Return to Oz - The Dom Reviews

The Dom takes a look at the (sort of) sequel to Wizard of Oz and talks about how well it works as a (sort of) adaptation of the books.... Sort of.
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[@Dominic-Noble]

It appears there are some actual medical applications for electroshock therapy I was not aware of. For those commenters who advised me of this in a mature adult fashion: I apologise for the misconception.

[@cthulhupthagn5771]

The Dom electroshock is not usually considered a good idea. any modern applications are edging into fringe science.

[@LibraGamesUnlimited]

Yes. when done properly and under extreme care I've heard it CAN help people but it's not anything like what we've seen in movies and TV shows where it's greatly exaggerated. It may have been done that way in the early days but, as I understand it, when it's used today the voltage is very, very low.

[@Lorfarius]

Dr. Sam Beckett disagrees.

[@animeguardianxx]

As a person with an MA in psychology, I can explain it: In the 30s and through the 60s or so, Electroshock Therapy, or Electro-convulsive Therapy (ECT), was used to treat many things. By frying nerves, it did have an effect, but...yeah...not a good one. When it was realized just how dangerous it was, much like insulin coma and lobotomy, it was examined thoroughly to see if anything positive could be wrought from it. Lobotomy and Insulin Coma were found to be, simply, dangerous, and not good. ECT, though, was found to help treat depressive symptoms. It is still used for that, today, but, with a much more controlled shock, for a split second, and only as a last resort to treat depression and a couple of other things. Always as a last resort, and it has problems, like memory loss, but, for those who are seriously depressed, all other treatments failing, it can help. Science is uncertain as to why, but, there you go. That's the cliffnotes version, but, hope it is helpful.

[@LibraGamesUnlimited]

That was very interesting, thank you.

[@Dparish24]

It was established that the electric therapy caused a lot of damage to the patients. Instead of putting a stop to it, the nurse and the doctor locked up patients who got damaged and continued the treatments knowing the damage it could cause. That's why the girl got Dorothy out and it's highly possible the nurse chased the girls to stop them from exposing the truth not necessarily to rescue them.

[@SeraidenAF]

It really does. My dad had it used on him as a kid, and he remembers it even though he's not supposed to. It wont cure autism like his mom was trying to have done. :(

[@rorystockley5969]

Electroshock therapy isn't a bad thing; don't believe urban legends. Like any medical tool, it can injure if used incorrectly, but it's also got proven benefits.

[@SeraidenAF]

My dad wasn't sedated, just restrained. It happened when he was a kid, and he's only 52 now, so not horribly long ago. His family was air force, so a lot of things that shouldn't happen, did though his life including covering up abuse.

[@Isrjisoneavalable]

The treatment of mental health is incredibly dark with patients being abused, neglect, or used as ginny pigs. Electro Shock Therapy is still used and can be helpful for some patients with certain disorders, but when was first discovered they try it on anyone and everyone, where they were genuinely trying to help them or just make a problem be quite and go away. They also tried putting people into insulin commas saying that the brain would "reset". A lot died as a result. It was truly barbaric.

[@rorystockley5969]

It wasn't barbaric, just unrefined. The doctors of the time thought they were doing what was best for their patients - they just didn't have the knowledge we have today. Don't condemn them for things they couldn't possibly have known about,

[@lovelysan]

"WHICH WERE CHANGED BECAUSE OF THE TECHNICOLOR" Lol, I guess all those comments saying that on the first Oz video got annoying after a while huh Dom? XD

[@MaedayMisfit]

for a really long time, I thought this movie was a bizarre fever dream, as my family said they had no idea what I was talking about anytime I brought it up, and didn't believe it existed. so I didn't know it was real until I saw someone talking about it and saw clips of it and went "YES YES IT WASN'T A DREAM IT WAS REAL! THAT DISNEY CREEPFEST ACTUALLY HAPPENED!"

[@IAmTheUnison]

Ah, Yes! That time in the mid-80's when Disney tried to get creepy. Fun fact: this movie came out the same year as "The Black Cauldron".

[@Azby64]

Now you need to go on a detective adventure to find out how the hell you were introduced to that torment if your own family had no clue of its existence. I'll take the first copy of that novel, please. :p

[@cutelilscrafty]

I legit thought the same thing, cuz nobody I knew had ever heard of it!

[@trueheart1372]

There like 5 movies like this for me I think I know what they all are now but my memory is shit

[@jcaseyjones2829]

Necro but I had the same experience with Dragon's Lair, the arcade game. My parents were not into games and unsurprisingly didn't believe I'd seen a game that looked exactly like a cartoon in the donkey Kong/space invaders era

[@HerohammerStudios]

"The cowardly lion being an actual lion and not a furry" I just love that line and how quickly it goes by without any acknowledgement of what you said. Comedy gold right there

[@friday8644]

I recently read Ozma of Oz, and the thing that stood out to me the most was how mean the entire party would be to Jack. They always dismissed him and acted as if he was stupid or vain for being worried that his head would go bad, when in fact they have no reason to believe that it wouldn't. This young creature who's only a couple of days old is already terrified of dying, and his only friends keep bashing him for it. Not only that, but the person Jack thinks of as a parent is worst of them all! It seems to me the most (in lack of a better word) human thing in the world to worry about, and both a very relatable as well as valid concern. As I said, they have no reason to believe that the head *won't* turn bad, in which case Jack will die. And not only are they not concerned, they're dismissive of Jack and thinks he is being stupid and annoying for worrying about *dying*! TL;DR poor Jack deserves better people in his life

[@JamiJR]

I think a lot of people don't realize how messed up the original Oz books are. There's people who have flat heads so they carry their brains in jars. Except for the Wicked Witch no one in Oz can die - Baum even mentioned a king who had been thrown into a lake to drown - and if I remember correctly has a boulder on top of him - but of course he isn't dead. But instead of his son rescuing his dad the son just rules their kingdom. Dad's laying on the bottom of a lake, still alive, and sonny boy is just "Lalala, I miss my daddy but I'm king now." (It wasn't the son who tried to kill the dad, it was an uncle or some other evil adult.) Children never grow up. So if you have a baby they'll be babies forever. I guess older kids and adults just magically appear. There's also later in the series a tiger who keeps going on about wanting to eat a nice fat baby, though he never does. The Wicked Witch being the only one in Oz who can die is explained, briefly, by saying she came from another land entirely and wasn't born in Oz. But later when Dorothy and her family comes to live in Oz they all stop aging and cannot die. Dorothy will be 5 years old forever. It's really messed up.

