Journey Back to Oz
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Movie Reviews of Journey Back to Oz
Movie Review: Excellent Hand Crafted Animated Sequel
Summary: 5 Stars
This is old fashioned hand crafted animation at it's best. Sure it was made on a lower budget than Disney(most Filmation Animation was)but it is still lovingly crafted and charming. It also features a fifteen year old Liza Minnelli picking up where her mother left off. A must for Oz fans. Wonderful.
Review submitted by James"alice fan"
Movie Review: must see DVD for all Oz fans
Summary: 5 Stars
this movie is all that and more
I saw this as a boy with my grandmother in the theater and later on TV.
I have always been a huge Ethel Merman fan and her Mombi is right on
the best song to me is an elephant never forgets.
this is a must see for any fan of the old classic cartoons
Movie Review: wonderful childhood favorite
Summary: 5 Stars
This brings back happy memories! Journey Back to Oz was a wonderful part of my childhood. I loved watching it on TV as a kid. It's a great sequel with wonderful songs and a fantastic cast. I'm very happy that Journey Back to Oz is available on DVD.Movie Review: A RESPECTABLE ANIMATED SEQUEL
Summary: 4 Stars
To hear Lou Scheimer, Hal Sutherland, and Fred Ladd tell it (and they do prattle and yack on endlessly during a dotty DVD commentary track), you would think that "JOURNEY BACK TO OZ" is equal in every way to MGM'S 1939
masterpiece "THE WIZARD OF OZ." It isn't... but it is a respectable animated sequel. Wacked out Sutherland keeps referring to "THE WIZARD OF OZ" as "The Judy Garland Version."
In L. Frank Baum's book "THE LAND OF OZ", Wicked Witch Mombi attempts to take over Emerald City and destroy the Scarecrow. She is defeated by a boy named Tip, Jack Pumpkinhead, and Woodenhead the Horse. Tip turns out to be a girl who Mombi transformed into a boy. Tip is actually Ozma, the rightful ruler of Oz, before the Humbug Wizard blew in. Sutherland and Ladd keep this basic plot structure, omit Tip/Ozma entirely, and put Dorothy in his/her place.
For the film, Dorothy (beautifully voiced by Liza Minnelli) is back in Kansas. She starts to get that old feeling for Oz; a cyclone blows her and Toto back, and she battles Mombi, etc.
"JOURNEY BACK" had quite a journey itself. The excellent voice cast was recorded in 1960. But lack of finances delayed the film for well over a decade. "JOURNEY BACK" was finally finished and had a small theatrical release around 1974. Apparently, nobody saw it. Scheimer, Sutherland, and Ladd sound understandably proud that the film has finally appeared on DVD. While not as magical as in the 1939 MGM live-action masterpiece, Oz is nicely depicted in animation here. The animation is much better than the Hanna-Barbera cheap and quick, Saturday morning TV show style. Apparently, a few of the animators who worked on "JOURNEY BACK" were former employees of Disney Studios. The animation was intially began overseas, while the voice cast was recorded in New York City and Los Angeles.
I am certainly no fan of that overblown Broadway hag Ethel Merman. But, having said that, Ethel is perfectly cast as animated hag /Witch Mombi. She looks and sounds frightening. Margaret Hamilton, the original Wicked Witch Of The West in 1939, is briefly heard here as the voice of Aunt Em in Kansas. Paul Lynde is excellent as the voice of (Jack) Pumpkinhead. Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland's old partner at MGM, replaced a mis-cast Peter Lawford, as the voice of the Scarecrow. It is disappointing that (the added in to the film's plot) old friends The Tin Man and Cowardly Lion essentially whimp out on Dorothy when she asks them to help. Glinda (voiced here by opera star Rise Stevens) reappears to tell Dorothy she only has herself to rely on and sing a ho-hum slow ballad.
At least "JOURNEY BACK" does not commit the unforgivable cinematic sins of the 1985 Disney live-action disaster "RETURN TO OZ." In that hideous film, (AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS) Aunt Em and Uncle Henry take Dorothy in for electric-shock therapy to have all memories of Oz removed from her mind!! Dorothy subsequently escapes to an Oz in serious dis-repair, devoid of joy and music. While the songs in "JOURNEY BACK" by Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen may not be of the same quality, as the perfectly integrated, Academy- Award winning "THE WIZARD OF OZ" score by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, it is still nice to hear Liza Minnelli sing such songs as "Keep A Happy Thought," "That Far-Away Land," and "Feeling For Home" in perfect "Dorothy Gale From Kansas" style. Apparently, Liza has exspressed regret in participating in "JOURNEY BACK." True, she sounds almost exactly like her mother Judy Garland did in 1939 here... but there's nothing wrong with that, especially not in this instance. In fact, the vocal similarity is likely the primary reason she was cast to "voice" Dorothy in the first place.
I recommend "JOURNEY BACK TO OZ" to fans of Liza Minnelli-- and for Oz fans who would like another adventure/trip. After all, L. Frank Baum wrote 14 Oz book sequels himself.
Movie Review: a much sought-after movie finally gets released on DVD...
Summary: 4 Stars
JOURNEY BACK TO OZ is a thoroughly delightful animated musical-sequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ, the big highlight being that Liza Minnelli voices the role of Dorothy (the role that catapulted her mother Judy Garland into the annals of film history).
Of course, no animated film could ever replicate the magic and scope of the 1939 masterpiece, but let's not carp. For what it sets out to achieve, JOURNEY BACK TO OZ delivers handsomely.
Dorothy (Liza Minnelli) gets swept back to Oz via another cyclone, and quickly sets about finding her old friends the Scarecrow (Mickey Rooney), Tin Man (Danny Thomas) and Cowardly Lion (Milton Berle). Instead, Dorothy discovers to her horror that an evil witch called Mombi (Ethel Merman) is plotting to invade the Emerald City with a hoard of enchanted green elephants.
With new friends; Jack Pumpkinhead (Paul Lynde) and Woodenhead the carousel horse (Herschel Bernardi), and some guidance from Glinda (Rise Stevens); Dorothy sets out to thwart Mombi and save her old friends from destruction.
The score by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy van Heusen contains some gems; Liza Minnelli sings "There's a Faraway Land" and "That Feeling for Home", whilst Ethel Merman camps it up with "Be a Witch" and Rise Stevens delivers Glinda's "You Have Only You" to perfection.
Another cute twist is Margaret Hamilton (who played the Wicked Witch and Miss Gulch in the original Judy Garland classic) voicing the role of Aunt Em!
Originally made and recorded by the Filmation Company in 1962, it was curiously kept out of cinemas until 1974. This new Special Edition from Brentwood marks the movie's DVD debut.
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