This film has no business being in the children’s section of the video store.
Yet, that is where you’ll find this unbelievably PG-rated sequel to The Wizard of Oz. If it’s any indication of the bizzare-ity, Fairuza Balk plays Dorothy, so that should give you a clue right there that we are not in Disney territory (though this IS produced by Disney and has a super Rainbow-Brite looking cover).
In the 1930s(?), Dorothy Gale has amnesia and doesn’t remember OZ. She winds up in a clinic for the mentally insane where a bat-s**t crazy Nurse Ratchett-type subjects her to electroshock therapy. Dorothy gets back to OZ and meets up with some old and new friends and then has to fend for their lives when Nurse Ratchett shows up as the evil witch (complete with a giant hallway lined with glass cabinets, inside which are a lovely selection of heads on display for her to choose to screw on and wear, depending on her mood) who is determined to destroy her.
This movie is so. effing. weird. You HAVE to see it.
It really has to be seen. There’s no way a person be indifferent to this movie.
This is what we need – an insight to make eervyone think
I’ve never seen this movie…but my parents had me watch Freddy Kruger and Chucky movies when i was 7…which scared the hell out of me…not sure how i would have reacted to this one, i loved labyrinth and the last unicorn.
You have NO IDEA how much I love this movie, I grew up watching it, and NO-ONE else around me had ever seen it, it used to scare me but that’s what I loved about it. It’s such a good movie.
Tis movie freaked xme out as a kid and an adult….. The wheelies????? I still have nightmares….
The book series is MUCH more kid-friendly. This movie is (loosely) based on books 2 and 3 of the 14-book series, I’m pretty sure. I haven’t watched the movie since I was young (and traumatized, because I was expecting it to be more like the books!), but that’s what I recall.
used to get this from the library all the time as a kid and watch it with my cousins. we still quote it to this day.
“That’s right, Jack! That’s right wrong!”
This movie frightened the bejesus out of me as a kid and is probably the reason I loathe all things Oz. I rewatched it a couple of years ago and it got me over the fear as the movie is so horrible that I convinced myself why should it still scared me. I still don’t like either film though.
This movie scarred me as an unsuspecting Wizard-of-Oz-loving child.
Just wanted to let you know that you have lots of incorrect facts about the movie. It was before the 1900s, not during the 1930s, she REMEMBERS Oz and talks about it all the time (not amnesia), she wasn’t ever actually subjected to electroshock therapy (Ozma saved her), and the “Queen” is a Princess.
Wow, I can’t believe I’ve never seen this! I seriously thought I had seen every old Disney movie out there. Totally renting this/finding it online!
I watched this as a child in the UK but when I moved to the US, nobody here seemed to have heard about it. I honestly thought I had dreamed up the whole movie… People would particularly be freaked out about the switchable heads… THEN the movie was on my in-law’s TV about a month or so ago and I freaked out that I had not dreamed it up after all… I was happy… Now I want my own copy…
never read the books huh? return to oz is pretty true to the book…
Oh my goodness, this movie was so creepy. Although I always wished that fully stocked lunch boxes really did grow on trees.
Not to sound redundent but I LOVE THIS MOVIE! So great! I loved the wheelers as a child. My friend had it on VHS and I would insist on watching this every slumber party. I just recently purchased it on DVD. LOVE! Mona Lisa’s Smile is really great too!
I love love love this movie! I know that makes me sound odd to some. I watched it a lot as a kid and it’s totally nostalgic for me. Yes, it scared me to bits, but I still love it and to this day find myself quoting it at random times. And tell me you don’t want your very own lunch pale tree!
Agreed! It’s Disney on acid. Plus, Jean Marsh, who is Mombi, is also the evil queen in Willow!
i own this on dvd hahaha and i saw it as a kid. its so disturbing with is prolly half the reason why i loved it. and the fact that my mom let me watch it at such a young age. but that was the 80s and 90s for us, nothing we watched as kids was appropriate i feel like. but the wheelers omg they still scare me!!!
Joy, I LOVE that you have picked Return To Oz. It’s one of my all time favourite childhood films (along with Labyrinth and The Goonies) that I still watch/love it just as much today. But yes, it is a little bit scary! The bit where the head of Mombi wakes up, realises Dorothy has takes the power and screams ‘Doorrrroth Gaaale’ still creeps me out to this day, ha!
My sister’s and I LOVED this movie and even we knew how twisted it was. Don’t they eat egg salad sandwiches out of trees? That part always made me want an egg salad sandwich.