[@amberwarnke6434]

Jami JoAnne Russell was she five when she moved?

[@anderkid1090]

Jami JoAnne Russell correction: she’s actually 11 but still, that’s terrifying to be stuck at one age for the rest of your life.

[@JamiJR]

@@anderkid1090 Some of the latter books written by Baum put her at 5.

[@anderkid1090]

Jami JoAnne Russell yeah, but I prefer to keep her at that age because it helps me sleep at night better.

[@late_prince8945]

These books are not really consistent, I'm pretty sure Ozma was just a new born when the Wizard give her to the Wicked Witch of The North.

[@presto709]

The "Mom " thing was cute. Jack was very childlike.

[@melaniemanning2462]

Agreed! Made total sense to me as a young girl. I wanted to be "mommy" to all my stuffed animals.

[@sirensong7956]

Mombi is actually a combination of two characters. Princess Langwidere the vain and spoiled princess of Ev and Mombi an evil hag whos also the Wicked Witch of the North.Why did they have to combine these two characters we'll never know?

[@JanArrah]

Probably because Princess Langwidere appeared in the books and is rather creepy and Mombi was the person that enchanted Ozma and was holding her.. And since Langwidere isn't super important.. just slam the character together and make Mombi even creepier? I really just think it was to keep it so Mombi in charge of the Ozma and wrap that plot up.

[@swanofnutella4734]

Baum was inconsistent on the actual "green-ness"/emerald-laden-ness of the the Emerald city as additional books came out. On the other hand, the movie very faithfully reflects the designs of John R Neil, who illustrated all but the first of the original books. Make no mistake, this film is an absolute treasure. More so than perhaps any other film ever made, this brings to life the visuals of it's source material. Story wise, almost all of the Oz books would make for oddly paced or utterly clunky movies. Cinematic climax's will occur before the halfway mark etc. They really are all over the place.

[@BabyCharmander]

This is exactly why I hope if anyone ever tries to adapt the books into movie form again, they go the route this one did. Maybe not so much with trying to bring in random elements from the musical, but in mixing the books together in a way that forms a more coherent story.

[@LucaPariah]

I remember reading the original Wizard of Oz book at my grandparents. I was a sensitive child who struggled to sleep away from home, and reading the book late one lonely night intrigued me because the book had story elements the movie didn’t. I guess that was one of my first experiences with seeing adaptation differences.

[@julienichols5333]

Did no one else see the tv mini-series, Tin Man? It was a version of Oz that I found fascinating. :)

[@ddthewolf]

Julie Nichols I own it on DVD

[@shrimpbisque]

I love Tin Man, but I don't think many people do. I'd guess people generally don't care for Zooey Deschanel and her wide whimsical eyes, and granted her performance was a bit off-kilter in some moments, but I didn't mind her as the lead at all.

[@dethwilson420]

I knew I wasn't the only one who saw this one. at least Zooey's acting was better in this thing versus The Happening [the WTF is happening, more like it]

[@puffin301]

I loved this version of Oz.

[@justincoleman3805]

It was god awful shit.

[@cheezemonkeyeater]

For the time period, they used Electro-shock therapy for everything. It wasn't until somewhere between 30 and 50 years later we actually began to realize that shocking people in their brains is a really bad idea. I have read that there are still some circumstances where it can help certain cases, but I keep forgetting to look up the specifics, and even in those circumstances, it's not something you want to do often.

[@ricmrp]

cheezemonkeyeater It's not that it's bad, but it's not an universal panacea. It works on Depression, Bipolar and Schizophrenia. And we use anesthesia and muscle relaxers nowadays, to avoid any pain later or discomfort.

[@weiyin8046]

cheezemonkeyeater it's a lot safer and more regulated now. Back in the day, it was horrific because there weren't really any rules and the rules that were there were rarely observed by the doctors and the people recieving it either weren't told or were forced into it.

[@muraalia]

I've always loved this movie. For some reason I didn't see the original as a kid, or read the books, but I had Return to Oz and watched it over and over again. I loved the story, the creepyness, the mystery of the ruins, Ozma somehow stuck in the mirror, and really loved the hinted larger world and bigger story behind it all. I was really, really curious about it, but still somehow never came across the books or the musical, not until somewhere in my mid-teens or something. Return to Oz is still one of my favourite nostalgia trips.

[@Rocketknightgeek]

I remember as a kid being scared half to death of the Wheelers but in retrospect I don't think it was so much them as the fact that upon catching you they would immediately throw you into the Deadly Desert for no reason outside of sadism some other way of getting joy from subjecting everyone in the emerald city to an 'and I must scream' scenario.

[@Emper0rH0rde]

But the thing about the Wheelers is, they can't do that to you. They can't really do anything except frighten you. They have *wheels* for hands *and* feet.

[@terretsforever]

I think Baum uses his characters well even if they are just filling slots on the roster. I gotta say I don't think I ever laughed as hard as I did when the scarecrow & jack the pumpkin met in the books.

[@thirteenfury]

terretsforever I love that scene too! I don't know what's funnier--the Scarecrow not realizing people in Gillikin Country speak the same language, or Jellia Jamb's sarcastic translations.

[@melodye14]

I love this movie so much. I like that it's a sequel, presents more dark elements from the books, too. It was really interesting to hear about the differences of the book. I like the dark elements because it also feels like a callback to Grimm fairy tales in a way.

