Post by StevePulaski on Sept 11, 2014 18:00:39 GMT -5
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2014)
Directed by: Will Finn and Dan St. Pierre
Directed by: Will Finn and Dan St. Pierre
Dorothy and her dog Toto in Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return.
Rating: ★½
If animated films in 2014, other than the brilliant LEGO Movie, should be remembered for one thing, it should be the appalling artificiality and corporate-monopolizing of taste and treatment many of them seem to have endured. Between The Nut Job and Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return, it seems the recent animated releases of the new year were controlled, written, directed, and produced by studio executives who think they know what kids and their parents are looking for in terms of quality entertainment without etching in the heart, soul, and wit of their superiors who have made hundreds of millions of dollars at the global box office.
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return is a miserable financial and narrative failure that will undoubtedly go down as one of the most atrocious and questionable releases of this year. Putting obvious issues and shortcomings aside, the thought of remaking the classic, timeless gem that is the 1939 Wizard of Oz into, despite a $70 million pricetag, something that looks like cheap, Saturday morning animation is an abhorrent insult to the original film itself and those who hold it dear to their hearts. The Wizard of Oz was a beautiful landmark in the regard that it was one of the first times a coherent and vibrant fantasy story was told on the big screens through the use of amazing, brightly-colored aesthetics and an impenetrable sense of narrative whimsy. It's a classic that deserves every piece of praise it has been awarded for over seven decades. Legends of Oz isn't even good enough for fifteen minutes of its counterpart's fame.
The story concerns the nearly-empty Emerald City, which has had its population dwindle down to the three main characters we saw in the iconic 1930's film, the Scarecrow (voiced by Dan Aykroyd), the Tin Man (Kelsey Grammer), and the Cowardly Lion (Jim Belushi), respectively. The three, desperate to save their fallen city, work to reunite Dorothy Gale (Lea Michele), the idealistic young girl who was sucked up by the power of a sepia-toned Tornado in her Kansas farmland with her dog many years ago, in order to save Emerald City. Emerald City has turned in from a magical, limitless palace to more-or-less a hellhole, as the Wicked Witch of the West has had her broomstick stolen and has unleashed Flying Monkeys on the city.
Things aren't much more peachy in Kansas, as Dorothy awakes to see the devastating damage to the farmland she calls home after the large tornado. Due to the damage being so bad, the Gale family has till sundown to move out of their home, as ordered by the government. It isn't until Dorothy gets sucked into the Scarecrow's "rainbow mover" invention and finds herself back on the yellow brick road with a lot more on her plate. She sees that other than witches, Glinda the Good Witch has been captured by the Jester (Martin Short), Oz's worst enemy, as he is a smarmy and selfish creature, leaving Dorothy and a whole new gang of friends to bring down the tyrannical empire of Oz.
The deplorable insincerity and lack of effort in a narrative sense of Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return should be evident in the opening sequence of the film, where, for three and a half minutes, we see each name of the actor and actress who loaned their voices for this picture get an unbelievable amount of emphasis. The names of the actors are thrown in our faces and linger on-screen for about four seconds each, placing an unhealthy amount of emphasis on the cast backing up the voices of the characters than on the characters themselves. It's the classic case of an unremarkable animated film boasting its first-rate voice actors in an attempt to disguise third/fourth-rate storytelling.
The animation of Legends of Oz is clearly cheap, and while it provides for some bright colors and the occasional zest for the eyes (the "rainbow mover" scene is actually quite fascinating), we, as audiences, have already been spoiled by the immaculate detail of Pixar films and, just this year, saw the wonders and unbelievable beauty in computer-generated LEGOs. Because of this, Legends of Oz looks, feels, and moves more like a Saturday morning cartoon or an animated TV movie that decided to make a small upgrade to its graphics engine instead of anything that should've been released theatrically.
Finally, and most importantly, there's just an appalling of soul in the film that is evident from the first few lines of dialog. Legends of Oz is made without grace or love for its characters, never humanizing them or addressing their main qualities that make even the non-human characters human and lovable. It skips over the defining details to get straight to high-flying, rat-a-tat-tat action that entirely undermines why the 1939 film is loved and held so dearly by many in the first place. This trait alone makes the film feel like a product of corporate interest and greed rather than soul and whimsy, which is enough to turn anyone's yellow brick road red with anger.
Voiced by: Lea Michele, Dan Aykroyd, Kelsey Grammer, Jim Belushi, Martin Short, Megan Hilty, Hugh Dancy, and Oliver Platt. Directed by: Will Finn and Dan St. Pierre.