Journey Back to Oz (1974)

Absolutely brilliant

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I remember reading in "Guinness World Records" that the 1985 film "Return To Oz" set the record for longest time between a sequel and the original film. Isn't that disproven with this movie which is apparently a sequel to "The Wizard Of Oz" that was made in 1974? Maybe because it's animated, it doesn't count. The 1970's was a terrible time for animation, easily the worst decade. Now, the animation here actually isn't that bad compared to other stuff that came out at the time. I actually really enjoyed Liza Minelli as Dorothy seeing as how she's actually Judy Garland's daughter.There were still a lot of things that were inconsistent with the original movie which this film was trying to be a sequel to. The Scarecrow apparently became the king of Oz but since when? Also, the ending is pretty cheap with how Mombi turns herself into a flower and is defeated simply by being trampled by her own green elephants. I actually do like these new characters, especially the wooden horse. As "The Wizard Of Oz" is one of my favorite movies, it would certainly be a tough act to follow. The movie itself is harmless, it just has a lot of good and bad stuff to it. **1/2

I think I saw it a Sunday afternoon, in the '70s, and as a kid, if it was new to me, then it was new. I didn't like it, mainly as I was told it wasn't Judy Garland's voice. That disappointed me.But looking back again, I didn't care for Ethel Merman as the follow-up witch (didn't care for the name Mombi either).But overall, I liked Paul Lynde, Herschel Bernardi and all the voicework. I got a kick out of the Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man songs all being the same; H-E-A-R-T, B-R-A-V-E and for the Scarecrow, B-R-A-N-E. If I am remembering that correctly.Later, I would actually see this had a theatrical release and I was very puzzled by that, but I didn't go see it. I think it was just something for families to do with their kids.I wouldn't mind seeing it again tho. I remember there just seemed to be a lot of excitement with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Pumpkinhead and the horse racing around.A comic book version about this same time would have the same characters, but seemed to have a deer's head on the side of the basket of a balloon.

I haven't seen this film for years, but I remember loving it when I was about six years old - the main thing I remember about it was the song 'an elephant never forgets' which I thought was amazing and went around singing for weeks which drove my parents mad because they didn't like the movie very much. I'm glad Liza played Dorothy - it's only right that Judy Garland's daughter played her character in this cartoon sequel. *goes to dig out the video* I know it's the same character, and played by Judy's daughter who looks and sounds a lot like her, but No comparison can really be drawn from Journey Back to Oz and The Wizard of Oz as they are two completely different things - each with their merits and their weaknesses - but both (in my opinion) are brilliant and well worth a watch!

...and Ethel Merman buffs, too, will love her loud, bossy vocals as the wicked witch Mombi, but this cartoon sequel to "The Wizard Of Oz" is bereft of real imagination, substituting fantasy and excitement with noisy action (and cheaply repeating its footage like a bad music video). Little Dorothy is whisked back to Oz, which has gone to ruin, and meets old and new friends. The inelegant animation is stuck somewhere between the weakest Walt Disney and the less-inspired shows from Hanna-Barbera, however many of the songs are good, particularly Dorothy's sweet lament "It's a Far Away Land", superbly performed by Liza Minnelli. You can count on Minnelli for energy, which is why the movie perks up whenever Dorothy is around. Much of it is unmemorable, and I'm not even sure baby-boomers will get a charge from it since it has been out of circulation for so long. As a curiosity item, just fair. ** from ****