MOVIE REVIEWS

<em>'Return to Oz'</em> is alright, I personally didn't enjoy it though. I did like the horror edge it has to it for the first portion of the film, it's something I wasn't necessarily expecting so it was pleasing to see. That's about all I did rate from this though, with Oz itself not looking as magical as it should while the non-human characters are boring to me. Talking of the onscreen lot, Jean Marsh as Princess Mombi is the only performance I felt entertained by - she's very good. Away from her, there's not much to note. Fairuza Balk is solid in the role of Dorothy, nothing really to say about her other than she does an OK job; considering her age. The Wheelers are kinda interesting, they do look cool. It's a shame they don't make use of Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and Tin Man - the latter I'm actually glad they didn't, given how awful his design was. I get why they don't feature more, given the source material, but it feels a needless change-up especially with Billina, Tik-Tok and Jack Pumpkinhead being so lame. I read that this is apparently true to the original book series, which is respectable. However, the point of a film is to make it a good film first and foremost - this doesn't quite do that in my opinion. Each to their own, of course!

There are some positively darker elements to this follow-up story of the young "Dorothy" (Fairuza Balk). Traumatised by her first visit to "Oz" her desperate "Auntie Em" (Piper Laurie) resorts to electrical therapy to try and help her young niece. Luckily, a thunderstorm comes to her rescue and escaping from the asylum where she was to be treated, she finds herself back in a now desolate land of "Oz". The yellow brick road has been torn up and the emerald city is but a ruin. It turns out that the subterranean "Nome King" has determined to reclaim all the precious stones stolen (as he sees it) from his realm, and so together with the Princess "Mombi" has reduced the once mighty city to rubble. It falls to young "Dorothy" and her new friends "Jack Pumpkinhead" and the rotund tin soldier "Tik-Tok" to find the mysterious powder of life and try to outsmart the pair and restore the kingdom. This story has much more menace to it. The treatment scenario at the start (aided well by Nicol Williamson and Jean Marsh) works effectively, and the multi headed Princess gives Sophie Ward and Fiona Victory an opportunity to spread a little mayhem too. My biggest gripe with this is that Miss Balk looks much younger that Judy Garland, and she isn't a terribly engaging actress either. The animation is a bit on the basic side, too, but it does move along well with plenty of flying sofas and a message that green is always good!