, wiped out.
20:36He wants to be the only thing left to control this crystal town and everything in general.
20:43And, to me, that's what makes the film stand out really well, is having a great villain.
20:50And the Gnome King is, by far, a really great example of that.
20:54And I think what makes the character great is also the use of the clay animation, which really works well, considering the fact that, you know, clay is basically earth material.
21:04Not necessarily rocks, but it still looks like it nonetheless.
21:08You can really see it that it's, like, not only a rock-like creature, but you can also see, like, a bit of a human characteristic there.
21:14And it really works well.
21:17The most important element that brings Oz to life is the heavy amount of special effects, which ranges from a variety of animatronic puppets, a grand display of makeup work, and even some claymation from stop-motion veteran Will Vinton, who helped bring the Gnome King to life.
21:35I think one of my favorites is the Emerald City, how it looks.
21:39I mean, in the original film, it looks like a city of the future.
21:44And that was popular, that was what was popular back in the late 1930s, early 1940s, like the World's Fair, the city of tomorrow.
21:52And when you watch the film, it's nice to look at, but it just looks too futuristic.
21:58The people look like they're in the 1930s. Doesn't seem right to me.
22:03But the Emerald City in Return to Oz, it looks like an old Victorian village.
22:08I mean, people are dressed in, like, top hats and old Victorian, early 1900s clothing.
22:15And the city, it actually looks like it's made of emerald and gold and silver.
22:21And people wear all these beautiful costumes.
22:24That's what I love about the Emerald City in Return to Oz compared to the original film.
22:29The creators of Richard Oz, the technical crew, did an amazing job of doing that.
22:41I mean, 85 was, I think, the year where really slowly computer effects started to take place.
22:48I don't think there are any computer effects in this.
22:51They're definitely traditional effects used.
22:56But, it holds up really well.
23:00It doesn't, like the scene when they're flying with the bed.
23:04It doesn't look like they're flying in front of the green screen.
23:09You know, the other 80s films, even something as recent as Terminator 2, when they're driving,
23:14it looks like they're in front of a green screen.
23:16Not the case for Return to Oz, and they have to deal with a flying bed.
23:20And it looks stunning.
23:22It is a stunningly visual work of art.
23:28For me, the most biggest technical challenge, in my opinion, would have to be either Jack Pumpkinhead or TikTok.
23:38With the TikTok, yeah, he's a robot, but the problem is how to operate him.
23:44What they did was they had someone in a suit, but instead of having, you know, the typical, you know, put a little person inside the thing and have him walk around,
23:52they actually have the person bent down, so he's literally not seeing where he's going unless his head is perked up or something.
24:02For me, when I stumbled across some behind-the-scenes material on that, I was amazed to see how well they actually pulled that off,
24:12because I was thinking to myself the whole entire time, wouldn't that really hurt the guy's back?
24:17I mean, he's bent down at a right-angle position, and something like that is really hard to pull off, otherwise you get a sore back.
24:26With Jack the Pumpkinhead, he was much more harder to pull off.
24:30It took, like, I think about six to ten people to bring him to life.
24:35And in the final cut of the film, you're not seeing all these wires or controls or gears.
24:42You're actually seeing a living, breathing creature.
24:45And to me, I was actually impressed.
24:48They did a really good job making a character like that seem so believable.
24:53And it's pretty complex when you think about it, how they actually made a stick figure with a pumpkin head actually come to life.
25:02It's just something so hard to pull off.
25:05I would like to take a moment to talk about Will Vinton, of course, who was the mastermind behind all of the stop-motion clay animated material in the film.
25:19He and his crew did something incredible.
25:24It's something that nowadays would be done by CGI, of course.
25:28He was basically becoming famous during the 70s and 80s.
25:34During the 70s, he was starting off with short films.
25:38And, you know, he worked with stories making clay animated shorts like Sven Winkle and everything.
25:46Then in the 80s, he's been working more globally by doing commercials for various companies.
