The Forgotten Oz Masterpiece

"Return to Oz" was released in 1985 by the struggling Walt Disney Company, and was a notorious flop. Based on the second and third of L. Frank Baum's "Oz" books, it bore little resemblance to MGM's famous "Wizard of Oz" musical, and was so dark in tone that it alienated many potential viewers. Critics were mostly hostile, and "Return to Oz" won an ignominious place on Siskel and Ebert's list of the worst films of 1985. However, I grew up with the film through regular television broadcasts in the 90s, which for a time were at least as frequent as the ones for "Wizard of Oz," and it's one of my childhood favorites. And after nearly thirty years it still holds up remarkably well as a fantasy feature.

We meet Dorothy, who is about ten years old and played by Fairuza Balk. She suffers from insomnia after returning to Kansas from her adventures in Oz, and her Aunt Em (Piper Laurie) and Uncle Henry (Matt Clark) are worried by her tales of tin men and talking lions. She's sent to the sinister Doctor Worley (Nicol Williamson) to try a new cure for melancholia - electroshock therapy. However, before the treatments can take place, a mysterious girl (Emma Ridley) helps Dorothy to escape during a storm. They're separated and Dorothy is washed away in a river. She wakes up back in Oz, but not the peaceful, happy world she remembers, that was ruled by the Scarecrow. Instead, she finds that Oz has been conquered by the Nome King (Nicol Williamson), and its inhabitants turned to stone or otherwise enchanted. However, Dorothy finds new friends, including a talking hen, Billina (Denise Bryer), a mechanical soldier, Tik-Tok (Sean Barrett), and Jack Pumpkinhead (Brian Henson), who of course has a pumpkin for a head.

I can imagine fans of "Wizard of Oz" being dismayed by the scenes at the mental hospital, and becoming downright upset once Dorothy finally got to Oz, and it was not the Technicolor wonderland that they were expecting, but a ruined, crumbling place where creepy villains like the wheel-limbed Wheelers held sway. First time director Walter Murch, best known as the sound designer and sound editor of a slew of classics including "Apocalypse Now" and "The Godfather," struggled through an arduous production that coincided with changing leadership at Disney. He was committed to bringing a very personal, darker vision of Oz to the screen, an idea that was met with considerable skepticism when it became clear what the film was shaping up to be. He was even fired briefly, before George Lucas and other major directors interceded. Murch's approach was daring not only for departing almost entirely from the mainstream public's understanding of Oz, but for introducing a psychological complexity to the story in the way that he treated Dorothy's depression, and how he mirrored the characters from each world, including Dorothy and Ozma (Emma Ridley), one of the book series' most beloved characters.

You can see this particularly in Murch's approach to the villains, who are really effective, frightening nightmare creatures, but their power comes from the fact that they are grounded in potent real-world fears. We first meet the crooked Doctor Worley and his nurse, who are truly a threat to Dorothy's well-being in the Kansas scenes. In Oz, Worley becomes the Nome King, a creature of cold stone who gains life as others lose theirs. His cohort Mombi (Jean Marsh) is a vain, malevolent witch with interchangeable heads, and there is a particularly traumatic sequence where she chases Dorothy through her chambers while headless. However, I don't think either of them are so scary that they're inappropriate for children. I saw "Return to Oz" as a kid and enjoyed the frights immensely. And of course, generations of tots were similarly frightened by Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys. In my own experience, grown-ups seem to have more trouble with "Return to Oz" than kids.

And though it may lack in whimsy and delight, I always found the movie to be utterly gorgeous. The production design takes its cues directly from the delicate John R. Neill illustrations of the Oz books, and this version of Oz feels far more immersive and immediate. It's an older, richer, stranger Oz that yields its best wonders slowly. Visually, it reminds me of "Pan's Labyrinth," full of hidden perils and symbols of the unconscious. The courtyard of statues, Mombi's mirrored throne room, and the Nome King's underground domain stayed with me for years. The effects work is even better. Teams from Jim Henson operated Dorothy's companions, and Will Vinton Studios did Claymation sequences for the Nome King and his minions. And playing a significant role in establishing the mood is the haunting score by David Shire, that has themes for each major character, and features a series of magnificent violin solos.

Sadly, the negative initial reaction resulted in Walter Murch never directing another film. Producer Gary Kurtz all but quit Hollywood in its wake. The new Disney leadership tried to disown the movie, and "Return to Oz" didn't have any kind of home media release until the late 90s. These days it's very much a cult film, still polarizing in certain circles. I don't agree with those who claim it's so much more faithful to Baum's Oz books, because it wasn't. Baum's work was darker than MGM's "Wizard of Oz," but was a far gentler, more pastoral kind of fantasy than "Return to Oz." No, "Return to Oz" had its own vision and its own take on the land of Oz, one that deserves to be recognized on its own merits.
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