‘Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return’ Review

When I think of a sequel to The Wizard of Oz my first thought is the 1985 movie Return to Oz.  Scary and outlandish it looks at a darker side of the Dorothy Gale story where with headless women and the outlandish Wheelers.  Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return is another take on her return to the magic land, but where Return to Oz had a grown up approach actually based on an L. Frank Baum, Dorothy’s Return is very much one aimed at children and is much more fluffier and light.

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With an evil insurance appraiser threatening the tornado damaged farm it looks like Dorothy (Lea Michele) and her family will be forced to move away.  Dragged back to Oz she finds that The Jester (Martin Short), who is the brother of the original Wicked Witch is causing chaos having stolen his sisters broom and gaining its power.  With Glinda (Bernadette Peters), Scarecrow (Dan Aykroyd), Lion (James Belushi) and Tin Man (Kelsey Grammer) all under the Jester’s spell Dorothy must join her new friends Wiser (Oliver Platt), Marshal Mallow (Hugh Dancy) and China Princess (Megan Hilty) to help save Oz and free her friends from The Jester and his army of flying monkeys.

Some animated films aim to catch a larger share of the audience by adding jokes into the film that only adults will really understand, but Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return is not one of those.  This is a pretty basic telling of what happens when Dorothy returns to the world she loves and fights to save the day, mimicking of course the events that are affecting her in the real world.  It’s inoffensive, fairly interesting and has some nice ideas with some good songs added to the mix that don’t hurt the ears too much either.  It does no harm, doesn’t take many risks in the telling of the tale, all in all it’s a very safe kid’s movie.

As an adult watching this and knowing it is not aimed at me, I can’t be too harsh on the plot, it is obvious that the writers know have looked at the original The Wizard of Oz and taken ideas from it, extending the world and aiming to make it a little special.  I’ll admit that I do like The Jester, and as a fan of Martin Short it was easy feel at home with his performance.  He’s done this kind of character before and he’s a nice pick for the manic style you would expect from such a clown.  Lea Michele as Dorothy plays the role well but she is no Judy Garland, and to be fair she isn’t trying to be (or expected to be either).  She sings the songs well (as does the rest of the cast), and it’s interesting that Hugh Dancy voices one of the characters.  Thinking of him in his Hannibal role and then in this, he’s gone from potential killer to marshmallow (Marshal Mallow…geddit?), hearing Patrick Stewart as Tugg the old tree willing to be shaped into a boat is a fairly unique part of the film and is a surprising reminder of Gump from Return to Oz.

Where Return to Oz was actually based on the works of L. Frank Baum, mainly Ozma of Oz Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return is really a new sequel to The Wizard of Oz written for this animated movie.  While not at the level of The Wizard of Oz or Return to Oz, Dorothy’s Return is an entertaining imagining of a new chapter of the story and with a new enemy that is actually interesting.  With a cast of surprisingly good actors I wouldn’t really say they were doing their best work, but they aren’t doing a bad job either.  This is a kid’s film that looks to be a brightly coloured, entertaining and easy to understand movie, and in all respects it does its job well.

Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return is available on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK now.

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