What I really liked about this movie was 2 things, how the character designs were based on the original illustrations from the book, and how it shows that Oz truly was a dangerous place.
The nurse at the end was locked up because as the doctor's assistant and being the highest ranking person left alive -- they were keeping damaged patients prisoner, somebody has to go down for that.
First of all: *Massive thank you* for doing a video on what I consider one of the most overlooked and underrated 80's movies out there. I actually grew up with this movie before the original and got instantly hooked. The fact that it didn't have to be bright and bouncy all the time and yet still captured that innocent, childlike glee you'd expect from a fantasy world like this. I love the characters. Fairuza Balk is outstanding as *Dorothy.* She's always highly expressive and emotional without ever getting annoying or boring. People need to mention her more often when talking about good child actors. *Bellina The Chicken* is probably my least favorite member of the team. Not that I dislike her, but her voice can get a little annoying over time and other than a couple snarky remarks and sometimes giving Dorothy a clue, she doesn't contribute much to the story overall until the end. Speaking of which, the Nome King's weakness is both a funny reveal but also smart when you compare it to the old Oz movie: Both main villains get defeated by super regular and simple things (The Wicked Witch Of The West by plain water and the Nome King by a single egg), so it's kind of a neat call back. *The Wheelers* are terrifying, especially when you're a kid. They were one of my first introductions to geniune danger in a film. And even though I later started to question what they could even do to Dorothy (they don't have any hands), their freaky attitude, cackles and noises they made still made them highly intimidating. Good god, that squeaking of the wheels gave me goosebumps even while watching this video. *Tik Tok* was my childhood hero for putting the wheelers in their place. I love his oldschool gentleman soldier personality and that he keeps coming up with good ideas. His weakness of having to be wound up regularily is both a good weakness and allows him to use it to his advantage (like when he faked to be run down just to get Dorothy in the room with him). Plus, I find his design to be the movie's most iconic one. I remember seeing a pringles can and the monopoly guy for the first time and asking myself both times: 'Is that... Tik Tok?' *Princess Mombi* is a great take on vanity made literal. I bet there are some people out there so obsessed with beauty, if they could change heads whenever they wanted, they would. I love her spiky dress and her playing the mandolin like a boss. I like that they didn't play into the trope of 'Princess = Nice/Queen = Evil' like in so many Disney movies prior. Here, Mombi is the Princess and the kind Ozma the Queen. And of course, there's that scene that is most often mentioned when talking about this movie, where her head wakes up, followed by all the others, they all start to scream and her headless body jerks up from the bed. In the words of Animat: 'That is one horrifying alarm system'. *Jack Pumpkinhead* is by far my favorite example of the lovable, naive character type. The fact that he's so frail and shaky looking really makes you wanna look out and protect him. So much so that even lines like 'May I call you mom?', which would normally sound kind of creepy, actually work perfectly in his case, because they nailed his childlike cluelessness. I can definitely see Jack Skellington from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' being inspired by him (The scrawny, tall body, the big round head, the big round eye holes and big smile, the soft-spoken voice, the fact that he's called *Jack* the *Pumpkin* king and the fact the first time we see him he wears a *pumpkin* on his *head).* The older I get, the more I realize that *the Gump* is my spirit animal. He's basically the Eeyore of the gang, sprinkling bits of dry humor and sarcasm inbetween, trying to adapt to his new life as a 'thing'. And even though he seemed reluctant to help and even apathetic at times, he ultimately cared enough to help by playing the Nome King's game to get the Scarecrow, despite not even having any personal stakes. I realize he's definitely a grump with a good heart underneath, sort like Archimedes from 'The Sword In The Stone' or Kamaji from 'Spirited Away'. The scene where he flies for the first time is my favorite of the movie and I'll be damned, if I could choose to own one single prop from this movie, it would be the Gump head. *The Nome King* is delightful as a villain. You can tell Nicol Williamson is having a ball with the role. The Nome King enjoys being evil, superior to others and messing with them. Like when Mombi asked why he didn't just petrify Dorothy and her friends immediately, to which he just replies that it's more fun that way. The way he (and his servants) can morph through the rocks is very creative and visually stunning, almost like he's less a rock creature himself and more of an entity that can only possess and exist within the rock from the environment. It makes sense then he would want to become human and be free of the mountain. On that note, whether in claymation or in costume and prosthetics, the Nome King always looks great. Especially that final form where he looks like a demon. Imo, that scene actually rivals Mombi's screaming head scene in terms of scariness. Except whereas the head scene was powerful yet brief, the angry Nome King scene went on for a good bit and let that looming feeling of dread really sink in (motherfucker ATE a sofa). And finally, *Queen Ozma.* While she didn't appear all that much in the movie, the way she was shown as a silhouette in the mirrors is very memorable. This next bit is mostly speculation but I think her real life counterpart died during the flood. Queen Ozma is what Dorothy manifests her as in her mind. She's the one who saved Dorothy (namely her mind and imagination, and with that Oz itself) from the electro therapy, therefore becoming its rightful ruler. Not only was Ozma sealed in a mirror, she also sees Dorothy off one last time through a mirror. I like to think her connection to mirrors seems to imply that she is basically an idealized mirror image of Dorothy herself, a role model so to speak, not only for rescuing her, but to show her that having a vivid imagination isn't something to be ashamed of or something that needs to be 'cured', to be proud and grateful you still have the things that make you... you. (The fact alone that you can speculate and theorize so much about this movie is a testament to it being a truly worthwhile film, even decades later.) Speaking of cure, I think the reason why the nurse was locked up at the end is because as Ozma's real life counterpart told Dorothy when escaping the facility, there were test subjects locked away in the basement, likely victims of the Doctor's 'therapy'. So when the building was hit by lightning and the people were evacuated, it's likely the authorities found out about their little experiment and arrested her as an accomplice. Had Dr. Worly not died trying to save his machines, he likely would be sitting in that police wagon with her. This may sound sacrilegious, but presentation-wise I find this movie far superior to the old Wizard Of Oz movie. One thing that bothered me about that film was that the characters (Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion) always were just people in makeup, making the entire thing look more like a stageplay (which granted I think was the idea behind it, but it's just not my thing). So l really enjoyed that in Return To Oz, the Tin Man actually looked like a machine man, the Cowardly Lion actually looked like a lion (with a cute little bow in his mane, I think that's so perfect for his character, this fierce looking animal with that one little accessory to make him look cute and funny), and for as derpy and creepy he may look at times, the Scarecrow actually looks like a scarecrow now. People on TH-cam always go on and on about how scary it is, but honestly, it's so much more than that. It's clever, subtle, funny, charming, insanely creative and only scary when it needs to be. In my opinion, this movie will forever be one of the four cornerstones of 80's Fantasy: - *The Neverending Story* - *The Dark Crystal* - *Labyrinth* - and *Return To Oz* And If you've read this far, thank you for taking your time to read this (not just Omn1Media, but anyone reading), god knows it's taken a while to type it all down.
I think it was spelled Billina cause her name was Bill but Dorothy changed it to Billina because it was more feminine. That and I think that’s how it was spelled in Ozma of Oz
This was my one of my favourite movies growing up. I found the Wheelers absolutely terrifying as a child (still do now in my 40s actually). loved watching this with you
According to the dictionary: The British often called men whose names they didn't know by a common name like Jack. Thus, an unknown man carrying a lantern was sometimes called "Jack with the lantern" or "Jack of the lantern."
