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Just a little thing I did while working on Rebecca.

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Return to Oz - The Dom Reviews

The Dom takes a look at the (sort of) sequel to Wizard of Oz and talk about how well it works as a (sort of) adaptation of the books.

Comments

Anonymous

This movie is the thing that got me to read the books, and for that I will always love this movie

Anonymous

Thanks for making this. I have today off and I was just thinking, "That Rebecca review is taking a while to come out. How will I tide myself over in the meantime?" I mean, MovieBob and WiseCrack are fun too, but I prefer The Dom's channel any day of the week. ^^

Anonymous

As for the pumpkin-headed sentient scarecrow named Jack, the folklore-obsessed know-it-all in me has to say that "Jack o' the lantern" was an established English / American folk character for centuries before Return to Oz, or Nightmare Before Christmas came out. He was supposedly a ne'er-do-well everyday Jack (get it?) who tricked the Devil into agreeing never to take him to Hell, but also lived such a sinful life that he couldn't go to Heaven, so after death he was doomed to forever wander the earth as a spirit, using a burning coal inside a turnip (for UKI folklore) later pumpkin (for American folklore) to light the way, who could supposedly be seen on Halloween night when the barrier between the spirit world and physical world is thinned. That's what Jack-o-lanterns (hollowed out turnips or pumpkins with faces carved into them with candles burning inside) were named after. So, when you see a work of fiction with a sentient pumpkin-headed scarecrow named "Jack," that technically didn't start with Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was inspired by a forgotten bit of UK folklore, in the same way Tolkien's "Ring Wraiths" and Rowling's Dementors were both inspired by the Grim Reaper. =)

Anonymous

The "electro shock therapy is barbaric" thing isn't really true. There are conditions that, if done properly, electro shock therapy can help with. Not in this case admitedly by that is one stereotype that needs to die.

Anonymous

A little funny, I know the guy who animated the Gnome King.

Anonymous

OK I haven't seen or read this but... Jack looks kind of adorable!

douledamn

I really want to know what The Dom thinks of the Tin Man mini-series now. OH! Speaking of things by Hallmark Entertainment (now changed to something else 3 times over), I wonder how a Lost in Adaptation of Arabian Nights would go?

shadowscribble

I always assumed the nurse was arrested for the helping the doctor hide prior patients in the basement; "ones they had damaged." While causing harm was probably not crimes (within that "mistakes were made" kind of reason) during the early days, I would assume even back then, concealing the victims (akin to falsifying the records) was illegal as fuck.

Anonymous

Hey Mr. The Dom - I just thought I should mention that the reason the doctor's death was considered karmic justice, and that the nurse was imprisoned was explained in one of Ozma's lines - she explains the screaming and moaning that you hear all through the hospital scenes are "patients who've been damaged, and locked in the cellar." So there you go - electronic lobotomies and false imprisonment. Also, I don't think the nurse was trying to save the children from the river, she was trying to prevent them from escaping.

Anonymous

I watched this movie as a kid and the Wheelers scared the bejeezuz out of me. I think they're pretty goofy now, but I still get that tingle of fear just a little because of my initial fear of them. This is still one of my fave Oz adaptions, second only to the 1940 movie.

E. P. Haury

So, does this count as this book adaptation being covered? The movie seems well gone over, but the two books are only briefly mentioned in comparison and could be examined in a full LiA episode. I could see the decision going either way. Just want to know if its still in play.