MovieChat Forums > Return to Oz (1985) Discussion > Dear Hollyweird: Please adapt more of th...

Dear Hollyweird: Please adapt more of the Oz books into trippy practical effects laden fever dream horror WTF-scapes like this

posted 4 years ago by zephyr_cape (2979)
7 replies | jump to latest

...Only you won't!
And that's why basically fuck you.

(Lol by the way guys it's ok if you stop saying "Hollweird".)

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Amazing that this one got made at all.

[–] zephyr_cape (2979) 4 years ago

Yup, it's a happy small miracle in my book.
The lore is that Disney was struggling to put out any above-mediocre live action films at the time and this was intended to try to cash in on the popularity of Star Wars. If you look at Return to Oz from that angle it makes a little more sense.

I've been trying to learn more about how Walter Murch got the job as director though. It seems like he'd done sound design but this was his first and virtually only directing gig? That seems like a strange decision considering what a huge and beloved property Oz is.

Btw, check out this interview with him where he talks about being surprised at the near unanimous interpretation of this movie as terrifying and fucked up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpaV2_vT4Ps

[–] jdforyou1983 (1469) 3 years ago

I'm just glad we got this movie

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

This is on Disney Plus streaming, and what a culty trip of a movie it is! Awesome!

But I don't expect Hollywood to pile on the Oz books, not after the failure of "Oz the Great and Terrible" or whatever they called that mess. Now if failed because the movie sucked and the hero was miscast, not because you can't make a terrific, great-looking movie out of the Oz saga.

[–] Ed (522) 3 years ago

For me, Return to Oz is the best Oz film. It’s weird, a bit frightening, and captures the spirit of the books. Forget all the DREADFUL Oz movies since then. Wizard of Oz is a nice Vaudeville musical but Return ot Oz is the true Oz.

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

I didn't like the Oz books very much when I was of an age to read them, they were dark and wierd and not much fun (in the opinion of a 3rd grader). But yeah, they could make exactly the kind of movies I like as an adult, if anyone wanted to put money into the idea.

Since "Oz, the Great and Powerful" collapsed under his own weight they aren't going to make any big-budget spectaculars any time soon, but why not some animated films with comparatively low budgets? They can even get big-name celebrity actors to do the voice work for cheap these days, Just don't let Pixar touch it, they've gone all sentimental these days and that won't do.

[–] brajo58 (1) 2 years ago

I wish they had made a new live-action Wizard of Oz movie closer to the books instead of this one, which was was mistaken by many as a sequel to the 1939 movie. They could have made the Return to Oz after as a sequel and both films probably would have done good at the box office. Now we would get some CGI-crap remake that would look like the many WOZ animated features there have been.