Characters / Return to Oz

Characters who appeared in the 1985 film, Return to Oz. For their original book counterparts, click here.

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Dorothy and Friends

Dorothy Gale

Dorothy Gale

Played By: Fairuza Balk

The film's protagonist, who finds herself back in Oz.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Possibly. The original W.W. Denslow illustrations portray her dark hair in Girlish Pigtails but the John R. Neill illustrations used for most of Baum's books portray her as having a blonde bob haircut. This film uses a design based on Denslow's version.
• Cassandra Truth: Tries desperately to convince Henry and Em that her experiences in Oz were real. They don't believe her.
• Composite Character: Takes over some aspects of Ozma's role from The Marvelous Land of Oz such as building the Gump and her role as Jack's Parental Substitute.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Down to her last guess in the Nome King's game, Dorothy is about to make a pick when she notices a green crystal.
• Honor Before Reason: When the Nome King offers to send her back to Kansas (when she's practically walking to death), she refuses, since it would mean leaving her friends behind.
• The Insomniac: One of the reasons Dorothy is sent to an asylum is because she hasn't been able to sleep since she visited Oz a few months prior.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Her expression when the Nome King "thanks" her for inadvertently providing him with the Ruby Slippers and thus the means to attack the Emerald City.
• Nice Girl: Despite her age and the awful situation she's thrust into, she remains soft-spoken, very polite, caring, gentle and brave. She is very motherly towards Jack, wants to save Oz and cares deeply for her friends.
• Or Was It a Dream?: In the end, it's ambiguous whether Oz is a Dream Land like in the 1939 film or if it's a fairyland like in the books.
• Parental Substitute: Briefly becomes one for Jack, despite being a child herself. He's clearly a very childlike and innocent figure who needs a mother in his life. When he asks if she could be it for him, she's initially unsure, but accepts it with a smile.

Billina

Billina

Voiced By: Denise Bryer

Performed By: Mak Wilson

A sassy hen from the farm in Kansas, who winds up in Oz alongside Dorothy.

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• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Her unusual name is never explained. In the books, she was named "Bill" but Dorothy changed it to "Billina" on discovering her true gender. The novelization at least implies this, referring to her as "the yellow-orange Plymouth Rock hen she had raised from a chick and named Billina because originally she had thought it would grow up to be a rooster" in her introduction, but never outright says that her name was "Bill" originally.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: In the books she meets Dorothy at the start of Ozma of Oz after both had been washed off a ship during an ocean voyage and ended up on the shore of Ev. Billina explained she had been named "Bill" by a boy who couldn't tell her sex, but Dorothy changed Bill's name to a more feminine "Billina". The film scraps this and has Billina as Dorothy's hen from the start.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Early in the movie, she tries to lay an egg, then later finally does while hiding inside Jack Pumpkinhead. This ends up killing the Nome King when he tries to eat the group during the climax.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Toto. Like Toto, Billina is Dorothy's pet from Kansas, but unlike Toto, Billina gains the ability to speak after entering Oz. She also chooses to stay in Oz whereas Toto prefers his home in Kansas.
• Deadpan Snarker: She's quite sassy.
• Forced Transformation: Due to being kept hidden inside Jack's head when the group meet the Nome King, given the latter's justified fear of chickens (chicken eggs are poisonous to nomes), Bilina endures Jack's transformation as a green vase along with him.
• I Choose to Stay: Billina opts to remain in Oz with Ozma at the end, and thinks Dorothy is foolish for wanting to return to "that stupid humdrum world again".
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She appears to be this for Toto.
• Talking Animal: Like all animals, she can talk in Oz.

Tik-Tok

Tik-Tok

Voiced By: Sean Barrett

Performed By: Michael Sundin and Timothy D. Rose

The Royal Army of Oz, and a friend of Dorothy's.

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• And You Were There: Tik-Tok is an Oz stand in for Dr. Worley's electroshock machine. The machine is framed by Worley as having a friendly face and one shot highlights a winding key on it. Tik-Tok is an automaton with a friendly face kept running with winding keys. The shape of the cabinet also has vague similarities to Tik-Tok's hat. Unlike the other parallel characters, Tik-Tok is something of an opposite — while Dorothy justifiably feared the electroshock machine (which was just a heartless prop no matter how it was personified), she quickly comes to love Tik-Tok as a friend, finding him to be more soulful than he claims to be.
  • A deleted scene would've rectified this with one of police officers arresting Nurse Wilson serving as Tik-Tok's analouge.
• Batman Gambit: While attempting the Nome King's challenge, Tik-Tok pretends to "wind down" in order to get Dorothy in the room with him; his plan is to make a random guess. That way, Dorothy can see what he turns into, hoping it would give her a clue as to what the others were transformed into. The first part works.
• Battle Butler: Tik-Tok. He even calls himself Oz's "army".
• Brutal Honesty: The brutal part is heavily downplayed, as it's clearly not his intention, but he expresses to Dorothy during the Nome King's "little game" that he doesn't really have high hopes for Jack to guess correctly, reasoning that while Jack does have many great qualities, thinking isn't one of them.
• Clock Punk: Tik-Tok, the mechanical man. He even has wind-ups that activate his thoughts, action and speech separately.
• Clockwork Creature: Has to be wound up in order to move, think, and talk.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To the Tin Man. The Tin Man is a normal man who replaced his body with a tin one after a witch cursed his axe while Tik-Tok is a bona fide robot from the very start. The Tin Man in the original movie was worried about his loss of humanity due to his metal parts unlike Tik-Tok, who occasionally brags about his mechanical, non-living nature.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: His fight against the Wheelers.
• Forced Transformation: Is revealed to have been turned into a green medal as a result of guessing incorrectly during the Nome King's game.
• One-Man Army: He is the army.
• Phlebotinum-Proof Robot: This was the main reason why Tik-Tok wasn't turned to stone like the rest of Oz's citizens. Due to being a machine, Tik-Tok is technically not alive.
• Robot Buddy: Towards Dorothy.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He appears to be this for the Tin Man.
• Weaksauce Weakness: As a clockwork robot, Tik-Tok needs to be wound up in order to think, move, and talk. That said, Tik-Tok is able to exploit this weakness for a Wounded Gazelle Gambit to trick the Nome King into believing that he needs help, when then allows Dorothy to enter the ornament room earlier than expected.

