4:35 BRO! This is the best compositing effect I think you've ever done. You go full out with the costume, you get the camera angle right, you remove the actor completely, and you even get that bit of shadow overlaying onto the shock device. This is damn impressive.
Truth! I noticed the shadow as well and thought damn, Mark is getting really good at this! Plus the words and reactions from the characters were perfect and he didn't need to freeze frame or really repeat a lot of the scenes in the movie to make it work. Like it was solid enough that I could believe it was the actual scene with how the interactions went.
The fact that the background is visible through his legs is weird. It's like he has a long coat on the side but waist long behind. The bakground should be invisible.
I saw this in the theater when I was 5. Twice. The price I paid was high. Therapy for most of my adult life, fears of sand and roller-skates, and getting into the goth scene. I still try to talk to every chicken I see.
@@Leo-sd3jt Only Ms. Clucksley, but she can go on and on forever. Always droning on about who laid an egg today. Everyone laid an egg today Ms. Clucksley, you live in a hen house. If they weren't laying eggs daily they probably wouldn't still be in the hen house. Every time it's the same, she doesn't have a thing to say, but can talk all day. I'm starting to think all the other chickens can also speak, but she just won't let them get a word in edgewise.
@@natashawerdmuller6804 That or actual childhood trauma, but it's a lot more fun to blame this movie than my actual lived childhood. Maybe that's what's wrong with me as an adult, I just don't have on enough guyliner to suppress my emotions and push them down, waaaay down.
Weird Movies With Mark is one of the most comforting channels on CZcams. Keep up the great work, buddy. I always look forward to these uploads. Champagne and Bullets is still my favorite. I've probably watched it a hundred times.
Same here. This channel was the perfect remedy to the Covid anxiety I had a couple of years ago. I love this programme. I enjoy the Breen episodes so much, but I'm loving how well Mark is inserting himself into the film footage now. It's really stellar. Every time I see Mark has a new video, I settle down with a cup of tea and enjoy his antics. Comforting is a great way to describe it. Love from Ireland ❤ 🇮🇪 ❤
I love that episode, too! And I’ve watched it at least a dozen times. I have a playlist of my favorite episodes of his. He’s really got a great comedic sense, and I wonder what other projects he will do in the future, though I hope he continues with this channel for years to come.
I'm right with you, Mark! My opinion of Return to Oz has changed because I see the events through Aunt Em's eyes. Recovery from the tornado will not happen with Uncle Henry injured and Dorothy obsessing about the Land of Oz - Aunt Em can't run the farm alone and Dorothy has to get over Oz. The darker and surreal qualities of Return to Oz is a good move and fits nicely with the shift in audiences since the 1939 musical. What a joy to have your take on this movie. Thank you, Mark.
Yeah, Aunt Em wanting to have the imagination of a little girl electroshocked out of her was a tad on the extreme side, but I do know what you mean. They still had psychotherapy without the electroshock part back then, and the guy she sent Dorothy to was a quack and a literal monster (reflected in the fact that the same actor played the Gnome King). As far as the dark tone of the film, that's what I loved about the 80's and kids movies. They didn't talk down to kids, they treated kids like they were smart enough to get it, and while some kids may have been scarred by some of the films, most kids grew up to be fairly well adjusted. I think that's a big problem with modern kids media. They're too afraid to broach dark subjects, most kids media is pablum. I've loved this movie since it came out. Did it disturb me a bit at first, yes, but I got it, and I think most kids did as well. People underestimate the intelligence of children, nowadays to their detriment. Am I saying all the dark media for kids back then was fine and dandy? No, but the majority of it was fine. Kids media was generally creative back then, and it really got my imagination going, of which I am grateful for as an adult.
I went to see this movie as a child on a daycare field trip. A lot of the practical effects were done by the Jim Henson Creature Shop, so I guess the new characters all count as Muppets or something. You can't go wrong with Muppets.
This film seriously creeped me out as a kid....especially the Wheelies 😱. Also, crazy that little girl is the actress from The Craft...never connected that as a teen
And Auntie Em is of course Piper Laurie, aka Carrie's mother from the 1976 film Carrie! As soon as she spoke she sounded like Margaret White! I'm surprised Aunt Em didn't say to Dorothy about going to OZ, "the witch will put a curse on ya! The curse is the curse of blood! They're gonna laugh at ya! You're not goin'!"
There are theories connecting this and the original film to MK ULTRA Programm. I'm not saying that's necessarily true but an interesting idea all the same.
I remember watching this movie many times on a vhs copy as a kid. I actually prefered it to the original from 1939. I'm so glad you reviewed it, Mark. This is my favorite CZcams channel, and I always look forward to new videos that you make. You are very talented.
The movie from 1939 isn't the original; it's the third big-screen version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." And it's really too different from RtO for the two of them to be compared; one is a musical comedy and the other is a straight-up action fantasy. Both of them have the spirit of Baum, though!
I'm glad you did this one. I was working in entertainment at Disney at the time, and we added a Return to Oz unit to the Main Street Electrical Parade that year as part of the promotion of the film. But the film didn't do well at the theaters, as you pointed out, so the unit was removed. I actually really liked the film, though.
I got so excited when I saw that you were doing Return to Oz! It's one of my favorite family movies ever. Solid acting, gorgeous cinematography, and a tremendous score by David Shire. I was just talking movies with a friend and we got to how neutered family films have become. There's never any real sense of danger anymore and the plot armor is a mile thick. We kids growing up on family movies from the '80s knew nothing was necessarily off the table. We were disturbed at times, but art should make you feel something, regardless of age.
Great review! This was one of my favorite movies as a kid. It came out when I was about eight or nine. I watched it probably over 100 times, much more than the original. To me, it wasn't dark or really scary, but I was a weird kid.
Thats because you were a 80's kid ... you werent a wrapped in cotton wool and could take it. It was common back then for children to watch 18 movies as they were often shown on tv late at night as the regulation wasnt the same back then. I watched Robcop when i was about 7-8 years old, imagine that today.
