Return to Oz

In October 1899, Dorothy Gale still talks of her adventure in the Land of Oz, troubling her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, who believe she is fantasizing. In her yard, she finds a key with an Oz insignia. Aunt Em takes her to Dr. J.B. Worley for electrotherapy, leaving her under the care of Nurse Wilson. As Dorothy is about to receive treatment, the asylum is struck by lightning and the power fails. Dorothy is freed from her restraints by a mysterious girl who tells her that Dr Worley's machines damage the patients. They escape, with Nurse Wilson in pursuit, and fall into a river. Dorothy clambers aboard a chicken coop, but the other girl vanishes.

Dorothy wakes up in Oz with her chicken Billina, who can now talk. They find the Emerald City in ruins and its citizens except the Scarecrow have been turned to stone. Cornered by Wheelers, menacing people with wheels instead of hands and feet, they escape into a room as Dorothy opens a door with the Oz key. They meet a mechanical man, Tik-Tok, who defeats the Wheelers and learns from the Lead Wheeler that King Scarecrow has been captured by the Nome King, who is responsible for the Emerald City's destruction.

They encounter Mombi in the royal palace, who decides to imprison Dorothy to take her head for her collection. In a locked room at the top of the palace, Dorothy, Billina, and Tik-Tok meet Jack Pumpkinhead, who explains he was brought to life via Mombi's Powder of Life, which gives them an idea of how to escape. They assemble a creature with furniture, rope, and the head of a moose-like animal called the Gump. Dorothy steals the Powder of Life from Mombi, but awakes her many heads, then rushes back to her friends to use the powder to bring the Gump to life. As he flies them across the Deadly Desert, Mombi has the Wheelers chase after them.

A tired Gump crashes on the mountain of the Nome King, who creates an earthquake to bring them all underground. There he tells Dorothy that he has turned the Scarecrow into an ornament and challenges Dorothy and her companions to identify which ornament; if they can't after three guesses, they will become ornaments themselves. After the Gump, Jack and Tik-Tok each fail, the Nome King offers to return Dorothy home using her lost ruby slippers, but Dorothy refuses. She enters the ornament room and gets her first two guesses wrong as Mombi arrives at the mountain.

With her third guess, Dorothy finds the Scarecrow and realizes the people of Oz turn into green ornaments, going on to restore Jack and Gump. Enraged, the Nome King imprisons Mombi for allowing Dorothy's escape, then assumes a giant form in order to prevent the others from leaving. He prepares to eat Jack but Billina, hiding in Jack's head, lays an egg which falls into the Nome King's mouth. As eggs are poisonous to Nomes, the Nome King and all of his kingdom begin to crumble.

As the mountain starts to collapse around them, Dorothy finds the ruby slippers. She quickly puts them on and wishes for the group to be returned to a restored Emerald City. There, they mourn the loss of Tik-Tok until Billina notices a green medal stuck on one of the Gump's antlers. Dorothy restores him. At a celebration, Dorothy is asked to be Queen of Oz but she instead wants to return to Kansas. Princess Ozma, the rightful ruler of Oz imprisoned in a mirror by Mombi, is now free to take her place on the throne of Oz. Dorothy hands over the ruby slippers to Ozma, who sends Dorothy home, while Billina remains behind in Oz.

In Kansas, Dorothy's family finds her on a riverbank. Aunt Em reveals that Worley's hospital was struck by lightning and burned down, and Worley died trying to save his machines. They see Nurse Wilson locked in a cage on a police buggy. In the farmhouse, now complete, Dorothy can still see Billina and Ozma in Oz through her bedroom mirror, who tell her she can return to Oz at any time.

Walter Murch began development of Return to Oz in 1980, during a brain-storming session with Walt Disney Productions production chief Tom Wilhite. Murch told Wilhite he was interested in making an Oz film and Wilhite "sort of straightened up in his chair". Unbeknownst to Murch, Disney owned the rights to the Oz series and wanted to make a new film as the copyright was soon to expire.[4] Five weeks into production, Disney was unhappy with the footage and fired Murch. Filmmaker George Lucas convinced them to reinstate him after reviewing the footage and guaranteeing that he would step in as replacement if any further problems emerged.[4]

Return to Oz is based on the second and third Oz books, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) and Ozma of Oz (1907). The element about Tik-Tok being "The Royal Army of Oz" derives from Tik-Tok of Oz (1914), in which he is made the Royal Army of Oogaboo, and also makes frequent cries of "Pick me up!" That book was itself based on a dramatic production, The Tik-Tok Man of Oz (1913). Murch also used the book Wisconsin Death Trip as a historical source for the film.[5]

Murch took a darker take on Baum's source material than the 1939 adaptation, which he knew starting out would be a gamble. Between the development period and actual shooting, there was a change of leadership at the Walt Disney studios (with Wilhite replaced by Richard Berger), and the film's budget increased.[6] Once shooting began, Murch began to fall behind schedule, and there was further pressure from the studio, leading to Murch being fired as director for a short period.[6] High-profile film-makers including George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola supported Murch in discussions with the studio, and Murch was reinstated and finished the film.[4][6]

The film was developed and produced without the involvement of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio behind the 1939 film. No approval was necessary, because by 1985, the Oz books on which it was based were in the public domain, and the subsequent Oz books had been optioned to Disney many years earlier.[7] The use of ruby slippers were a creation of MGM[8] and as they remained their intellectual property, a fee was paid (as they had been created specifically for the 1939 film to replace the Silver Shoes of the original stories).[7]

Leo McKern and Christopher Lloyd were each considered for the role of Dr. J.B. Worley/The Nome King before eventually being given to Nicol Williamson.[7]

Principal photography began on February 20, 1984, and wrapped in October 1984.[9]

Balk and Ridley were the only two child actors on set and as such had limited working hours per day. Whilst Balk did her own stunts, Ridley had a stand-in. Ridley, who was born in London, had her voice in the film dubbed by Beatrice Murch, daughter of Walter Murch so that the character of Ozma would have an American-sounding voice.[10]

The Emerald City scenes towards the end of film had to be fully reshot, as the character of Ozma was originally dressed in a gold lace dress, which was deemed unsuitable during post-production, so the scenes were reshot with the actress wearing a white and green dress.[10] At one point during filming these scenes, Balk collapsed due to the high temperature on-set.[11]

The film's interpretation of Oz is featured in the Storybook Land Canal Boats attraction at Disneyland Park in Paris.

Citations

Sources

• Official website
• Return to Oz at IMDb
• Return to Oz at AllMovie
• Return to Oz at Rotten Tomatoes
• Return to Oz at Box Office Mojo