Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2013) Dan Aykroyd, James Belushi, Kelsey Grammer, Lea Michele, Martin Short, Bernadette Peters Movie Review

Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2013)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2013)

Return for a Refund

Having not even been back in the tornado torn Kansas for 24 hours Dorothy finds herself drawn in to a rainbow by her old friends the Scarecrow, the Lion, the Tin Man and Glinda as in Oz it has been years and there is trouble brewing thanks to an evil Jester. Now back in Oz Dorothy finds herself with some new friends including Wiser the owl and Tugg the tugboat as they try to restore harmony to the Emerald City whilst taking on some familiar bad guys in the flying monkeys.

Do you know why a movie fan would make a bad studio boss? Because there are times when profit has to come before sentiment and so when faced with an opportunity to make money off of a classic many a movie fan couldn't do it. It is why if I was in charge of a studio and someone said lets make an animated sequel to the classic "The Wizard of Oz" I would just tell them kicked out without listening to their idea because you just don't mess with the original unless you are genuinely ambitious. Having said all that I hope it is no surprise when I say that "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return" bordered on being a travesty for me.

Now for me "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return" achieves just two things, making money off of "The Wizard of Oz" and also making money off of "Frozen" as it tries to combine both to appeal to a young crowd. Maybe it is a success for a young audience who will find an animated Lion, Scarecrow, Tinman and Dorothy entertaining but for me these were extremely weakly drawn. In fact not only did the animating of those familiar characters fail but the new characters are just as poor and the whole thing ends up dumbed down to an uncomfortable level including the cheerful and frankly vacuous musical numbers.

But clearly "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return" was not made for anyone who is over the age of 15 and have cherished childhood memories of watching "The Wizard of Oz". Now trying to think how this would come across for a young audience I have a feeling that young children will enjoy it. It is colourful, noisy, features some quirky characters and familiar voices including Lea Michele which I am sure would lead some of the Glee crowd to watch this.

What this all boils down to is that "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return" didn't work for me but I am pretty sure young children will find it a fun distraction. It makes "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return" a business decision movie as due to its connections it should make a profit even if it upsets some people along the way.


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