Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return

Given how many sequels, prequels, and re-imaginings that the entertainment industry has given us of The Wizard of Oz story lately, Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return is a pretty good indication that we're starting to scrape the bottom of the inspirational well.  While the animated feature never outright offends, it's just so bland and ordinary that it never excites either, not even with its visuals.  Very little kids in the single digit range will enjoy it.  Adults will probably find themselves looking at their watches as much as the screen.

As the film opens, young Dorothy Gale (voiced by Lea Michele from TV's Glee) finds that her beloved Kansas farmhouse, and pretty much her entire town, has been destroyed by the tornado that famously took her off to the land of Oz.  A shady Appraiser (an over the top Martin Short) condemns her farmhouse, forcing poor Aunt Em and Uncle Henry to pack up and move.  As Dorothy wonders how she can fix things in a bland musical number (the first of many, co-written by Canadian rocker Bryan Adams), she and Toto are suddenly whisked back to Oz by a rainbow transport beam devised by her old friend, The Scarecrow (Dan Aykroyd).  It seems that Oz is in trouble again, this time from the threat of an evil Jester (Martin Short again, just as over the top), who happens to be the younger brother of the Wicked Witch Dorothy defeated.  He has somehow obtained her broomstick, which gives him the power to conquer all of Oz, and transform anyone who opposes him into lifeless marionette dolls who are forced to do his bidding.

He's already used his powers to transform Glinda the Good Witch (a mechanical Bernadette Peters), and by the time Dorothy arrives in Oz, her old friends the Scarecrow, Tin Man (Kelsey Grammer) and Lion (James Belushi) have been captured by the Jester's flying monkeys.  It's time for Dorothy to once again make her way down the Yellow Brick Road, and save the land.  This time, she's joined up by a rather large owl named Wiser (Oliver Platt) who can't fly very well, a well-meaning candy soldier named Marshall Mallow (Hugh Dancy), a spoiled China doll princess (Megan Hilty, who incidentally played Glinda in the Broadway production of Wicked a few years back), and a wise old tree named Tugg (Patrick Stewart, cashing a paycheck) who is so old and ancient, he doesn't mind being the source material for Dorothy and her friends to make a boat when they need to cross a river. 

Despite the rather grand-sounding title, Legends of Oz doesn't feature anything too thrilling or dangerous for Dorothy and her companions to traverse on their mission.  The bulk of the film is made up mostly of leaden jokes, and bland pop songs that are sung well by the talented cast, but leave your head almost as soon as they're done.  None of the classic characters resonate through the uninspired screenplay, either.  Dorothy is now your ordinary plucky little heroine with a "never give up" attitude.  The other returning characters aren't on screen long enough to make much of an impression.  Of Dorothy's new friends, Wiser, Marshall Mallow, and the China doll princess get a couple cute moments, but don't add up to much.  Unfortunately, it's the evil Jester who seems to get the most screen time, and thanks to Martin Short's constant shouting, a little bit of him goes a long way.

It would at least be something if the filmmakers could make the visuals stand out, but much like everything else about the project, the look is largely second rate.  From the sometimes off-putting character designs (Glinda resembles a plastic Barbie doll), to the somewhat limited animation, the overall style of the film is that of a cheap straight to DVD project that somehow got a theatrical release.  This is obviously intended to be a movie parents can put on the TV so they can get 90 minutes or so to themselves, which makes a theatrical run seem kind of pointless.  With heavy hitters like Frozen and The Lego Movie still fresh in audiences' minds, people are starting to expect more from theatrical animation.  At least I'd like to think so.  The practically vacant theater that accompanied my screening seems to support my thought.

Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return is the kind of cheap cash-in project that doesn't really do anything horribly, but it also doesn't do anything right at the same time.  Given the amount of effort and talent it takes to make an animated feature, you have to wonder why the filmmakers didn't aim higher.  If you cut corners, as these people obviously did, you're just going to end up with something that's instantly forgotten.

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