Jack was also used as a slang term to mean any guy. It's was kind of like the name for the common man or "everyman", as in Jack of all Trades. Also John, or Johnny, as in son of John. As in Johnny Jack, Johnny Ploughman, Johnny Cake, (Johnny Appleseed?). It is also my understanding that Jack may possibly refer to Death, or the Angel of Death/Grim Reaper in words like Jackdaw, Jacknife, but I'm not sure, but that may be why Jack is the name of the skeleton/protagonist in movie The Nightmare Before Christmas. Or it may also be associated with a fool or clown, as in Jack In the box. Jack in the Green is another folkloric character used in pagan ritual, and my also refer to death.
And a Jack may also refer to a half-pint of liquid as in beer, and a Jill/Gill is half of that. So there may also be some association there with Jack in the Green/hopps/beermaking, and the Jack and Jill that went up the hill.
Jack of the lantern is also a folk tale from Ireland about a man called stingy Jack who tricks the devil and double crosses him several times. He managed to convince the devil to agree that if Jack died he wouldn't claim his soul or take him to hell during a ten year period. When he died god refused to allow such a reprobate into heaven, and jack tried to appeal to the devil to allow him into hell so he wouldn't be doomed to wonder as a lost soul. The devil however honoured his bargin with Jack and refused to take him. Jack was left a lost soul doomed to wonder the earth forever never to be allowed to enter either heaven or hell. The devil however took some pity on jack and gifted him an ever burning piece of coal which would light his way in the darkness and warm his doomed soul. Jack needed a container to hold the coal and so used a hollowed out turnip which was a very common vegetable in Ireland. It was said that people lost out on dark nights in the wilderness, or people of an unsavoury disposition might sometimes glimpse Jack's spirit doomed to wander the earth with naught but his coal fed vegetable lantern this would bring bad luck and was seen as an ill omen. It became practice to hollow out a turnip and carve it at certain times of the year, place a candle inside and place it outside your door this would scare off evil spirits such as Jack and keep the inhabitants safe. Over time the practice spread to the USA with the Irish immigrants who found the turnip much more scarce there, but the much softer pumpkin which grew in abundance and was so much easier to carve was substituted givingnusbthe tradition we have today and the name Jack of the lantern became corrupted to simply Jack o lantern.
This came out during a period where a number of family "fantasy quest" films came out that were either really dark or had life-scarring scenes in them. This, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Neverending Story, Legend, etc.
There's a wonderful Oz historian and collector named Walter Krueger who owns the screen used Mombi costume from this movie. He also has that painting of Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion. I highly recommend looking up videos of his collection on youtube. It's so cool!
I loved this movie as a kid. I had a sleep over for my birthday in 2nd grade and made everyone watch it. One girl got so scared when the wheelers came out. She screamed and cried and called her mom to come pick her up. 😆All the other girls liked it though.
The documentary on here about this film is amazing. It almost didn’t get finished. I believe Spielberg and others came to the rescue to allow the director to finish it. This film stays true to the books, with the exception of the ruby slippers. Mombi is a combination of two characters. The film was ahead of its time.
As much as this movie eventually sort of sculpted my aesthetic tendencies as an adult, that scene where Dorothy is running down the hall of screaming heads being chased by headless Mombi gave me nightmares literally for years during my childhood.
Saw this movie in a theater as a child. I loved the darkness of the movie. Such a treat. It’s actually an amalgam of like three or four of the different OZ sequel books but it works for me. I think the woman was being taken away at the end because due to the fire they probably found out about the “damaged” patients in the basement. Just my theory.
I'm pretty sure there was a detail in earlier scripts or production notes that they forged documents to make people think that the "damaged" patients left, so, when they were trapped in the fire, the head nurse was definitely facing prison for actively participating.
I am glad that you got to watch it and enjoy it. One of my favorites from childhood. Fairuza was one of my earliest crushes. This is definitely dark. Now you gotta do The Neverending Story, Labyrinth and The Last Unicorn, my other 3 favorites from then. Even if you wait a long while to watch those , if it happens, it will make my days. Btw, Fairuza was in The Waterboy.
The character depictions are PERFECT!!! Cast child actress the right age, Scarecrow, Tin Man & Lion look Exactly like the illustrations! This movie blends The Land of Oz & Ozma of Oz together.
Literally the first book I ever read was Ozma of Oz. Love see Disney depictions of Ozma, the Gnome King, the Gump, the Wheelers, etc. The original Baum books are all in the public domain. They and their many original illustrations can be found online. The movie did an incredible job of bringing them to life.
The electroshock in the movie was never intended a misguided way to help Dorothy. It was a maleficence way to wipe out her memory of Oz. Just like Mombi said at one point to Ozma in the mirror "nobody knows where you are. Soon nobody will even know WHO you are." Plus just when Dorothy was about to go into the ornament room, the Nome King offered to send Dorothy back but would make her forget all about Oz. Not sure what is worse or more terrifying to young viewers - a damaged brain (if they can even understand that) or being killed as the Wicked Witch of the West was trying to do to Dorothy all throughout the first story (the MGM version). In the original novels, too, Dorothy and her companions faced hideous deaths through the entire novel all along her journey, and most times the creatures trying to kill them wound up dead instead.
To answer some of your questions, yes Tik Tok was played by a real performer who contorted his body upside down inside the metal suit. He was played by gymnast Michael Sundin. The performer for the Tin Woodman was Deep Roy! Jack Pumpkinhead was almost entirely a full scale puppet performed by Stewart Larange and Brian Henson, who also provided the voice. The reason that Nurse Wilson was locked up at the end in Kansas is explained by the blonde girl’s line earlier in the film “there are patients who have been damaged and locked in the cellar.” The nurse was an accomplice in kidnapping/false imprisonment.
Jack was an Irish folk story about a guy who was such a tricky bastard that he was accepted by neither Heaven nor Hell when he died. He was left to wander the Earth with an ember inside a turnip (pumpkins are American in origin, remember.)
Loved this movie! I had a coloring book and some sticker books from the film as a kid. - I was always fascinated with Mombi - she's a combo of 2 characters from the books: Mombi, the witch who imprisoned Ozma (in the books this was by turning her into a boy, not by trapping her in a mirror) and Princess Langwidere, a noble of a nearby nation called Ev who formed an alliance with the Nome King. Langwidere was so lazy, all she wanted to do was chill out, play music, and collect heads. - In the books, all nomes are allergic to eggs (in Oz books, 'nomes' spelled without the 'g' to differentiate them from older folklore). Pet theory time - I always wondered if its because of the organic vs non-organic divide - as you see, Nome King prefers to eat limestone and silver, so perhaps eggs are dangerous because they represent "life". - I loved/was freaked out by the Wheelers! I love that Dorothy first meets the Orderlies while being pushed on the horribly squeaky gurneys, so of course the two are combined in Oz! - The throne room scene at the end has lots of cameos from book characters, like the Patchwork Girl and Tommy Kwikstep (he's wearing a bue suit and has a centaur-like bottom with like 8 human legs)
I think the Land of Oz can be considered part of The Dreaming, meaning Jack has a relative named Mervyn who got a job as a maintenance worker for Morpheus. A pumpkin’s gotta make a living, ya know.