Jack Pumpkinhead

Jack Pumpkinhead

Voiced By: Brian Henson

Performed By: Brian Henson and Stewart Larange

A pumpkin-headed man, he's Ozma's "son" and a friend of Dorothy's.

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• And You Were There: Jack is the living Ozian counterpart to the pumpkin that the mysterious girl (Ozma?) gives Dorothy as a welcoming present once she gets settled in the sanitarium.
• The Ditz: Tends to be forgetful and absent-minded.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To the Scarecrow as both of them are humanoids made out of plant material. The Scarecrow wasn't educated, but he was Street Smart despite his insecurity about his intelligence. On the other hand, Jack is a klutz who heavily relies on Dorothy and Tik-Tok doing the thinking for him.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: His surname is "Pumpkinhead", because he has a pumpkin for a head.
• Faint in Shock: Does this at the end of the movie, when Dorothy frees Ozma from her mirror prison in front of her companions and all the people of Oz, and the latter states her name to everyone.
• Forced Transformation: Is revealed to have been turned into a spring green vase as a result of guessing incorrectly during the Nome King's game. Billina endured this transformation with him.
• Hidden Depths: Despite being written off as not very bright, Jack is not completely useless. Dorothy would've never known about the Powder of Life and where to find it had he not told her about it beforehand. Furthermore, when her plan to secretly steal the Powder of Life from Mombi gets underway, he puts his towering height and long arm reach to good use when lifting the lock off the door of the room that he, Dorothy and Billina are stuck in.
• Losing Your Head: He ends up doing this when the group's airborne trek to the Nome King's Mountain goes awry. Thankfully, he gets it back after they land on the mountain, but it's initially oriented upside down by accident.
• Luke Nounverber: His name is more so of the Luke "Nounnoun(er)" variety.
• Nice Guy: While any friend of Dorothy's is generally guaranteed to be nice, Jack's kindness stands out the most in the group, especially when compared to Tik-Tok's stoicism, the Gump's pessimism and Billina's sassiness. A notable moment is when he puts his jacket over the sleeping Dorothy to keep her warm.
• Pumpkin Person: Has a pumpkin for a head, as his name suggests.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He appears to be this for the Scarecrow.

The Gump

The Gump

Voiced By: Lyle Conway

Performed By: Lyle Conway and Steve Norrington

A friend of Dorothy's that was built on the fly to transport her and her newfound friends to the Nome King's Mountain.

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• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: He replaces the Cowardly Lion as the giant Oz animal companion. However, the Lion is a rather mundane take on a magical animal while the Gump is a zombie that can combine with other objects.
• Deadpan Snarker: Rivals Billina in this regard.
• A Dog Named "Dog": He's the only member of Dorothy's new batch of companions that doesn't have his own unique name (at least until The Scarecrow joins the group as a Sixth Ranger towards the end), being referred to as either "the Gump" (by the group), "Mr. Gump" (at one point by Jack) or "the Sofa" (by the Nome King).
• Eaten Alive: Subverted. Only his couch body gets eaten by the Nome King during the latter's assault on the group. Thanks to Dorothy, Jack and Scarecrow, his head, the only truly alive part of him, doesn't get consumed as well.
• The Eeyore: While ultimately a true friend to Dorothy and company, he's also a bit of pessimist.
• Full Moon Silhouette: He's given this treatment as he successfully ferries Dorothy and her friends away from Mombi's palace.
• Giant Flyer: He plays this role for the group to escape Mombi's palace and travel to the Nome King's mountain. That is, before he breaks apart on the way there.
• I Would Say If I Could Say: His reaction to free falling after he breaks apart? "If I had a stomach, I know I'd be sick!"
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed. While his pessimism clearly doesn't do the group's morale any favors, he's really not a bad guy otherwise. In fact, during the earthquake that occurs in the Nome King's ornament room, due to the latter's anger over Dorothy winning his game, the Gump tells Dorothy to hang onto him during the impending wreckage as a show of protection.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: He was built in a hurry out of what was lying around the room that Dorothy, Jack and Billina were stuck in.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He appears to be this for the Cowardly Lion, being (at least in his previous life) a large animal native to Oz.
• Talking Animal: Somewhat. He's composed of various antiques and furniture that Dorothy and Jack find in Mombi's palace. With the mounted moose hunting trophy that was chosen to be his head, he's pretty talkative once animated with the Powder of Life.

