Anyone remember this rather dark family film made by Disney in the mid 80's? One of Disney big bombs at the box office. Shame as I find it quite charming with the lead girl being good without hamming it up or trying too hard like some child actors do.

One of the early home videos released by Disney (and never reissued, but is on dvd now apparantly), the first half hour miht as well be from a horror movie.

fairuza balk played dorothy in this, didn't she?

Anxiety said:

Yeah. I had no idea that was her in American history X? Quite a change in lead roles LOL



She played "return to oz" with an understated style, which is unusual. On one end you got "corny" kulkin and on the other Dakota Fanning who tries a bit too hard at times, but Fairuza gets it right.

Not sure if it has the dreaded "cult" value, but its a cool film with alot of imagination, if lacking in warmth.

fairuza balk appears in lots of crazy stuff. she played the voice of a snail in crispin glover's "what is it?" movie.

Vaguely. I also recall an animated sequel, with a pumpkin-headed character.

Yeah, looking at her IMDB, I had no idea she was in "the craft" either (a movie I havn't seen in years, but was an OK teen witch sorta film).


Anyway, cool she did some other stuff. Shame "return to oz" bombed though, as she coulda done other stuff as a kid aswell.

Weird that Disney chose to make the movie darker then the beloved MGM original "wizard of oz". No songs either. Much prefer it to "wizard of oz" though. That movie is just too corny, even for me.

thesexofit said:

it's no "Breakin' 2", i'll give you that.

Anxiety said:

I love her in "The Worst Witch".

Anxiety said:

What is?

But "wizard of oz" is a classic so the history books say. I cant get into it. Even as a kid. It does have a hilarious deleted scene though.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...x6TCUNJZNc

Gets goofy after around 1:15 mark.

JuliePurplehead said:

Is this a film based on those children books about a witch school for girls? (J.K Rowling obviously read that one LOL)

Anxiety said:

yes!!! I love her

thesexofit said:

the series shows here, but I don't know if it is the same.

Those Wheelers from Return to Oz creep out my boys!

ZombieKitten said:

Wonder if its the same "worst witch" series, as they could quite easily make a new version I guess?

Anyway, yeah, the wheelers use to terrify me and my brother aswell . I remember the film was one of the first pre-recorded home videos our household owned. My older sister of course would play the lead, whilst I was delegated the silly pumpkinhead character, and my brother the moose/sofa thingy. I always remember my sister laughing when the pumpkinhead would call Dorothy Mum LOL. We grew up with that film. And me and my brother always fought over the metal character Tictok. But my sister never let us be him LOL.




I love tick tock. Damn, that film had some weird characters.

JuliePurplehead said:

With Tim Curry and Dame Diana Rigg? Wow, that's a blast from the past...

Damn that movie was scary to me as a kid.... probably would be now too.

I've not ever seen this. Looks intriguing.

I like Fairuza Balk quite a bit and recently saw her most recent effort, "Grindstone Road". It was...not good, in my opinion. I didn't even finish watching it.

ThreadBare said:

And Mrs Garrett from the Facts of Life too. It's my favorite Halloween movie.
[Edited 4/30/08 20:06pm]

Anxiety said:

didnt she play in "the craft" as well?? i just remember
seeing her pinned down in an asylum screaming
"i'm flyyyyiing im flyyying"

ZombieKitten said:

Me too!

Wow, that´s some cool info, thanks. Never heard of this before, I´m a huge fan of the Wizard of Oz. What´s this one about ? How does she return to Oz ?

ThreadBare said:

I've never heard of this either. Now I wanna check it out!

I'm a huge fan of Fairuza Balik.

emilia1 said:

Yep