[@rbgg2010]

I'm surprised there hasn't been any serious attempts at a remake, as 13 books just screams "franchise potential."

[@beatrixjaarabaquirquir6681]

YES, YESSSS. I WANT A FRANCHISE. BRING US THE LIVE ACTION MAGIC TO THE BOOKS!

[@Nick_C1997]

I may be wrong but I think the books are now in the public domain, so anyone can just write a TV show version if they want with 1 book per season

[@aisnota5192]

8:46 What?!? No! Jack was my favorite character growing up! I love that adorable giant who wants to find his mom! You just wanted to hug the guy.

[@MitchQuadrupleTree]

One minor nitpick and one clarification: It's "Gump" like Forrest, not "Grump," and while it isn't outright given as the reason I always took it as implied that Tik Tok's ornament being there when they were transported away from the Nome Kingdom as a result of the wording of Dorothy's wish, which was something to the effect of "I wish for all of us from Oz to be returned there safely."

[@intergalactic92]

Which would explain why Mombi gets brought with them as well.

[@beeman2075]

I'm not sure which is the worse scenario of the two movie witches, Mombi wanting to chop off Dorothy's head and eventually wear it herself, or Glinda babbling (bubbling?) to Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz that she never told Dorothy in the Munchkin Village about the ability of the magic slippers to transport Dorothy immediately home because Dorothy wouldn't have believed her. The number of times I wished Dorothy would have slapped Glinda then and there is too many to count. The book Glinda is lovely by comparison, and pretty much instantly tells Dorothy about the power of the slippers to take herself home when they first meet, at the end of the first book.

[@RabblesTheBinx]

Actually relevant to this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJbbnmV-npdrjtk But, yeah, combining the North and South witches was a bit of a misstep in the movie.

[@stellacoul]

There were other adaptations of the Oz books on the big screen - albeit in silent movie format.The versions include The Patchwork Girl of Oz (based on the book of the same name), The Magic Cloak of Oz (based on Queen Zixi of Ix) His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz (loosely based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and became interestingly enough - became the inspiration for Baum' s Oz novel The Scarecrow of Oz). There are some animated versions of elements from the Oz books.

[@IAmTheUnison]

Fun Fact: This movie also came out the same year as "The Black Cauldron"; another surprisingly dark Disney movie that flopped, but has since developed a cult following.

[@asherkahtan3914]

IAmTheUnison which is also based on a book series, called The Chronicles of Prydain (also spawned a faithful webcomic adaptation, which I highly recommend that you check out), and is highly detested by fans of that series.

[@Nionivek]

For those defending Electroshock I should remind you that Electroshock Therapy lucked into being genuinely useful, albeit for a fraction of those is was performed on. It isn't the product of study and testing, it is the product of study and testing after it has already been performed. It would be like if some doctor prescribed people mercury injections to cure their acne, and 50 years later someone actually did some testing and discovered that it could be used to cure warts. You shouldn't then defend the original doctor because something came of it. The doctor in this is incredibly negligent and is performing an untested and dangerous procedure to cure a minor ailment because he gets lucrative amounts of cash.

[@kathialanglois2357]

When I was a child I used to love Jack, I found him cute.

[@romybank]

same. Eye had the biggest crush on him

[@misterrioter3575]

9:50 in the book the Grump at the end requests that Ozma "dismantle him", essentially because he believes himself to be an abomination

[@StudioCastleman]

Does anyone else want another version of the wizard of oz? look, I know the original films a classic, but I think we could get a really good different version of the book. Hey Hollywood! theres like tons to capitalize on here! Not only is it a recognizable property that guarantees money, but theres a truckload of untouched material to start the next big franchise! I mean, c'mon!

[@benedictcooper3131]

Castleman Reviews ii

[@jeffreyfike3384]

Castleman Reviews There's an old Wizard of Oz TV cartoon.

[@zoesomething9507]

Castleman Reviews there's that 2013 movie, Oz the Great and Powerful

[@beeman2075]

It would be amazing to have a live-action remake of the book version with a balanced use of both CGI and props. Muticere is right in that the adaptations and spinoffs have been quite hit and miss. The 'Tin Man' miniseries with Zooey Deschanel (while providing an Oz 'fix') was a bit too techno-punk with a whiny hero and whiny villain for my liking, Oz the Great and Powerful had some very good moments (the china doll girl was an incredible addition) but had too much saturated CGI effects. My understanding is that even though MGM own the rights to the Judy Garland movie version, the copyright of the first book is now public domain, and there is so much material and concise well-written dialogue in the first book that you would think a new Wizard of Oz movie made faithful to the book and with special effects somewhat similar to the effects used in Jon Favreau's 'The Jungle Book' would make both a beautiful movie and very healthy return at the box office. That said, New Line cinema are apparently looking at making a horror film set in the Oz world, so it may be some time before a faithful adaptation comes along, alas.

[@LordofFullmetal]

Uhhhhhh, not really. Have you SEEN how bad Hollywood's been at remakes recently? What makes you think they wouldn't fuck it up? Besides, EVERYONE knows the story of the Wizard of Oz by now. It's been done so many times that it's the same as seeing ANOTHER Batman origin story. Those versions just aren't as popular as the Judy Garland one, which would be why you don't seem to be aware of them. I'd much rather see one of the sequels, as opposed to seeing ANOTHER take on the original.

[@CrimsonAlice]

I'm not sure if you had a censored version or not; but when the girl springs Dorothy out she quickly explains that the Dr. and the nurse were hiding some of the "results" patients in the basement that (we are lead to think) had their minds virtually destroyed by the machine. But also, they are taking a mechanic from the first movie and twisting it: the first movie associated our world characters as a sort of avatar to be equated with a character from Oz. (scared pig man= cowardly lion, etc), but in this movie it seems there is not only an equivalent (Dr= nome king/ nurse= Mombie) , but what happens to one in their world, similarly would happen to the person in our world.