Antagonists

Princess Mombi

Princess Mombi

Played By: Jean Marsh (original head), Sophie Ward, Fiona Victory

An evil beauty-obsessed princess and witch, she has captured the Emerald City and stolen the heads of thirty maidens in an attempt to feed her own narcissistic ego, wearing them interchangeably.

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• Abusive Parents: Was very mean to Ozma long before she had her imprisoned in a mirror.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Played with but ultimately played straight in an unusual way concerning Mombi. Mombi in the original is a stereotypical old crone. Princess Mombi is introduced as a beautiful maiden in an ornate dress but she's soon revealed to be a head-swapping witch with the revelation of her next head, while attractive, her villainous nature shines through more, and when Dorothy steals the Powder of Life, she sees her true head- the one that she wears for the rest of the movie- a middle-aged and frightening woman- though not nearly as ugly as herself from the books.
• Adaptational Ugliness: Inverted in the case of Mombi while it played straight with her inspiration of Langwidere. While introduced with two attractive heads of young maidens, her true head is a middle-aged and hideous woman, but not nearly as ugly as her Mombi crone self from the books.
• Adaptational Villainy: Princess Langwidere in Ozma of Oz, while bad-tempered and vain, doesn't pose much harm to anyone and agrees to help the heroes save her cousins, the Royal Family of Ev, so that she can go back to admiring herself 24/7 instead of ruling. Her counterpart in this film, Princess Mombi, is a Composite Character with the evil witch Old Mombi and serves as The Dragon to the Nome King who conquered the Emerald City by force. Also, Princess Mombi stole the heads of beautiful maidens for herself, whereas the book Langwidere appears to just naturally have thirty interchangeable heads and offers to swap one with Dorothy rather than simply take hers - the former being a sign of a bizarre form of logic while the latter shows how monstrously inhuman she is.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the books, Mombi had the power of potions to turn others into stone, utilize the Powder of Life to bring to life inanimate figures, possessed versatile shape-shifting, and could transform others- a potent witch- a former peer of the Wicked Witches of the East/West according to some books that was forced to have her memories of sorcery removed to make her less of a threat. In the movie, she is only shown with the power of swapping heads with the rest of her sorcerous skills being an Informed Ability, with the implications that her main power was given to her by the Nome King, being relatively powerless without- relying on the Wheelers to do her dirty work, and she was reduced to being a normal and helpless captive upon his death.
• Age Lift: Due to her Composite Character nature, even her natural self is significantly younger than the Mombi of the books, being a middle-aged woman in her true form rather than a crone.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's not clear in the movie whether "Princess" is an affectation or she actually has royal blood, and if so from what kingdom. Whereas Princess Langwidere was definitely a real princess, being the King of Ev's niece. Her backstory with Ozma implies she was a witch that rose to power via the Nome King and her title of Princess is out of vanity and a desire to remain young.
• And I Must Scream: A few of the women whose heads she stole recognize Ozma and denounce Mombi's crimes during the celebration at the end. As the novelization explains, this isn't common knowledge; they know this because the heads were still alive and could hear Mombi's thoughts while she wore them.
• And You Were There: She's played by the same actress as Nurse Wilson, who acts as her non-Oz counterpart.
• Bad Boss: Constantly berates and flogs her henchmen.
• Bait the Dog: She seems to be a pleasant and accommodating young woman in spite of the ominous atmosphere around her until she reveals her true nature as a twisted collector of heads she stole from other women, begins to act more villainous in nature, and reveals her monstrous plans to eventually take away Dorothy's head once she's old enough.
• The Caligula: Rules the Emerald City and is a selfish tyrant who lazes around with the stolen heads of young maidens she uses, in the same way, one tries clothes while the rest of the city is rotting away.
• The Collector: She collected 30 stolen heads of different young maidens she had beheaded via magical means and takes turns in wearing different heads depending on her mood, much like how one tries on different hats or clothes. She intends on adding Dorothy as well to her collection, eyeing her like one who observes a future fur coat to make an animal from.
• Composite Character: Princess Mombi combines Old Mombi from The Marvelous Land of Oz with the multiple-head-wearing Princess Langwidere of Ev in Ozma of Oz.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: She fills in the same role as the Wicked Witch of the West from the 1939 film. But what she differs is that unlike the Wicked Witch who is the over the top main villian of the piece, Mombi still a major threat, is not the main villian and is second in command to the Gnome King and is calm and collective. Also unlike the Witch where she dies, Mombi gets arrested for her actions.
• Deadpan Snarker: While she is very serious the majority of her screen time, her last line is deadpan in highlighting her humiliation as a powerless witch.
  Mombi: "And that's a fact."