@@Johnlindsey289 How did you see it in a theatre if you were 5 years old?. I watched it as my parents rented it from the video store and then asked for it as a present when it came out on video VHS.
I let my niece watch return to oz when she was 6. She was horrified when the headless princess chased Dorothy. She cried hysterically and was inconsolable for like 20 minutes. She's 20 now. She still won't watch it.
My grandmother had all the OZ books which my sister duly read one after the other. I asked her what she thought of this movie and she said 'much more faithful to the text than the Garland movie, but...the books are way too complex and grim for most people today.'
I always thought it was super cool that Jack Pumpkinhead was voiced/operated by Brian Henson, and the Tin Man was played by Deep Roy. That dude was in so many movies that I never realized he was in. He was also the Snail Rider in Neverending Story. :)
His career spans decades! He began as a stand-up comedian in 1970 and started doing T.V. and movies a few years later. He's one of only two actors who have been in _Doctor Who, Star Trek,_ and _Star Wars_ (the other is Simon Pegg).
Having a bad time with money and lack of self worth etc etc, This channel legitimately makes me feel better which is leagues above all others. Thank you Mark, genuinely, thank you for being so entertaining.
Judy Garland didn't look or sound like a 12yo backwoods Kansas farm girl to you???? Bet you were right there with the farm hands staring at her in her gingham dress....
@@STho205 They weren't. And if you look at other things Judy did around that time, you'd see just how convincing she was as a prepubescent. In the first place, those were the kinds of roles she typically got, especially being that she was 4'11". But she was really a lot more mature (physically and temperamentally) in real life than she was as Dorothy.
Literally, the very first book I ever read was the third one in the Oz series, "Ozma of Oz." This movie basically blends that with the second in the series, "Land of Oz," and I think does so incredibly creatively. The MGM movie made a bunch of changes, including making Oz a dream. All the books and RTO make it a real place, where Dorothy eventually in the series, takes Aunt Em and Uncle Henry there to live. (Oz gets toned down over time to a much nicer place, as Dorothy ruthlessly wipes out the villains.) From "Ozma," we get the chicken coop floating in the ocean, Billina, the lunchpail tree, the Wheelers, Tick-Tok, the princess with the removable heads (blended with Mombi the witch in the "Land"), the Nome King, his nomes, the ornaments, and the King's aversion to eggs. From "Land," we get Jack Pumpkinhead, Mombi with her powder of life, Ozma, and the flying Gump. The books (and "Return") are very dark. In the original novel, at one point, the group on the road are attacked by a hundred crows. The scarecrow seizes each one in turn and wrings its neck to kill it. Just one of many bloody narrow escapes. Despite how dark the novels, though, the author, L. Frank Baum, was besieged by children writing to him, begging him for more. As mentioned, he claimed Dorothy's relocation to Oz meant no more stories. Eventually, he gave in as one girl suggested Dorothy could communicate with the outside world by the newly invented wireless telegraph. You don't have to read the books to appreciate this movie. The books were richly illustrated and you can find them on line because they are long in the public domain. Even simpler, just type the name of the character into Google to see how Baum envisioned his creations. Return also reimagined the characters from the MGM movie to closely match what he imagined them. (In the MGM movie, the characters had to fit a human each inside the costume. Not so in "Return.") Us cult-members consider "Return to Oz" a sort of love-letter to the books. It takes nothing away from the MGM movie, either.
Glad to see you have respect for the technical skills behind the movie. Can see why this dark piece didn't play well in theaters, but still cool to see a content creator who can be objective.
Wow. That edit was amazing and hilarious. Talking Dorothy into getting electrocuted. Lol. I watched the video where you showed how long it takes to make those. It was well worth it. I was cracking up.
Now I remember, I really loved this film growing up and it stuck in my head, I kept thinking it was Willow with the village turned to stone, but this is the film. It is so great to have films that help develop imagination. It's like David Bowie's Labyrinth.
I look forward to your videos way too much. Loved it. There were actually nine live action black and white short films between 1908 and 1925, three of which are lost. Many were produced by Baum himself and they are as creepy as all hell.
Wow, I saw this movie in the theater with my grandmother when I was 10 years old. When I was a kid, my parents would send me to stay with my grandparents for a couple of weeks every summer. I remember being so bored that I begged my grandma to take me to a movie, and this weird ass flick is what she thought would be appropriate. She slept through the whole thing while I sat there freaked out by this insane fever dream. Seriously…I really think I blocked this movie out of my mind for the past 39 years.
Loved this film as a kid, i was 7 when it came out, i loved the characters, set design and story. The witch and wheelers were scary as a kid, but they made us tough in the 80's and not wrapped in cotton wool so we got over it and realised it wasnt real so no need to be scared of it. Kids movies back the often had dark undertones: Dark Crystal, Labyrinyth, Never Ending Story, Goonies, The Lost Boys and many of those are very highly respected films today.
11:22 I wondered if the Claymation (clay stop-motion animation) was done by Will Vinton and sure enough, it was. He and his studio are best-known for the Claymation for those California Raisins commercials and TV specials in the 1980's as well as the feature-length animated movie, 'The Adventures of Mark Twain' which is truly fantastic.
This thing freaked me out as a kid but yeah they did do a lot of things for "kids" that were dark. Lord of the Rings freaked me out with the rotoscope so I avoided that as much as possible. Still makes me uncomfortable. Now I really like it. It's a very unique world in this movie than the original. I still think it's funny how dainty the gnome kings feet are when he shows off those slippers lol.
I was born in 81, I loved how dark and crazy our " kids " movies were. The Black Cauldron, Legend, Secret of Nihm, Fire and Ice, even The Last Unicorn was pretty bleak.
I enjoyed watching Return to Oz as a kid. A lot of the darker elements flew over my head, much like the Neverending Story, but it was fun. Great review of the movie!
Very cool you chose to cover this movie! I so enjoyed this movie. I've tried finding it to watch as an adult. I'm glad you've brought attention to it. Thank you.
Funny story. As a kid in Nigeria in 2001, i first watched the original Wizard of Oz on TCM and fell in love with the movie. A year later, as i came from school and was channel skipping for stuff to watch, i saw Return to Oz playing and just thought it looked cool and familiar and decided to watch it😂 It was weird and scary! But so memorable. I had no idea it was a sequel.
The story isn't dark; on the contrary, it's all about restoring light. By "the original," do you mean the book, the 1902 stage show, or the 1910 movie?
The movie itself. I felt Return to OZ was a much darker macabre sequel compared to the original. The movie takes place in a time where the doctor was going to use electro shock therapy on poor Dorothy and when she returns to OZ it's in ruins. Wheelers, deadly desert and the evil queen that removes people heads and wears them. It's very creepy and I love it!
@@MyDeathhead ....... Which "movie itself?" I already mentioned the original movie, which was made in 1910. RtO isn't a sequel to it or any other movie version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," and that includes the MGM adaptation. Just because movie villains get up to dark things, that doesn't make the movies dark, it just means that the villains are fulfilling their functions. 🙂The Wheelers are a bunch of cowardly clowns, and both they and the Deadly Desert go back to the Oz books. As for Mombi, the heads were restored to their rightful owners, as we saw in the Restoration scene.
Mark I got to watch this movie when I was 6 years old (I am 40 now). Let me tell you how much I loved it and how much it scared the shit out of me. When homegirl queen runs around with no head, but her heads are screaming at Dorothy.. I literally ran to hide behind the couch. Remember, I was 6... lol. I absolutely love this move to this day but man is it dark. Great review Mark.
I love this movie! It IS more faithful to the books. The first movie never really felt like there was ever any sort of danger for Dorothy. In Return to Oz, there’s a real sense of dread and uncertainty about her safety. Seeing the Gnome Kings mountain off in the distance still gives me goosebumps (kind of had the same feeling when I first saw Twin Peaks in Breath of the Wild😂)
In the first movie, Momba was a danger to Dorothy; I mean, Glinda turned Toto into an enormous bulldog just in case there should be any dangers! And it's Nome King.
@@justsayin4632 I watched the first movie, which was made in 1910, and yes, that was all in it. The second was made in 1925. The MGM movie was the third screen adaptation of the story. And the Wheelers weren't scary, not in those outfits, and certainly not when they were revealed to be cowards and clowns. Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West, on the other hand, has frightened generations of people.
I love Return to Oz. I was born in 1981 so I watched this as a kid growing up. Holds a special place in my heart… like many bad 80’s media come to think of it 🤔
I read a few of the Oz books growing up. This movie really is more true to the book series. Those wheelers were even more terrifying in the book. I def had nightmares about them.
I love this movie man!! So happy you’ve made a video on it. It’s got such a unique feel to it very sinister especially watching as a kid expecting the wizard of oz 2. Love it man
If anyone wants to go through the Oz books but doesn’t have the time, Marvel Comics made some miniseries of the first few that are both faithful to the original and really well illustrated. Definitely worth a read.
I watched this movie for the first time last year, and it's now one of my new favorites! 🤩 Also, for those watching this review who have yet to see the movie for themselves, I think it's worth clarifying that it's mentioned throughout the movie that Belinda the chicken's presence in Oz is a threat to the Nome King, though the exact reason is kept a mystery until the end when the Nome King accidentally swallows Belinda's egg and he explains that eggs are poisonous to nomes as he's dying; so it's not as though that plot point comes completely out of nowhere.
Return To Oz may quite literally be the one and only original sequel to a classic series of books that actually deserves to be put right alongside the source material as equal.
This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's so damn weird and creepy and the sets are way better than they deserve to be. The Wheelers are awesome baddies and Princess Mombi's collection of heads is so cool. Fairuza Balk is the perfect Dorothy for this story too. I could go on and on. Thanks for covering this movie. Hopefully more people will watch it! I miss weird fantasy movies aimed at a younger audience and we need more.
He speaks for us all about the trauma of the childhood fear of Quicksand. As far as I knew, it was everywhere that did not have pavement, tarmac, or just something solid. Quicksand could sneak right up to your door. And you wouldn't know it.
My favorite thing about this movie as an adult is how every element Dorothy sees in Oz is shown in some form in the real world. The electroshock machine is what becomes Tick Tock, and so it's never clear if Oz is real, or if Dorothy is crazy.
I might have this burned on dvd somewhere. Me and my sister would watch this a lot on Disney back in the 90s and would always be creeped out by the roller goons and the claymated segment near the end. My younger sister would be creeped out by the queen
This movie goes hard. Truer words seldom spoken. The early unauthorized silent movies were bizarre too. MGM seemed to take those costume silents and created a fantasy musical out of it. It was not super Oz-faithful, but it was evocative of Oz. In reality, The Wizard of Oz was more a metaphor of 1920s and 1930s Hollywood than anything else. Dorothy the starlet, the comics and dancers under contract, the wicked jealous actresses, the accomplished actress with a good heart, the lying conman of a producer
I grew up with this. I had it on VHS tape, and wore that shit out. The Wheel-people and the headless woman freaked me out, but the electro-schock therapy at the beginning scarred me for life.
My mom decided to take me to this movie when I was a little kid because I had recently seen the original Wizard of Oz and this movie blew my mind. It looked like an AI image fever dream before that even existed. The amount of practical effects is amazing as is the art design.
Loved this movie as a kid. As a child, I was super into horror movies. Most of the kids I knew growing up in the late 80s/early 90s were into slasher flicks, so the dark tone of this movie was really cool to me.
@@MaskedMan66 4:32 This scene, edited, earned this video a like from me. It’s a scene referring to electro shock. The electro shock scene earned this a huge thumbs up :)
Mark, thank you for the laughs, man. Youre one of the channels i go to when im feeling down because i KNOW youll make me laugh, and we all know how much it helps to laugh when dealing with shyte. Just.. thanks, man. I wish i could convey, or express correctly, how much it means to me to be able to laugh even when im at my worst. I hope youre well, brother man.