25:52Most notably, the Domino's Pizza commercials with the character, the Noid.
25:58And with the clay animation that he's worked with, you know, everything that he's done, it really works well.
26:05The fact that you can take these rock creatures, you know, using clay animation and just trying to have them morph into the rock structures of the known king's palace and everything.
26:18It really is fantastic.
26:20One of my favorite special effects in the film with claymation is how the Gnome King opens up the door to his ornament room.
26:26You see these, like, hands being formed out of the rocks. They're pulling back the rocks.
26:31Like, they keep another hand. Like, you see a hand and another hand comes above it.
26:35And another and another and another until the entire wall opens up.
26:38That looks spectacular. That looks awesome.
26:42I think one of the best moments is, you know, the climax where everyone is, like, trying to escape and all these gnome creatures are trying to stop them.
26:52They're blocking their paths. They're scaring them off. They're coming in from the walls, just morphing out.
26:57It's really a fantastic shot because of how they were able to manipulate the footage of the film and the stop-motion footage and intertwine them together.
27:09That always caught my attention a lot, you know, when I was a kid.
27:15And I always liked looking at that when I was growing up.
27:18You know, every time I watched that, I was, like, looking at that spot there.
27:21Because it sort of gives... it's sort of like the whole movie magic sort of thing.
27:25Like, I wonder how they do that.
27:27And then, you know, as I grow older, I know, okay, so that's how they do it. That's how...
27:31Because as a filmmaker like myself, with editing techniques, it's something that you learn more about each and every day.
27:39They literally used mounds and mounds of clay to bring that thing to life.
27:45And I think that's what makes his character all the more interesting.
27:48And it does fit well with Vinton's work concerning his masterful but yet impressive clichés,
27:56such as things molding into different creatures, melting into another thing or, you know, just simply appearing as a new form
28:08or just simply shading or melting off into a face or something.
28:15For me, I think it fits for the overall tone of the film, especially considering the other special effects.
28:21Because with Oz, it's not an easy movie to do.
28:25It's very, very complex, especially when you're sticking close to the books.
28:30Because it has this surreal, bizarre quality to it.
28:34And when they went off to do the technical aspect of the film, they nailed it.
28:40They really did nail the bizarreness of the stories in general.
28:45I mean, a flying sofa.
28:48It's really very, very hard to sell on paper, but when you see it on screen, it's surprisingly believable.
28:58Other than visual effects, many viewers tend to have a certain scene or moment that truly stands out to them.
29:04It can be humorous, scary, or even amazing with just how highly technical and well-written this Oz film truly was.
29:13The scene I always think of when I think of Return to Oz, this is always the scene that pops up,
29:21is when Dorothy first enters the Emerald City, which is not so emerald anymore.
29:27And she arrives there, and, you know, all her old friends are statues.
29:34And this is the point.
29:36I mean, earlier you felt, yeah, Oz isn't the same.
29:40But it's at that point, it's like, wow, Oz is not the same.
29:45I mean, the expression, we're not in Kansas anymore.
29:49That is an understatement in this case.
29:52She's not even in Oz anymore, at least not the Oz she remembers.
29:56I mean, there's a new regime, obviously, and it's scary.
30:00But the scariness of the scene doesn't really come along until those wheelers pop up.
30:08I think every child had at least one thing, even the most bravest of children,
30:12had at least one thing that gave them nightmares and kept them up at night.
30:18And for me, it was those wheelers.
30:21I mean, just the combination of the squeaking wheels and that cackling one out there.
30:26Just how creepy looking they are.
30:28The makeup on them, just, it was scary.
30:32I mean, and then they start chasing out Dorothy and the way they just surround her.
30:37I mean, it's enough that they're in this sort of, you know, destroyed version of this universe we all love.
30:45That's, you know, all graffiti up and ruined.
30:49But adding them to the equation just adds a scariness.
30:54I mean, this, in a way, you can, in a way you think, this might be, for a lot of children,
31:00that first introduction to sort of gang culture.
