Return to Oz is a 1985 film which is an unofficial sequel to Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz. The film was directed by Walter Murch, a respected editor and sound designer. Although it did not fare well at the box office and received mixed reviews from critics it has gained a loyal following.
Six months after returning from the Land of Oz, Dorothy Gale has become a melancholic child who cannot sleep, as she is obsessed with her memories of Oz. This concerns Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, who don't believe her, and are worried she cannot help them on the farm, which is at risk of foreclosure after the tornado. The two decide to take her to see Doctor Worley, known for his electric healing treatments. Before going, Dorothy, while looking hopefully for any eggs laid by her favorite chicken Billina (who is not producing), finds a key with the OZ glyph, which she believes her friends from Oz sent to her the previous night by shooting star. Aunt Em leaves Dorothy at Dr. Worley's laboratory under the care of Nurse Wilson. As she is taken to have treatment during the onset of a huge thunderstorm, the lab has a blackout, and Dorothy is saved by a mysterious blonde girl who reveals that some patients have been driven insane by Worley's treatment and are hidden in the basement. The two escape the building with Nurse Wilson in pursuit, and then fall into a river. The blonde girl vanishes underwater — and, unbeknownst to Dorothy, returns to Oz — but Dorothy survives by clambering on board a chicken coop.
Plot
It has been six months since Dorothy has returned home from Oz and she still cannot sleep. She has been going on about imaginary places and people so much that Aunt Em takes her to see a doctor. She promptly escapes from the mental hospital and wakes up in Oz where her pet chicken, Billina, can now talk. There she meets a whole new bunch of friends and they set off to rescue the Scarecrow from the evil Nome King who has found her ruby slippers and used them to lay waste to the Emerald City and take over Oz.
Keywords: 1890s, 19th-century, actor-playing-multiple-roles, acute-insomnia, anthropomorphic-scarecrow, aunt-niece-relationship, based-on-novel, character-feels-around-for-missing-head, chicken, clinical-depression
An all-new adventure down the yellow brick road.
It's an all-new live-action fantasy - filled with Disney adventure and magic.
If there's one thing you must do this summer, it's "Return to Oz..."
Return to the land where the adventure began.
Jack Pumpkinhead: If his brain's ran down, how can he talk?::Dorothy: It happens to people all the time, Jack.
Gump: If I had a stomach, I *know* I would be sick!
[regarding headless statues]::Dorothy: Look, Billina, these ones have lost their heads.::Billina: Now, that's what I call just plain carelessness
Billina: What is this, a man or a melon?::Jack Pumpkinhead: A pumpkin, if you please.
Billina: We come all this way to see a bunch a stiffs.
Mombi III: Not beautiful you understand, but you have a certain prettiness, different from my other heads. I believe I'll lock you in the tower for a few years until your head is ready. And then I'll take it.::Dorothy: I believe you will NOT!
Billina: Some place for a chicken coop! How big is this pond anyway?::Dorothy Gale: I don't think it's a pond, Billina. [gets up and looks around] I guess it is a pond.::Billina: Hmm, told you so.::Dorothy Gale: Where did all the rest of the water go?::Dorothy Gale: Yeah, where did Kansas go? Ohh, this is some place for a chicken coop.::Dorothy Gale: When did you learn to talk anyway? I thought hens could only cluck and cackle.::Billina: Strange, ain't it? How's my grammar?
Nurse Wilson: Lie down.::Dorothy: I'd like to sit up, if I may.::Nurse Wilson: What did your aunt tell you?::Dorothy: To do what you told me, Miss Wilson.::Nurse Wilson: Then, lie down.::[the attendants are strapping Dorothy to the stretcher]::Dorothy: Why do you have to tie me down?::Nurse Wilson: So that you don't fall off.::Dorothy: I came all the way from the farm on a buggy and I didn't fall off. [They start to wheel Dorothy down the hall] Did I hear somebody scream earlier?::Nurse Wilson: No. [They wheel Dorothy through some double doors. Dr. Worley is adjusting his machine]::Dr. J.B. Worley: Hello, Dorothy. How are you?::Dorothy: I wish I wasn't tied down.
Ozma: Why did they bring you here, Dorothy?::Dorothy: Because I can't sleep, and I talk about a place that I've been to, but nobody believes that it exists.
Dr. J.B. Worley: And how did you come back from... Oz?::Dorothy: With my ruby slippers.::Dr. J.B. Worley: How did they work?::Dorothy: You put them on and you click your heels three times, and you say "There's no place like home".::Dr. J.B. Worley: Dorothy, where are those slippers now?::Dorothy: I lost them. They fell off on the way back.
Once there was a man
who had a little too much time on his hands
he never stopped to think that he was getting older.
When his night came to an end
He tried to grasp for his last friend and pretend
That he could wish himself health on a four-leaf clover
He said is this the return to Oz?
The grass is dead, the gold is brown and the sky has claws
There's a wind-up man walking round and round
What once was Emerald City is now a crystal town
Its three o' clock in the morning
You get a phone call from the queen with a hundred heads
She says that they're all dead
She tried the last one on
It couldn't speak, fell off
And now she just wanders the halls
Thinking nothing, thinking nothing at all
She says is this the return to Oz?
The grass is dead, the gold is brown and the sky has claws
There's a wind-up man walking round and round
What once was Emerald City is now a crystal town
The wheelies are cutting pavement
and the Skeksis at the rave meant
to hide deep inside
their sunken faces
and their wild, rolling eyes
But their callous words reveal
That they can no longer feel
Love or sex appeal
The patchwork girl has come to cinch the deal
To return to Oz we've fled the world
With smiles and clenching jaws
Please help me friend from coming down
I've lost my place and now it can't be found
Is this the return to Oz?
The grass is dead, the gold is brown and the sky has claws
There's a wind-up man walking round and round