The Gnome King animation reminds me of the claymation “The Adventures of Mark Twain”, in which Satan has a supporting role. That’s some creepy-ass shit right there.
I first watched it with my two sons in the late eighties. It was a freakish delight! The wheelers really scared us. We all slept together in the living room that night. It was almost like scary stories 'round a campfire. Great fun!
I saw this on TV as a young teen at like 2am. No one knew wtf I was talking about. I couldn't find anything about it. I convinced myself it was some sort of elaborate fever dream for like 10yrs before someone else mentioned it.
I like the silly costumes and effects from this era, especially fantasy genre. Everything looks so fantastical and great, seriously, it makes me want to write a fantasy epic.
I had the same fear for some time about Quicksand. I was convinced it was all over the place and it was just a matter of time. Thought it was curious that I am not the only one.
I too was very concerned that "avoiding quicksand would be an ongoing concern throughout my life". I had forgotten until that line. Ive never seen quicksand in my life
"Once we shoot you full of electricity, that pesky imagination of yours will be gone", Mark really knows how to summarize a situation. Also, I think that this line would have been perfectly suited for your skit that you did seconds later. I think that your skits are getting better and better. I think you should take an old movie and remake it with all the characters played by you. Some of these old movies could use a remake and I would watch that over things coming out of Hollywood these days.
![The Matrix Resurrections is a FAILURE. [SPOILERS]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RA2ZLjZBUwQ/mqdefault.jpg)
4:35 BRO! This is the best compositing effect I think you've ever done. You go full out with the costume, you get the camera angle right, you remove the actor completely, and you even get that bit of shadow overlaying onto the shock device. This is damn impressive.
Truth! I noticed the shadow as well and thought damn, Mark is getting really good at this! Plus the words and reactions from the characters were perfect and he didn't need to freeze frame or really repeat a lot of the scenes in the movie to make it work.
Like it was solid enough that I could believe it was the actual scene with how the interactions went.
Oh Shut up! What a stupid comment 🙄
Totally agree!
His timing with the editing is spot on, the real reactions to his dialogue is brilliant
The fact that the background is visible through his legs is weird. It's like he has a long coat on the side but waist long behind. The bakground should be invisible.
I saw this in the theater when I was 5. Twice. The price I paid was high. Therapy for most of my adult life, fears of sand and roller-skates, and getting into the goth scene. I still try to talk to every chicken I see.
Do they sometimes talk back?
Getting into the Goth scene was a side effect? Haha, I suffered the same then 😂
@@Leo-sd3jt Only Ms. Clucksley, but she can go on and on forever. Always droning on about who laid an egg today. Everyone laid an egg today Ms. Clucksley, you live in a hen house. If they weren't laying eggs daily they probably wouldn't still be in the hen house. Every time it's the same, she doesn't have a thing to say, but can talk all day. I'm starting to think all the other chickens can also speak, but she just won't let them get a word in edgewise.
@@natashawerdmuller6804 That or actual childhood trauma, but it's a lot more fun to blame this movie than my actual lived childhood. Maybe that's what's wrong with me as an adult, I just don't have on enough guyliner to suppress my emotions and push them down, waaaay down.
@@jeremysmith4620 This sounds like it came from a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel 😂
Weird Movies With Mark is one of the most comforting channels on CZcams. Keep up the great work, buddy. I always look forward to these uploads. Champagne and Bullets is still my favorite. I've probably watched it a hundred times.
I have thought the exact same thing before. This channel always has enjoyable, easy to watch (and rewatch) videos.
Same here. This channel was the perfect remedy to the Covid anxiety I had a couple of years ago. I love this programme. I enjoy the Breen episodes so much, but I'm loving how well Mark is inserting himself into the film footage now. It's really stellar. Every time I see Mark has a new video, I settle down with a cup of tea and enjoy his antics. Comforting is a great way to describe it.
Love from Ireland
❤ 🇮🇪 ❤
C and B is fantastic. One of the best rewievs. But my personal favorit is I-land! I've probably watched it a dozen times.
Mark at the satanic mass made me pause and rewind the video because I was laughing so hard I couldn't see or hear what was going on.!
I love that episode, too! And I’ve watched it at least a dozen times. I have a playlist of my favorite episodes of his. He’s really got a great comedic sense, and I wonder what other projects he will do in the future, though I hope he continues with this channel for years to come.
Always have a laugh with Mark. But the trivia about the ruby slippers is a true gem.
I see what you did there
Oh shut up! What a stupid thing to say
This is a great secret horror movie, I loved it growing up haha
I LOVE YOUR VIDS MAN!!!
Hehe don't care what you think 😊
@@TheShroomGuru you don't even know what that means.
nolancho doesn’t think he just eats poop and poops that poop out into his mom
It's still one of my favorite movies, and I'm in my mid 40s.
I'm right with you, Mark! My opinion of Return to Oz has changed because I see the events through Aunt Em's eyes. Recovery from the tornado will not happen with Uncle Henry injured and Dorothy obsessing about the Land of Oz - Aunt Em can't run the farm alone and Dorothy has to get over Oz. The darker and surreal qualities of Return to Oz is a good move and fits nicely with the shift in audiences since the 1939 musical. What a joy to have your take on this movie. Thank you, Mark.
Yeah, Aunt Em wanting to have the imagination of a little girl electroshocked out of her was a tad on the extreme side, but I do know what you mean. They still had psychotherapy without the electroshock part back then, and the guy she sent Dorothy to was a quack and a literal monster (reflected in the fact that the same actor played the Gnome King).
As far as the dark tone of the film, that's what I loved about the 80's and kids movies. They didn't talk down to kids, they treated kids like they were smart enough to get it, and while some kids may have been scarred by some of the films, most kids grew up to be fairly well adjusted. I think that's a big problem with modern kids media. They're too afraid to broach dark subjects, most kids media is pablum. I've loved this movie since it came out. Did it disturb me a bit at first, yes, but I got it, and I think most kids did as well. People underestimate the intelligence of children, nowadays to their detriment. Am I saying all the dark media for kids back then was fine and dandy? No, but the majority of it was fine. Kids media was generally creative back then, and it really got my imagination going, of which I am grateful for as an adult.
