Return to Oz

Return to Oz was a 1985 film I saw at the age of five or so (probably on VHS, oh yes the quality). I recently caught a glimpse of it again when my four-year old cousin got to watch it for the first time. There were only bits left in my memory that I hadn't even associated with this movie because I'd forgotten about it, but watching it again I realized how bizarre and creative it is.

The Oz series originated in 13 books, the first of which is the base for the original Wizard of Oz film. This movie took bits and pieces from the two books following that first to make something much weirder and dramatic than the original.

Return to Oz takes place directly after Wizard of Oz as they rebuild their farm house. No one believes Dorothy about Oz, and thinking that she's losing her mind her family sends her to a clinic for shock therapy. Just before they fry her brain she escapes and somehow ends up in Oz. There she meets a mechanical man named Tik-Tok, a stick man with a pumpkin for a head and a talking mounted moose. She's chased by a witch with interchangeable heads and henchmen called "Wheelers" with wheels in place of appendages.

There's death, danger and a talking chicken, and even a scene with Dorothy flying through a mountain. This is stuff you'd expect pot smokers to try and sync with a Pink Floyd album. Check out this music video mixed with clips of the movie: