Trailer
Plot summary
Six months after her visit to Oz, Dorothy still dwells on the land and believes her friends there sent her a key. Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, fearing she is delusional, take her to a sanatorium, where Dr. Worley means to treat her with electricity. A girl she meets warns her that the doctor hurts his patients, and the two run out into a storm; Dorothy floats down a river on a chicken coop. She wakes in Oz next to Billina, her hen, who can now speak. The yellow brick road is damaged and the Emerald City is in ruins, its citizens, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion included, turned to stone. Wheelers grab the pair, and Tik-Tok, a mechanical man, rescues them.
Cast
- Stewart Harvey-Wilsonas Jack Pumpkinhead (on-set performer)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Return to Oz (1985)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- By the time mostly the Kansas scenes had been shot, Walter Murch was looking unwell and was fired without protestation; George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola backed him in discussions with the studio, Lucas guaranteeing he would step in as replacement if further problems emerged, and Murch was reinstated and finished the film.
- Around 40 real chickens were on hand for the role of Billina, their cages tagged with each bird's purpose, including perch, sit, carry and run; a mechanical chicken was used for some scenes and at times behaved so like a real chicken that crew in the screening room could not tell the difference.
SPOILER
The Nome King scenes in the throne room used clay animation, the character starting out made entirely of clay and progressing closer to human form until Nicol Williamson played him in live action; animator Doug Aberle said the crumbling near the end took him four attempts to animate accurately.- Fairuza Balk was one of 600 from Vancouver chosen to audition for the role of Dorothy and was the second youngest of the roughly 1,000 children auditioned across eight cities; Murch said he "wanted to find somebody who might be Judy Garland's cousin once removed".
- The Emerald City scenes towards the end of the film had to be fully reshot, because the character of Ozma had originally been dressed in a gold lace dress that was deemed unsuitable during post-production.
- The ruby slippers had been created by MGM specifically for the 1939 film, replacing the Silver Shoes of the original stories, and because they remained MGM's intellectual property a fee had to be paid.
- Emma Ridley, who was born in London, had her voice in the film dubbed by Walter Murch's daughter so that the character of Ozma would have an American-sounding voice.