[@barshafoxman4169]

This was also intended for the 1939 movie, there was going to be a mention that Elmira Gulch had died during the cyclone :)

[@Jezthesiren]

Oh man, Return to Oz was one of my faaaaaaaaavorite movies as a kid. I was in a bit of a media bubble as a child concerning this film - I didn't know anyone else who had seen it and so it wasn't until I was a young adult that I learned that others considered it Pure Nightmare Fuel. But the darker tone was really appealing to me as a child. Perhaps it's because the idea of being suddenly separated from home and wandering lost in a world that does not follow normal rules is... pretty damn scary, rather than the lighthearted romp it's presented as in the '39 Wizard of Oz. In any case, I think it was fairly inevitable that Return to Oz would be sort of an adaptation mashup - and if we ever see other Oz books get the film treatment, they will probably have similar changes made to them. The '39 film is so culturally pervasive that I think filmmakers would be concerned about confusing their audience if they stray away from the most iconic parts of that famous film - hence the ruby slippers, the Emerald City being literally green, etc. I'd imagine there's quite a lot of pressure to find some balance between building an adaptation that's true to the books while also not straying from the version of FLB's world that the majority of film-goers are familiar with. Honestly, I find it somewhat baffling that we haven't seen more film adaptations of other books in the Oz series. Not prequels or remakes of The Wizard of Oz, but standalone films that explore the content and characters of the rest of the books. Perhaps it's because it's not the series that's beloved so much as it's most famous adaptation, or because the world FLB created is admittedly really weird. Either way, I've always wanted to see more of that content make it to the screen in one fashion or another.

[@BabyCharmander]

I agree that it'd be really nice to see other adaptations of the books. I wouldn't mind another one like this, IMO--I think RtO did very well for what it was trying to accomplish. (Though it's my favorite movie so I may be biased, ahah.) There are other adaptations that use elements from the books (there's a mobile game of all things that's weirdly faithful to the books, but I don't have the patience (or the money) to beat it, there's a detective noir game based on the books (still need to play it--have it on Steam), and... *shudder* the oh-so-dark-and-edgy-let's-make-this-as-close-to-game-of-thrones-as-possible "Emerald City" show), but no straight adaptations as far as I've seen. ...None in English, anyway. I kinda get the feeling that people are hesitant to do straight adaptations of the books because they're afraid of their project being a commercial failure like RtO was, which is a shame. I'd love to see an adaptation of the books that smoothed out the inconsistencies.

[@thirteenfury]

BabyCharmander For the mobile game, you're talking about Oz: Broken Kingdoms, right? I love what they've done with Oz and all the obscure references but it's definitely designed like the old Facebook games; abilities and arena companions are so numerous and so expensive that you have to spend real money to keep up with them all.

[@TactlessC]

I am reasonably sure aside from more interest in the universe than the stories themselves, that the reason people always do prequels and reboots instead of sequels...is due to MGM still holding the rights to everything ABOUT the original Wizard of Oz in screen adaptation format...including what shade of green the Wicked Witch's Skin is. This is also to answer any of the comments for people who have been asking why there hasn't been a remake either. MGM doesn't really see a need for it when they can just tie down the definitive version forever, and Disney's been SUPER BUTTMAD about it for decades because everytime they try to do something Oz related it kinda flops cause they really want to follow up on the Original Film but aside from sparing references that are just pop culture facts at this point (such as the ruby slippers) they CAN'T.

[@DaleRibbons]

I did not know this any of this. Wow.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I remember the Muppets version of the film being really close to the MGM version. Only saw it once though so that's going based off of what I remember thinking at the time. But I know for sure it follows the basic plot of the first book/film.

[@Mercy-tb8pk]

I remember watching this as a little kid and actually quite enjoying it.

[@cloneyoshi]

When you move to the US you should smuggle all the UK candy you can and start a black market

[@frednino71]

No it's ours and you smelly Americans can't have any!

[@PrincessNinja007]

There's a small shop in Kansas that sells them

[@BlueRoseFaery]

Walmart has Malteasers near me.

[@PhoenixAngel429]

Internet. I get Japanese candy that way when I can't get to a store that has it

[@ElegantButlerSeb]

Especially Violet Crumble. Must have Violet Crumble!

[@Tadicuslegion78]

Ah 80s childrens films: Scarier than most modern horror films of the last decade.

[@heathercalun4919]

Would you be willing to bend the rules and review a stage musical? Because the differences between the musical Wicked and the original Gregory Maguire novel would make for a very good episode of this show. What I like about it is that both versions are good, but in drastically different ways. The novel is very aimless and even pretty gross (scatalogical, to be precise), but all of that serves to convey the oddly realistic tone of the book. To spite all the magic and strangeness, you feel like you're reading someone's actual life story because of how unromantic it is. And the musical is essentially the exact opposite, but the romanticized version of the story is well-executed, so it still works. I think my favorite example of the changes made would be the character of Glinda; in the musical she's an enjoyably campy rich girl archetype, whereas in the novel she's less interesting, but the fact that she's not an extreme bitch so much as smart but just a little blinded by privilege makes her feel more like a real person. And the fact that in the book she pretty much drops off the face of the earth (or wherever Oz is) after Elphaba drops out of college, is a prime example of the book's style of deliberately not tying up loose ends.

[@rosiespiller1640]

I'd really like that as well. Both the musical and the books are amazing.

[@prcervi]

I thought Glinda showed up to Nessarose's funeral?

[@serenahamilton6724]

When I first read the book I knew I liked it but wasn’t sure what to think of it. You just put it perfectly into words. Thank you 🙏🏾

[@sutarikun]

I view the adaptations of Wicked and My Love, My Love (which became Once on This Island) as parallel -- the books are the "real" story and the musicals are the versions that a child is told by someone in confidence (probably Glinda for Wicked and Mama Euralie and Tonton Julian for Once on This Island).