@@Kawamura2 Nome.
That insert was so smooth and left me cackling 👏🏻🤣👏🏻
Took me a moment to register.
@poeterritory it's part of why Mark's inserts are so great 🤣 to see who he replaces with himself 🙌🏻
@@katsrebro4684it was barely funny, at best
I went to see this movie as a child on a daycare field trip. A lot of the practical effects were done by the Jim Henson Creature Shop, so I guess the new characters all count as Muppets or something. You can't go wrong with Muppets.
No one cares 😊
your mom cares nolancho she cares about these CZcams comments and eating poop your mom eats poop
Why do they keep showing kids traumatizing movies in preschool??? I saw Wizard of Oz at the same age!
No, they count as animatronic representations of characters who were far from being new; they were all created before 1910.
@@toomanymarys7355 You underestimate children.
This film seriously creeped me out as a kid....especially the Wheelies 😱. Also, crazy that little girl is the actress from The Craft...never connected that as a teen
And vicky valentine from waterboy lol
And Auntie Em is of course Piper Laurie, aka Carrie's mother from the 1976 film Carrie! As soon as she spoke she sounded like Margaret White! I'm surprised Aunt Em didn't say to Dorothy about going to OZ, "the witch will put a curse on ya! The curse is the curse of blood! They're gonna laugh at ya! You're not goin'!"
Wheelers, and they were funny buffoons. Anyone who had read "Ozma of Oz" would have known about them.
@@mistermatix8241 Aunt Em. That "Auntie" thing was just in the MGM movie-- which, by the way, this is not a sequel to. 🙂
Saw this at a real young age and loved it. It haunted me for years. Started to think it was just a dream and now I know it’s real. Thank you Mark.
There are theories connecting this and the original film to MK ULTRA Programm. I'm not saying that's necessarily true but an interesting idea all the same.
i love how you insert yourself in movies. it never gets old. never stop!
This was probably the best one, yet, too.
No, please stop. The novelty wore thin ages ago.
@@thursoberwick1948 Nonsense! Mark's just getting started! This is what sets him apart from the gazillion reviewers out there
Stupid comment
@@MattHawes He did it once or twice and it was funny. Then people started encouraging him to do this all the time and it's no longer funny.
2 seconds in and I’m already giggling with anticipation for In-the-Movie-Mark™️.
It was so good, too 🫠
Mark touches us all in our most private of areas.................
Our hearts ❤.
It wore thin ages ago. I wish he'd stop doing it
@@thursoberwick1948 BLASPHEMY!!!!!
@@grandmufftwerkin9037 🤣🤣🤣
I remember watching this movie many times on a vhs copy as a kid. I actually prefered it to the original from 1939. I'm so glad you reviewed it, Mark. This is my favorite CZcams channel, and I always look forward to new videos that you make. You are very talented.
The movie from 1939 isn't the original; it's the third big-screen version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." And it's really too different from RtO for the two of them to be compared; one is a musical comedy and the other is a straight-up action fantasy. Both of them have the spirit of Baum, though!
I'm glad you did this one. I was working in entertainment at Disney at the time, and we added a Return to Oz unit to the Main Street Electrical Parade that year as part of the promotion of the film. But the film didn't do well at the theaters, as you pointed out, so the unit was removed. I actually really liked the film, though.
That was petty of them! I'd love to have seen that parade.
I was REALLY hoping Mark was going to end his doctor scene with "But yeah, this going to hurt. A lot."
In my world he did.
"Well i mean its not gonna hurt me but you might feel a pinch"
I got so excited when I saw that you were doing Return to Oz! It's one of my favorite family movies ever. Solid acting, gorgeous cinematography, and a tremendous score by David Shire.
I was just talking movies with a friend and we got to how neutered family films have become. There's never any real sense of danger anymore and the plot armor is a mile thick. We kids growing up on family movies from the '80s knew nothing was necessarily off the table. We were disturbed at times, but art should make you feel something, regardless of age.
Now, a lot of parents wouldn't show kids this or Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Neverending Story or even Watership Down.
@@toddboughn5168 I am sure that the American standards on what’s considered family friendly are too tame for some people.
They showed us this movie IN SCHOOL about a year after it came out. I was 13 but it was still way more upsetting than any horror movie I was in to.
*smh*
Great review! This was one of my favorite movies as a kid. It came out when I was about eight or nine. I watched it probably over 100 times, much more than the original. To me, it wasn't dark or really scary, but I was a weird kid.
Yeah, it wasn’t dark or scary to me either. It was just interesting.
Hehe no one asked 😊
Thats because you were a 80's kid ... you werent a wrapped in cotton wool and could take it. It was common back then for children to watch 18 movies as they were often shown on tv late at night as the regulation wasnt the same back then. I watched Robcop when i was about 7-8 years old, imagine that today.
I’m an 80’s and early nineties kid too of 42 and I saw Robocop in theaters at 5 years old
@@Johnlindsey289 How did you see it in a theatre if you were 5 years old?. I watched it as my parents rented it from the video store and then asked for it as a present when it came out on video VHS.
I let my niece watch return to oz when she was 6. She was horrified when the headless princess chased Dorothy. She cried hysterically and was inconsolable for like 20 minutes. She's 20 now. She still won't watch it.
*smh*
My grandmother had all the OZ books which my sister duly read one after the other. I asked her what she thought of this movie and she said 'much more faithful to the text than the Garland movie, but...the books are way too complex and grim for most people today.'
Give credit to The Wiz, they got the color of the shoes right. Like Diana Ross is rocking silver shoes as Dorothy in The Wiz.
@@Waaagh40KRed As stated, there is a reason why they went with red and why the wiz couldn't do red...
The books are neither complex nor grim.
I always thought it was super cool that Jack Pumpkinhead was voiced/operated by Brian Henson, and the Tin Man was played by Deep Roy. That dude was in so many movies that I never realized he was in. He was also the Snail Rider in Neverending Story. :)
Deep Roy also played Yoda in some scenes of "The Empire Strikes Back" and the Oompa Loompas in the "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" remake (2005).
