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YMMV / Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return

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  • Awesome Music:
  • Critical Dissonance: On Rotten Tomatoes, the reviews from professional critics were 15% fresh, while audience reviews were 86% fresh. Although even then it is alleged that it was the product of Astroturfing.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: The major plotline in the Kansas portion of the film involves a crooked appraiser trying to scam the town's residents out of their money, with Dorothy explicitly pointing out that the victims haven't read the terms of his contract. After its disastrous release, it was revealed that the majority of the film's budget came from the producers convincing people to invest their life savings into the project, while downplaying or outright covering up the possible risks.
  • Moral Event Horizon: When the Jester is introduced, he comes across at first as your average, everyday Laughably Evil type. However, when he reveals his collection of puppets (who once had souls) and steals Glinda's soul and turns her into another of his puppets... let's just say Beware the Silly Ones would be putting it lightly.
  • Overshadowed by Controversy: Thanks in no small part to AniMat's video essay on the subject, this relatively obscure Box Office Bomb has become far more infamous due to its shady production history. This includes the film's producers allegedly scamming people into investing their money on the project, which led to these investors filing a lawsuit against them in 2019.
  • Questionable Casting: Hugh Dancy as Marshal Mallow, especially since Season 2 of Hannibal was wrapping up around the time the movie came out.
  • The Scrappy:
  • So Okay, It's Average: People who give this film a chance will find that it's neither the worthy sequel to the 1939 film it fancies itself to be, nor the Foodfight!-level piece of hackwork you'd expect from its shambolic production history — it's basically a pleasant, if flawed kid's film with a surprisingly strong cast, the animation is lively if comparatively low-budget, and it arguably ranks above many other attempted Wizard of Oz cash-ins for bringing a number of elements from the books that weren't featured in the 1939 film while also feeling like a somewhat plausible sequel to the 1939 film.
  • Strangled by the Red String: "Even Then" might be a nice song, but it's kind of wasted as the love song for Mallow and the China Princess, who had maybe two lines of interaction and a couple of "This guy/girl might not be a complete waste" glances as their entire build-up.
  • Strawman Has a Point: As Musical Hell pointed out in her review, the appraiser — while still abrasive and crooked — is perfectly justified in listing the Gale home as uninhabitable and dangerous, at least for the time being. Dorothy's insistence that she can fix it herself comes off as naive and hysterical, and the film has to resort to revealing that the appraiser is actually a con artist so that he doesn't come off as more reasonable in comparison.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A commenter for Musical Hell's review provided an interpretation of the story that could have salvaged the film and its characters:
    Timothy McLean: You know, there's an interesting parallel between Marshal Mallow and the China Princess. One is a subordinate looking for a superior, the other has a superiority complex. If the movie had focused more on them (without a third character, or with a third character who complimented this theme somehow), and if the rest of the story was adjusted to fit, it could have been an interesting story about the unhealthy effects of one-sided power relationships, with the Princess and the Marshal only being able to find happiness or defeat the bad guy when they accept each other as equals, rather than subordinate and commander... Mallow wants a superior, but doesn't need one. The princess wants to be obeyed, but doesn't need it. The first Oz film was a story about people who already had what they wanted; maybe this could be one about people who don't need what they want? Mallow learns he doesn't need orders, Princess learns that she doesn't need to be superior, what's-his-face learns he doesn't need to fly, and Dorothy learns that she doesn't need her old house.

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