• Dirty Coward: Is frightened by Jack Pumpkinhead when she sees him for the first time, when the Nome King orders her to kneel before him, she voluntarily does so until she's flat on the floor and attempts to flee when he’s on the brink of a Villainous Breakdown.
• Dissonant Serenity: Initially, she is very calm and casual while showing her collection of stolen heads off like choosing which clothes to wear. This casual attitude to her monstrous habit makes her all the more inhuman. She later averts this via her Villainous Breakdown when she loses the Powder of Life and is almost perpetually in a state of fury afterward.
• The Dragon: To the Nome King. She is left to take care of Oz as a proxy leader for the Nome King to control, one that he can easily kill off if she ever disappointed/bored him.
• The Dreaded: Everyone in the Emerald City, including her henchmen, is afraid of her.
• Evil Sounds Deep: With her second head, she has a characteristically witch-like, snippy, baritone voice. In her true head, she's an outright demonic, inhuman monster, with the voice to match it perfectly.
• Fate Worse than Death: After the Nome King dies, she is imprisoned in the cage that the Nome King made for her and is stripped of her powers as Ozma lampshades that a witch without her powers is a very pitiful creature, which Mombi agrees with.
  • It's heavily implied this is what occurs to the head collection. Their heads are removed from their bodies and their unique consciousness is suppressed with the heads becoming an extension of Mombi's will.
• Four Is Death: Used narratively when she uses the number four head when Mombi's true malicious nature becomes clear and her murderous intentions become all the more apparent when she tells exactly what her plans for Dorothy are.
• Faux Affably Evil: She initially seems pleasant, but it's gradually revealed how hollow it is when she's a monster that takes the heads of other women in a show of vanity and insecurity towards her original head, and her attitude becomes increasingly villainous with each head she takes.
• Informed Ability: She's called a witch but aside from switching her heads, we never see her practice any magic.
• In Name Only: Played with. In terms of appearance, she looks nothing like the old hag that Mombi is portrayed as in the books. However, she takes more after her in personality than Princess Langwidere.
• It's All About Me: Only cares about her own power and comfort, not caring about how she's selfishly stealing the heads of other women to add to her collection.
• Jerkass: She's snooty, self-obsessed, and an outright evil princess that not only takes the heads of other women but intends to do the same to Dorothy when she’s older.
• Large Ham: Varies between this and Cold Ham depending on her head.
• Lazy Bum: Doesn't seem to do much besides sit around her palace, playing her sitar, and trying on heads.
• Losing Your Head: A decidedly dark take on this trope, in that she dislikes her own original head so she takes the more youthful and beautiful heads of women by first beheading them to be placed in her collection of heads to be worn on her body instead of her original one - intending to add Dorothy to this collection as well when she’s older. She treats the situation like trying on different clothes, which elevates her dissonant and monstrous nature.
• Knight of Cerebus: The film had already been Darker and Edgier with the corrupt mental rehabilitation center and the threatening Wheelers who quickly become a joke once their intimidation falters in the face of Tik-Tok, but it's with Mombi's appearance and true nature as a head-stealing monster that intends to steal Dorothy's head, that the story takes on a much more terrifying turn for the remainder of the story until the Nome King's defeat.
• The Quiet One: She doesn't talk much, It adds to her menace. At least with her first two heads, which are are more composed in behavior. Averted with her true head, which is very bombastic and hammy.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: In her first form she's played by Sophie Ward, who has a voice like bunny rabbits floating on clouds of marshmallows. In her true form, she's more raspy sounding.
• Spikes of Villainy: Sports these on the shoulder pads of her rather ornate dress.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Feels this way towards the Wheelers. A deleted line featured in the script and the novelization has her describing them as “ridiculous”.
• Vain Sorceress: Mombi steals the heads of beautiful women to wear as she pleases. It's implied to stem from some insecurity, as her original head is the only one not shown off in a display case, instead being shoved behind a mirrored cabinet door among her magical items in a messy arrangement.
• Villainous Breakdown: Has one after Dorothy escapes with her magic powder and it continues until she arrives at the Nome King's palace with sweat coursing down her evil visage- going from calm and snide to almost perpetually in a state of fury.
• Villainous Cheekbones: Averted with her first time with her more elegant-looking heads but played straight with her true head.
• Villainous Princess: An implied self-proclaimed one that steals the heads of young women out of shame of her original head, a desire to appear beautiful, and as a twisted hobby to collect heads to wear depending on her mood. She's also much older than a typical fairy-tale princess in her true form.
• Wicked Cultured: She plays the sitar when she's not busily head-swapping for her hobby.
• Wicked Stepmother: To Ozma, who she kept as a slave. In one early draft of the film, Pastoria sold his daughter to Mombi and later took his life out of regret over it.