[@CarlosPenasGrl]

I love this movie and both my mom and I were terrified of it as children and had a funny bonding moment when we watched it again for my birthday a year or two ago and were still scared shitless of the wheelers because of our childhood nostalgia and she was absolutely terrified of the nome king. Personally, I never found Jack creepy, I found him very endearing and still do, especially when I realized he was puppeteer and voiced by Brian Henson.

[@Elementa2006]

I believe most of the books adapted to a anime series in the 80s with Western looking character designs, and it received an English dub too, from what I understand they were more faithful to the books than most Oz adaptation tend to be.

[@brandchan]

This will be getting a SD BD release in August here in the states.

[@Elementa2006]

brandchan Really? SWEET!

[@princessDaisy2k12]

What is it called my i ask it sounds interesting?

[@brandchan]

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2017/05/15/discotek-shares-episodes-of-wizard-of-oz-anime

[@Elementa2006]

brandchan nice to see anime titles like this get some love then again Discotek are known to license anime titles from the 70s, 80s and early 90s.

[@veritasreigns]

I loved this, and your sheer happiness about the traumatised children made me laugh.

[@sachajewell960]

I saw this movie was I was young and i think i changed it in my mind that it was the scarecrow who turned evil. I would tell people about it and they would look at me so oddly. Wasn't until i watched it again that I realized that I had moved things around.

[@void2258]

You should do The Wiz at some point.

[@justincoleman3805]

Gross.

[@stephaniec.6399]

Oh man, this is giving me very good memories of reading the entire Oz series! Like seriously, a lot of this is similar to the book

[@SaiScribbles]

Of ALL the things to find creepy in this movie you found Jack Pumpkinhead creepy!? Maybe this is a symptom of not seeing it as a kid.

[@PsychicHyrax]

I thought he was kind of cute, actually.

[@aquariusursa5311]

Personally, I'd like to see the Oz series get the same treatment as A Series of Unfortunate Events. I mean, we've seen what Netflix can do when charged with creating a show(prime examples being the afore mentioned Unfortunate Events and Voltron: Legendary Defender). So, why not let them take a crack at making series about Oz?

[@BabyCharmander]

Gosh, that would rock. I hope they would use some nice puppets and costumes too, like this movie did.

[@thirteenfury]

Aquarius Ursa Baum did intend for most of the books to be easily adaptable for plays and films anyway. This is most obvious with The Marvelous Land of Oz, The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Tik-Tok of Oz, and Scarecrow of Oz.

[@eclecticdog2k901]

I both love and hate this idea, with nearly equal passion...I have a specific vision for it and wouldn’t like to see it done any differently, but that way might be slightly controversial... Basically, I want to run the adaptation myself. 😆

[@amyscott5975]

I remember watching this as a kid and the part that scared the s*** out of me was when Dorothy has to get the powder and trying not to wake mamby's head. When she goes "Doooorathy Gaaaale". I still loved it and remains a fun watch for me.

[@kat13potter]

As someone who loves wizard of oz and horror movies I loved this movie with a passion as a child lol 😂

[@britsaunders7901]

I would die of happiness if you did a lost in adaptation for either The Hunchback of Notre Dame or Les Miserables. Favorite author, clearly. Thanks for all the hard work! You are awesome.

[@dagleni2122]

Which were changed because of the technicolor! Oh Dom, you always make me laugh.

[@LaurenTheorist]

I started watching this thinking, "I've never heard of sequels to The Wizard of Oz." although there being another movie sounded familiar. And then about one and a half minutes in my whole childhood came flooding back and I remembered the original book's sequels and I just sat on my bed staring at a wall for a good ten minutes.

[@arisaunters2915]

Everyone else I know who watched this as a kid was traumatised, I on the other hand bloody loved it! (Also The Dom I think it's implied by Ozma that the doctors and nurses treat the patients very poorly and the nurse only tries to rescue Dorothy in a sense of not letting her escape; a kid turning up drowned would still be bad for business.) That's my take anyway.

[@PieOfEpicness]

"An actual lion and not actually a furry" omg

[@kevinshupenia276]

bro I am trying to sleep.... love ya. thanks for posting.

[@otaking3582]

11:30 "Yeah, Bruce, you know that guy we got in the tank?" "Uh, the creepy one?" "Yeah, better let him go."

[@eclecticdog2k901]

Was thinking this too! That’s a sublime comedy bit right there.

[@otaking3582]

@@eclecticdog2k901 Glad I'm not the only one who remembers Hoodwinked

[@DarkCeleste11]

If you ever want to torture yourself, you might wish to read 'Dorothy Must Die' by Danielle Paige. While not a true retelling of the story, it is a 'teen twist' on Oz. warning: it is a teen book and all that entails.

[@chrishansen8119]

I actually really liked that entire series lmao

[@megancastle5573]

Yeah I'm not a fan of the whole "it's something teen (girls) like or is marketed towards them and therefore is bad" stereotype.

[@echoskolumne1962]

I grew up with this film. Watching it for the first time at age 4. So yeah... it haunted me in my nightmares while I loved it at the same time. I was strangely obsessed with it.

[@aprildriesslein5034]

I re watched this recently (after being, yes, pretty scared by it as a kid) and really enjoyed it! I thought it was fun they brought in some of the darker feel of the books (which I read over and over as a kid) and that they made the tin man and scarecrow look the way they did in the old illustrations. I have an abiding love for the Judy Garland Wizard of Oz (who doesn't?) but I would love to see more Oz books done like this. Also, yes, that is the Dorothy actress's debut film and I actually recognized her immediately from The Craft, even though I never recognize celebrities. That lower lip is too distinctive. 😄

[@moonlady3000]

Jack pumpkinhead was my favorite part of that movie.

[@KatieFrog217]

"People complain that they made it darker" Me, remembering the walrus that ate the clay children in the first movie: this was child friendly before???

