Wednesday 26 February 2014

Returned to Oz

I said I would, and so I have. The movie which could be considered a sequel but isn't really.

The world of Kansas gets creepy weird as people use electricity to zap little girls into behaving properly... until Dorothy throws herself in the river and goes through a near death experience! Her brain trips hard, creating creatures on wheels, a tin solder, and freaky pumpkin monstrosity, and toys with the power of god to bring furniture to life! Then, after killing the wicked witch nome king, everything is quickly wrapped up and the plot rushes to a happy ending. Aw...

I will say there are some very good effects here. I like the Wheelers, and Tick-tock is well done. However... the stop motion effects do look rather primitive, and the less said (and certainly less seen!) of the Scarecrow and Lion the better!

Fairuza Balk gets the lead role, and after this she went on to do.... almost nothing I've seen. I was surprised to see Jean Marsh, in that I went 'hey, isn't that Jean Marsh', and indeed it was her. Good on her for getting rather ridiculous because of the script. And Nicol Williamson does a good Christopher Lee as the Nome King.

The darker tone does bring an air of menace, but this contrasts with some rather goofy moments. The story is nice, but the visuals have not aged well.

[END]

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Didn't Ms Marsh also play an evil Sorceress in Willow, roughly around the same time? She must have been going through her wicked witch phase...

Jet Simian said...

not to mention that other evil witch she played in Doctor Who- Oh, I see what you did there.

Jamas - news on AICN of a new 'Return of Dorothy' animation coming soon. Not sure if it's based on anything of the wildly disparate book series or not. Looks kinda annoying, too.

Jet Simian said...

Also, I remember the Nineties when Ms Balk was kid of a big deal for a short while then, but I'm struggling to remember why. She was in The Craft, and then a few years later she was in The Waterboy towards which wild horses et cetera. But what else?