Rating: 
Summary: an entertaining yet frightful trip to oz
Review: trust me, the oz series were the best childrens books in history, and return to oz is no exception. Fairuza Balk was a very cute and charming actress in this movie, i'd have to say she is my favorite actress,(and NO, she doesnt dance and sing like shirley temple). my favorite part of this movie is when they show how beautiful the emerald city is when they get the gems back and they did a good job of comprehending what l. frank baum was writing, but they did it with their own twist.
this movie is my favorite movie ive ever watched.
Rating: 
Summary: Equally great as the orginal!
Review: "Return to Oz" has to be one of my all-time favorite movies. I believe I like it more or just as well as the original "Wizard of Oz." Though no one can be as great of a Dorothy than Judy Garland, a young Fairuza Balk stars in her first movie(recognized in such movies as The Craft, Almost Famous, The Waterboy, etc.) she captures Dorothy's image beautifully. In this sequel, Dorothy escapes a strange clinic type place to get rid of her bad dreams. On her second journey back to Oz she is accompanied by Belinda a talking chicken. Only this time the merry ol' land of Oz has been destroyed by the Gnome King who has captured Dorothy's best friend from Oz, the scare crow. She is on a mission with new friends Tic-Toc, Jack, and a couch/moose head-brought to life by magic dust she steals from an evil princess who collects beautiful womens' heads, and traps Dorothy in there intending on getting her head as well. New things are introduced to this movie such as rollers, the Gnome King, the evil Princess (can't remember her name at the moment). The ONLY thing this movie lacked was the realistic features of the tin man, scare crow, and lion, they look VERY different than they do in the Wizard of Oz. Overall i recommend it to anyone. Though some scenes may be disturbing for very young children.
Rating:
Summary: True To The Novels, A Worthy Sequel As Film
Review: 1985: Despite the comments of other reviewers, such as the one nex to mine, Walter Murch's "Return To Oz" is an incredible film, true to the novels by L. Frank Baum and a worthy sequel to the 1939 "Wizard Of Oz". True, the sing-song, luminous quality of the first film is gone and true, an old classic can never really have a successful sequel (even Gone With The Wind had a sequel "Scarlett: Tomorrow Is Another Day" which was never as praiseworthy) - but "Return to Oz" captivates us and transports us yet again to the magic land envisioned by L. Frank Baum and in my personal opinion, works a miracle. The cinematography, visual effects and beautifully haunting music are combined to make a masterpiece.First of all, "Return to Oz" is true to the novels by L. Frank Baum. Around the turn of the century (1912-1918), L. Frank Baum created "The Wizard Of Oz", whose plot is treated in the 1939 version starring Judy Garland. A young girl from Kansas is taken to an enchanted land, befriends a scarecrow, a tin man and a cowardly lion, defeats an evil witch and returns home via the magic of shimmering ruby slippers. You might say that although the first film was tremendously successful, a classic and a work of art, there are some imperfections. For example, Dorothy should be played by a little girl, roughly ages 8 to 10, to be more in tune with the novel, but Judy Garland was not ages 8 to 10. On the other hand, Fairuza Balk (in her debut, would later appear in other films, including "The Craft"), is 10 at the time of the film's production, looks more like Dorothy and performs the role with precision and care. A lot of the people who saw the 1985 film were disappointed at the events in the first minutes of the film- no one believes that Dorothy has been to Oz and she is taken to a psychiatric clinic where she will undergo shock therapy. This emphasizes horror and more cynical aspects of a children's story, but it is a scene that is completely harmless. This film is drawn from elements in the two novels "The Land Of Oz" and "Ozma Of Oz". A Gothic, darker mood dominates the plot. An evil Gnome King (played by a powerful-voiced Nicol Williamson, formerly Merlin form John Boorman's 1981 Excalibur) has taken over Oz, stolen the emeralds from the Emerald City, broken the Yellow Brick Road and turned its inhabitants into stone. Princess Mombi (Jean Marsh), a sinister headless queen who changes her heads frequently, now rules over the Emerald City and has trapped the rightful child queen Ozma in a magic mirror. Dorothy befriends some new Oz creatures- a talking hen named Bellina, a wind-up robotic army general named Tick-Tock, the stick-thin, Halloween-costume-looking Jack Pumpkinhead (who would not be out of place in a Tim Burton film or in "The Nightmare Before Christmas"), and a gump's head. Outsmarting the evil Gnome King and his desire to turn Dorothy and her friends into ornaments as part of his collection, he is defeated and the melancholy, dead Oz becomes once again the vibrant, peaceful and happy world it once was. Although Dorothy is wanted as queen, she instead pulls out of the magic mirror its rightful queen, Ozma, who turns out to be Dorothy's own alter ego and "double" in Oz. Dorothy returns to her plain farm life in Kansas but she can glimpse the magic world of Oz and return whenever she wants through a magic mirror. This film is a perfect follow up to the old classic and it will delight audiences and generations of children as well as adults. The magic returns and on DVD, the experience is very refreshing, included is scene selections and commentary by the now grown up Fairuza Balk.