[@MCshowuhz]

Fun Fact, DIsney had to shell out one metric buttload of money to MGM to use those Ruby Slippers that aren't original to the book.

[@BabyCharmander]

HEEYYY A RtO review where someone actually did their research! THANK YOU!! This is my favorite movie ever so badly-done reviews for it drive me crazy. A few things: IIRC the folks making the movie decided to use the ruby slippers (which they had to get permission from MGM to use I believe) and the whole "Oz is maybe a dream??" thing so that the audience wouldn't be totally lost. I remember reading somewhere that originally the Nome King was going to have a belt made from the crushed ruby slippers, to link back to the books a bit more. (Basically all of the throwbacks to the old musical were there so the audience wouldn't be like "how is this oz wtf." ...Which unfortunately didn't help at all, of course.) As for the thing with emeralds being in the Emerald City--IIRC it was never actually stated that the entire city was made out of emeralds, just embellished with them? Can't remember for sure. Or the folks making the movie could have, again, just been trying to balance what Oz is actually like in the books with what their audience was expecting. (The fact that the vast majority of people did not respond well to this movie kinda made me wish they'd just thrown any attempts at referencing the original musical out the window to begin with.) As for Mombi rushing to the Nome King, there IS a good reason for that! It's actually one I didn't catch until I read the novelization of the movie (which is a pretty dry read, aside from a handful of interesting scenes that didn't make it into the movie). Mombi was trying to warn the Nome King about Billina (she says "And she's headed this way with a--!" (the last word was going to be "chicken')) but assumed, from the Nome King's expression, that he already knew. I know it's entirely opinion but I love Jack and Billina? XD;; You talked about how creepy they are but IMO they're both adorable, especially Jack! Though to be fair, if Jack comes off as creepy, I guess Tip/Ozma did their job, since Jack was created to scare Mombi... I never found the "mom" thing creepy either, since Jack does mention that he's only a few days old, and he acts fairly childlike. Honestly I would've had the same reaction Dorothy did at her age. With regards to the doctor wanting to help Dorothy, uuuuhhh... There was that whole part about the doctor and the nurse LOCKING DAMAGED PATIENTS IN THE BASEMENT. He wasn't ignorant--he KNEW what he was doing was completely screwed up. That's why he was killed and the nurse was arrested! Wait a second--did you watch the censored version?? That version cuts out the line where the mysterious girl/Ozma explains that the screaming Dorothy keeps hearing is THE HALF-DEAD PATIENTS WAILING IN THE CELLAR. So overall good review--you bring some valid criticisms for the film. Thank you for doing that rather than being "THIS MOVIE IS BAD BKUZ ITS NOT LIKE THE MUSICAL" like 90% of the other reviews for it are. @___@

[@vertoatrum]

Around 10 minutes in you mention not understanding why Mombie was so desperate to get to the Nome King, but she says it as soon as the Wheelers told her that Dorothy made it to the Nome King: she wanted to warn him about the chicken threat

[@midnightfox653]

I've never seen this movie, but now I feel like I should get it and watch it with the kids at my work......

[@BabyCharmander]

Honestly it's not that overwhelmingly scary. I was like 4 or 5 when I first saw it, and loved it. Watched it a thousand times growing up, and showed it to all my nieces and nephews, and they all liked it too.

[@Awakeandalive1]

Agreed. I loved this film as a lad, much more than the original.

[@PS-dm1dq]

No. Read the 2 books it borrows from instead, you'll be glad you did. Not that the movie isn't kind of cute, but these two separate stories don't work particularly well together when awkwardly mashed together.

[@nightpool4946]

I love how you upload on Fridays, especially seeing as it's the evening where I am. It's a nice end to the week :)

[@AnimeLoveLover123]

6:09 You often make me Laugh but for some reason this joke left me howling with laughter.

[@Draconianinferno]

This movie scared me so much as a kid we only watched till everyone was in stone and that’s when I broke down and we returned it to the store. I watched it as an adult and still find it disturbing as hell but it was way worse in my memories.

[@Greycatuk]

The Orderlies from the sanitarium were the same actors as the Wheelers too. Synchronicity!

[@WolfoftheDM]

i love your channel so much man, it's like it was made for me

[@shards-of-glass-man]

11:50 Huh. Now that you've mentioned that, there was a Russian animated adaptation that aimed to adapt all 14 books, but didn't get very far. I wonder if there is a subtitled version, because I'm really tempted to track it down and check how many books they managed to cover, and how faithful to the source material the thing ended up to be...

[@thirteenfury]

I dunno about an animated adaptation, but I do know there's a Russian translation of the books that's pretty much In Name Only, because by book three or four, it might as well be a completely independent series. A lot of the characters and plots in the Russian books don't exist in the original Oz series, for example.

[@fandomdomination3071]

So this is basically a full video answer to my question! Thank you so much!

[@karabearcomics]

The Oz books have always been my favorite fantasy series, the Marvelous Land of Oz being the best in my mind of the lot. I identify more with Ozma than Dorothy, after all, and she even shares a birthday with me (August 21). Plus, the book seemed to actually delve even better into the fantastical aspects of the land, since there was no "real world" character and didn't need to show them coming to the land, or have to describe any sort of wonder of the land itself. And I never thought of Jack as a Scarecrow-ripoff, since he was different (not totally, but well enough). The Saw-Horse was also a character that I thought was a great addition (probably harder for them to create with the effects back then). I also remember seeing this movie when I was a kid and not being scared, creeped out, amused, or the like--I'd read the books and seen the Wizard of Oz and I was disappointed that it wasn't an adaptation of the former, really, or a continuation of the latter. On a final note: I kept waiting for you to mention, Mombi in the movie is a composite character, taking the name of the antagonist of the Marvelous Land of Oz, but otherwise being Queen Langwidere of Ev, from Ozma of Oz, who wasn't even an Oz resident in the books (Ev is one of the lands just on the other side of the Deadly/Impassable/etc. Desert that surrounds Oz). Of course, since Langwidere is an antagonist but not a villain (yes, she wanted to cut off Dorothy's head to use in her collection, but she offered the girl one of her less-attractive heads in return--she obviously didn't see this as anything that would kill her), she did inherit a little bit more from Mombi than just her name.

