Return to Oz Review

So I just watched Return to Oz. For when The Wizard of Oz just isn't horrifying enough.
For those of you who are unfamiliar Return to Oz is Disney's take on L. Frank Baum's magical land of Oz. Drawing elements from the books and as many as they legally could from MGM's classic film The Wizard of Oz, Return to Oz serves as a pseudo-sequel to that film.
The most striking feature of this movie is just how oppressively bleak it is. Right from the start this movie feels dark. Dorothy is struggling with insomnia. Aunt Em and Uncle Henry think she's crazy. They end up taking Dorothy to a mental institution for electroshock therapy. She escapes and winds up back in Oz. There she finds the yellow brick road destroyed. The Emerald City is in ruins and all of her friends are turned to stone. Of course that's just the start of her adventure. Along the way to save Oz she encounters wheelers, and witches, and nomes. Oh my!
I hadn't seen this movie since I was a kid, but it's funny how much stuck with me. Of course nothing sticks with you quite like terror. The disembodied heads screaming, the Nome King, the sounds of the other patients screaming in the mental hospital, and the wheelers (Mad Max type maniacs with wheels instead of hands and feet.) All these things are permanent fixtures in my mind.
I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing. I think kids should be scared sometimes. Part of growing up is experiencing various emotions and feelings and learning how to cope with them.
Typically when the journey is dark and scary the happy ending is that much sweeter. While Return to Oz doesn't necessarily nail the happy ending it still works as a welcome reprieve at the end of Dorothy's journey.
Overall Return to Oz isn't a perfect movie. The plot isn't amazing. Some of the characters are derivative and annoying. But the effects and the atmosphere are exceptional, and the villains are the kind of scary that they just don't make anymore. I give Return to Oz 45 out of 62 eggs.