The Wizard of Oz, the film based on the Frank Baum novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was released in 1939. It was nominated for six academy awards (winning two) and would go on to become a timeless classic. The family-friendly fantasy musical about a young girl from Kansas trying to find her way home after a tornado whisks her away to a magical foreign land would go on to capture the hearts and minds of children and adults alike for years to come.
Disney had purchased the film rights to Baum’s Oz novels back in 1954 but didn’t do much with them until Return to Oz was released in 1985. Written by Water Murch and Gill Dennis and directed by Murch, the film continues the story of Dorothy Gale from the first film. Played by Fairuza Balk, Dorothy talks about Oz so often, her family thinks she is insane and sends her to a facility where she’s to undergo electroshock therapy. She escapes and does manage to return to Oz, only to find most of her friends turned to stone and the land itself in ruins. While the movie was much truer to Baum’s book series than the original, its tone and imagery were far too dark and frightening for children and it flopped as a result. Here’s a look at some of the ghastly things that made Return to Oz truly the stuff of nightmares.
After Dorothy arrives in Oz, she learns that the Nome King is responsible for the destruction of the Emerald City and everyone turning into stone. She is told that to find out what happened to the Scarecrow she must speak with Princess Mombi. When Dorothy meets with Mombi she is taken to a room filled with disembodied heads locked in cabinets that stare at her as she walks past. Dorothy watches in horror as Mombi removes her own head before selecting another and attaching it to her body. She tells Dorothy that she’ll take her head when she’s old enough and locks her in a tower.
Later in the film, there’s a scene where Dorothy has to sneak into the head room to steal the Powder of Life while all the heads are asleep. She wakes them up and they all start screaming to awaken a headless Mombi. It’s probably the single-most horrifying scene in a children’s film.
In the original Oz film, the Wicked Witch’s minions were flying monkeys. Those guys were small, cute, and mischievous. While they might have frightened smaller children, they certainly weren’t intimidating. In Return to Oz, those that serve Mombi are the terrifying wheelers.
Wheelers, unsurprisingly, have wheels at the ends of their hands and feet and when they ride it sounds like nails on a chalkboard. They wear helmets with horrifying, screaming faces on top, and travel in gangs, laughing maniacally. When Dorothy arrives in Oz she’s almost immediately chased down by these things, and many parents had to likewise chase their kids down as they ran screaming from the theater.
After stealing the Powder of Life from Princess Mombi, Dorothy plans to escape by using it to create a creature that can fly her group of friends away from the Emerald City. She ties together two couches, a broom, and some ferns leaves. Finally, she adds a dead moose head to the pile of garbage and brings it to life.
This crime-against-God is called the Gump; that’s the correct name for the moose-like animal that’s native to Oz and was mounted on Mombi’s wall. He awakens to tell Dorothy and her friends the story of how he was murdered and asks them what he is now. Dorothy doesn’t have a good answer and calls him a “thing.” For some reason, he agrees to take them to the Nome King instead of asking them all to end his suffering.
Dorothy meets Jack when Mombi locks her up. He’s missing his arms and legs and asks for help being put back together. He explains that he was a scarecrow created to scare Mombi, but he was taken from his mother, brought to life by Mombi’s Powder of Life, and held captive ever since.
Jack is a lanky scarecrow made from sticks with a giant jack o’ lantern for a head. He looks much more fitting for a horror movie than a children’s film. While Jack is actually quite polite and friendly, judging a book by its cover, he gives off the impression that he’d sooner eat Dorothy than help her find the Scarecrow. It’s safe to say Jack Pumpkinhead dolls weren’t flying off the shelves in 1985.
Return to Oz is a solid dark fantasy film. The problem is that it just didn’t work as the sequel to one of the most beloved family films of all-time. Where the original gave children comfort and warmth, this one made them pee their pants. ‘80s kids will have a blast watching this film again as adults, they just better make sure to put their own little ones to bed first.
Return to Oz is currently streaming on Disney Plus.
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