The Nome King

The Nome King

Played By: Nicol Williamson

The new ruler of Oz, who usurped the throne in Dorothy's absence after finding the Ruby Slippers.

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• Adaptational Badass: In the original story, while he was always a threat, a large portion of his initial danger came from his girdle, being a normal humanoid otherwise, whose threat came from his cunning to get power rather than his inherent powers. In this iteration, he's essentially an earth elemental able to traverse through any part of the world like any of his kin who towers over everyone and is in fact large enough to swallow them whole. This is on top of having the Ruby Slippers that make him essentially a Reality Warper able to turn others into objects or conjure objects like a cage out of nothing.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the original books, he resented "upstairs people" mining all the jewels from the earth but never acted on it — in fact, he was indifferent to Oz until Queen Ozma stole his magic belt, which at that point made it very personal for him. Here he wreaks untold havoc on Oz once he gets the Ruby Slippers for the most flimsy of reasons — he wants the emeralds used to build the Emerald City back, even though he has plenty of jewels already and the people he takes his revenge on had nothing to do with it. Additionally, his turning the Ozians into ornaments in the books was merely removing an outside party that interfered with a deal he'd made before seeing Ozma and didn’t have the same insidious ulterior motive of turning him human without the weakness to eggs at the expense of the Ozians' freedom.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's unknown if he was Worley, as Aunt Em said that he didn't survive the burning clinic.
• And You Were There: Resembles Dr. Worley from the mental hospital at the film's beginning, and is played by the same actor. Lampshaded in the novelization, which describes his face as “frighteningly familiar in spite of its alienness” to Dorothy, reminding her of the mental hospital in Kansas.
• Ax-Crazy: He becomes this during his nightmarish descent into utter rage, deciding to devour them while laughing insanely as he does so.
• Bad Boss: Downplayed. He was particularly demanding of his Nome scout to find out what landed on their mountain and earlier said scout was very hesitant to tell him of Billina's existence, fearing his potential anger- in spite of their justified fear of chicken eggs that are lethally poison to their kind. He's never shown making threats to that scout.
  • Played straight with Mombi. In spite of allowing her to rule the ruins of Oz while she keeps her head collection in exchange for keeping Ozma captive, he immediately orders her to prostrate to him and even tells her to go even lower when she's already touching the floor out of amusement. When she brings up some caution about Dorothy, he dismisses it as nothing to be concerned about, but when Dorothy does manage to make a fool of him, he immediately blames Mombi for his carelessness and imprisons her.
• Bait the Dog: After he turns the Scarecrow into an ornament, he comforts her and offers to have the others play a game to win him back. He then withholds information and threatens them by throwing them into his fiery furnace if they don’t play his rigged game. He then proceeds to guilt-trip Dorothy by showing her the ruby slippers she lost and telling her it's her fault that the Nome King was able to do all of it. While he does offer to return her home prior to her fully entering the room, it's more to rid himself of a person who can stop him than out of altruism, and his talk with Mombi shows he never cared for her, as he viewed her as a sacrifice to make him fully human. And once she does succeed, he drops all pretenses and tries to eat them- showing he never intended to uphold his end of the bargain.
• Batman Gambit: Challenges Dorothy and her friends to find the Scarecrow. If they fail, they all become ornaments, and the Nome King becomes human.
• Become a Real Boy: It's implied through his dialogue to Mombi that he himself is dissatisfied with being a rock being stuck to the wall and having a fatal weakness to chicken eggs, and would prefer to be a human instead.
• Big Bad: He's the conqueror and Evil Overlord of Oz and in command of all the forces that oppose Dorothy throughout the film.
• Bishōnen Line: While it's implied that the One-Winged Angel he takes at the end is his actual true form, the Nome King starts off as a vaguely humanoid face when first introduced to Dorothy and co, before shifting to a humanoid form attached to the wall. Whenever the heroes manage to fail the game, the Nome King gradually gets unstuck to his wall, going from a Stop Motion clay figure to a live-action actor in rock-king makeup to finally, a gray-skinned human-like being with Dorothy's potential failure, leading to him becoming in his words, human.
• Cold Ham: While he’s usually more bombastic and demanding with either Mombi or his minions, he elects to speak in a more courteous, mellow, and low-key tone with Dorothy and friends with grandiose undertones. This makes his insidious actions in dissonant contrast all the more unnerving and his later descent into raving fury all the more stark in comparison.
• Composite Character: In the books, it was the Wizard of Oz who had the old king's daughter Princess Ozma hidden away with Mombi to prevent her from claiming the throne when he became ruler of Oz. Return to Oz has the Nome King taking the Wizard's role in Ozma's disappearance.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: The Wicked Witch of the West may be a cultural icon, but he is the true Big Bad of the Oz books and his role in the film definitely shows. Also unlike the Witch, who is both genuinely terrifying but is so over the top she's comedic in her own way and is always threatening Dorothy, he is a genuinely serious villain who's very civil with Dorothy and offers to send her home, but only for reasons that benefit him. He was even able to get his hands on the ruby slippers, something that even the witch herself was unable to succeed at.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He visibly and gradually rots to death to a visible rock skeleton while in his death thralls starting with his eye becoming milky-white like that of a corpse.