Rating:
Summary: darker than the one with judy garland
Review: this trip to oz is deinitley diffrent from the journey with judy as dorothy. i love that good old one. but this is so terrific too. .... faruza baulk is great as dorothy....i will never forget those weird beings with wheels on thier hands and feet, tick tock, and the cabinet of heads. worth owning and viewing again and again. definitley a whole different cup of tea from judy one. you won't be disappointed if you like a good adventure.
Rating: 
Summary: Yikes
Review: This movie scared the stuffing out of me as a kid. Please, please: if you have a kid with a strong imagination, DON'T give them this film to watch. I had nightmares for YEARS.
Rating:
Summary: A most underrated sequel!
Review: As much as i love the original, i love this movie too! This is set after the events of Dorothy's previous trip to Oz, Dorothy can't get any rest and seeks a doctor but what she doesn't know that it's actually a experimental hospital, she escapes back to Oz to find it in the hands of two new foes. She joins up with three new friends to battle these evil foes and restore the Emerald city. A very entertaining and excellent sequel to one of my all time favorite movies, good acting and it's preety spooky for the small ones. Anyone who's a fan of the original has to get use to this movie and enjoy it for what it is. Also recommended: Harry Potter movie series, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Princess Bride, The Last Unicorn, The Secret of NIMH, Neverending Story, Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow, Black Cauldron, and Lord of the Rings.
Rating:
Summary: Still horrified at 21.
Review: To be honest, I've only watched this movie twice. Once at the age of *4* when my dad took me to see it at the theater. I VIVIDLY remember leaving there screaming like a bat out of hell and crying. The second time I saw it on tv 3 years ago. This movie is scarry as all hell even now. Visions of heads in curio-cabinets really messed me up as a child and even now looking back on it I've got goosebumps. This movie was messed up. I'm definantly renting it for movie night tonight with my friends LOL. OMG...wheels for hands! Why did I come to this site??? LOL
Rating:
Summary: nostalgia...
Review: I first saw this movie when it was broadcast on the Disney Channel when I was in Kindergarten or first grade. At the time I was just starting my massive Oz phase (which lasted several years) wherein I set out to read every Oz book ever published. I loved this movie. I owned copy of this movie that we had taped off television up until I wore the tape out years later. Fast forward about fifteen years. I had nearly forgotten all about this until I happened to stumbled across the aged and worn out tape in our videocassette library. I instantly knew I had to find this on DVD. Fortunately Amazon had it and I bought it. I'm glad I did. Watching again after not having seen it for over a decade brought back a whole lot memories and I remembered why I loved it in the first place. People, whose only experience with Oz is through the Garland movie, will be in for a surprise. It's certainly a lot darker than they would expect, but anyone who read Baum's original books would know that Oz was never a technicolor place all the time. The DVD itself is decent. The video and audio quality is not a high as most current movies but I believe it's because it was transferred from original (and aging) film stock. There isn't much in the way of extras other than a segment of Fairuza Balk fondly reminiscing on making the movie. As a child-hood fan of this movie I was certainly glad that the studio chose to release it like this after all these years. And I'm definitely glad I bought it.
