Search - Ozma of Oz on DVD

Third time lucky and still great!

Greg Tutt | England | 03/26/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the third instalment of the cinar oz movies and it is as great as the first two. The introduction of the Gnome king was great and the reuniting of Dorothy, Scarecrow, the tinman and the lion was wonderful. The lion was not included in 'The land of oz' so it was great to have him back in the story. Tick-tock was fantastic and the most funnyest character of all! It's a shame he wasn't in the other movies and it was a shame that Jack Pumpkinhead was only in this movie for a limited time. All in all, Ozma of oz was just as enjoyable as the others and give it top ratings!"

Good, But No Return to Oz

Sam A. Milazzo | Sydney, N.S.W Australia | 10/23/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

""Taste the Rain", an upbeat song, introduces Uncle Henry, Aunt Em, Dorothy and Toto sleeping peacefully in their Kansas beds. But Dorothy's Magic Shoes start glowing as the sound of clocks takes control of Dorothy's dreaming, causing the Shoes to FLASH and transport Dorothy (as well changing her nightgown into her gingham gown-with apron) (*leaving Toto & her Magic Shoes home alone* - a scene I knew I remembered) to the Land of Ev, where a trio of Wheelers rudely wakes up and accuses her of being a witch. Dorothy escapes the Wheelers, finds and winds up Tik-Tok a little Mechanical Robot, whose Secret Mission from Princess Lulu got him in trouble with the Wheelers. Rather than protect Dorothy, Dorothy defends Tik-Tok from the Wheelers and accompanied by him goes off to see Princess Lulu. Instead of heads, Lulu changes her hats, which 'matches' her moods and locks Dorothy and Tik-Tok in the dungeon. As Dorothy & Tik-Tok ask Mr Mouse to get help from Oz, Princess Lulu greets Ozma, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Jack Pumpkinhead. Mr Mouse gets Lion to come to Ev and inform his friends of Dorothy's imprisonment. It is then suggested that while Ozma (and Jack) will go back to Oz, Dorothy and Tik-Tok will accompany her friends to Nomeland and rescue Princess Lulu's brother the Prince of Ev from the Nome King. Dorothy's Reunion with her old friends is the best scene out of the entire 'feature'. Crossing a Dangerous Desert (*which consists of a sandstorm, funny looking plants, a giant beetle and only 1 oasis in the entire sandy waste*) they come across giant bones and a ship! Resting in the ship for the night has them meet Billina a Talking Hen (who acts like a Rooster), once the Nome King's former chicken and tells them the way to Nomeland, before giving Tik-Tok an egg. On the way to Nomeland, the friends travel through rocky caverns where they encounter (* and escape one of two Rock Giants and a Ruined City *) a cavern of wind, which Lion bravely helps them get through. They arrive at the Gateway which leads down into the Nome King's Underground Kingdom. After walking alongside a River of Flowing Lava (* as well as crossing over it and playing in a sparkling-dust pit *), they walk through an Ornament Hallway and meet the Nome King. Knowing why they are here he tells them of his power and that if they want the Prince, they have to play his Guessing Ornamnet Game. Afetr Tik-Tok mistakenly turns into an ornament first, Kaliko tricks Lion, Tin Woodman and Scarecrow in their guesses, turning them into ornamnets. Dorothy, however, tricks the two Nomes into revealing the Prince of Ev and restores her friends. But when they try to leave, they end up getting trapped where Nome King & Kaliko scare them with pouring giant-tubs of lava, until they see and are terrified by what Tik-Tok has secretly hidden. With the Prince of Ev, the friends try to leave, but the Nome King isn't going to make it easy for them (*he tries to drown them in a river of lava and catapults them with giant boulders*). When it is finally decided that they have to follow the underground river for the way out, the Nome King, Kaliko and the Nomes attack them again with flying boulders. Fortuanetly, this attack gives the friends an opening to at last escape thanks to the sun. They thank Billina for her help, but then the ship and the surrounding sand begins to sink by the Nome King again, but once Lion saves Scarecrow from being lost they are all FINALLY FREE & SAFE from the Nome KIng, despite his displeasure. The friends then decide that it is time to go home and "Searching for a Dream" plays in the End Credits, again playing clips from its adventure, 'Marvelous Land' and 'Emerald City' - 0ut of all the other times, 'Ozma's ending has teh best version of "Searching for a Dream".
