I’m mere hours away from a midnight screening at the Landmark Egyptian Theater and I can’t wait! Return to Oz is maybe the darkest Disney movie ever and one of my personal favorites. Critics panned it (Siskel and Ebert called it one of the worst movies of 1985) but weird kids like myself continue to call it a beloved classic.
As a little girl, I had to cover my eyes during Mombi’s scenes, she absolutely paralyzed me with fear. This didn’t stop me from watching the movie over and over but it’s funny to think about how scared I’d get. Now I think Mombi is like a glam rock superstar, one of fantasy’s greatest lady villains. More great details: the courtyard of statues, Tik-Tok’s brass mustache, the menacing wheelers, lunch pail trees, emerald ornaments, Ozma’s tiara, limestone cakes and melted silver. What a fool Dorothy is for leaving Oz AGAIN!
[All photos from this awesome Flickr]
hometown unicorn 
So jealous! I would love to see Return to Oz on a big screen.
It was so great! The theater sound system made the screeching wheels even scarier. :)
Um, can we just discuss the Wheelers? The terri-fucking-fying WHEELERS?!!! I also want to re-watch this now. mayeb as an adult I’ll be able to cope :)
You know, the Wheelers scare me more as an adult. As a kid, I thought they were like hostile clowns- mean but goofy. In theater surround sound the screeching wheels were really unnerving though! My friend hated them as a kid and after we left the show he said, ‘That was just as terrifying as I remember.’ oOoOoooo.