Rating:
Summary: Dorothy and A Darker Oz
Review: When Dorothy dreams in that readily-awakened state that constantly keeps her from sleep, she dreams of Oz and the kinship she felt amongst its residents. This fact readily streams into her conversations that oftentimes lead to points on that fantastic land, disturbing her beloved Aunt Em and Uncle Henry to the point that they are willing to do just about anything to cure this woefully bestricken child. It is then that a solution presents itself, one masking itself as a clinic powered by treatments birthed from electricity. Before Dorothy can be treated and properly cured, however, she is thrust into a series of bizarre events leading her into the her beloved Oz. Still, Dorothy - accompanied by her talking companion/chicken - quickly discovers that this isn't the Oz she beheld in her fantastical past and sets off to find the king here, The Scarecrow, and some answers to questions plaguing her. In many ways, I found Return to Oz to be quite enjoyable because of the rather dreary aspects flooding every turn in that dilapidated world of wonderment. It seemed to emanate from a landscape portrayed as a broken mesh of shattered buildings and devastated monuments, with headless dancers and other denizens frozen in an eternal stone-laden slumber, and ooze from the pores of any character Dorothy happened across. From the rather psychotic Wheelers to Queen Mombi and her obsession with interchangeable heads to further her conquest of the beautiful, it quickly became apparent that this rendition of Oz wasn't the Oz of my or Dorothy's childhood; a fact that become even more transparent as Dorothy's adventure pressed onward and ends up in the realm of the Nome King (Nicol Williamson, or Merlin from Excalibur). Coupled with that were the additions of characters that strayed from the original aspects remembered by most fans of the Wizard of Oz, showcasing instead: Tick Tock AKA The Army of Oz, a living Scarecrow, and an animated Moosehead/couch. This straying from the atypical led to something that is not only memorable and that transcends the realms of what typifies returns to any successful movie, it also made it a tale that survives to this day. For this reason, I still love and recommend that voyage.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant work--but for adults, not children
Review: The great film editor walter Murch got the chance in the early Eighties to make a spectacular film compressing the first two sequels to THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, THE MAGICAL LAND OF OZ and OZMA OF OZ, as a tribute to the Baum books he loved. The film was a popular flop, given that almost everyone who took their children to it expected it to be a sequel to the famous M-G-M film version of 1939. (In Murch's version, there are no songs and the carryover characters from the first film--Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion---look like the original illustrations of them by John Neill and W. W. Denslow rather than the way they were portrayed in the 1939 film.) But the film has endured as a cult classic, a master of the film art's tribute to the books and illustrations he loved from his youth. It's an amazingly beautiful film, but it would be insanity to show it to small children. It starts out with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em, rebuilding their house and farm from the cyclone, take Dorothy, who has been speaking of wild stories of cities made of emeralds and scarecrows who talk, to Topeka for electroshock therapy. The asylum they bring her to is a terrifying chamber of horrors, and when she escapes it for Oz she is confronted with incredible other visual terrors, such as the lunatic Wheelers and the Princess Mombi (a variant of both the old witch Mombi and the Princess langwidere from the Oz books), who exchanges pretty heads for her body the way other women change dresses. The scene where Mobi's headless body chases Dorothy through her chamber of heads (as the other dismebodied heads scream in horror) is one of the scariest things I can imagine a child ever viewing. But this is really a film for adults, and the creepiness of its details add to the mature viewers' pleasure. The sets and costumes are spectacular, the cast includes such accomplished actors as Piper Laurie (as Aunt Em), Jean Marsh (Mombi) and Nicol Williamson (the Nome King), and the David Shire score is one of the most beautiful film scores ever written--period. As for Dorothy herself, the producers chose such a unusually haunting Dorothy (with marvelous multicolored eyes and a curious plaintive quality to her voice) that the actress, Fairuza Balk, has spun a strong acting career from her early cult fame in this part.
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