Movies: Return to Oz

[amedia]

Well, as with most things in Tin Man fandom, this is all Erin's fault - IIRC, it was her post about Return to Oz when that movie meme was going around that made me curious. TODS and I watched the movie in segments as a break from grading.

DISNEY made this movie for KIDS????!!!!! I can just imagine them sitting around and saying, "Hey, where are those guys who scared the poop out of toddlers with the Heffalumps and Woozles sequence in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day? Let's give them some more LSD and see if they can scare the poop out of eight-year-olds!" I mean, dude, this movie would have TOTALLY spooked me if I'd seen it as a kid.

But as an adult, I really enjoyed it a lot. It was very creative and clever; I recognized a lot of plot elements from the various books, and I thought they brought things like Jack Pumpkinhead and the Gump to movie-life quite well. I liked Fairuza Balk as Dorothy a lot, and she managed to sound a lot like Judy Garland without sounding as if she was imitating her. Jean Marsh had WAY too much fun as the beautiful evil Witch-Princess in the tower with the over-the-top costumes (Azkadellia inspiration, anyone?).

Miscellaneous observations: I thought it was very intriguing how the Nome King's spies were basically faces that appeared in rocks, and at first, he too was a face appearing from rock; it reminded me of the beginning where, as the doctor, he pointed out to Dorothy that the controls on the electroshock machine resembled a face. (Starting off the movie by putting a child in a 19th-century mental hospital for electroshock treatment - oh yeah, there's wholesome family entertainment for ya!) The decapitation motif, which appeared frequently, made me shudder. The Wheelers looked like something out of Cirque du Soleil. The scene where Dorothy holds out her hand to Ozma in the mirror to save her from the Witch's control reminded me a LOT of little DG holding out her hand to little Az to save her from the Witch's control.

Comments

[surranndie.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* Yes. That movie scared the living shit out of me as a kid. Nothing like electroshock therapy to teach a child that being different is BAD.

And I'm convinced that the Papay are based on the Wheelers.

[pocketwitch.livejournal.com]

Yeah, dude, I saw that movie as a kid, and it was ... um ... disturbing. The scene where the witch-princess is walking around headless and all the heads are screaming? EEEEEEEE. Still freaks me out to think about it!

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

YES! Yes, that's the one scene I remember too!!

[bulleteyes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sorry for that one. We trusted Disney at that time which was foolish on our part. The thing disturbed me!

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

I LOVE that movie. It's one of my favorites, and yes, the Nomes and the Wheelers scared the crap out of me and my siblings when we were little. But we still loved it to pieces.

[erinm-4600.livejournal.com]

Dude! it's Jim Henson...

*nods*

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I saw that movie many many years ago, and all I remember now is the room with all the Queen's heads. OMG.

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Jean Marsh always has a lot of fun playing evil Witch-Princesses/Queens. She did the same in Willow too. It's totally bizarre (though she's absolutely believable) as I grew up watching her as Rose, a very well-behaved housemaid, in Upstairs, Downstairs.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Holy cow! I'd completely forgotten she was in Willow. Love, love, love that movie. She was on a very early episode of Doctor Who as well.

And she appears costumed as Rose, very briefly, in a Sesame Street special, along with Gordon what's-his-name who later played Cowley on The Professionals. They were among the many celebrities singing "Put Down the Duckie." They hold up the duckie and squeezed it with great dignity.