Glad you’re reacting to this. Not many people do. After this, you should react to The Wiz. It’s basically an all African American version of the wizard of oz with Michael Jackson as the scarecrow.
I think the wheelers were a spoof on bicycle riders, which at the time, were brand-new, only around a couple of decades. (The safety bike version with equal wheels, not the older one with the massive giant wheeler.) A bunch of people in a bike tournament might look like wheelers. It is said that Tiktok was the first depiction of a "robot" (i.e., mechanical man) in any work of fiction.
@@reeferman42078 According to Wiki: "The first use of the word Robot was in Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) written in 1920 and first performed in Czechoslovakia in 1921, in New York City in 1922 and an English edition published in 1923."
Dorothy’s whole concept of the Wheelers came from the squeaky wheels on the bed she was strapped into when they were rolling her towards the electroshock therapy theater.
I believe because the slippers were silver in the books MGM decided to make them red because of how new colour in films was. Disney had to pay to use the ruby slippers in this to license them. Also the human allegory counterpart in Kansas and oz I think also came from the 1939 film so that’s why it’s considered a sequel but it really is it’s own thing. I saw this on TV when I was 5 or 6. It was cut into two parts and was edited down to accommodate commercials and to make it appropriate for an afternoon time slot when I saw it at age 10 on VHS from the video store unedited I was much more scared of it.
An underrated gem I enjoyed since childhood for 38 years! Great effects, nice performances and stunning visuals. And I fell for Fiona Victory and Sophie Ward when I was a kid
What I got from this movie is don’t ever let go of your imagination no matter what people say no matter how many times they let you down your imagination is important, and it’s something worth fighting for.
It is a person in a suit they were taught to do that. It’s so awesome. In fact, he used to be the scarecrow I think so he had to be taught from being stiff and rigid to being wobbly life jack. It’s so awesome!
I worked in mental health and Electroconvulsive Therapy, or ECT, is still used today. Back then it was horribly abused. For some people, in very rare cases, where people are tormented by hallucinations or delusions or anxiety, ECT in very moderate doses can help. Thankfully, it's very rarely used anymore, only in very small doses and only when every other option has been exhausted. Back then, they were just using it on every person, including kids, who didn't conform. ECT isn't a treatment for "oppositional defiant disorder" (that's a real thing, by the way). It's a last resort treatment for deeply troubled people who aren't responding to other forms of treatment.
"Dorothy Gaaaaiiiiiil!" To this day that and that whole scene with the heads gives me chills to this day, fun fact ticktock had a guy bent over inside. Btw love this guy's reviews. Legit man 🤟
As a lover of the books, this is my favorite Oz film. It perfectly captures what Oz looked and felt like in the books and illustrations, and it has incredible sets, costuming, and the score is gorgeous. I think because I was already reading the Oz books before watching the film as a kid, it never scared me. Still is one of my favorite fantasy films.
btw electro shock therapy is still practiced today, when i was in the psych hospital in 2020 they would treat my friend with bipolar depression every day with ECT
The Gnome King also Played Merlin in the early 80s Excalibur. Highly recommended. You would recognize a bunch of famous actors/actresses from Excalibur. Id list some but maybe you would prefer the fun of having them pop on the screen as a surprise.
"what is she being put away for?" well she did try to help cover up the fact that some of the doctor's patients were damaged. He obviously valued his reputation over quality care.
You were wondering why the nurse was imprisoned at the end... It's because when the doctor's office building burned down after the lightning strike, they discovered all the "damaged patients" that had been secretly hidden, trapped in the basement, who died in the fire. The authorities would have arrested the doctor as well for his crimes, but he died in the fire trying to save his machines...
Always liked this version more as a kid in the 80s. Also had a crush on this Dorothy. My cousin is the biggest wizard of Wizard of Oz fan, her whole Christmas tree is full of Oz ornaments. So early 2000s I went to Rasputin & found this treasure hidden gem of a movie for her to finally watch. She fell asleep less than 30 minutes in and said it was terrible, never to watch the whole movie. I guess she just liked the original lighthearted musical rendition. I think both are good but I appreciate Return to Oz more.
I have met the man who was the puppeteer who controlled Tick Tock’s head. He told me that when Tick Tock walked there was another man who was enclosed inside the metal body completely doubled over and he controlled the walking.
a little late to the party, and i don't know if you'll see this because it's an old reaction, but thought i'd try anyway. if you want to see more of nicol williamson (dr. worley/nome king), i highly recommend "excalibur" (1981). the cast is a lineup of the who's who of u.k. & irish talent, including helen mirren.
The imprisonment of Ozma as Kip, prisoner of Mombi, & the Gump thing are from The Land of Oz. The ocean (it was a capsized ship in the book), Billina,, TikTok, the Wheelers & the (not Mombi) witch who steals heads & her collection of knickknacks are from Ozma of Oz, the 3rd book. The humanoid, gray skinned Bones rule one of the four lands BEYOND the Deadly Desert! Dorothy isn't actually in Oz in the third book until Ozma rescues her. Ozma is the long lost daughter of King Oz, whom the fake wizard was mistaken for. TikTok isn't supposed to have thick legs! They had to do that to put a Little Person inside the suit!
Most historians trace the story of the Jack-o'-lantern back to Irish folklore. In the story of Stingy Jack (which is too long to tell here), a man named Jack tricked the Devil several times.
Thrilled to see you react to this. This is one of my favorite movies and is so underrated even though it's so much more faithful to the original book series than the MGM movie. I'm a huge fan of the series...apparently they were like the Harry Potter of their day in terms of their popularity and creativity. L. Frank Baum had said he wanted to create American fairy tales since we always turned to Europe for those. It was also cute that he maintained that Oz was a real place and he was merely the historian for its events.
My favorite 1980s fantasy film - I actually prefer this to the 1939 TWoO. :) You are right about the torture known as electroshocking. It is sadly still being used however the ampage is worse now and does even further damage to the brain. The psych industries are one of the worst criminal organizations which was wrongfully legalized. Look up Psych Victims for how many people’s lives were destroyed by the industries of psychology, psychiatry, and so-called “mental therapy”. I unfortunately speak from experience when I was misdiagnosed as having a so-called “mental illness” (which in actuality do not exist - they are actually invented by the psych industries to stigmatize, censor, and control those who don’t think or behave in the way the liberalized mainstream status quo prefers. In my, and billions of people’s cases, I literally almost died from the abuses that went on in those torture prisons, and I was even sexually assaulted by one of the staff orderlies at night when I was a minor. It was after I was rescued that I began to heal but it took years to speak out about the experiences in those horrible places my parents had sent me to and unfortunately, I and my family never got compensation for what happened. So you are not wrong about saying that part of the film is dark and beyond messed up. In real life, it’s worse than you think. I wish it had been as easy as the film depicted to escape those places… I wouldn’t even send the most evil corrupt serial killer or enemy to them. Those archaic industries are long overdue and deserve to all be shut down. I can at least speak out with others who survived - and for those who didn’t survive. :( Yes people DO die in them and not for what you think. I was one of the “lucky ones” who didn’t get pregnant or die after being sexually assaulted, gaslighted, and abused almost to death. I thank God for the help that rescued me and my younger brother. (Yes my parents sent him there too and they abused him in there as well) He ended up having seizures as a result… :( This film brings back those painful horrible memories but I still am a fan of the film.
The head nurse was going to jail because the treatments had damaged other patients and were locked up in the cellar. Oxma said that as she untied Dorothy from the bed
In the books, Oz was a real place. MGM thought the audiences at the time would not accept it which is why they made it a dream. Also, the original Kansas scene was a mere few paragraphs before the tornado whisked Dorothy off to Oz. No farmhands, Miss Gulch, nor Professor Marvel. MGM purchased the rights to the first book. Disney bought the rights to the rest. So Disney had to walk a fine line between what was in the sequels but at the same time, gave a nod to the movie. I think without the musical numbers in the MGM movie, it might have come across as dark as this movie. The books were a lot more dark than either. MGM had turned the silver slippers in the book into the ruby ones to make use of the technicolor. Disney spent a lot of money to get the right to use the ruby ones because they had become so iconic since 1939. I think this movie did a masterful job of blending them, of having the reverse of the MGM movie in having the Oz people show up in Kansas. The Land of Oz did not have Dorothy. We are introduced to Jack Pumpkinhead, Ozma, and flying Gump. In Ozma of Oz, we come across the lunchpail trees, the wheelers, Tiktok, and the Princess who changed heads instead of dresses. There was the Nome king who turned Oz people into ornaments and was killed by Henrietta's egg, although he and the Nomes looked nothing like in this movie. Mombi was an old hag type witch whose magic powder brought Jack and the Gump to life. Her character was blended with the beautiful princess of the many heads. Dorothy gets to Oz in Ozma of Oz by being blown off a ship traveling with her Uncle Henry to Australia. She manages to climb into a floating chicken crate, also blown off the ship. When she awakes, she finds a talking chicken, who was NOT a pet from her farm The original story was written in 1900 and used lots of Art Nouveau styling, including the Z within the O. MGM made the Emerald City totally Art Deco as the earlier styling would have seemed just old fashion (not fashionably old as it does today). Again, Disney captured the style of the books much more faithfully. In the MGM movie, they had to fit real people inside the costumes to make the scarecrow, tin man, and lion. The lion looked just like a lion, the tin woodsman as in this movie. The scarecrow is indeed odd looking in the book and again, this movie captured his looks, too. Baum's imagination was unlimited to have characters like the scarecrow and Tiktok who were not technically alive. I love the crazy concoction of the Gump.
If you're interested in more Oz stuff, you should check out the Tin Man miniseries. It's a guilty pleasure of mine. It's kind of a reimagining of the original, set in the future of Oz. I really can't say much more without giving away the plot twist.
You want to talk about a cursed production- I felt really, really bad for the guy in the Tiktok costume. It was a hard puppet to work it since he was spread legged and bent over the entire time he was in the suit. If you want a good video essay about this movie, I suggest you check out this one: th-cam.com/video/dnXjqhzbY1w/w-d-xo.html
A good recommendation would be the 1982 tv movie ''The Electric Grandmother''. It's based off of Ray Bradbury's ''I Sing The Body Electric''. I was 10 when it came out and while it fascinated me it creeped me out all the same.
I always liked this film as a child. It scared me, but it was my vibe. I was always odd. I liked Edward Scissorhands and Beatlejuice and Dark Crystal… this was definitely a darker take on Oz but I prefer it.
Dude I hundred percent agree with everything you said because I was really hyper kid my mom was the nurse and the doctors were trying to convince her to give me drugs for the hyperactivity since I was a kid I’ve been working on a huge fantasy series and all I can think of is if my mom would’ve crumbled and allow that to happen I would’ve never written everything that I’ve written it’s really scary and I’m happy that I was born in a century I was born in
She was put in jail in real life because they would have found the damaged patients in the basement. Not to mention the wheelers are the way they are because of the wheeling beds in the hospital, including the squeaky noise.
It's definitely a movie. I found it quite scary as a child lol TikTok and part of Jack Pumpkinhead were done practically. There was a gymnast who would stand upside down inside the suit and move the legs for TikTok. There was an extremely thin actor who did the performance for Jack as well as the puppet and voice performance by Brian Henson. There was many budget issues throughout the movie and they couldn't afford the royalties from MGM so that's why the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow are only cameos in the movie.
Faruzia B. Is clearly a resemblance to John Travolta , could be his daughter ? It's a wild guess?. I thought this was a very good 🍿 movie 🎥😂😊 I'm an Oz fan 🪭 no place like 🏠 home 🏡.
What I really liked about this movie was 2 things, how the character designs were based on the original illustrations from the book, and how it shows that Oz truly was a dangerous place.
Likewise
The nurse at the end was locked up because as the doctor's assistant and being the highest ranking person left alive -- they were keeping damaged patients prisoner, somebody has to go down for that.
First of all: *Massive thank you* for doing a video on what I consider one of the most overlooked and underrated 80's movies out there.
I actually grew up with this movie before the original and got instantly hooked. The fact that it didn't have to be bright and bouncy all the time and yet still captured that innocent, childlike glee you'd expect from a fantasy world like this.
I love the characters.
Fairuza Balk is outstanding as *Dorothy.* She's always highly expressive and emotional without ever getting annoying or boring. People need to mention her more often when talking about good child actors.
*Bellina The Chicken* is probably my least favorite member of the team. Not that I dislike her, but her voice can get a little annoying over time and other than a couple snarky remarks and sometimes giving Dorothy a clue, she doesn't contribute much to the story overall until the end.
Speaking of which, the Nome King's weakness is both a funny reveal but also smart when you compare it to the old Oz movie: Both main villains get defeated by super regular and simple things (The Wicked Witch Of The West by plain water and the Nome King by a single egg), so it's kind of a neat call back.
*The Wheelers* are terrifying, especially when you're a kid. They were one of my first introductions to geniune danger in a film. And even though I later started to question what they could even do to Dorothy (they don't have any hands), their freaky attitude, cackles and noises they made still made them highly intimidating. Good god, that squeaking of the wheels gave me goosebumps even while watching this video.
*Tik Tok* was my childhood hero for putting the wheelers in their place. I love his oldschool gentleman soldier personality and that he keeps coming up with good ideas. His weakness of having to be wound up regularily is both a good weakness and allows him to use it to his advantage (like when he faked to be run down just to get Dorothy in the room with him). Plus, I find his design to be the movie's most iconic one. I remember seeing a pringles can and the monopoly guy for the first time and asking myself both times: 'Is that... Tik Tok?'
*Princess Mombi* is a great take on vanity made literal. I bet there are some people out there so obsessed with beauty, if they could change heads whenever they wanted, they would. I love her spiky dress and her playing the mandolin like a boss. I like that they didn't play into the trope of 'Princess = Nice/Queen = Evil' like in so many Disney movies prior. Here, Mombi is the Princess and the kind Ozma the Queen. And of course, there's that scene that is most often mentioned when talking about this movie, where her head wakes up, followed by all the others, they all start to scream and her headless body jerks up from the bed. In the words of Animat: 'That is one horrifying alarm system'.
*Jack Pumpkinhead* is by far my favorite example of the lovable, naive character type.
