Film Review For Return to Oz

Film Review For ‘Return to OZ’

Return to Oz is a film that was designed as a sequel to the Wizard of Oz, it was substantially more scary than the first instalment.

Looking at the mise en scene in the beginning half of the film makes it very clear how alot of the elements later onin the film came

The film is trying to portray the idea that there is nothing wrong with imagination and that crazy things can happen in your mind that parents simply do not understand. the film also represents how imaginative you can be as a child which is later lost when you grow up. about. We learn that Oz is in fact a figment of Dorothy’s imagination but this time ultimately more frightful. In both movies there has been a fine line between distinguishing what it reality and what is Dorothy’s fantasy. In the first film the viewers took the journey with Dorothy and were made to believe that this world of Oz was real. In the second film the viewer was taken into a new layer of the film when watch carefully you are shown that in fact the world of Oz is a fantasy land derived from experiences and different images she took in before her accident.

When watching the film carefully and taking in all the minor details of the mise en scene a clear connection can be made for most things that are apparent in the film proving that oz is all made up.

The narrative begins with Dorothy being taken to shock therapy because Aunt Em does not believe her that she took an adventure to oz and that she will be fixed with shock therapy making her ‘dreams’ go away. This shows how civilization was in the 1900’s because children where deemed as crazy if they were found to be too imaginative, the imagination was an idea that was at that time not thoroughly explored. Dorothy does however show quite odd behaviour, seeing girls in mirror reflections and thinking chickens can talk?

The point is that that Is an ambiguity to what we choose the believe like for example the key that Dorothy finds on the farm which she believes is a key to oz.

You could choose to believe that the key is just a normal key OR you could choose to believe that key says OZ.

The first sign that Dorothy’s trip to oz is conjured up from her everyday life is the main characters, firstly the doctor who will be performing the shock therapy.

Dorothy is obviously frightened by this man because he is wishing to perform a treatment that she is unfamiliar with and probably quite scared of. Due to this fear the doctor obviously becomes the villain in her imagination, The Gnome King.

Note the resemblance between the two faces they are undoubtedly being played by the same actor. They also both have the same wooden smoking pipe; the smoking pipe could connote him as a gentleman of age and upper class and importance because in them days you were deemed very important to be smoking a pipe as it was more for upper class men rather than working class.

This is the man who took over Oz after Dorothy left for the first time Dorothy sees the doctor as the man in charge so it is easy to see how he is translated into the ruler in the Land of Oz

A connection can be made, much like the doctor is trying to destroy Dorothy’s mind the Gnome king is trying to destroy Oz which is essentially Dorothy’s imagination.

Next is Nurse Wilson who also translates into an evil character in oz. In the hospital the nurse is essentially a minion to the doctor who is also the case in oz. Nurse Wilson has pointy shoulders and stone cold looks which could connote evil as this is such costume worn by a villain. She also always carries a key attached to her at all times.

Nurse Wilson is in fact evil princess Mambi in oz who also keeps a key on her at all times in order to unlock her many cabinets of heads. However her original head is that of Nurse Wilson.

Next is the wheelers which is obviously derived from a greater fear of Dorothy’s because they are translated both from physical memory and from sound. The wheelers are taken from the men who wheel round the gurneys in the hospital; the noise that is made from the wheelers is the same as the noise from the gurneys squeaking wheels in the hospital. Not only do they sound the same they also slightly look the same. This sound must have haunted dorothy so it is no wonder it comes back to scare her in the land of oz, the wheelers are also arguably the scariest part of the film.

They are pale and creepy looking men in the hospital who wear 1900 scrubs which are extremely long at the back and kind of look like strait jackets which could connote insanity, the wheelers do have quite insane personalities also. There extremely long coats perfectly resemble the orderlies in the real world.

The wheeler basically resembles what a cross between a gurney and a man would look like, he also has the same face as the man in the hospital.

Next are the characters that have become Dorothy’s friends in oz, firstly the electroshock therapy machine.

The doctor points out in the movie that the machine has a face in order to show her that it is not a scary machine at all. The machine must also be wound up much like her friend in the land of oz, the ticking noise both machines make is also identical.

Here is tick tock who is obviously a mimic of the electro shock therapy machine who comes with specific gears that require him to be wound up like the real version.

Also in the hospital Dorothy meets a young girl with blonde hair who we can only assume is another patient from the hospital.

We are never told who she is or whether she is a figment of Dorothy’s imagination or not but she runs around barefoot which could connote freedom and being at one with nature. The girl tells Dorothy about the “damaged” patients screaming in the basement and tells Dorothy to escape. Dorothy is kept afloat by a crate in the river which supposedly takes them to oz.

At the end of the film the same young girl is made new ruler of Oz. There Is a scene were Dorothy wishes she could be at home and in oz a the same time which is where this girl comes through the mirror. This poses the question whether she is Dorothy for the Land of Oz, so that someone can be in charge of course. This is suggested by the many times that Dorothy and this girl are shown as each other’s reflections.

We have however met this girl again before names ‘Ozma’ – which I believe stands of mother of oz. This is when she brings in a pumpkin in celebration of the upcoming Halloween holiday.

Of course Dorothy has remembered this and the jack-o-lantern gets transformed into the poor mans version of a scarecrow, Jack pumpkinhead.

I feel Ozma stands for mother of Oz because Jack speaks fondly of his mother who we later on find out is Ozma. This makes sense in the real world because Ozma brought the pumpkin to Dorothy in the first place.

Finally Gump, the deer head - which is shown over the shoulder of Nurse Wilson in one scene at the beginning of the film.

The deer head becomes the perfect inspiration for Dorothy’s flying couch called Gump.

That is all the friends and enemies that had taken inspiration from the real world and became features in Dorothy’s imagination but there are also a few more connections that I found interesting upon viewing.

Firstly the lunch pail which Aunt Em left for Dorothy at the hospital which the evil nurse says isn’t necessary. It is a possibility that the reason Dorothy conjured up a lunch pail tree in Oz is because she was promised food she never got and perhaps was quite hungry.

There are many more points of interest including the green leafy plants in the asylum which perfectly mirror those in Mambis room which get turned into wings for the flying machine. Also the couch in the asylum is exactly the same in oz which again is used for the flying apparatus used to escape Mambis castle - finally the trinkets which are on the desk at the beginning which correspond to the trinkets I the room where they are trying to find the scarecrow. These are the parts of the mise en scene which I found most interesting, I'm sure there are more the closer you look into the film. This shows how nothing in the mise en scene is done by accident and how a film is graphed to connote specific meanings, If the mise en scene where changed in any such way these meanings could have completely different representations.

Another interesting connection is that when staying in the hospital Dorothy’s room number is number 31. Much like princess Mambis head cabinets, because the princess has 30 different heads her original head number must be 31, therefore where does her original head stay?

When Oz returns to normal Princess Mambi is lead of in a large cage through the Emerald City. She is again shown in the real world in a jail cage at the end of the film when Dorothy regains consciousness and finds out that the asylum burnt down. This part does not make complete sense as it doesn’t stick the recurring theme of the rest of the film. This part suggests that Dorothy is looking into the future? As the incident in the Land of Oz happened before it did in the real world...

I think the film maker may have done this to confuse the audience after watching the whole film and deciding whether to believe in oz or not and then having the idea flipped on its head as this is thrown into the mix?

Maybe the audience isn’t supposed to know the 100% truth of whether oz is real or just a dream.