Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return

• Directed by Daniel St. Pierre and Will Finn
• June 14, 2013 (AIAFF) / May 9, 2014 (US)
• Loosely based on the 1989 book Dorothy of Oz by Roger Stanton Baum

Voice Cast

• Dorothy Gale-Lea Michele
• Scarecrow-Dan Aykroyd
• Lion-Jim Belushi
• Tin Woodman-Kelsey Grammer
• Jester, Appraiser-Martin Short
• Marshal Mallow-Hugh Dancy
• China Princess, Mouse Queen-Megan Hilty
• Wiser-Oliver Platt
• Tugg/Tank-Patrick Stewart
• Glinda-Bernadette Peters
• Aunt Em-Tacey Adams
• Uncle Henry-Michael Krawic
• You, China Handmaiden-Randi Soyland
• Judge Jawbreaker-Brian Blessed
• Fruit Stripe Lawyer-Douglas Hodge
• Lollipop Stenographer-Debi Derryberry
• China Guard, Kansas Sheriff-Randy Crenshaw
• First Minister, Winkie Suitor-Randal Keith
• Munchkin Suitor-Richard Horvitz
• China Suitor-Tom Kenny
• Multiple Voices-Leonard Dozier
• Flying Monkey vocal effects-Scott Menville, Alan Shearman, Randi Soyland, and Flip Waterman

Dorothy is brought back to Oz to save her friends from an evil jester taking over the magical land.

Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return is a CGI feature from 2013 that painfully demonstrates how poorly this type of animation can age. Or maybe it never looked good in the first place. Visually this looks like quite a few direct-to-DVD CGI features I have seen aimed at the family audience. The colors are bland and a bit washed. Like many of those offerings the characters are visually designed to be as inoffensive as possible with the humor being quite broad.

Like Return to Oz and other random assorted features over the years this positions itself (or tries to) as a sort of sequel to MGM’s The Wizard of Oz without the actually being a sequel to the movie. Like others events take place after Dorothy’s initial trip to Oz-whatever that may be in the context of the film. If you can’t get the rights or wish to update the story in some way, then you need to do what amounts to an origin movie. I can’t imagine a child or adult that can let such riding of coattails go for the whole experience.

This story talks down to the viewer. The MGM classic may have been a family film, but it never thought children watching could not handle some darker stuff. That movie still gets intense and even packs in some symbolism. Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return is simplistic and cloying. It’s not comfort food. It’s not even junk food.

Superficially a musical but none of the songs are that good. They’re not terrible, but they just feel generic. They don’t help to tell the story or emphasize a specific moment. They are just ballads the assorted actors get to do to make it technically a musical.

The Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Woodman are essentially the leaders of the Emerald City in the Land of Oz. Important to this movie then right? Beyond kidnapping Dorothy via a rainbow bridge to bring her back, they’re not a big deal here. This is more about introducing new characters who don’t have that same resonance or connection to the audience. The overweight owl Wiser and marshmallow official Marshal Mallow are not all that interesting or very endearing.

There are some parallels between Oz and Kansas. Oz is being threatened by an evil jester trying to take over. In Kansas an appraiser that never even gets a name has been portraying himself as a government representative condemning every home and getting the very gullible locals to sign paperwork just so the Kansas story can happen. Both have vaguely similar goals but beyond both being voiced by Martin Short they are solidly linked.

Not resident one took a closer look at his credentials? There are a lot of people in those cars leaving and nobody but Dorothy had the good sense to take ask for identification? And even if he tricked them into signing the documents, it seems a bit too unrealistic to tear up the documents and pretend everything is okay. I’m not saying that them getting their homes back shouldn’t be the outcome of the story, but it just bothers me that they do that and that’s really the end of things. Not even an arrest by the sheriff.

With many talented actors present you would think the voice work would be superb but no. Brian Blessed and Tom Kenny aside, none of the more famous names can create characters with their voice alone. That is something the Peter Cullens or Frank Welkers know how to do. Hiring a celebrity may get a few butts in the seat. It just does not guarantee a good performance since they are used to using their whole body rather than just their words and tone.

Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return may be okay for very small children, but adults or even slightly older kids will not have a good time. So very bad and boring. Skip.