31:05I mean, looking at it now, as an adult, and maybe it's because it's one of my favorite films,
31:13but those wheelers are almost like a fantasy version of the Droogs in A Clockwork Orange.
31:26Because they are generally menacing.
31:32I think, by far, the one scene that sticks out in my head to this day that is the most memorable is the gum flight.
31:38I just love how intense it is, how it builds around this momentous sequence,
31:43because you want to see Dorothy and her gang get out of Mommy's castle.
31:47You want to see them fly out of there, and you really, you really feel like you're with them the entire time,
31:53when they fly straight out of the castle and plummet down and pick right up.
31:58And what really works well for me is the music, just how it heightens the sequence,
32:04how it really tenses the mood of it, sort of like, you know, they're rushing straight out of there.
32:11They're going to soar very, very fast, and then they start dipping down, and you realize,
32:15no, no, they can't, they can't, they can't, and then they gradually pick up,
32:19and you have a sigh of relief, and you're thinking to yourself,
32:22they can fly, they can fly, oh, my God, I truly can believe something like this can really take off,
32:27and to me, it's a big, big highlight, because for the first half of the film,
32:32we've seen all this depressing stuff, we've seen all this really, really heavy and dark material,
32:41and when we get to this one sequence of them escaping the castle, it's a sigh of relief,
32:46because we know some good is going to come to it.
32:48Another sequence I liked was the scene where the Gnome King is talking to Dorothy and reveals the ruby slippers he's collected,
32:57because I feel that's where he really starts to become less of the good and kind soul,
33:04and more of a true, true Disney villain sort of being sly and clever and sort of trying to tempt Dorothy out of saving her friends from doing this contest involving finding her friends captured in these form of ornaments,
33:25and I think the one reason the sequence is just so bone chilling is because of the delivery of one line where she goes off to help TikTok, and the Gnome King reminds her.
33:39You don't have to go there. I can use the ruby slippers and send you home. And when you get back, you will never think of ours again.
33:56What about my friends?
33:58Forget about them. You can't help them now. There's no place like home.
34:07Every time I hear that, there are chills that send on my spine just when that one line is delivered,
34:15because when you hear it in the 1939 version, it's like,
34:19Oh, no place like home. This is so wonderful.
34:22But when you hear it from a baddie, that's when it's just so demented thinking how you're leaving this place behind in such shambles
34:30and being so selfish of your own greedy way of escaping this nightmare.
34:36And to me, I think that's what makes it pretty, pretty work. Just thinking about how you can take something so whimsical and upbeat and yet turn it in a very dark and broad sense.
34:46So if you saw my top 11 best scares list, you know already my favorite scene is the scene where Dorothy is stealing the powder of life and runs out of there with all the screaming heads because that was just the terrifying moment.
35:10And therefore I found it to be the most memorable, especially from my childhood.
35:17I think I'll go with like what I mentioned earlier, which was the climax.
35:21Well, I wouldn't say the climax, but basically what happens when the group manages to reach the Gnome King's palace.
35:29They're taken underground and they meet up with the Gnome King and he offers them a chance to find the scarecrow and set him free by touching the ornaments and saying,
35:39Oz at the same time to release him.
35:42That was a frightening situation as well because it shows that this version of Oz is not afraid to go in that direction.
35:57You could actually, it's not a bunch of monkey men with wings and it's not the sort of campy look of the 1939 version.
36:11This is a very serious situation. You could die here. That's what it says.
36:16And by the time that, you know, when Dorothy realizes how to properly release everyone from the ornaments, you know, since they have to be green,
36:26this upsets the Gnome King because he was hoping that she too would lose.
36:31He pretty much just doesn't take it well and decides to terminate them his own way, eating them, surprisingly.
36:40Why doesn't the silver go fast?
36:49No!
36:50No!
37:05That's punk, Kimmy Heddy.
37:08No!
37:09Run!
37:10And, uh, that sequence itself pretty much just raises the bar of fear right there.