Once I reached the end of this animated feature, I couldn't help but feel a bit sad. Maybe because I knew what was going to happen next, or maybe because of how 'Ozma' had been attempted this time. L. Frank Baum's "Ozma of Oz" is a great book (and important too, which has Dorothy & Ozma meeting eachother and shows how Dorothy will come back to Oz and Kansas whenever she wants) and it's unfortunate that Cinar didn't really do a good job in adapting Oz Book 3 into their rewritten animation as they did before and after. Although there are a few good scenes: Dorothy's transportation to Ev, Reunion with Old Friends and Trapped!, the first 28 mins (2 episodes) are finely timed, the rest of the adventure is an annoying drag. Out of the entire 52 original episodes, this adventure took up 11 and most of those were spent (no, wasted) travelling to the Nome King, the Guessing Game and trying to escape Nomeland. As for when Dorothy first meets the Wheelers and Tik-Tok, she is animated horribly and looks extremely uncomfortable, until she meets Lulu & is back with her friends, then she looks MUCH BETTER. As you can tell from the above synopsis, many scenarios were looslely based, moved around and even left out, making this animated adventure sometimes resemble "Disney's Return to Oz" - I'm still trying to figure out which adapation is more faithful to the book as both films go in & out. The Nome King, designed as short and plump, is closer to Baum/Neil's orginal cheeky book version, except for the fact that he, Kaliko and the Nomes all have Tall pointy hats, which actually belongs to the 'traditional' Gnomes (not necessarily the same thing). I really did like how Lion has a big part in this adventure (since he didn't appear in 'Marvelous Land'), especially when he came to Dorothy's rescue, helped his friends across the Windy Cavern and saved Scarecrow from the sinking sand ship, and of course he had a few more heroics and carrying Dorothy/Prince Ev in the Deleted/Excluded Scenes. While the book originally had an Iron Giant with a Hammer, Princess Langwidere with her 30 Heads and the Queen of Ev with her 10 children, Cinar has two Rock Giants (which would've been better included here on DVD), Lulu (easier to say than 'Langwidere') with an obsession for hats and only 1 Prince of Ev. In the book Dorothy restored the youngest Ev Prince, Evring, and it was his oldest brother, Evardo 15th, who became King of Ev. Cinar's Prince is occasionally called "Prince Ev" and although younger than Dorothy, is slightly a combination of both. The Wheelers are changed from many mischievous well-dressed people with wheels-instead-of-hands-&-feet (Disney's "Return") to 3 little hairy cave-like men wearing beanies that move around on stone wheels like uni-cycle (think "Captain Caveman"), with short tempers and loud gruph voices. Even the appearance for Land of Ev itself has been changed: instead of Meal-Trees and lovely scenery, this strange place seems more like a Mountain-and-Cliff Realm, looking a bit Russian. The VHS-Video and DVD would both certainly have been a lot more enjoyable to watch had such scenes like the Rock Giants been included WITH the Windy cavern, maybe even the 'strange desert plants' being included more, the Guessing Game and Escape from Nomeland being PROPERLY Trimmed and edited, and finally having the Nome King's desire for going to Oz EXCLUDED from this DVD, since there will already be plenty of that in 'Emerald City'. Also, the Billina's design in this adventure is entirely different to the chicken briefly seen in the opening, so of course therefore they are not the same.
The Major Change from the book is the Queen of Oz herself: Ozma! She does appear to consult on Prince Ev's rescue, but it's only for a few minutes, and even though she responsibly goes back to Emerald City and rule Oz, it would've been interesting (even better) had she journeyed to Nomeland with an ACTUAL ARMY and met the Nome King. I really hate the Front Cover Design, because both the characters and background are from "Emerald City". Even the synopsis on the back is incorrect, saying bits that are from the book (and Disney's movie) and not the actual animation itself (Ev and Oz are Entirely DIFFERENT PLACES!!!). And unlike the book, we don't actually see any part of Oz or even our favourite characters properly return to Oz, except for the "Mr. Mouse Goes to Lion in Oz" scene.
Despite all the mistakes, it still has a few good scenes, and has the link/connection between what happened in "Marvelous Land" and what will happen in "Cinar's Emearld City" . . ."