Dorothy's Return to Oz

The first thing that I have to say, is that The Wizard Of Oz, and Return To Oz are both wonderful movies. You can't really compare the two as in which is made better, as they are both made differently yet are both fascinating. One is not better than the other. The first Wizard Of Oz followed L. Frank Baum's story pretty well, except for the fact that the movie posessed far less details, as movies normally do, or else they would be hours and hours long, or turned into mini-series. There were many background stories and places that surrounded Dorothy's supporting characters that were not mentioned in the film. An example of differences between the book and the movie, is that Dorothy's slippers in the book The Wizard Of Oz are Silver, not Ruby as they are in the film. Another is that in the movie, Glinda is the good witch of the North. In the book, the good witch of the north has no name, and does not know the power of the slippers. However, she tells Dorothy to find Glinda, the good witch of the SOUTH to help her. The book is definitely known to be more violent, and dark, where as the movie is colorful, vibrant and has many musical numbers.

This brings us to Return To Oz. Return To Oz, made in 1985. This film, as well as classics like Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, and The Black Cauldron were considered box office flops but yet received Cult Classic Fame on video and television and was received positively, for the most part, from critics.

The film itself was dark, and somewhat depressing combining L. Frank Baum's two books Ozma Of Oz and The Marvelous Land Of Oz, it focused on Dorothy's (Fairuza Balk of The Worst Witch, The Craft and Water Boy plays Dorothy.) mental state after her return from Oz. She has dreams constantly about Oz, and misses her friends in the Emerald city terribly. An interesting connection with the first movie, is that we see Uncle Henry working on building a new farmhouse after the first one was trashed in the tornado from the original Wizard Of Oz.