37:16I mean, the whole Gnome King character himself and, you know, he becomes this ultimate threat to them.
37:22I'm not going to spoil much about what happens next, but I will say that it's definitely a dark moment as well of how he ends up, uh, how he ends up dead.
37:33The biggest scene I wish they went with was during the finale of the ending where they're doing the coronation and it's revealed that the scarecrow has a different thing set in mind.
37:46Just as he, just as she's about to, uh, crown him, he's like,
37:49What's the matter?
37:50I never wanted to be king, Dorothy.
37:53I have the brains for it.
37:55But not the heart.
37:56Besides, the crown hurts my head and makes it difficult to think.
38:03What's gonna roll if you don't?
38:05Stay here, Dorothy.
38:08I've ruled over her.
38:11Me?
38:12Yes.
38:13Be the queen of Oz.
38:15Yeah!
38:16Yeah!
38:17If they actually had that scene in, it would've really cleared up a lot of things, as in the final cut, it just comes out of nowhere.
38:24It's like,
38:25Yay! She saved Oz! Let's reward her by having her be the queen!
38:30And, in the cut sequence, it enhances that a bit more.
38:35So it's more like, there's a reason as to why they can't have the scarecrow continue.
38:39So, they have to find a new ruler, of course, and that being Dorothy, she doesn't really know what to do with that whole scenario,
38:48because, you know, being queen is a lot of responsibilities and such.
38:52And, it's unfortunate because, had they not cut that scene, it would've made a lot more sense.
38:58So instead of, you know, a quick suggestion from the crowd, it's more like, there's a reason as to why they want her to be queen.
39:07Which, I think, it would've worked better to keep it in.
39:11And, it's a shame because, not every sequence makes it into the final cut of the picture.
39:16And, personally, that's one that they could've at least salvaged.
39:19Despite a huge marketing campaign, Return to Oz was released in the summer of 1985, and was met with harsh criticism, as well as a dismal box office return.
39:32To add insult to injury, many parents stayed clear from it, due to the dark and frightening tone of the picture.
39:38A fate that also struck another summer release at the time, Disney's The Black Cauldron.
39:44It's interesting to note how a studio that knows how to charm and provide lighthearted material for family audiences,
39:51could create a picture that would deem too scary and disturbing for younger audiences at the time.
39:57I think it's understandable why it did poorly at the box office. I completely understand it.
40:05Because I think, for a lot of families, and Disney was obviously aiming for the family crowd,
40:14this kind of took away from their vision of Oz.
40:27Because the Third Eye musical was so cherished by a lot of people.
40:34I mean, it wasn't a huge success in its initial release, but now it's so into people's minds.
40:41And I wonder what the ratio between people who've read the book and seen the film is.
40:46Not that you need to read the book. It's not a necessity. As good as the book is, it's not a necessity to read it.
40:53But they obviously have this vision of their mind, so for this to be completely different from the other version of Wizard of Oz,
41:05was seen as probably blasphemy at the time.
41:10For 1985, it had a lot of competition with the box office when you think about it.
41:15There was a lot of family films, a lot of science fiction and fantasy flicks that it was dealing with,
41:22that I think really hampered with the box office results.
41:29because they were not Return to Oz. They were light-hearted. They were family-friendly.
41:35There was stuff like Daryl and Cocoon, Back to the Future, even though Back to the Future did have some mature elements.
41:44It was still a family film at the time. I mean, you know, the concept of time travel and comedy.
41:50And for Return to Oz, they strayed away from what a family film traditionally is.
41:56They had a lot of monsters. They had a lot of mature themes.
42:02I mean, we're talking about a girl here that goes in and gets shock treatment.
42:05We're talking about a girl that goes up against a lot of demented creatures and some very, very frightening villains.
42:13It's ironic, because Disney, people think about it's all cheery and happy and singing, but you get down to it,
42:19Disney has a lot of scary, frightening moments. You think of Night on Bald Mountain in Fantasia
42:23or the Donkey Transformation in Pinocchio. You know, those that come to mind.
