Walt Disney Pictures' Return to Oz [Paperback]

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Scholastic (1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590337475
• ISBN-13: 978-0590337472
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.1 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,344,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars Movie Comic-Book, May 8, 2005

By 

Sam A. Milazzo (Sydney, N.S.W Australia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Walt Disney Pictures' Return to Oz (Paperback)

For those who have thought, 'I wonder if there ever was a Return to Oz movie comic-book?' . . . Well, HERE IT IS!
In getting ready for the 20th Anniversary of Disney's Return to Oz (which is June 21st), I decided to order the new DVD and all the books so that I could celebrate the special day (but I wish I had thought to order the CD Soundtrack too).
This book has the same cover as the Anchor Bay DVD (except that the title is above the picture in a different style and against a light-yellow-creamish background. The book's size and number of pages is just like Troll's Wizard of Oz (48 pgs, not very thick), but slightly smaller. Like all Movie-Comic-Book-Adaptations, there are a few changes made when putting the movie into comic-storytelling; so unfortunately Dorothy's old house and the Yellow Brick road, along with some other small scenes, don't appear, but some pages do take up bits from the Deleted Scenes. Dorothy's dress is all pink instead of white+pink and her shoes are red (black in 1 picture though), Toto's hair is white instead of brown, Billina is brown instead of orangish-yellow, Ozma's hair is blonde in Kansas and brown in Oz (in one picture she looks a little bit like a man), and it's the same thing with blonde-Mombi's-head. Many of the pictures are of course illustrated versions of shots in the movie/photos we may have seen on the movie (stickers, etc.). One major mistake is that Mombi's body still manages to talk even without a head!! On the page where they fall and crash onto the Nome King's mountain, Dorothy's legs are drawn in a position I don't really like, being more suited to something like 'the Phantom', and the Nome King's gown is drawn to look like a jacket (showing his skinny 'hippy-hoppy' legs). Just like "Troll's" Wizard, I think that this book would've been better had it been done in 50 (or 52) pages, then Dorothy could've had a longer good-bye and maybe see her old house in Oz too. But one of the really good things about this comic is that we see a few new never-before-seen drawings of the Emerald City. The ending on the last page is just like MGM's ending, but in Return to Oz style.
This is a great movie comic book, and even if back in 1985 it wasn't coloured like comics today, it's still enjoyable to look through.
It may also interest you to know that this Oz comic came out 10 years after the 1975 comic adaptation of "MGM's the Marvelous Wizard of Oz", published by DC and Marvel (which can be found at ebay, at a very BIG $!) The following year of 1976 had a comic adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 2nd Oz book "the Marvelous Land of Oz", although it may not have been another published-collaboration.