Return to Oz is a slightly disappointing effort that occupies a space far from the 1939 classic Wizard of Oz while not being close enough to the more grim source material.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 5, 2023

The look of Oz is very dreary and depressing when compared to the 1939 film, but it certainly makes up for it with its sense of adventure and fun. ... a nostalgia ride into a blissful time of innocence and care-free wonder.

| Jun 22, 2023

Entrancing in a very different way from its bright Technicolor ancestor.

| Original Score: A | Dec 2, 2022

...probably more watchable than it has any right to be (or its dire reputation might've indicated).

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 25, 2021

Taken altogether, the experience of watching Return to Oz, with its myriad nightmarish offerings, almost feels like thumbing one's nose at the prudish Disney of today.

| Jul 1, 2020

I can see why others love it but it isn't for me

| Jun 18, 2019

In Return to Oz [Fairuza Balk] and [director Walter] Murch have managed the rare feat of giving a fairy tale the illusion of reality.

| Mar 27, 2019

From just about every standpoint Return to Oz is competently executed but ill-advised. It's hard to imagine whom the filmmakers are trying to reach; it's easier to predict that filmgoers of all ages will be pretty well turned off.

| Mar 8, 2019

Return to Oz doesn't soar when it so clearly should.

| Dec 13, 2018

The basic problem with Return to Oz is its unrelieved oppressiveness, an atmosphere resulting mainly from our sense of Dorothy's constant plight.

| Dec 13, 2018

Return to Oz is the kind of movie that encourages people to rent home videotapes of The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 13, 2018

Disney recaptures the dark side of L Frank Baum's Oz stories in this exciting sequel to the 1939 classic.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 13, 2018

Return to Oz isn't a musical and doesn't match the wit and magic of the 1939 original. But it's an appealing picture on its own terms, if you can overlook a couple of big miscalculations.

| Dec 12, 2018

The new characters may not have the human qualities the others had the souls and personalities. However, they are interesting enough and true to the tales spun by Baum in The Land of Oz (1904) and Ozma of Oz (1907).

| Oct 22, 2018

"Return to Oz" won't make anyone forget "The Wizard of Oz," or even "The Neverending Story,"... Then again, it's as good an excuse as any for treating the family to popcorn.

| Jan 2, 2018

On its own merits, has some very fine cinematic flourishes... if we can but manage the herculean feat of separating it from the older movie.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 10, 2013

1985 sequel to American classic is tin-eared and creepy.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 9, 2010

Return to Oz is an astonishingly somber, melancholy and, sadly, unengaging trip back to a favorite land of almost every American's youth.

| Mar 26, 2009

Any movie in which a Midwestern prairie actually looks more attractive and more interesting than the enchanted land over the rainbow is in big trouble.

| Mar 9, 2009

Best to see them as individual films with nothing in common apart from source material, one a classic, the other a strong enough picaresque amongst some decent fabulation.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 12, 2007