42:29And, you know, Walt Disney had been trying to do something with Wizard of Oz for years.
42:35I mean, he wasn't doing one at one point, and I think eventually became Babes in Toyland.
42:40But, to see Disney do Return to Oz, it was right. But, maybe the time wasn't right.
42:49If you're going to watch this one, Return to Oz, and expect anything like the 1939 version,
42:55consider that it's almost half a century between the two films' productions.
43:02And, they are with different casts, with different companies, different everything.
43:10So, of course you're not going to get the same movie. So, don't. And, why try?
43:18For me, I think what really did it in was, of course, the criticism that it received.
43:23Most honorably Siskel and Ebert, who really gave it not only just a two thumbs down,
43:29but also would go on and actually label it as the worst of 1985.
43:34And, to make matters even more worse, in their original review that they did,
43:40they actually had a segment on The Wizard of Oz, where they said that Return to Oz should have been just like the 1939 musical.
43:52And, to me, it really shoved the final nail in, because they weren't seeing it as the film that it was meant to be.
44:03They were aware that it was supposed to be based off the books, but they were like,
44:06no, this is not how Oz should be. It should be lighthearted. It should be a musical.
44:13Well, again, opinions are opinions, but I think it's unfair when you negatively compare it to something before that,
44:22which everyone is familiar with. And, of course, that is the other problem there as well,
44:28because people were so used to seeing a lighthearted world of talking scarecrows, tin men, and lions, and, you know,
44:36phony bony wizards and stuff. And I think this movie was way ahead of its time for that particular reason.
44:43Because a lot of people were thinking it's going to be just like the 1939 feature film, and it wasn't. It really wasn't.
44:52It was sort of sticking to its guns and saying, this is going to be the Oz you never saw and never knew,
44:58because you never read the book. Or if you have, then you know what the film's going to be like.
45:04Now, of course, it's easy to praise a classic and easy to criticize Return to Oz for daring to invite comparison with a classic like that,
45:11but I'm not even talking here about the artistry and craftsmanship of the various Oz films.
45:15I'm talking about the spirit. And the question that Return to Oz ought to ask itself is,
45:22birds fly over the rainbow, so why, oh, why can't I?
45:27However, despite being labeled the worst of 1985, Return to Oz gained a new life on home video
45:35and airing on the Disney Channel. Over time, it would later be considered a cult classic
45:41and develop a fan base of its own. Many would feel that the movie was perhaps ahead of its time
45:47and even misunderstood by its own audience. In fact, near the end of the 2000s,
45:53countless Oz films were announced, which ranged from CGI animation like John Boorman's Wonderful Wizard of Oz
46:00and Dan St. Pierre's Dorothy of Oz, graphic novel adaptations such as Calibur Comics' Dark Oz series,
46:07and even a shot at live action with a project by director Sam Raimi titled Oz The Great and Powerful that was newly announced.
46:16With the coming arrival of many Oz films, one can be safely sure that Return to Oz will have a place at last.
46:24You know, when Oz was released in 1985, a lot of people didn't really think it was a good direction to go into,
46:36but if it wasn't for that film, arguably enough, we wouldn't have family films that are going for a much more edgier and darker approach.
46:44With stuff like Don Bluff's work, no one ever second thinks about the whole concept of you can have all this material in it
46:54and, you know, have a happy ending onto it. So you can, you know, say to the kids that,
46:58yeah, there's going to be a lot of harsh bumps in the way, but you can always get through the end of it.
47:04And with Return to Oz, I think there's going to be a lot of potential for it in the future of having an even bigger cult audience than it has today.
47:14I mean, look at it now. There already is websites with behind-the-scenes material and interviews with cast, crew, even the director,
47:25as well as all this archival material, which is pretty interesting to find because it really does shed more light onto the production of the film and what they went through.
