Return to Oz

The Good:
I saw this movie back when it first came out and it became one of my favorites. I had lost track of and almost forgotten it for years until I stumbled across it again. It has not lost anything that made me first love it - and many things I remember from childhood often fail to stand up to the harsh light of adulthood.

Fairuza Balk is wonderful. Yes - I understand many people had problems with her in this role because they remember Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz and cannot reconcile how the returning Dorothy could be younger than the initial visitor. Just look at them as separate entities and you will be fine. And if you want to get technical - Judy Garland's Wizard of Oz was way off the mark anyway - though I loved it as well.

Jean Marsh as Mombi with her interchangeable living heads remains to this day one of the most vividly frightening things I've ever seen.

The Bad:
I never did like this version of The Scarecrow. He's far too cartoony - as is The Cowardly Lion. I do think a lot of that has to do with the era during which this was filmed and not a failure on the part of the film itself.

The Wheelers are far to close to clowns - and I HATE clowns.

All in all:
I would still highly recommend seeing this if you never have, or even if you haven't in a long time. The only thing that I could see making people dislike this is if they are of the crowd who seems to think the technicolor old school Wizard of Oz is the bible for how all things Oz must be. To those of you, I say read the books - then watch this movie. Oz is much darker. Enjoy the Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland for what it is - a beautiful bit of childhood fluff.