@@bayonetta8418 He also played a character in one of the Chris Pine Star Trek movies, so he's got a pretty amazing sci fi resume going. :D
He rolled around on a skateboard in an X-Files episode.
Jack was Hoggle
His career spans decades! He began as a stand-up comedian in 1970 and started doing T.V. and movies a few years later. He's one of only two actors who have been in _Doctor Who, Star Trek,_ and _Star Wars_ (the other is Simon Pegg).
Having a bad time with money and lack of self worth etc etc, This channel legitimately makes me feel better which is leagues above all others. Thank you Mark, genuinely, thank you for being so entertaining.
This movie used to scare me, and I adore it now. A perfect opener to the year, Mark!
Sonofabitch, 1939-1985 is 46 year apart, I'm 46. Thanks for making me feel old. Thank for reviewing this and all the videos you do.
Judy Garland never convinced me she was Dorothy. This version, they seem to have got it just right.
Judy Garland didn't look or sound like a 12yo backwoods Kansas farm girl to you???? Bet you were right there with the farm hands staring at her in her gingham dress....
@@STho205 👀
Riiiiiiiiiiight. Pull the other one.
@@STho205 They weren't. And if you look at other things Judy did around that time, you'd see just how convincing she was as a prepubescent. In the first place, those were the kinds of roles she typically got, especially being that she was 4'11". But she was really a lot more mature (physically and temperamentally) in real life than she was as Dorothy.
... it's a bit sad when a dude goes all ga ga over Judy Garland...so much so to be obtuse to obvious jokes and take them as serious commentary.
That doctor looked a lot like Ian Anderson. I expected him to pull out a flute and sing Thick as a Brick to Dorothy.
I LOVED this movie as a kid. Re-watched it as an adult and it still holds up. Great video!
It’s a timeless film
Literally, the very first book I ever read was the third one in the Oz series, "Ozma of Oz." This movie basically blends that with the second in the series, "Land of Oz," and I think does so incredibly creatively. The MGM movie made a bunch of changes, including making Oz a dream. All the books and RTO make it a real place, where Dorothy eventually in the series, takes Aunt Em and Uncle Henry there to live. (Oz gets toned down over time to a much nicer place, as Dorothy ruthlessly wipes out the villains.)
From "Ozma," we get the chicken coop floating in the ocean, Billina, the lunchpail tree, the Wheelers, Tick-Tok, the princess with the removable heads (blended with Mombi the witch in the "Land"), the Nome King, his nomes, the ornaments, and the King's aversion to eggs. From "Land," we get Jack Pumpkinhead, Mombi with her powder of life, Ozma, and the flying Gump. The books (and "Return") are very dark. In the original novel, at one point, the group on the road are attacked by a hundred crows. The scarecrow seizes each one in turn and wrings its neck to kill it. Just one of many bloody narrow escapes.
Despite how dark the novels, though, the author, L. Frank Baum, was besieged by children writing to him, begging him for more. As mentioned, he claimed Dorothy's relocation to Oz meant no more stories. Eventually, he gave in as one girl suggested Dorothy could communicate with the outside world by the newly invented wireless telegraph.
You don't have to read the books to appreciate this movie. The books were richly illustrated and you can find them on line because they are long in the public domain. Even simpler, just type the name of the character into Google to see how Baum envisioned his creations. Return also reimagined the characters from the MGM movie to closely match what he imagined them. (In the MGM movie, the characters had to fit a human each inside the costume. Not so in "Return.")
Us cult-members consider "Return to Oz" a sort of love-letter to the books. It takes nothing away from the MGM movie, either.
Dorothy never "ruthlessly wiped out" anyone. The books are not dark. You need to re-read them.
Return to Oz was one of my childhood favorites.
This movie was exquisite nightmare fuel in my childhood. I still have fond memories of it though
Glad to see you have respect for the technical skills behind the movie. Can see why this dark piece didn't play well in theaters, but still cool to see a content creator who can be objective.
I watched this movie all the time as a child. I loved that dark theme.
Wow. That edit was amazing and hilarious. Talking Dorothy into getting electrocuted. Lol. I watched the video where you showed how long it takes to make those. It was well worth it. I was cracking up.
Now I remember, I really loved this film growing up and it stuck in my head, I kept thinking it was Willow with the village turned to stone, but this is the film. It is so great to have films that help develop imagination. It's like David Bowie's Labyrinth.
This one is great, I never liked the original.
You should totally review more movies you enjoy -- it comes through in the quality of the review!
OMG...the Skit after "will it hurt?" is just chefs kiss insert humor. I bow to you Mark!
*smh*
I look forward to your videos way too much. Loved it. There were actually nine live action black and white short films between 1908 and 1925, three of which are lost. Many were produced by Baum himself and they are as creepy as all hell.
I remember watching this on the Disney Channel in the late 80s and it scaring the Coco Puffs out of me
1/13/24
Wow, I saw this movie in the theater with my grandmother when I was 10 years old. When I was a kid, my parents would send me to stay with my grandparents for a couple of weeks every summer. I remember being so bored that I begged my grandma to take me to a movie, and this weird ass flick is what she thought would be appropriate. She slept through the whole thing while I sat there freaked out by this insane fever dream. Seriously…I really think I blocked this movie out of my mind for the past 39 years.
Loved this film as a kid, i was 7 when it came out, i loved the characters, set design and story. The witch and wheelers were scary as a kid, but they made us tough in the 80's and not wrapped in cotton wool so we got over it and realised it wasnt real so no need to be scared of it. Kids movies back the often had dark undertones: Dark Crystal, Labyrinyth, Never Ending Story, Goonies, The Lost Boys and many of those are very highly respected films today.
11:22 I wondered if the Claymation (clay stop-motion animation) was done by Will Vinton and sure enough, it was. He and his studio are best-known for the Claymation for those California Raisins commercials and TV specials in the 1980's as well as the feature-length animated movie, 'The Adventures of Mark Twain' which is truly fantastic.
Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie as a kid. I saw this when I was about 8 and it scared the hell out of me. Wheelers still freak me out.
This thing freaked me out as a kid but yeah they did do a lot of things for "kids" that were dark. Lord of the Rings freaked me out with the rotoscope so I avoided that as much as possible. Still makes me uncomfortable. Now I really like it. It's a very unique world in this movie than the original. I still think it's funny how dainty the gnome kings feet are when he shows off those slippers lol.
Large Marge is still outrageously scary, 35 years later.
I was born in 81, I loved how dark and crazy our " kids " movies were. The Black Cauldron, Legend, Secret of Nihm, Fire and Ice, even The Last Unicorn was pretty bleak.
Fire and ice was an adult animated movie
I absolutely adore this movie to this day. Mark sounding like Charlie Day when he cut himself in as the doctor was the cherry on top of this review.
I enjoyed watching Return to Oz as a kid. A lot of the darker elements flew over my head, much like the Neverending Story, but it was fun.
Great review of the movie!
Oh quiet! Stupid thing to say
What "darker elements?"
Very cool you chose to cover this movie! I so enjoyed this movie. I've tried finding it to watch as an adult. I'm glad you've brought attention to it. Thank you.
I loved/was terrified of this movie when I was young! I’m so glad to see it covered!!!
My wife yelled at me to stop saying change….i had to tell her it was the video. True love 10/10. Great to have you back Mark!!
This freaked me out as a kid but I really liked it. It's always stuck with me through the years.
Happy New Year, Mark!! It's so nice you're back. Yours is one of the most enjoyable channels on CZcams. Looking forward to more issues.
Funny story. As a kid in Nigeria in 2001, i first watched the original Wizard of Oz on TCM and fell in love with the movie. A year later, as i came from school and was channel skipping for stuff to watch, i saw Return to Oz playing and just thought it looked cool and familiar and decided to watch it😂 It was weird and scary! But so memorable. I had no idea it was a sequel.
I was born in 84. I grew up with this movie and with the Disney book of the movie. Wheelers are nightmare fuel
This has always been my adaptation of Oz. I love how dark the story is compared to the original. It's definitely a repeat watch for me.
The story isn't dark; on the contrary, it's all about restoring light. By "the original," do you mean the book, the 1902 stage show, or the 1910 movie?
The movie itself. I felt Return to OZ was a much darker macabre sequel compared to the original. The movie takes place in a time where the doctor was going to use electro shock therapy on poor Dorothy and when she returns to OZ it's in ruins. Wheelers, deadly desert and the evil queen that removes people heads and wears them. It's very creepy and I love it!
@@MyDeathhead ....... Which "movie itself?" I already mentioned the original movie, which was made in 1910. RtO isn't a sequel to it or any other movie version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," and that includes the MGM adaptation.
Just because movie villains get up to dark things, that doesn't make the movies dark, it just means that the villains are fulfilling their functions. 🙂The Wheelers are a bunch of cowardly clowns, and both they and the Deadly Desert go back to the Oz books. As for Mombi, the heads were restored to their rightful owners, as we saw in the Restoration scene.
Mark I got to watch this movie when I was 6 years old (I am 40 now). Let me tell you how much I loved it and how much it scared the shit out of me. When homegirl queen runs around with no head, but her heads are screaming at Dorothy.. I literally ran to hide behind the couch. Remember, I was 6... lol. I absolutely love this move to this day but man is it dark. Great review Mark.
I love this movie! It IS more faithful to the books. The first movie never really felt like there was ever any sort of danger for Dorothy. In Return to Oz, there’s a real sense of dread and uncertainty about her safety.
Seeing the Gnome Kings mountain off in the distance still gives me goosebumps (kind of had the same feeling when I first saw Twin Peaks in Breath of the Wild😂)
What about the witch?
In the first movie, Momba was a danger to Dorothy; I mean, Glinda turned Toto into an enormous bulldog just in case there should be any dangers! And it's Nome King.
@@MaskedMan66 What movie did you watch? The first MOVIE (not book now) had none of what you just said.
@@Johnlindsey289 I know there was an “antagonist” in the first movie, but cmon, was she anywhere as scary as the Wheelers, Nome King, and Mombi?
@@justsayin4632 I watched the first movie, which was made in 1910, and yes, that was all in it.
The second was made in 1925. The MGM movie was the third screen adaptation of the story. And the Wheelers weren't scary, not in those outfits, and certainly not when they were revealed to be cowards and clowns. Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West, on the other hand, has frightened generations of people.
I love Return to Oz. I was born in 1981 so I watched this as a kid growing up. Holds a special place in my heart… like many bad 80’s media come to think of it 🤔
82 born here and grew up with it
Return To Oz (1985) is seriously underrated. Not a masterpiece, but enjoyable all the same.
Go in Peace and Walk with God. 😎 👍
Guillermo Del toro calls it a masterpiece
Return to Oz absolutely traumatized me as a child and those Wheelers still give me the creeps.
Oh yeah the original book series of Oz is very dark.
Very - to include the notion that Princess Ozma was turned into a male at infancy, and lived as "Tip" until changed back in teen years.
You're getting so good at puting yourself into these clips. It's hysterical.
I read a few of the Oz books growing up. This movie really is more true to the book series. Those wheelers were even more terrifying in the book. I def had nightmares about them.
I love this movie man!! So happy you’ve made a video on it. It’s got such a unique feel to it very sinister especially watching as a kid expecting the wizard of oz 2. Love it man
If anyone wants to go through the Oz books but doesn’t have the time, Marvel Comics made some miniseries of the first few that are both faithful to the original and really well illustrated. Definitely worth a read.
The fact that your shadow falls on the mind erasing machine at 5:10 is just *chef's kiss*.
*smh*
I watched this movie as a kid, and it was absolutely terrifying.
