o dear god , please don't let this happen. wizard of oz followup... (1 Viewer)

[John Kilduff]

When I see the title "Surrender Dorothy", all I can think of is another 1985 release, Martin Scorcese's "After Hours". Those of you who have seen the movie will know what I'm talking about.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

Actually, "After Hours" itself is sort of a New York version of "Wizard Of Oz"...I read that thought on the IMDB, and it makes sense.

 

[Tom Rhea]

re: Return to Oz

IMDB lists Fairuza Balk as Dorothy and Nicol (no "e") Williamson as Dr. J.B. Worley/Nome (no "g") King.

 

[Gavin_L]

i thought return to oz was pretty good, except It scared me when i watched when i was little. A sequal will never be the same as the original, but if they do this upcoming sequal right it will be pretty good i bet.

 

[Steve Phillips]

There was talk at one point of Elizabeth Taylor playing an older Dorothy. I think SHE was the one going around talking about wanting to do that. Can you image how awful that would have been? I bet it would have become a camp classic.

 

[ThomasC]

i'm not sure if he'd be up to this, but i think peter jackson would be a great choice to do a non-musical version of the wonderful wizard of oz and some of the stories that followed it. this is based on my very limited knowledge of all of baum's oz books, so if you think i'm crazy, now you know why.

 

[Vickie_M]

) Not surprisingly, there are a few fans of this film. I say "not surprisingly" because if the Internet has taught us anything (and it hasn't) it's that there's a fan of every film.

Have you SEEN it? That's a bit rude if you haven't seen it.
It's a great film, and doesn't deserve the pounding it always gets from people who haven't seen it, or who couldn't let go of the first movie when they saw it. It's much closer to the books than the Judy Garland version, and it was directed by the brilliant Walter Murch. He and everyone involved put their heart and soul into the movie, and it shows, though not appreciated enough.
It's a wonderful film. Yes, it's dark. The BOOKS are dark. I agree that if a person doesn't like Return to Oz then they certainly wouldn't like the original Baum books, and in that case they should stick with the happy shiny Judy Garland film. That's a movie I love too, btw, because I grew up with it, but it sure isn't Baum's Oz. Return to Oz is.
Ha, I caught the After Hours reference.
I have no opinion on the possible Drew Barrymore thing. We'll see what happens, if it happens.

 

[Ryan Peter]

Wasn't there a black wizard of oz staring Janet Jackson, with attacking vacuum cleaners? I think it was called "The Wiz".

 

[Chris]

I'm pretty sure there was also an animated Return to Oz type movie.. with an evil villain that was a pumpkin headed guy.. I'm trying to think of the full title...

 

[Brian Kidd]

First of all, those of you who keep calling the Garland film "the original" are sorely mistaken. Baum himself produced a couple of Oz flims in the early part of the 1900's. The MGM film was actually something like the fourth or fifth Oz movie. While it is most certainly a classic, it is about as unlike the Oz books as you can get. RETURN TO OZ was much closer to the source material in look and overall texture.

The Black version of OZ was THE WIZ, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. An odd film, but with stunning set design and wonderful songs.

There have been several Oz animated films including one starring Liza Minnelli and Ethel Merman.

I also own a great live-theatrical version of THE MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ produced in the early 80's. Worth searching out!

 

[Brenton]

Quote:

That sounds like Journey Back to Oz, a strange animated film from 1974. Pumpkinhead wasn't a villain actually, but in that film, Dorothy's first encounter with him might have been a bit of a scare for younger viewers (he sneaks up behind her).

 

[Seth Paxton]

When people start asking "wasn't there some black version of Oz?", I know I'm getting old.
I thought the Wiz was a well-established film in pop culture, despite it's BO take. I mean I thought anything Michael Jackson from the "good years" was common knowledge.
Not an insult on anyone because it's much more a case of me forgetting that people were born well after me (any of you youngsters will see once you turn the 30 corner ).
"Wasn't there a film about boxing in basements with Jennifer Anniston's husband?" might one day be a sentence you will hear.
I also liked Journey Back to Oz (or maybe it was the 1980 "Oz" cartoon I saw...one of those from the 70's or so). Both it and Return to Oz intrigued me because it was such a twist on what I'd known before, and the effect of it being different than the more popular film and full of weird characters stuck me as being very much like all the Alice in Wonderland variations.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

When people start asking "wasn't there some black version of Oz?", I know I'm getting old.

"Hey look at this old record, Paul McCartney was in some other band before Wings....."

 

[Vickie_M]

"Hey look at this old record, Paul McCartney was in some other band before Wings....."

"Paul McCartney was in a band called Wings?"

 

[Hendrik]

"Paul McCartney was in a band called Wings?"
...who's "Paul McCartney" ?
. . . . . .

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

"Wasn't there a film about boxing in basements with Jennifer Anniston's husband?"

There's a great quote related to that from a famous film director on a Criterion LD that I will not name (to avoid spoiling it for anyone who hasn't seen it) where he says that he has no illusions that the film is great art, but he will be really happy if in a decade two guys at an office meet at the water cooler and say

guy number one: Hey, I saw that head-in-the-box movie last night on late night TV.

guy number two: I remember the head-in-the-box movie! It was creepy!

Or something like that. Pardon my paraphrasing, I haven't listened to the track in probably four or five years.