• Did You Actually Believe...?: He makes clear right from the beginning he had no intention of following through with his bargain if Dorothy found the Scarecrow. He undergoes a Villainous Breakdown when this is the case.
• Dirty Coward: Implied. He never interacts with or threatens the heroes until Billina is not visibly among them, in which he then feels comfortable enough to show himself as hinted by his conversations with his agent. The moment she appears, he immediately experiences horror right before he dies.
• Dissonant Serenity: What makes the Nome King especially menacing is how eerily calm and pleasant he is in junction with the darker intentions of his plan. This stops during his Villainous Breakdown, which leads him to be an overtly terrifying and infuriated monster making the contrast all the more jarring.
• The Dreaded: Princess Mombi seemed scared of him. Kneeling before him and trying to run away. When he finds Ozma escaped.
• Evil Brit: He has a prominent British accent to go with his regal personality and his evil isn't immediately apparent but gradually becomes more obvious with his mind games and attempts to kill the heroes rather than honor his deal.
• Evil Is Bigger: In his implied true form, he is so large that his hand is able to grab Grump's sofa body and later Jack's, with both being small in comparison. In the form he takes to appear more approachable, while not as massive, he is still taller than the heroes.
• Evil Sounds Deep: His voice literally sounds like boulders scraping together in his true form. When he assumes A Form You Are Comfortable With, it starts to sound more human, but he still speaks in a stentorian baritone.
• Extreme Omnivore: After revealing his true colors to Dorothy and company (granted, not that they really thought he was good to begin with), he eats the Gump's couch body and attempts to eat Jack afterwards.
• Faux Affably Evil: Is quite courteous, even giving Dorothy and company limestone pie to eat and melted silver to drink. When Mombi arrives, however, he reveals his sadistic nature, admitting to her he only gave Dorothy a chance because it's more fun to watch. He soon blatantly proves he never had any intention of actually going through with the bargain if Dorothy won. The movie's novelization also insinuates most of his sympathetic acts were just to toy with her while she was down.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: It's heavily implied the monstrous, gigantic form he takes at the end is his true form. So he changes his form into something more gentle in order for the heroes to be less cautious around him. When in the midst of his breakdown, he loses all pretenses to showcase his true form.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Smokes a pipe during his conversation with Dorothy before she goes into his ornament room, just as Dr. Worley had at the film's beginning.
• Graceful Loser: Still had time to kill Jack and Billina before he died, but gently set them down instead.
• Humanity Ensues: Every time he turns somebody from Oz into an ornament he becomes more and more humanlike — if Dorothy had turned into an ornament he would've been human completely. Why he just doesn't use the Ruby Slippers to turn himself human is a mystery. Though it's heavily implied to be tied with the memories of Oz by his own words that activate the transformation- the fewer people who remember Oz, the more human he becomes.
• It's All About Me: "It sounds fair to me. And what I think is all that matters."
• It's the Principle of the Thing: The crux of his reasoning for attacking Oz. It's not that them taking his emeralds is that much of an issue for him given how much he has already (as Dorothy points out), but in his words "that is not the point" they were his emeralds and in his mind he's justified in attacking Oz as punishment.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He wasn't wrong to say to Dorothy that she didn't ask what would happen if they couldn't solve his riddles correctly after the Gump becomes an ornament.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: See Faux Affably Evil. He seems like a nice guy...until he doesn't get his way.
• Knight of Cerebus: While the Wheelers and Mombi are terrifying in their own right, they are portrayed as rather inept outside of their ability to cause fear. The Nome King, on the other hand, traps the heroes in an inescapable rigged game that almost causes their defeat with the tension coming from the mind games, with it being the lowest point of the film. When this fails, he comes very close to eating them all. And is consistently portrayed as a threatening force.
• Large Ham: What makes this iteration of the Nome King so unnerving is that he usually averts this by speaking in a dissonantly even and mellow tone, only raising his voice when threatening Dorothy and friends with a fiery furnace or when Mombi brings up the possibility of Ozma escaping. When he’s outwitted, he starts to shout and bellow his lines, which is made more terrifying as he’s in a colossal golem form capable of eating them alive.
• Manipulative Bastard: While he initially seems pleasant to Dorothy, he gradually reveals he's tricking the heroes into a rigged game in his favor and takes delight in showing his ruby slippers to guilt Dorothy into leaving while pinning the blame on her.
• Misplaced Retribution: He insists that the Scarecrow stole his Emeralds, ignoring that it was the Wizard who built the city and that Scarecrow had nothing to do with it.