The fact that he's so frail and shaky looking really makes you wanna look out and protect him. So much so that even lines like 'May I call you mom?', which would normally sound kind of creepy, actually work perfectly in his case, because they nailed his childlike cluelessness. I can definitely see Jack Skellington from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' being inspired by him (The scrawny, tall body, the big round head, the big round eye holes and big smile, the soft-spoken voice, the fact that he's called *Jack* the *Pumpkin* king and the fact the first time we see him he wears a *pumpkin* on his *head).*
The older I get, the more I realize that *the Gump* is my spirit animal. He's basically the Eeyore of the gang, sprinkling bits of dry humor and sarcasm inbetween, trying to adapt to his new life as a 'thing'. And even though he seemed reluctant to help and even apathetic at times, he ultimately cared enough to help by playing the Nome King's game to get the Scarecrow, despite not even having any personal stakes. I realize he's definitely a grump with a good heart underneath, sort like Archimedes from 'The Sword In The Stone' or Kamaji from 'Spirited Away'. The scene where he flies for the first time is my favorite of the movie and I'll be damned, if I could choose to own one single prop from this movie, it would be the Gump head.
*The Nome King* is delightful as a villain. You can tell Nicol Williamson is having a ball with the role. The Nome King enjoys being evil, superior to others and messing with them. Like when Mombi asked why he didn't just petrify Dorothy and her friends immediately, to which he just replies that it's more fun that way. The way he (and his servants) can morph through the rocks is very creative and visually stunning, almost like he's less a rock creature himself and more of an entity that can only possess and exist within the rock from the environment. It makes sense then he would want to become human and be free of the mountain. On that note, whether in claymation or in costume and prosthetics, the Nome King always looks great. Especially that final form where he looks like a demon. Imo, that scene actually rivals Mombi's screaming head scene in terms of scariness. Except whereas the head scene was powerful yet brief, the angry Nome King scene went on for a good bit and let that looming feeling of dread really sink in (motherfucker ATE a sofa).
And finally, *Queen Ozma.* While she didn't appear all that much in the movie, the way she was shown as a silhouette in the mirrors is very memorable.
This next bit is mostly speculation but I think her real life counterpart died during the flood. Queen Ozma is what Dorothy manifests her as in her mind. She's the one who saved Dorothy (namely her mind and imagination, and with that Oz itself) from the electro therapy, therefore becoming its rightful ruler.
Not only was Ozma sealed in a mirror, she also sees Dorothy off one last time through a mirror. I like to think her connection to mirrors seems to imply that she is basically an idealized mirror image of Dorothy herself, a role model so to speak, not only for rescuing her, but to show her that having a vivid imagination isn't something to be ashamed of or something that needs to be 'cured', to be proud and grateful you still have the things that make you... you.
(The fact alone that you can speculate and theorize so much about this movie is a testament to it being a truly worthwhile film, even decades later.)
Speaking of cure, I think the reason why the nurse was locked up at the end is because as Ozma's real life counterpart told Dorothy when escaping the facility, there were test subjects locked away in the basement, likely victims of the Doctor's 'therapy'. So when the building was hit by lightning and the people were evacuated, it's likely the authorities found out about their little experiment and arrested her as an accomplice. Had Dr. Worly not died trying to save his machines, he likely would be sitting in that police wagon with her.
This may sound sacrilegious, but presentation-wise I find this movie far superior to the old Wizard Of Oz movie.
One thing that bothered me about that film was that the characters (Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion) always were just people in makeup, making the entire thing look more like a stageplay (which granted I think was the idea behind it, but it's just not my thing).
So l really enjoyed that in Return To Oz, the Tin Man actually looked like a machine man, the Cowardly Lion actually looked like a lion (with a cute little bow in his mane, I think that's so perfect for his character, this fierce looking animal with that one little accessory to make him look cute and funny), and for as derpy and creepy he may look at times, the Scarecrow actually looks like a scarecrow now.
People on TH-cam always go on and on about how scary it is, but honestly, it's so much more than that. It's clever, subtle, funny, charming, insanely creative and only scary when it needs to be.
In my opinion, this movie will forever be one of the four cornerstones of 80's Fantasy:
- *The Neverending Story*
- *The Dark Crystal*
- *Labyrinth*
- and *Return To Oz*
And If you've read this far, thank you for taking your time to read this (not just Omn1Media, but anyone reading), god knows it's taken a while to type it all down.
Here's a couple more 80's fantasy
Time Bandits
Adventures of Baron Munchausen
I think it was spelled Billina cause her name was Bill but Dorothy changed it to Billina because it was more feminine. That and I think that’s how it was spelled in Ozma of Oz
I’m 42 and grew up in the eighties and early nineties and what a decade for sci-fi and fantasy.
You forgot willow.
This was my one of my favourite movies growing up. I found the Wheelers absolutely terrifying as a child (still do now in my 40s actually). loved watching this with you
According to the dictionary: The British often called men whose names they didn't know by a common name like Jack. Thus, an unknown man carrying a lantern was sometimes called "Jack with the lantern" or "Jack of the lantern."
Ooo interesting
Jack was also used as a slang term to mean any guy. It's was kind of like the name for the common man or "everyman", as in Jack of all Trades.
Also John, or Johnny, as in son of John.
As in
Johnny Jack,
Johnny Ploughman,
Johnny Cake,
(Johnny Appleseed?).
It is also my understanding that Jack may possibly refer to Death, or the Angel of Death/Grim Reaper in words like Jackdaw, Jacknife, but I'm not sure, but that may be why Jack is the name of the skeleton/protagonist in movie The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Or it may also be associated with a fool or clown, as in Jack In the box.
Jack in the Green is another folkloric character used in pagan ritual, and my also refer to death.
And a Jack may also refer to a half-pint of liquid as in beer, and a Jill/Gill is half of that. So there may also be some association there with Jack in the Green/hopps/beermaking, and the Jack and Jill that went up the hill.
Jack of the lantern is also a folk tale from Ireland about a man called stingy Jack who tricks the devil and double crosses him several times. He managed to convince the devil to agree that if Jack died he wouldn't claim his soul or take him to hell during a ten year period.
When he died god refused to allow such a reprobate into heaven, and jack tried to appeal to the devil to allow him into hell so he wouldn't be doomed to wonder as a lost soul. The devil however honoured his bargin with Jack and refused to take him.
Jack was left a lost soul doomed to wonder the earth forever never to be allowed to enter either heaven or hell. The devil however took some pity on jack and gifted him an ever burning piece of coal which would light his way in the darkness and warm his doomed soul. Jack needed a container to hold the coal and so used a hollowed out turnip which was a very common vegetable in Ireland.
It was said that people lost out on dark nights in the wilderness, or people of an unsavoury disposition might sometimes glimpse Jack's spirit doomed to wander the earth with naught but his coal fed vegetable lantern this would bring bad luck and was seen as an ill omen.
It became practice to hollow out a turnip and carve it at certain times of the year, place a candle inside and place it outside your door this would scare off evil spirits such as Jack and keep the inhabitants safe.
Over time the practice spread to the USA with the Irish immigrants who found the turnip much more scarce there, but the much softer pumpkin which grew in abundance and was so much easier to carve was substituted givingnusbthe tradition we have today and the name Jack of the lantern became corrupted to simply Jack o lantern.