[@meghan______669]

I agree very much about what you said about the emerald colored glasses. I loved that in the book

[@c.julietofcampjupiter8557]

Nitpick- emeralds do exist and are normal in Oz. In fact, they are so common, even the farmers have them.

[@AdaSaarinen]

One little nitpcik: Actually electroshock therapy or as it's now know electroconvulsive therapy is still in use especially for major depressive disorder and has been proven quite effective.

[@darkdreamer871]

THANK YOU!!! I literally had to pause the video and yell for a moment about how ECT is still very much a thing and has been scientifically proven to work for many folks, especially those who aren't helped by other more common treatment methods like medication and therapy alone.

[@menomaminx2nd]

Ada Saarinen , many lives have been ruined by electroconvulsive therapy, including my own mothers. try living with it and its consequences before you defend it. there's been an active campaign to ban it in many places, including California, where one of the leaders is a man who as a boy was giving many rounds of electroconvulsive therapy just because he was a people pleaser (who told the doctor whatever he thought the doctor wanted to hear , which is common in small children).

[@menomaminx2nd]

darkdreamer871 , it's tragic that it's still a thing when there are better therapies out there that just aren't being presented. try asking the victims. a simple Google search will help you with this.

[@AdaSaarinen]

I'm sorry that has happened to your mom and obviously I'm not condoning the irresponsible and dangerous way it was used in the past(and sometimes currently). But the the method has been improved a lot in the last ten years and according to the studies I have read it can be very helpful in certain situations when other methods haven't been successful

[@katarzynakonstancjadobrowo9072]

I am very sorry for those hurt by the irresponsable usage of this therapy. However not the means but the people are to blame for it. I know many people whom the therapy helped to function again after months of catatonia or depression.

[@CeltycSparrow]

I think Dorothy's nightmares are addressed....they are just a bit subtle about it. They originally want to make Dorothy the Queen of Oz, but she wants to go home, so they find Princess Ozma in the mirror and the Princess sends Dorothy home, but tells her that she will check in on Dorothy from time to time and if Dorothy should ever wish to return to Oz, she would bring her back. That must have been comforting for Dorothy....knowing she could go back whenever she wanted.

[@trevholmes186]

I'm with you on the claymation thing man. Not even stop motion, I love Henry Selleck's stuff, it's claymation specifically that sets me off.

[@PhoenixAngel429]

I love this series puts me onto books I never thought to read. You made Baum's work seem interesting. I love delightfully twisted stuff

[@AustinBeareBath]

you are seriously my favourite youtuber thank you for creating

[@neilprice513]

I myself would like them to make a TV series based on the 13 books in the series. Either and animated or decently funded live action one, as I want the Cowardly Lion to be an animal and not a dude in a suit. They can get MGM to give them the full greenlight to use their trademarked "Look" to the world and some of the characters, that Disney tried to bootleg without permission in OZ the Great and Powerful. If they do I do not want them to alter the adaptation of the books to make them lighter in tone, like they love to do.

[@RoScFan]

The gnome king changes between guy in make up and uncanny valley claimation????? That the coolest thing I've ever heard!

[@disneyrules7808]

This movie is a semi-sequel to the 1939 movie because of the Ruby Slippers use and appearance.

[@Celebwen21]

I think the reason the nurse was arrested was because of a throwaway line from Ozma when she rescues Dorothy about "patients who've been damaged... locked in the cellar," implying they knew the shock therapy could be harmful but were keeping it a secret so they could make money, as well as perhaps unlawfully keeping patients imprisoned without their families being aware.

[@gyromurphy]

I know people say this shit all the time.. but seriously now... how the hell do you only have 63,000subs?

[@AquaLantern]

dude, that is a lot.

[@kanedomican2248]

LordManda2 it's a lot but not enough

[@EionBlue]

you have to remember, Dom started, what, 2 years ago? Look at people like Sage or LRR who have a similar amount of subscribers despite having been around for FAR longer.

[@ebonimccain6988]

Less and less people read and most people prefer cartoon critics.

[@juliamavroidi8601]

Lots of people watch his videos on Channel Awesome, so there's no need for them to subscribe

[@Rak-Nay]

I watched this film with nine years and Im in love since.

[@shaggy7327]

My uncle took me and my cousins to see this in theater way back then. The last time I ever got to spend with him.

[@HowdyFolksGaming]

“Whaaa, electroshock therapy is good because whaaa, I’m totes a docktor whaaa.”

[@PhilThePrince]

The doctor and the head nurse were punished because they'd "damaged" patients and then locked them in the cellar. Basically the doc knew his machine was dangerous but he kept experimenting anyway.

[@victoriaodegaard1]

What you said at the end was my exact point. I think the Oz books should turned into either a TV show or a long-running movie series (following very closely to the original source material). There's so many good stories to delve into and recreate and yet the Oz movies and shows being made nowadays use none of it.

