In 1985, Disney released a sequel to 1939’s The Wizard of Oz, with production involvement from legends of cinema George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. It was directed by Oscar winner Walter Murch and starred a 9-year-old Fairuza Balk (who later went on to star in The Craft) as Dorothy. With that pedigree, you’d think an ‘Oz’ sequel would be a slam dunk, but this film did not have the celebrated reaction we later saw with ‘Wicked’. When the movie was released, parents stormed out of cinemas with their kids, saying it was more like a horror movie than something for children. It bombed at the time, but has since become a cult classic, this is just the gist of the 1985 sequel to The Wizard of Oz that Disney considers a complete disaster they would rather forget - Return To Oz.
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Return To Oz trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBPKgAXA-28
Guardian article ‘Hear Me Out: Why Return To Oz Isn’t A Bad Movie’ (2021): https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/feb/11/hear-me-out-why-return-to-oz-isnt-a-bad-movie
The Hollywood Reporter article: How George Lucas Saved Return To Oz (2024): https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/how-george-lucas-saved-return-to-oz-1235866485/
BBB article ‘How Return To Oz became one of the darkest children’s films ever made’ (2025)
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250616-the-darkest-childrens-film-ever-made
Interview with Walter Murch on the ‘It Happened In Hollywood’ podcast (2024): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/walter-murch-return-to-oz/id1437795866?i=1000651291941
‘Remembering Return To Oz’ documentary (2021):
https://www.rememberingreturntooz.com/
The Siskel and Ebert review (1985):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24kiDP1WRr4
Return To Oz wikipedia:
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