Return To Oz

This favorite of Mr Pinky's was released in 1985 and was doomed from the start. Fans of the MGM musical were perplexed. “Where are the songs?”. The Disney studios who bankrolled the film were horrified at how grim the script turned out to be. In fact, they even went so far as to sack the film’s director Walter Murch (whose first film this was after a career of editing and sound design) but he was reinstated after Murch’s pals Messrs Spielberg, Coppola and Lucas stepped in to offer a guarantee of completion if Murch was unable to finish in time.

Return to Oz is to date Murch’s only film as a director. His love of the Oz books was his sole reason for taking on the role of director and co-scriptwriter and ironically, much to Disney’s disappointment he was able to successfully capture the true nature of Baum’s books into one film.

Most people grow up with the impression that the Garland musical is the definitive Oz film. Mr Pinky is a huge fan that’s for sure. However, as someone who has read all 14 of the Baum novels I was more taken by Murch’s more authentic and almost realistic view of the frightening world of Oz. John R Neill illustrated all but the first Oz books and it is his splendid vision that must have been a great influence on the film’s look and character design.

The film's beginning finds Dorothy back in Kansas but unable to come to terms with what she had experienced. Her concerned Aunt Em and Uncle Henry take her to a doctor in order to undergo electric shock therapy (no wonder Disney heads where aghast) but manages to escape and somehow find her way back to Oz. There she is saddened to find the once great Emerald City in ruins, her friends all gone and power now residing with the terrible witch Mombi and the Nome King who has taken the Scarecrow prisoner.

Dorothy is soon befriended by such eccentric characters as Tik Tok the mechanical man (he is the army of Oz – imagine a wind-up “Colonel Blimp”) and the parentless Jack Pumpkinhead ( who insists on calling her his Mom) Instead of Toto, Dorothy has a talking chicken called Billina as her companion and strangely enough it is this wisecracking feathery friend who saves the day.

There are many charming moments in this criminally ignored film but what Mr Pinky appreciates most is the forlorn and somewhat sad atmosphere Murch has created of childhood fantasies lost. Like the best films made for kids, Return to Oz is both scary and haunting.