[@MrKlausbaudelaire]

Hey Netflix! Get the clue! Do it! (also, the way he said " which were changed because of the technicolour!" made me laugh so hard with the obvious tone of "I GET IT ALREADY!!" xD)

[@silentfcknhill]

I don't think Nurse Wilson and Dr. Worley were punished at the end due to just performing electroshock. It was supposed to be karmic due to the way they treated the patients with abuse. It seems that since ECT was still experimental (it can be done with relative success in modern times, under the right circumstances), this doctor was not doing it correctly and had a high error rate, as it is shown in the movie that there were many children he mentally butchered, and then locked up in the basement to suffer. He was obviously careless, continuing to do the treatment on Dorothy even during an electrical storm, and was very hasty in diagnosing and trying to give her this treatment. Of course doctors make mistakes and such, but it was more the way he handled it and the lack of care towards his patients that gave him an antagonistic vibe. He seemed to only care about getting test subjects to perfect his craft, as evidenced by the fact that he chose to risk death than to leave without his machine; he cared only for his work, with no thought of consequence and he paid the price for it. We can hear past patients yelling and gargling it sounds disturbing, their whole brains have been scrambled most likely irreversibly. I've no idea why their parents didn't complain, my guess is either the parents didn't know the children were "treated" yet and were told their children would be staying a long time for therapy and could not have outside contact, or these children were just guinea pigs and didn't even have parents, just orphans maybe. Either way, the whole situation was highly unethical, even for that time period and the Nurse getting arrested at the end was proof that the authorities had no idea originally what was going on in that building other than just medical treatment. Not to mention, the carelessness of the pair had been proven due to the fact that they allowed a patient to escape and almost die, and have their facility burned to the ground or whatever, and the bodies of all the past patients who were being held prisoner were probably discovered in the ruins. A lot of people died due to carelessness. Even if the land of Oz was real and not just in Dorothy's head (I believe it was real in the movie), the two stories are meant to tie in to each other symbolically. The Nurse (Mombi) was locking people up and keeping prisoners while wearing a different face/personality to seem more harmless. The Doctor/Nome King had stolen the emeralds/sanity of a group of people that he had power over. The more he was able to lessen Dorothy's belief in Oz/Ozma, the more he became realistic and closer to gaining dominance over her world. TL;DR, I think that them getting their comeuppance had more to do with the unprofessional and immoral way they went about their practice, rather than just performing ECT alone. Not that I think it was realistic for the authorities to really care that much in that time about unethical treatment of mental health, but it is a Disney movie, so....

[@themaxcollective]

bless you for knowing/caring so much

[@rocklobsterjwt]

Like you, I'm baffled no one has tackled the other books. I loved them.

[@adamklaits6379]

Hey the Dom, love your show, been watching since the Harry Potterathon. I was wondering if you might do a review of the new Hulu show The Handmaid's Tale based on the book of the same name.

[@adamholt5153]

Wow you hit the nail on the head when you said that this movie is a mashup of book 2 and 3 while also being a sort-of sequel to a mashup of the wizard of oz book and wizard of oz movie. Exactly!!! that's why I love this film. It credits its viewers with enough intelligence to be able to cope with that. Of course, some don't (the "Why is Dorothy suddenly younger than she was in the last film??!" brigade), but it also works really well for those of us who are either "capable" or just "willing" (not sure which) to be told a story which borrows the elements it wants from these 4 sources while abandoning the elements it doesn't want or need. to be honest, I kinda wish we had more movies that did this as successfully as this one does.

[@adamholt5153]

Ugh dude after that initial praise, your video went downhill fast. You missed pretty much every point. You critisize things for being flaws or coincidences when they weren't... and even make up your own reasons for things you claim aren't explained even though they are. It reeks of not having paid attention. It's really disappointing after such a good start.

[@LaurenTheorist]

AHHH, I LOVE YOUR SHIRT!!!

[@IosLocarth]

Every time I hear Ozma I can only think of the marble of death from FF9

[@faze_buendia9514]

In regards to the Doctor's death, it could be something like the Gnome King being the Doctor's Oz counterpart, maybe theyre insinuating a link between the 2 worlds, the G King died by pretty much accident and so does the Doctor; Mambi gets put in a cage by the G King, and her Kansas counterpart is seen in a metal box cage. Like uou said, lots of mirror characters, the talking animal, the metal man, the goofy looking ones, maybe hes mirroring them this way too

[@RabblesTheBinx]

He's not a gnome, he's a nome (pronounced the same). There are gnomes in Oz, as well, but they're depicted as a different (albeit possibly closely related) species

[@faze_buendia9514]

Interesting; is that info from the books? I never did read them but I grew up loving both of the Oz movies, the original and this one anyways, some of the made for tv miniseries' are pretty meh

[@RabblesTheBinx]

@@faze_buendia9514 yeah, it's book info, although they did credit the Nome King in the film without the "g", so that bit was accurate. The gnomes lived in the Forest of Burzee (which I don't believe was _technically_ mentioned in the Oz series, itself, but in another of Baum's children's series that happens to have characters that are related or cross over). Now, if I'm being completely fair, there _is_ a book in which the Nome King is spelled with a "g", _The Gnome King of Oz,_ but it wasn't one of Baum's original thirteen books, having been written by Ruth Plumly Thompson, and it's generally considered to be a misspelling, on her part, given the above. It's actually worth mentioning, as well, that the "parallel characters" thing in both the Judy Garland film and this one is film-only, there isn't a single sentence in any of the books that suggests any resemblance between Ozians and the people Dorothy knew in Kansas. The original thirteen books and most of the "famous forty" are definitely worth a read, though.

[@faze_buendia9514]

right on I'll have to add that series to my list, thanks for the great info!

[@ripleyandweeds1288]

You said in your Wizard of Oz video you had a bucket of water by your bed for the witch, but kids who grew up piss terrified of the wheelers had _nothing_ to protect them, just tears and screaming

[@doxielain2231]

Hello, good sir. Would you consider Watership Down, please?

[@Ramblinman26]

My interpretation of The Wizard of Oz movie has always been that she did really go there, and it all did really happen, but the magic that sent her back did it in such a way that she and the people around her think it's just a dream.

[@franohmsford7548]

I went to school with a lad named Baum {actually he lived directly behind me and our back fence was also his} and he pronounced it to rhyme with Bourne.

[@PaulSmith-qs1es]

It might have been worth mentioning that after the events of the Marvelous Land of Oz, the Gump is disassembled and turned into a sitting room in the Emerald City.

[@magicamadeye]

The Dom probably important to mention that baum basically retcons the whole emerald city isnt really emerald thing in the second book, with general jinjurs army basically taking any that they can when they take over