47:37We have, of course, Disney once again stepping into Oz. We have Sam Raimi's version of it, which is a prequel,
47:48because that's the thing now, it seems. You take beloved characters, you make them younger.
47:53And, you know, because I did that with X-Men, I did them with Star Trek. Let's do that with Wizard of Oz.
47:59But I think it could work. Sam Raimi, I think, is a good filmmaker. And I think he understands the appeal of Oz.
48:04And apparently, I think, because of the poor process of Return to Oz, this is apparently going to be in the continuity of the musical.
48:13I think, I mean, that's what I've read. Again, it could work.
48:17And, of course, the most logical Oz adaptation they're currently working on is the stage version, the film version of Wicked.
48:23Which, again, the stage shows such a humongous success. I'm surprised they haven't done it sooner.
48:29Sam Raimi, his Oz, the big and powerful, or whatever it is.
48:36I like Sam Raimi, I like his work, mostly the Spider-Man films and Evil Dead.
48:41So, I might give that a chance. I'll have to look at the trailer and see.
48:45But I really have my hopes on Dorothy of Oz at the moment.
48:50Because it's an animated production with Lea Michele from Glee, who I think is a terrific actress and a terrific singer.
49:02The film's going to be a musical, so it's kind of what I'm looking forward to.
49:14It's the one that I'm looking forward to.
49:17You're going to have John Borman's Wizard of Oz.
49:19John Borman, who did The Exorcist II, Excalibur, and Zardoz, which has Wizard of Oz elements in it.
49:27I mean, he's going to do an adaptation of the original Wizard of Oz book that starred the entire franchise.
49:33I mean, there is a lot of stuff in the original Oz book that was never in the 1939 musical.
49:39I mean, you had creatures like the Kalidas.
49:43You had the Wicked Witch of the West having only one eye and having a helmet to control the flying monkeys.
49:50You had a town made out of China.
49:54You had creatures like the Hammerheads.
49:57You had these different versions of the wizard.
50:00Not just the giant head, but also a beautiful woman, a monstrous animal, and a ball of flame.
50:06And I'm very curious to see it because I've seen concept art, and so far it looks amazing.
50:14I love how the Scarecrow is going to be depicted, how the Lion is going to be depicted, the Tin Man, Dorothy, the Emerald City, the Witch's Castle, and the Yellow Brick Road.
50:26The Yellow Brick Road looks very amazing.
50:28I mean, it has the word Oz on each square.
50:32That's pretty cool.
50:34But for me, I think that this film is going to have a really good Emerald future.
50:40So, you know, if you're going to make all these adaptations, then why not do a reissue of this movie?
50:46It would really work very well.
50:48You would, you know, attract fans of old, and of course you would get fans of new.
50:52If you're going to do all these dark films like Pirates of the Caribbean, and A Series of Unfortunate Events, then you might as well have this one back in the theaters.
51:04Because when you see it, you know, on a much more smaller television, then you're not going to get the magic that it produced when it was first released in 1985.
51:18All these films, these new adaptations, owe everything to Return to Oz, because Return to Oz was the very first Oz film to be incredibly faithful to the original source material.
51:30If they can make a wide variety of Oz films, even in the future, then Return to Oz should be able to fit in there somewhere.
51:44You know, when people look at the different films they've made off of this world that L. Frank Baum created, they're going to pick and choose, and they're going to have a variety of styles to choose from.
52:02So, Return to Oz is going to fit in there somewhere.
52:06With the endless possibilities of what the future will bring, Return to Oz will always be remembered for not just sticking close to the original source material, but also by presenting the darker side of the rainbow few get to see, and expanding more into the Oz books that no other film adaptation has ever done.
52:26To this day, others continue to discover this underrated classic, and see Oz as it was originally intended, and never thought possible since the first trip down the Yellow Brick Road.
52:40He found Iskall women.
52:46MATT WASD
52:52HE WILTS
52:58HE WILTS
53:08HE WILTS
53:08metrics
53:39Cut.
Comments