@@simonorourke4465 That explains why he's associated with death and the devil then, Thank you!
This came out during a period where a number of family "fantasy quest" films came out that were either really dark or had life-scarring scenes in them. This, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Neverending Story, Legend, etc.
...Something Wicked this Way Comes.
...The Watcher in the Woods.
There's a wonderful Oz historian and collector named Walter Krueger who owns the screen used Mombi costume from this movie. He also has that painting of Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion. I highly recommend looking up videos of his collection on youtube. It's so cool!
The rock animation you remarked on was done by Wil Vinton, who created "claymation." He also created the California Raisins
Took me a while but the voice of the chicken is the voice of the junk lady in Labyrinth.
I loved this movie as a kid. I had a sleep over for my birthday in 2nd grade and made everyone watch it. One girl got so scared when the wheelers came out. She screamed and cried and called her mom to come pick her up. 😆All the other girls liked it though.
The documentary on here about this film is amazing. It almost didn’t get finished. I believe Spielberg and others came to the rescue to allow the director to finish it. This film stays true to the books, with the exception of the ruby slippers. Mombi is a combination of two characters. The film was ahead of its time.
As much as this movie eventually sort of sculpted my aesthetic tendencies as an adult, that scene where Dorothy is running down the hall of screaming heads being chased by headless Mombi gave me nightmares literally for years during my childhood.
I like that this film has more ambiguity of whether the events are real or not over the Judy Garland version.
The actor who played the gnome king/doctor; plays Merlin in the 80s movie, Excalibur. And he was incredible in that as well. An amazing actor
And Queen Bavmorda is Mombi
Saw this movie in a theater as a child. I loved the darkness of the movie. Such a treat. It’s actually an amalgam of like three or four of the different OZ sequel books but it works for me. I think the woman was being taken away at the end because due to the fire they probably found out about the “damaged” patients in the basement. Just my theory.
I'm pretty sure there was a detail in earlier scripts or production notes that they forged documents to make people think that the "damaged" patients left, so, when they were trapped in the fire, the head nurse was definitely facing prison for actively participating.
I am glad that you got to watch it and enjoy it. One of my favorites from childhood. Fairuza was one of my earliest crushes. This is definitely dark. Now you gotta do The Neverending Story, Labyrinth and The Last Unicorn, my other 3 favorites from then. Even if you wait a long while to watch those , if it happens, it will make my days. Btw, Fairuza was in The Waterboy.
The character depictions are PERFECT!!! Cast child actress the right age, Scarecrow, Tin Man & Lion look Exactly like the illustrations!
This movie blends The Land of Oz & Ozma of Oz together.
Literally the first book I ever read was Ozma of Oz. Love see Disney depictions of Ozma, the Gnome King, the Gump, the Wheelers, etc.
The original Baum books are all in the public domain. They and their many original illustrations can be found online. The movie did an incredible job of bringing them to life.
The electroshock in the movie was never intended a misguided way to help Dorothy. It was a maleficence way to wipe out her memory of Oz. Just like Mombi said at one point to Ozma in the mirror "nobody knows where you are. Soon nobody will even know WHO you are." Plus just when Dorothy was about to go into the ornament room, the Nome King offered to send Dorothy back but would make her forget all about Oz. Not sure what is worse or more terrifying to young viewers - a damaged brain (if they can even understand that) or being killed as the Wicked Witch of the West was trying to do to Dorothy all throughout the first story (the MGM version). In the original novels, too, Dorothy and her companions faced hideous deaths through the entire novel all along her journey, and most times the creatures trying to kill them wound up dead instead.
To answer some of your questions, yes Tik Tok was played by a real performer who contorted his body upside down inside the metal suit. He was played by gymnast Michael Sundin. The performer for the Tin Woodman was Deep Roy! Jack Pumpkinhead was almost entirely a full scale puppet performed by Stewart Larange and Brian Henson, who also provided the voice.
The reason that Nurse Wilson was locked up at the end in Kansas is explained by the blonde girl’s line earlier in the film “there are patients who have been damaged and locked in the cellar.” The nurse was an accomplice in kidnapping/false imprisonment.
Jack was an Irish folk story about a guy who was such a tricky bastard that he was accepted by neither Heaven nor Hell when he died. He was left to wander the Earth with an ember inside a turnip (pumpkins are American in origin, remember.)
POISON
10:45
14:36
Wheelers-13:27
28:33 💀Deadly desert💀
32:20 nightmare fuel!
Loved this movie! I had a coloring book and some sticker books from the film as a kid.
- I was always fascinated with Mombi - she's a combo of 2 characters from the books: Mombi, the witch who imprisoned Ozma (in the books this was by turning her into a boy, not by trapping her in a mirror) and Princess Langwidere, a noble of a nearby nation called Ev who formed an alliance with the Nome King. Langwidere was so lazy, all she wanted to do was chill out, play music, and collect heads.
- In the books, all nomes are allergic to eggs (in Oz books, 'nomes' spelled without the 'g' to differentiate them from older folklore). Pet theory time - I always wondered if its because of the organic vs non-organic divide - as you see, Nome King prefers to eat limestone and silver, so perhaps eggs are dangerous because they represent "life".
- I loved/was freaked out by the Wheelers! I love that Dorothy first meets the Orderlies while being pushed on the horribly squeaky gurneys, so of course the two are combined in Oz!
- The throne room scene at the end has lots of cameos from book characters, like the Patchwork Girl and Tommy Kwikstep (he's wearing a bue suit and has a centaur-like bottom with like 8 human legs)
I think the Land of Oz can be considered part of The Dreaming, meaning Jack has a relative named Mervyn who got a job as a maintenance worker for Morpheus. A pumpkin’s gotta make a living, ya know.
Figure Mervyn popped up in Frank Baum's dreams a few times to inspire Jack?
I watched this movie as a kid and loved it.
Jack is my favorite he’s so wholesome. Every scene with him is just either wholesome or funny, except for you know when he almost gets eaten.
Glad you’re reacting to this. Not many people do. After this, you should react to The Wiz. It’s basically an all African American version of the wizard of oz with Michael Jackson as the scarecrow.
That's a musical isn't it? That might be a difficult thing to manage with how TH-cam is with music!
Yeah, that’s true. 😞
Even if there had to be a lot of muted audio, I would still love to see the reaction. _The Wiz_ is a really fun one.
@14:58. He reminds me of Mimiron.🤔Also, the Doc is Merlin from 'Excaliber'.
i love the fact he is so unaware of everything that he is about to witness
I think the wheelers were a spoof on bicycle riders, which at the time, were brand-new, only around a couple of decades. (The safety bike version with equal wheels, not the older one with the massive giant wheeler.) A bunch of people in a bike tournament might look like wheelers.
It is said that Tiktok was the first depiction of a "robot" (i.e., mechanical man) in any work of fiction.
in the original novels, yes. but robots and such have been on the big screen and little screen since maybe the 1940s certainly the 50s
@@reeferman42078 According to Wiki: "The first use of the word Robot was in Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) written in 1920 and first performed in Czechoslovakia in 1921, in New York City in 1922 and an English edition published in 1923."
