He lasts a good moment comically frozen in terror as it all happens. while the Nome King himself, at the height of his terrifying Villainous Breakdown, accidentally swallows an egg laid by Billina. Princess Mombi, after spending the first two-thirds as either a dissonantly smug or screaming monster that has taken the heads of over a dozen women- with Dorothy being the next one- is cowed by the Nome King and then imprisoned as punishment for "failing" him, while she can only grovel- she then spends the remainder of the movie in a cage and is told by Ozma that she will no longer have powers as an added kicker, which is very pitiful indeed. Catharsis Factor: Both bad guys, despite their incredibly nightmarish factor, are disposed of in a gratifyingly pitiful way.Awesome Music: David Shire's score goes from eerie to sad to magnificent, and sprouts a wide variety of styles, going from orchestral to silent-era ragtime to creepy mandolin for Mombi to modern techno for the Nome King.Worley, despite what Aunt Em said about everyone surviving. There probably were a number of patients trapped in the cellar locked in their rooms who likely perished in the fire with Dr. However, it is stated that the clinic was hit by lightning in the storm and burned to the ground.Besides, it's ambiguous whether she was hunting Dorothy and "Ozma" down to harm them, or pursuing and trying to save from drowning two sick little kids who were left in her care. In-universe, though, being a stern hospital matron doesn't constitute a crime in itself - and if it's about the "damaged" patients in the cellar, society in 1899 rural Kansas would probably tend to be pretty forgiving about the attempted treatment of desperate mental patients sometimes resulting in a worst-case scenario. Nurse Wilson has been arrested at the end, which we accept because Dorothy found her scary and, besides, she is the And You Were There counterpart to an evil witch-princess from the Land of Oz.Is she just Ozma's real-world counterpart like how the other characters are, and if so did she drown? Is she Ozma's soul reaching out to Dorothy, thus making her the same character? Is she Ozma's soul appearing to her as a figment of her imagination, as she gets into closed rooms and the doctors never seem to acknowledge her? If that's the case, can she interact with the real world in a limited capacity, seeing as she untied Dorothy - or was that also imagined, and she just wasn't tied down well? Or is she an aspect of Dorothy herself? She appears in the mirror seemingly in answer to Dorothy's wish, while wearing the ruby slippers, that she could be in both places at once. ![]() Alternative Character Interpretation: The girl who rescues Dorothy at the beginning whom Dorothy sees as Ozma at the end.Where most simply gesticulate wildly towards Return to Oz‘s unsettling aspects, this essay takes the time to unpack the film’s notoriously upsetting reputation in the context of Baum’s work, which drew from, among other things, the tradition of older, darker fairytales. All of this is true, but this is, as the video essay below argues, precisely what makes the film the most faithful adaptation of L. ![]() Walter Murch‘s 1985 film has been described as surreal, unnerving, and upsetting. But chief among them, without a doubt, is Return to Oz. Least of all because the House of Mouse has been responsible for more dark delights than you’d expect. And when we’re young, we are especially open and receptive to the more nightmarish and primal vibrations of media.ĭisney films are frequent bedfellows on such lists. We are simultaneously attracted to and repelled by the things that scare us the most. The experience of formative, traumatic media is so universal that you can barely throw a skull at the internet without hitting a dozen lists of “nightmare fuel that traumatized us as kids.” The frequency of such lists emphasizes the power of pop culture that leaves dark impressions on us as children. ![]() Maybe it was an especially ghastly cartoon or commercial. Today, we’re watching a video essay about why Return to Oz is one of the most nightmarish “kid-friendly” films ever made.Įveryone has a part of their brains cordoned off with caution tape, dedicated to the movies that traumatized them as children. Welcome to The Queue - your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |