Idk if this is the right place to post this, but me and some friends recently sat down and watched Return to Oz together, and I gotta say… this movie is an underrated gem.
I think it was Disney’s first and only attempt at adapting the Oz books, but due to it being a financial flop upon release (mainly due to production issues and shitty advertising), Disney more or less disowned it and tries to forget it exists.
Which is a damn shame really, because despite the spookier moments in the film, it all ties together into a really strong and well-crafted story. All of the main characters are likable and worth rooting for, the villains are a perfect mix of fantastical and terrifying, the musical score is solid, the practical effects and costume/set design are top-notch, and there’s some really badass claymation for the nomes (basically rock people) that were done by Will Vinton.
I’d definitely put it in my top 5 Disney films, I can’t stress enough how good it really is. It’s not perfect, but I still consider it to be one of their strongest movies. Thankfully it’s on Disney+ if anyone‘s curious.
What I find particularly funny about the film’s reception is how everyone thought it was too dark and scary, even though it’s arguably one of the best and most faithful adaptations of the original books in recent times.
All of the characters, locations, and creatures are straight from the books (except for the asylum part at the beginning; hell, there’s even a bunch of other cameos from book characters at the end), and you can really tell that everyone working on it did their homework.
There’s overall just a lot of love and dedication towards the source material put into this film that I don’t see very often with other book/video game -to-movie adaptations, and I really appreciate it for that.
I hope that this movie one day gets the love and respect it deserves (it already has a cult following, but it’s still pretty obscure), and maybe will get the same status as other cult classics such as Hocus Pocus, Labyrinth, Dark Crystal and others.