Return to Oz

Return to Oz (1985)

Timing: 1:49 (109 min)

6.7/10
982

7.091/10
1408

6.7/10
29706

All about film

Video 1

Photo 26

Actors and characters

Release date

1985-06-21

Country

United Kingdom, United States

Production

Silver Screen Partners II, Oz Productions Ltd.

Genre

Adventure, Family, Fantasy

Budget

$25 000 000

Revenue

$11 137 801

Website

http://movies.disney.com/return-to-oz

Director

Walter Murch

Actors

Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, Matt Clark, Sean Barrett, Denise Bryer, Brian Henson, Lyle Conway, Justin Case
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Paul Maslansky, Gary Kurtz

Operator

David Watkin

Composer

David Shire

Artist

Audition

Jane Feinberg, Mike Fenton, Marci Liroff

Editing

Leslie Hodgson
All team (69)

• Fairuza Balk performed all the stunts herself.
• The first film with the new Walt Disney Pictures logo featuring the rainbow and castle.
• To move his legs, Michael Sandin (1961-1989) stood inside the Tick-Tock costume upside down and facing backwards.
• The actress Fairuza Balk’s slippers were handmade with imitation rubies, and their magical appearance was enhanced by the use of rotoscoping during post-production. Glass beads imported from Austria and glued on with a special spray were used as rubies. This later caused problems, as the heat from the set lights melted the adhesive, and the beads began to fall off the slippers during the actress's movements. Eventually, the slippers were only put on immediately before filming. The actress later kept one pair of the slippers for herself.
• Disney fired director Walter Murch approximately a week after filming began due to financial concerns. Furthermore, it turned out that the filming was behind schedule. Murch turned to friends Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas for help, and they persuaded Disney to rehire Murch. Lucas even promised to become the director himself if Murch fell behind schedule again. Murch stayed on schedule, but the studio leadership changed during post-production. The new leadership showed no interest in the project, resulting in minimal advertising before its release and a limited theatrical run.
• To feature the ruby slippers in the film, Disney had to pay royalties to MGM, the studio that released Victor Fleming’s (1889-1949) “The Wizard of Oz” in 1939. The ruby slippers are not mentioned in the original book by L. Frank Baum (1856-1919). They were invented in 1939 specifically for the newly invented “Technicolor” technology. In the book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” (1900), Dorothy wears magical silver shoes and loses them upon returning to Kansas. In the book “Ozma of Oz” (1907), one of the source materials for this film, Dorothy and her friends meet King Nom, who possesses a magical belt with properties similar to those of the silver shoes. This was also mentioned in one of the early drafts of the screenplay for “Return to Oz,” according to which King Nom cut up the ruby slippers and made himself a magical belt.
• Once, Walter Murch invited his friend George Lucas to visit the set. Lucas came, and at one point began walking around the soundstage, where he met Rick McCallum, who was working on a project of his own. Lucas and McCallum became friends and later even worked together on the Star Wars prequels.
• While working on this film, Walter Murch did not intend to shoot a sequel to Victor Fleming's "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) as such.
• Initially, the characters who became the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion in the Russian adaptation were intended to play more significant roles, but due to budget constraints, their roles had to be reduced to episodic ones.
• During post-production, Emma Ridley (who played Ozma) was re-voiced by the director's daughter, Beatrice Murch. It was decided that Ridley's own voice sounded too British.
• During the filming of one of the scenes at the end of the film, actress Fairuza Balk became ill from the heat. The temperature in the pavilion exceeded 43 degrees Celsius, and the actress fainted.