This Wasn’t Our Grandparents’ Oz
The Wizard of Oz fascinated generations of children who skipped down sidewalks singing “We’re Off To See The Wizard,” but the 1985 sequel Return to Oz had kids desperately clicking their heels together to wish themselves as far away from this movie as possible. That’s probably why it was a commercial flop in the US and failed to generate even half of the money spent to produce it.
Return to Oz didn’t take many cues from its predecessor. Rather than wowing with the familiar colorful characters and backdrops, it horrified viewers with its gloomy post-apocalyptic Emerald City populated by the spine-chilling Wheelers and the Princess Mombi who collects disembodied heads. The movie earned its status as a cult classic, but many still refuse to touch it with a ten-foot pole.