Return to Oz exists in an uncomfortable gray area. Unlike that great film, Return is not a musical, nor are any of the farm hands in evidence. But neither is Return totally faithful to L. Frank Baum's original books. This film combines Baum's Ozma of Oz and The Land of Oz into a new story, which takes place after the events in the movie version of The Wizard of Oz . If you were to rent Return to Oz and watch it in a double feature with the musical Wizard of Oz , you'd be in for quite a shock.
Return is a dark film.
Mombi shows Dorothy how to get a head in life. Dorothy is relocated to Worely's sanitarium, which looks a heck of a lot like the one from Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell . Accompanied by a talking chicken named Billina, Dorothy walks to the Emerald City, only to find it destroyed and occupied solely by Tik-Tok, a mechanical man. With her newfound allies, Dorothy sets out to escape from Mombi's castle, confront the Nome King, and restore Oz to its former glory. Like its predecessor, Return to Oz features some parallels between Dorothy's life in Kansas and her adventures in Oz.