Return to Oz

There are some positively darker elements to this follow-up story of the young "Dorothy" (Fairuza Balk). Traumatised by her first visit to "Oz" her desperate "Auntie Em" (Piper Laurie) resorts to electrical therapy to try and help her young niece. Luckily, a thunderstorm comes to her rescue and escaping from the asylum where she was to be treated, she finds herself back in a now desolate land of "Oz". The yellow brick road has been torn up and the emerald city is but a ruin. It turns out that the subterranean "Nome King" has determined to reclaim all the precious stones stolen (as he sees it) from his realm, and so together with the Princess "Mombi" has reduced the once mighty city to rubble. It falls to young "Dorothy" and her new friends "Jack Pumpkinhead" and the rotund tin soldier "Tik-Tok" to find the mysterious powder of life and try to outsmart the pair and restore the kingdom. This story has much more menace to it. The treatment scenario at the start (aided well by Nicol Williamson and Jean Marsh) works effectively, and the multi headed Princess gives Sophie Ward and Fiona Victory an opportunity to spread a little mayhem too. My biggest gripe with this is that Miss Balk looks much younger that Judy Garland, and she isn't a terribly engaging actress either. The animation is a bit on the basic side, too, but it does move along well with plenty of flying sofas and a message that green is always good!