Dorothy’s whole concept of the Wheelers came from the squeaky wheels on the bed she was strapped into when they were rolling her towards the electroshock therapy theater.
I believe because the slippers were silver in the books MGM decided to make them red because of how new colour in films was. Disney had to pay to use the ruby slippers in this to license them. Also the human allegory counterpart in Kansas and oz I think also came from the 1939 film so that’s why it’s considered a sequel but it really is it’s own thing. I saw this on TV when I was 5 or 6. It was cut into two parts and was edited down to accommodate commercials and to make it appropriate for an afternoon time slot when I saw it at age 10 on VHS from the video store unedited I was much more scared of it.
An underrated gem I enjoyed since childhood for 38 years! Great effects, nice performances and stunning visuals.
And I fell for Fiona Victory and Sophie Ward when I was a kid
Wow!! Didn’t remember this till you started watching it!! Loved this when I was younger! Love it. Thank you
What I got from this movie is don’t ever let go of your imagination no matter what people say no matter how many times they let you down your imagination is important, and it’s something worth fighting for.
It is a person in a suit they were taught to do that. It’s so awesome. In fact, he used to be the scarecrow I think so he had to be taught from being stiff and rigid to being wobbly life jack. It’s so awesome!
I worked in mental health and Electroconvulsive Therapy, or ECT, is still used today. Back then it was horribly abused. For some people, in very rare cases, where people are tormented by hallucinations or delusions or anxiety, ECT in very moderate doses can help. Thankfully, it's very rarely used anymore, only in very small doses and only when every other option has been exhausted. Back then, they were just using it on every person, including kids, who didn't conform. ECT isn't a treatment for "oppositional defiant disorder" (that's a real thing, by the way). It's a last resort treatment for deeply troubled people who aren't responding to other forms of treatment.
"Dorothy Gaaaaiiiiiil!" To this day that and that whole scene with the heads gives me chills to this day, fun fact ticktock had a guy bent over inside. Btw love this guy's reviews. Legit man 🤟
I love that it’s this dark and messed up! Scared the shit out of me as a kid. Amazing!!!!
OMG his hair grew back
I don't know if you're familiar with the 'Snoopy Dance' but I immediately started doing that dance when I saw his hair length!
@@ivyvandeshire lol
I loved this movie as a kid! Both OZ films really, im so glad youve reacted to this!
As a lover of the books, this is my favorite Oz film. It perfectly captures what Oz looked and felt like in the books and illustrations, and it has incredible sets, costuming, and the score is gorgeous. I think because I was already reading the Oz books before watching the film as a kid, it never scared me. Still is one of my favorite fantasy films.
The part where Mombis headless body gives chase scared me so bad as a kid I couldn't sleep for days.
i love watching people see the horror of the wheelers for the first time
Better than The Wizard of Oz. Dark, intense, and made during a time when kids weren't shielded from the harshness of real life.
btw electro shock therapy is still practiced today, when i was in the psych hospital in 2020 they would treat my friend with bipolar depression every day with ECT
Dark and a lot of sorrow, this movie can be just as beautiful as its music.
The Gnome King also Played Merlin in the early 80s Excalibur. Highly recommended. You would recognize a bunch of famous actors/actresses from Excalibur. Id list some but maybe you would prefer the fun of having them pop on the screen as a surprise.
"what is she being put away for?" well she did try to help cover up the fact that some of the doctor's patients were damaged. He obviously valued his reputation over quality care.
“I’m not in a good mood at the moment”
( Dog )
You 😄
Ahh yes dogs the best medicine.
You were wondering why the nurse was imprisoned at the end... It's because when the doctor's office building burned down after the lightning strike, they discovered all the "damaged patients" that had been secretly hidden, trapped in the basement, who died in the fire. The authorities would have arrested the doctor as well for his crimes, but he died in the fire trying to save his machines...
14:00 that scene always gives me chills
33:11 That's not an effect. That's her own doing. She's great in Willow as well.
Dorothy: it's so bright...
You: yeah, that'll be the electricity zapping your brain 🤣🤣🤣
THE best comment I've heard in a long while
Always liked this version more as a kid in the 80s. Also had a crush on this Dorothy. My cousin is the biggest wizard of Wizard of Oz fan, her whole Christmas tree is full of Oz ornaments. So early 2000s I went to Rasputin & found this treasure hidden gem of a movie for her to finally watch. She fell asleep less than 30 minutes in and said it was terrible, never to watch the whole movie. I guess she just liked the original lighthearted musical rendition. I think both are good but I appreciate Return to Oz more.
The instrument at the 28 minute mark is either a lute or a mandolin
There is a man in tictok bent over walking on his hands. I love how organic this movie looks today tiktok would be CG and lifeless
I have met the man who was the puppeteer who controlled Tick Tock’s head. He told me that when Tick Tock walked there was another man who was enclosed inside the metal body completely doubled over and he controlled the walking.
Feeling very lucky that I didn't know about old fashioned electroshock therapy when I saw this as a kid.
You have to name your chickens. My favorite two where miniature named Brad and Janet. RHPS, best tiny chickens ever
One of my favourite movies 😍
a little late to the party, and i don't know if you'll see this because it's an old reaction, but thought i'd try anyway. if you want to see more of nicol williamson (dr. worley/nome king), i highly recommend "excalibur" (1981). the cast is a lineup of the who's who of u.k. & irish talent, including helen mirren.
The imprisonment of Ozma as Kip, prisoner of Mombi, & the Gump thing are from The Land of Oz. The ocean (it was a capsized ship in the book), Billina,, TikTok, the Wheelers & the (not Mombi) witch who steals heads & her collection of knickknacks are from Ozma of Oz, the 3rd book. The humanoid, gray skinned Bones rule one of the four lands BEYOND the Deadly Desert! Dorothy isn't actually in Oz in the third book until Ozma rescues her.
Ozma is the long lost daughter of King Oz, whom the fake wizard was mistaken for.
TikTok isn't supposed to have thick legs! They had to do that to put a Little Person inside the suit!
Most historians trace the story of the Jack-o'-lantern back to Irish folklore. In the story of Stingy Jack (which is too long to tell here), a man named Jack tricked the Devil several times.
Thrilled to see you react to this. This is one of my favorite movies and is so underrated even though it's so much more faithful to the original book series than the MGM movie. I'm a huge fan of the series...apparently they were like the Harry Potter of their day in terms of their popularity and creativity. L. Frank Baum had said he wanted to create American fairy tales since we always turned to Europe for those. It was also cute that he maintained that Oz was a real place and he was merely the historian for its events.
TH-cam isn't letting me edit comments. I meant Gnomes, not Bones!!!! Blame autocorrect!!!
