Duckyworth's Thoughts - Return to Oz~1985

Hello, everybody! I've started my first TRUE week of University. After a sticky start (because of train problems caused by the rain, I had to take the bus from where I would usually get my last train, but I still made it to my first lecture in time - just! )

Here is my next installation of Duckyworth's Thoughts - for the 1985 Return to Oz.



Return to Oz.... my goodness, what a dark film! Considering the film that this is a sequel of, one of the most cherished family films of all time, would you expect ANY of the things that appear in this film to appear in this film?!

This film features things like shock therapy, severed heads, rock monsters, creepy clown monsters called Wheelers and one of the CREEPIEST climaxes ever... and all under the name of Mickey Mouse... And, I'm not going to lie.. That's what makes it so cool.. I may have said this many times in the past, but I love the dark children's films of the 1980s, and this was one of the ones I looked for the longest and enjoyed the most. It reminded me a lot of The Dark Crystal and The Neverending Story in it's style and storytelling, and that only made it more awesome! And the same year that this was released, Disney seemed to have a bit of a creepy vibe going...

Yep, Return to Oz came out in the same year as The Black Cauldron, another creepy underappreciated Disney film... And, another similarity is that Return to Oz was SUCH a cool film! They are also both REALLY underrated..... and I love them so much...

Although the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, Toto and the Scarecrow only appear a BIT in it, it still has more cool characters to fill in these slots - a clockwork man called Tik-Tok, a guy with a pumpkin for a head called Jack Pumpkinhead (well, what did you expect? ) a chicken called Bellina and a sofa creature called Gump. You also have the villains, a head collector called Princess Mombi, and a rock monster called the Nome King. (Yes, I am spelling that right, and I can think of a LOT of jokes that can be made about the nomes... )

One thing I really like about BOTH Oz films is that the inhabitants of Oz are loosely based on Dorothy's experiences in real-life - the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion are based on three farm workers from the 1939 original and the Wicked Witch of the West was based on the old hag from that film (can't remember her name... ) And here, we have Tik-Tok based on one of Dr Worley's machines, Princess Mombi based on Nurse Ratchet, the Wheelers based on assistants from the hospital and the squeaky hospital beds, Jack Pumpkinhead based on a pumpkin given to Dorothy by Ozma, and the Nome King based on Dr Worley. Maybe there are some other real-life inspirations that I'm missing out on, but those are the ones I could recognise.

As well as the creative surrealism that Oz has to offer (the Deadly Desert, the Powder of Life, and Mombi's severed head collection), this film has some more beautiful elements... The music gives me chills whenever I listen to it... For better or for worse (as in, beauty or fear ). And here is a taster for you. www.youtube.com/watch?v=StorHw…
One of the other defining features in this film is the stop-motion animation... It's like Wallace and Gromit mixed with Evil Dead stop motion... Well, okay, maybe not THAT scary, but it's like if you took Aardman animation and cranked up the fear dial umpteen-fold... The Nomes get this animation, and the facial expressions and movement of them just astounds me. Mix it in with some great green-screens, and you have some cool rock monsters...

Now, to be fair, some of the animatronics and costumes are a bit lack-lustre, as in the Scarecrow having only three set expressions, and some of the movements on Bellina and Gump being a little bit.... second-rate.. But, at this time, Disney WAS going through some financial difficulties, and you can't say they didn't put any effort in - just watch this film, and you can see that even they had money issues, they were putting their all into this.

Also, I think one thing that threw some people off is the fact that Return to Oz was so much darker than the classic they grew up with... But, come on... I haven't read the Oz books, but I can guess that both of these films followed them well. This could go for the fact that none of the recurring characters are played by their original actors and so it's 'not the same' - and, I have to admit, making a sequel FORTY-SIX years after the original would seem a bit strange for some, but they still did it really well, so it could be a legitimate sequel.

Also, while I give credit to the original actress who played Dorothy in the 1939 original, I just think Fairuza Balk, the girl who played Dorothy in Return to Oz, did really well, considering that it was her first feature film. It reminded me of the following story - when Walt Disney was interviewing Dickie Jones, the boy who voiced Pinocchio in the 1940's film of the same name, he believed that Dickie Jones was perfect for the part because he had 'the traditional nice boy voice.' And for me, I think Fairuza Balk has the traditional nice girl voice. True, her acting may be a bit dubious in a few scenes, but she DOES show real emotion at times (when she's crying because the Nome King turned the Scarecrow into an ornament) and, like Pinocchio, she sounds innocent, but she is capable of great things.

The costumes in this are also great - Mombi's dress, Pumpkinhead, the Nome King's garb (Nichol Williamson must have felt REALLY uncomfortable wearing that make-up... ) and of course the Tik-Tok suit are really well designed.

And again, I give credit to this film's villain The Nome King.... Much like General Woundwort, the Other Mother and Ivan Ivonich Saccharin, he doesn't seem too scary when he first appears, but you know that he's the villain, he plays it pretty subtle, which I think is great... Especially seen as he's little more than a selfish, spoilt jerk when he first appears...
But when he NEEDS to be intimidating (when he turns into a giant rock monster in the climax) he can be REALLY intimidating.... When I first saw the climax, it actually made my heart start pounding, it was so shocking... And of course, the stop motion on him is breathtaking. I actually started laughing when he laughed for the first, because the stop-motion on him at that part was kind of funny..
But, I will say this... why is he so bothered about becoming completely human... I mean, I know he has an easily exploitable weakness (watch the film to find it out, I dare not ruin it for you. ), and it is a cool idea how he slowly becomes human every time one of the main characters becomes an ornament, but it just seems a bit weird... Nomes can travel the world of Oz in a millisecond through the rocks of the world, but if he becomes human, he'll have to walk....
Also, I love his diet... limestone pies and melted silver... reminds me of Sableyes!

And of course, while it has scary moments, like I enjoy in 80's family films, it also has some real heart to it... especially when Tik-Tok started crying... In all, it's a perfect example of one of the best family films from the 1980s.

Now, I appreciate how popular the 1939 original, as it has been dubbed one of the most cherished family films of all time, but I actually enjoyed Return to Oz more than the 1939 classic, as the scary moments pulled me more into the action, and it made me feel more for Dorothy and the other heroes and hope that they'd come out okay. And of course, some children LIKE being scared, as they enjoy the thrill of it.

The film is supposed to be as little as £2 on Amazon, so, if you feel like something creepy and awesome at the same time, give it a watch and prepare for some creepy creativity.



The next film I shall critique will be another 1980's film - Rock and Rule!

UPCOMING DUCKYWORTH'S THOUGHTS -
Neverending Story
The Secret of NIMH
Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas
Rock and Rule
9
The Longest Day
Plague Dogs
Dead Space: Downfall
An American Tail
The Black Cauldron
Animal Farm
Pokemon - Lucario and the Mystery Of Mew
Pokemon - The Rise of Darkrai
Brave
A Cat In Paris
Basil The Great Mouse Detective
Pokemon - Jirachi:Wishmaker
The Haunting (1963)
Dracula (1931)
Nosferatu (1922)
Theatre of Blood
An American Werewolf In London
Rock and Rule
Hellraiser
Hellbound: Hellraiser 2
The Silence of the Lambs
Zombieland
The Evil Dead
Evil Dead 2
Army of Darkness
Hot Fuzz

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