• Near-Villain Victory: He would have won if Dorothy hadn't gotten lucky with a random guess in his final game.
• Never My Fault: He initially doesn't react to Mombi's confession that Dorothy escaped, since 1. he already knows since she arrived/now playing his game and 2. he thinks he's already won. The second Dorothy solves his puzzle, he snaps and screams that Mombi failed him.
• Oh, Crap!: When he hears clucking and realizes the chicken he spent the whole movie fearing is inside Jack's head, the king's so frozen in terror that, despite the fact he could've either just closed his mouth or moved Jack away from over his mouth, he allows Billina to lay an egg right down his throat. He can only whimper meekly from the revelation he just swallowed the one thing utterly poisonous to his kind.
• One-Winged Angel: After being outsmarted by Dorothy when she restores her friends, he becomes his much larger golem form and tries to eat the group.
• Psychopathic Manchild: It's subtle given he acted as a warped parental figure to Dorothy but he forces others to play the games that are only fair to him, throws a tantrum when they start to win, and settles for eating them to get some victory.
• Reality Warper: He can turn the populace of Oz to stone, have victims of his games turn to ornaments to gradually become human, and conjure a cage to trap Mombi because he's wearing the Ruby Slippers that Dorothy accidentally dropped.
• Riddle for the Ages: Considering how badly he wanted to become human, one can only imagine why he didn't just use the Ruby Slippers—one of the most powerful magical objects in the Land of Oz and Nonestica in general — to make it happen. Perhaps such a thing was simply beyond the slippers' capabilities and needed specific rituals t do it.
  • It's heavily implied through his talk with Mombi that it requires the belief that no one remembers Oz to activate the transformation.
• Rock Monster: Emphasis on the monster part, no matter how hard he tries to hide it. His minions naturally count also.
• Sadist: Makes it clear he could just kill them all with his "fiery furnace" when Dorothy confronts his one-sided rules, but he would prefer to watch them suffer trying to turn their friends back to normal first. Then he taunts Dorothy by showing her he's got possession of the Ruby Slippers and used them to lay waste to the Emerald City, and even thanks her for leaving them for him to use. His last act of trolling right before his defeat is to jokingly demand Mombi to kneel lower before him when she's already flat on the ground.
• Satanic Archetype: Not immediately obvious as his Rock Monster form invokes the typical iconography of a bearded and benign godly king but it's more subtle through his actions. He lives underneath the earth with his demonic Nomes, he threatens the heroes by tossing them into his furnace which is covered in flames and takes on a pleasing form to trick others into accepting a deal that is rigged in his favor, tries to tempt Dorothy from saving her friends. When bested, his environment takes on a hellish tone with flames and he takes on his true devilish form.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He never raises his voice while interacting with Dorothy and the others, acting in a friendly and calm tone while mentally tormenting them. This makes him all the scarier and makes the moment he loses it and starts to roar all the more terrifying given the contrast.
• Sore Loser: Doesn't take Dorothy guessing correctly very well. His response to her stating that she hadn't finished yet says it all.
  Nome King: I'm tired of games... I'm tired of all of YOU!
• This Cannot Be!: His reaction to Dorothy making a correct guess and figuring out the trick to his game. Then he gets mad, particularly at Mombi.
• Too Dumb to Live: As cunning as he is, the fact he never bothered to move Jack away from his mouth—or, better yet, close his mouth—the moment he heard Bellina clucking makes him this.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: He succeeded at reshaping Oz in his image, but this only lasted for six months or so before Dorothy managed to defeat him.
• Villain Ball: Grabs this at the climax when he tricks Dorothy and her friends into an elaborate game to turn them into ornaments one by one. This naturally gives Dorothy not only the chance but also the conditions to free everyone he's imprisoned.
  Mombi: Why not just transform them all right away?
  Nome King: It's more fun this way.
• Villainous Breakdown: After Dorothy outdoes his gambit he goes into a psychotic tantrum, deciding to eat her and her friends in a Laughing Mad frenzy in stark contrast from his Soft-Spoken Sadist persona. He completely subdues when he accidentally swallows Billina's egg in the process, whimpering and terrified as his body dissolves and crumbles.
• Weaksauce Weakness: He continues the trend of being an incredibly powerful Oz villain with an incredibly mundane weakness. Eggs are poison to Nomes, thus the king and his brethren are terrified of chickens. The king meets his end when he makes the mistake of trying to eat Jack as Billina, who's inside Jack's head, starts laying an egg.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Eggs are poison to Nomes; when he hears Billina he becomes paralyzed with fear, realizing too late he swallowed one of her eggs.
  Nome King: *terrified* Don't you... know that... eggs are... poison?
  Billina: Poison indeed!
• You Didn't Ask: Says this when Dorothy asks why he never mentioned the lethal rules of his game.
• You Can Turn Back: Villainous example, for all his jerkass tendencies, he at least gives Dorothy one last chance to go home. Naturally, she doesn't take the offer.
• You Have Failed Me: After Dorothy makes a correct guess, the Nome King becomes enraged at Mombi for failing to keep the girl under lock and key. Before heading off to confront Dorothy and her friends, he imprisons Mombi in a cage and promises to deal with her next.