My favorite 1980s fantasy film - I actually prefer this to the 1939 TWoO. :) You are right about the torture known as electroshocking. It is sadly still being used however the ampage is worse now and does even further damage to the brain. The psych industries are one of the worst criminal organizations which was wrongfully legalized. Look up Psych Victims for how many people’s lives were destroyed by the industries of psychology, psychiatry, and so-called “mental therapy”. I unfortunately speak from experience when I was misdiagnosed as having a so-called “mental illness” (which in actuality do not exist - they are actually invented by the psych industries to stigmatize, censor, and control those who don’t think or behave in the way the liberalized mainstream status quo prefers. In my, and billions of people’s cases, I literally almost died from the abuses that went on in those torture prisons, and I was even sexually assaulted by one of the staff orderlies at night when I was a minor. It was after I was rescued that I began to heal but it took years to speak out about the experiences in those horrible places my parents had sent me to and unfortunately, I and my family never got compensation for what happened. So you are not wrong about saying that part of the film is dark and beyond messed up. In real life, it’s worse than you think. I wish it had been as easy as the film depicted to escape those places… I wouldn’t even send the most evil corrupt serial killer or enemy to them. Those archaic industries are long overdue and deserve to all be shut down. I can at least speak out with others who survived - and for those who didn’t survive. :( Yes people DO die in them and not for what you think. I was one of the “lucky ones” who didn’t get pregnant or die after being sexually assaulted, gaslighted, and abused almost to death. I thank God for the help that rescued me and my younger brother. (Yes my parents sent him there too and they abused him in there as well) He ended up having seizures as a result… :( This film brings back those painful horrible memories but I still am a fan of the film.
27:06 It's giving me more a haunted mansion ghost vibe particularly the voice
There was a puppeteer hunched over in Tik Tok’s lower half doing the movements.
The head nurse was going to jail because the treatments had damaged other patients and were locked up in the cellar. Oxma said that as she untied Dorothy from the bed
In the books, Oz was a real place. MGM thought the audiences at the time would not accept it which is why they made it a dream. Also, the original Kansas scene was a mere few paragraphs before the tornado whisked Dorothy off to Oz. No farmhands, Miss Gulch, nor Professor Marvel.
MGM purchased the rights to the first book. Disney bought the rights to the rest. So Disney had to walk a fine line between what was in the sequels but at the same time, gave a nod to the movie.
I think without the musical numbers in the MGM movie, it might have come across as dark as this movie. The books were a lot more dark than either.
MGM had turned the silver slippers in the book into the ruby ones to make use of the technicolor. Disney spent a lot of money to get the right to use the ruby ones because they had become so iconic since 1939.
I think this movie did a masterful job of blending them, of having the reverse of the MGM movie in having the Oz people show up in Kansas. The Land of Oz did not have Dorothy. We are introduced to Jack Pumpkinhead, Ozma, and flying Gump. In Ozma of Oz, we come across the lunchpail trees, the wheelers, Tiktok, and the Princess who changed heads instead of dresses. There was the Nome king who turned Oz people into ornaments and was killed by Henrietta's egg, although he and the Nomes looked nothing like in this movie. Mombi was an old hag type witch whose magic powder brought Jack and the Gump to life. Her character was blended with the beautiful princess of the many heads.
Dorothy gets to Oz in Ozma of Oz by being blown off a ship traveling with her Uncle Henry to Australia. She manages to climb into a floating chicken crate, also blown off the ship. When she awakes, she finds a talking chicken, who was NOT a pet from her farm
The original story was written in 1900 and used lots of Art Nouveau styling, including the Z within the O. MGM made the Emerald City totally Art Deco as the earlier styling would have seemed just old fashion (not fashionably old as it does today). Again, Disney captured the style of the books much more faithfully.
In the MGM movie, they had to fit real people inside the costumes to make the scarecrow, tin man, and lion. The lion looked just like a lion, the tin woodsman as in this movie. The scarecrow is indeed odd looking in the book and again, this movie captured his looks, too.
Baum's imagination was unlimited to have characters like the scarecrow and Tiktok who were not technically alive. I love the crazy concoction of the Gump.
Not sure if anyone mentioned this but aunt Em is the psycho
Mom in the original movie Carrie.
return of oz- is a combination of the ozma of oz and i think the book before it. mombi, wheelers, jack ozma etc is in the books.
Just watched this, thanks for reacting to one of my fav movies
The rock-things are nomes, not gnomes. Baum thus was free to give them any properties and vulnerabilities he wanted.
An answer to your question regarding the origin of jack o lanterns, there is a folk tale about a character called Stingy Jack.
If you're interested in more Oz stuff, you should check out the Tin Man miniseries. It's a guilty pleasure of mine. It's kind of a reimagining of the original, set in the future of Oz. I really can't say much more without giving away the plot twist.
I’m glad that I can finally say the phrase “I love TikTok” unironically
This was a huge movie of my childhood, hits a lot different at a younger age. Freaky ass shit!
You want to talk about a cursed production- I felt really, really bad for the guy in the Tiktok costume. It was a hard puppet to work it since he was spread legged and bent over the entire time he was in the suit.
If you want a good video essay about this movie, I suggest you check out this one: th-cam.com/video/dnXjqhzbY1w/w-d-xo.html
Did you know they had a lot of chickens on the site? I don’t remember the exact number, but it was definitely more than two.
A good recommendation would be the 1982 tv movie ''The Electric Grandmother''. It's based off of Ray Bradbury's ''I Sing The Body Electric''. I was 10 when it came out and while it fascinated me it creeped me out all the same.
tictoc was an actual person in the suit, they were a contortionist that curled up, theres BTS pics of it
This is part of the "Dark Disney" era right? Like; watcher in the woods, the black cauldron , the black hole, something wicked this way comes
I always liked this film as a child. It scared me, but it was my vibe. I was always odd. I liked Edward Scissorhands and Beatlejuice and Dark Crystal… this was definitely a darker take on Oz but I prefer it.
Dude I hundred percent agree with everything you said because I was really hyper kid my mom was the nurse and the doctors were trying to convince her to give me drugs for the hyperactivity since I was a kid I’ve been working on a huge fantasy series and all I can think of is if my mom would’ve crumbled and allow that to happen I would’ve never written everything that I’ve written it’s really scary and I’m happy that I was born in a century I was born in
I read all 14 from Mr L Frank Bulm and lthink theres 7 or 6 more oz stories his female cousin. I forgot her name wrote after he passed
I forget this movie till I saw you on here ❤
I kinda wish I could see Christopher Lloyd playing as the nome king.
Love this movie!!
She was put in jail in real life because they would have found the damaged patients in the basement. Not to mention the wheelers are the way they are because of the wheeling beds in the hospital, including the squeaky noise.
It's definitely a movie. I found it quite scary as a child lol
TikTok and part of Jack Pumpkinhead were done practically. There was a gymnast who would stand upside down inside the suit and move the legs for TikTok. There was an extremely thin actor who did the performance for Jack as well as the puppet and voice performance by Brian Henson.
There was many budget issues throughout the movie and they couldn't afford the royalties from MGM so that's why the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow are only cameos in the movie.
Shock therapy is still used in some cases.
I could be wrong, but I believe the animation was done by the same people who'd go on to become Laika.
Since you've already seen The Wizard of Oz, and now Return to Oz, you should react to The Wiz with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross
i'm glad you liked the film. the tik tok was very hard to use etc, there is someone in it, there are different making ofs it on here.
Oh by the way just so u know the wheelers were the other male nurses
This movie scared the poop out of me as a kid!
Faruzia B. Is clearly a resemblance to John Travolta , could be his daughter ? It's a wild guess?. I thought this was a very good 🍿 movie 🎥😂😊 I'm an Oz fan 🪭 no place like 🏠 home 🏡.
TicTok is my favorite character of this movie. ^_^