“A PUMPKIN, IF YOU PLEASE.” WE ‘RETURN TO OZ’ 35 YEARS LATER The story, in its theatrical version, was meant as a warning against loving or relying too much on technology. Even at the end of the film, as Dorothy is discovered on a river bank, her family reveals that her doctor died in a fire while trying to “save his machines.” There are also multiple struggles with the Gump in keeping his parts together and his own self-reported satisfaction with remaining a head on a wall, rather than an assembly of parts one could find in their garage. Return to Oz is dark and eerie; the mood is a marked shift from the sunshine and rainbows of its Judy Garland-starring predecessor. Questions of mental health, the public’s fear of electroshock therapy, squeaking wheels of the henchmen, and a villain who can swap heads (heads, it should be noted, that are all autonomous and can interact with people who admire them), and music scored by David Shire (Apocalypse Now, Zodiac, Short Circuit), all make for a moody, cryptic take on the stories. One that appears closer to Baum’s vision than previous iterations.
The Daily Ozmapolitan 