I watched this movie for the first time last year, and it's now one of my new favorites! 🤩
Also, for those watching this review who have yet to see the movie for themselves, I think it's worth clarifying that it's mentioned throughout the movie that Belinda the chicken's presence in Oz is a threat to the Nome King, though the exact reason is kept a mystery until the end when the Nome King accidentally swallows Belinda's egg and he explains that eggs are poisonous to nomes as he's dying; so it's not as though that plot point comes completely out of nowhere.
I saw it in the theater when I was 5 when it came out. It was super weird, but I loved it.
Return To Oz may quite literally be the one and only original sequel to a classic series of books that actually deserves to be put right alongside the source material as equal.
This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's so damn weird and creepy and the sets are way better than they deserve to be. The Wheelers are awesome baddies and Princess Mombi's collection of heads is so cool. Fairuza Balk is the perfect Dorothy for this story too. I could go on and on. Thanks for covering this movie. Hopefully more people will watch it! I miss weird fantasy movies aimed at a younger audience and we need more.
This film is so dark, the wheelers caused many nightmares as a child.
Mark, the scene where you replace Nicol Williamson's doctor is one of the best you have ever done.
Does anyone else say the “TO,” when Mark does the “welcome back to,” I do it every time!
Channels’ taking off. Look at all those thousands of views! Congrats mark! I’ve been watching for years. Let’s celebrate 🎉
He speaks for us all about the trauma of the childhood fear of Quicksand. As far as I knew, it was everywhere that did not have pavement, tarmac, or just something solid. Quicksand could sneak right up to your door. And you wouldn't know it.
My favorite thing about this movie as an adult is how every element Dorothy sees in Oz is shown in some form in the real world. The electroshock machine is what becomes Tick Tock, and so it's never clear if Oz is real, or if Dorothy is crazy.
I might have this burned on dvd somewhere. Me and my sister would watch this a lot on Disney back in the 90s and would always be creeped out by the roller goons and the claymated segment near the end. My younger sister would be creeped out by the queen
This movie goes hard. Truer words seldom spoken.
The early unauthorized silent movies were bizarre too. MGM seemed to take those costume silents and created a fantasy musical out of it. It was not super Oz-faithful, but it was evocative of Oz.
In reality, The Wizard of Oz was more a metaphor of 1920s and 1930s Hollywood than anything else. Dorothy the starlet, the comics and dancers under contract, the wicked jealous actresses, the accomplished actress with a good heart, the lying conman of a producer
"Do you want friends Dorothy?" Is my new favorite catchphrase
I grew up with this. I had it on VHS tape, and wore that shit out. The Wheel-people and the headless woman freaked me out, but the electro-schock therapy at the beginning scarred me for life.
There was no electroshock; the power went out, remember?
My mom decided to take me to this movie when I was a little kid because I had recently seen the original Wizard of Oz and this movie blew my mind. It looked like an AI image fever dream before that even existed. The amount of practical effects is amazing as is the art design.
How had you managed to see the 1910 movie?
Loved this movie as a kid. As a child, I was super into horror movies. Most of the kids I knew growing up in the late 80s/early 90s were into slasher flicks, so the dark tone of this movie was really cool to me.
this film scared the shit out of me when I was a little kid
The edit with the shock therapy is one of the all-time moments of this channel 😂😂😂…well done sir
The electro shock scene earned this a huge thumbs up :)
There was no electroshock scene. There was a scene where the power went out and no electroshock took place.
@@MaskedMan66
4:32
This scene, edited, earned this video a like from me.
It’s a scene referring to electro shock.
The electro shock scene earned this a huge thumbs up :)
@@javathehunt790 A reference to something isn't a depiction of it, but okay.
I guess I was like 9 when I saw this in theaters. 80s were wild for kids movies!
Mark, thank you for the laughs, man. Youre one of the channels i go to when im feeling down because i KNOW youll make me laugh, and we all know how much it helps to laugh when dealing with shyte. Just.. thanks, man. I wish i could convey, or express correctly, how much it means to me to be able to laugh even when im at my worst. I hope youre well, brother man.
The Gnome King animation reminds me of the claymation “The Adventures of Mark Twain”, in which Satan has a supporting role. That’s some creepy-ass shit right there.
Nome.
This may be my favourite insert gag of them all! Well done, Mark.
I first watched it with my two sons in the late eighties. It was a freakish delight! The wheelers really scared us. We all slept together in the living room that night. It was almost like scary stories 'round a campfire. Great fun!
I woke up this morning thinking nothing great would happen today. Then this happens, Absolutely wonderful.
I saw this on TV as a young teen at like 2am. No one knew wtf I was talking about. I couldn't find anything about it. I convinced myself it was some sort of elaborate fever dream for like 10yrs before someone else mentioned it.
Omg - Labyrinth, the Dark Crystal, Return to Oz... The 80s were brilliant - these movies made my early childhood ❤
Thanks for highlighting this film; I wish I could see it on the big screen again. A brilliant run down of the plot by the way!
I like the silly costumes and effects from this era, especially fantasy genre. Everything looks so fantastical and great, seriously, it makes me want to write a fantasy epic.
What do you mean "silly?"
I had the same fear for some time about Quicksand. I was convinced it was all over the place and it was just a matter of time. Thought it was curious that I am not the only one.
As a kid I never understood why she was younger in the sequel.
I completly forgot that i saw this movie as a kid until i saw the wheelers. This must be what therapy feels like
I too was very concerned that "avoiding quicksand would be an ongoing concern throughout my life". I had forgotten until that line. Ive never seen quicksand in my life
"Once we shoot you full of electricity, that pesky imagination of yours will be gone", Mark really knows how to summarize a situation. Also, I think that this line would have been perfectly suited for your skit that you did seconds later. I think that your skits are getting better and better. I think you should take an old movie and remake it with all the characters played by you. Some of these old movies could use a remake and I would watch that over things coming out of Hollywood these days.
What Dr. Worley (who was working for the Nome King) had in mind was frying Dorothy's mind completely so she couldn't help the Scarecrow.
I love watching your videos on occasion. Your dry sarcastic sardonic and witty humor puts me at ease.