The Wheelers

The Wheelers

Played By: Pons Maar, John Alexander, Rachael Ashton, Robbie Barnett, Ailsa Berk, Peter Elliott, Roger Ennals, Michele Hine, Mark Hopkins, Colin Skeaping, Ken Stevens, Philip Tan and Rob Thirtle

Princess Mombi's henchmen, they're a psychotic yet ultimately bumbling group of men with wheels for hands and feet.

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• Adaptational Badass: In the books, the Wheelers are only wannabe villains who try to intimidate people but, as the protagonists realize, aren't capable of hurting them because their limbs are wheels, and become dejected when their bluster is seen through. In the film, although they don't manage to hurt Dorothy, it's not for lack of trying, and it's implied that they're dangerous.
• Adaptational Villainy: In Ozma of Oz, the Wheelers are neither good nor bad, being little more than troublemakers. For the film, they're reimagined as Mombi's henchmen, who attempt to capture the protagonists.
• And You Were There: The orderlies at the hospital are all played by the same actors who play the Wheelers, and even push squeaky-wheeled gurneys.
• Can't Use Stairs: Dorothy is briefly able to evade them by running up a flight of stairs.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: While tailing Dorothy and her friends on their way to the Nome King's mountain, three of the Wheelers fall into the Deadly Desert and die instantly.
• Fiery Redhead: The lead Wheeler sports crimson-dyed hair and has the most threatening disposition towards Dorothy. Being an Ozian character, it's likely his natural hair color.
• Heel–Face Turn: Following the Nome King's demise and Mombi's arrest, the Wheelers are good. During the parade that precedes what would've been Dorothy's coronation as the queen of Oz, four of them (including the leader) can be seen on the sidelines amongst all the other spectators in Emerald City. As Dorothy passes by them alongside the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, one Wheeler even waves at her.
• The Hyena: Their scariness is only amplified by the fact that they just keep laughing, even while chasing Dorothy.
• Karma Houdini: Aside from three of their members meeting their ends in the Deadly Desert, the Wheelers don't really suffer any form of comeuppance for their actions against Dorothy and her friends, to the point where they're seemingly welcomed into Emerald City with open arms during Dorothy's coronation. Justified when taking into account they were slaves of Mombi rather than willing henchmen.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Their masks are truly horrifying, and to a certain extent, their actual faces aren't any better. The novelization states that they were enslaved by Mombi under threat of being turned to stone like the other denizens of Oz, so they may not be a traditional example, but they're still terrifying because of it.
• Meaningful Echo: The squeaking noise produced by their wheels is the same noise that can be heard from the wheels of the carts and gurneys being pushed by the orderlies, the real-world counterparts.
• Mooks: The Wheelers are Princess Mombi's common henchmen, show up multiple times through the story, and at least one dies onscreen.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: If the "Beware the Wheelers" graffiti that Dorothy and Billina happen upon is any indication. Subverted when Tik-Tok mops the floor with them almost effortlessly.
• Paper Tiger: They're intimidating and a threat to the defenseless Dorothy but are useless against Tik-Tok despite outnumbering him. Word of God even mentions that their wheels prevent them from being capable of actually doing much since they don't have hands.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: They appear to be this for the Flying Monkeys, being henchmen to a witch.

Oz

Ozma

Ozma

Played By: Emma Ridley

The true Princess of Oz.

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• All There in the Manual: Her backstory is explained in further detail in the movie's novelization — she was sold to Mombi by her father, King Pastoria, in return for a potion that gave eternal life, but he killed himself out of horror when he realized what he'd done. This makes the film version of King Pastoria a Composite Character of the books' King Pastoria (Ozma's father who was deposed by the Wizard; the Wizard then hid Ozma with Mombi) and the King of Ev (who sold his wife and children to the Nome King for immortality and then killed himself).
• Ambiguous Situation: It's not crystal-clear whether she and the girl Dorothy meets at the hospital in Kansas are the same person, and if they are, how much the doctor and nurse know about her if anything.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Her "ruddy blonde" hair (which is usually either brown or black in illustrations) is a dark blonde here.
• Age Lift: In the books, Ozma has a Vague Age. Illustrations depict her as being anywhere from Dorothy's age to a young woman, but the text implies that she's no older than sixteen. Return to Oz treats her as being Dorothy's age.
• And You Were There: She has the same actress as the unnamed girl Dorothy encounters at the hospital in Kansas. Unlike the other examples, it's possible they were the same person.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: The ruler of Oz and yet she's no older than Dorothy.
• Damsel in Distress: She was enslaved within a mirror by Mombi, at the behest of the Nome King.
• Demoted to Extra: Thanks to being trapped in a mirror, she's much less prominent than her counterpart in the books the film is based on.
• Gender Flip: In the books, part of how Mombi kept Ozma's true identity secret was by turning her into a boy as a baby, which is undone at the end of the second book. It was Ozma’s male alter-ego, Tip, who was raised as Mombi's slave and was the "father" who built Jack Pumpkinhead. The movie leaves out any mention of the gender swap, gives Tip's backstory to female-form Ozma, and has Jack refer to her as "Mom" instead.
• Hidden Depths: Retaining the functions of her male alter-ego means the Princess Classic Ozma was still mischievous enough to try and scare her captor with a pumpkin-headed man and knew enough about craftsmanship to be able to put him together.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Assuming she was the mysterious girl who seemingly drowned at the start, she turns out to be just fine.
• Parental Abandonment: The novelization and the movie storybook specify that she was given up by her father and the former king, Pastoria.
• The Trickster: Like her book counterpart, she originally constructed Jack Pumpkinhead as a means of frightening Mombi.
• Turn the Other Cheek: Once her place on the throne is restored, she announces to everyone that she forgives Mombi for enslaving her, deciding that being robbed of her powers and imprisoned by the Nome King is punishment enough.

Kansas

Aunt Em

Aunt Em

Played By: Piper Laurie

Dorothy's aunt and guardian.

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• Age Lift: She's implied to be older in the books.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: She arranges for Dorothy to receive electroshock therapy in the hope that it clears her mind of the stories she keeps telling about Oz. She does this not out of malice, but because Dorothy has been suffering from insomnia and hasn't been able to sleep.
• Nephewism: She's raising her niece Dorothy.

Uncle Henry

Uncle Henry

Played By: Matt Clark

Dorothy's uncle and guardian.

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• Age Lift: He's implied to be older in the books.
• Nephewism: He's raising his niece Dorothy.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Well, maybe. His broken leg allegedly keeps him from doing more work around the farm, despite Aunt Em's insistence the leg has been mended already. It's never said which of them is telling the truth. In the climax, he's walking just fine, and the novelization at least implies that concern for Dorothy's safety brought him out of his BSOD mindset.

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