It's only the next morning when Dorothy (voiced by Michele) is summoned back to Oz by a panicky Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion (Aykroyd, Grammer and Belushi), as the crazed Jester (Short) kidnaps good witch Glinda (Peters) and plunges Oz into his reign of mad terror. Making her way across the countryside to Emerald City, Dorothy teams up with Wiser the owl (Platt), Marshal Mallow (Dancy), the China Princess (Hilty) and the ancient tree Tugg (Stewart) before taking on the Jester and his army of flying monkeys.

The script doesn't bother to explain why Jester is so determined to destroy everything: he's just evil, and that's what bad guys do. And this simplistic approach undermines everything about the story, extending to the cliched design and under-developed imagery. So none of the characters feel like they have weight, either physically or dramatically. The animation is disturbingly bad: not only are the characters painfully skinny, but they seem disconnected from each other on-screen.

So it's a good thing that the A-list voice actors put some attitude into the blunt dialog. Throwaway moments help add texture, as do some rather outrageous explosive scenes, which especially give Short a chance to chomp merrily on the scenery. All of the cast members have superb singing voices as well, although only two of the songs are even remotely memorable.

Intriguingly, the story requires Oz to look broken and battered, so the movie never goes for that sunny, too-cheery design we're used to, instead concentrating on dangers and darkness. This makes lands like Candy County or China County a lot edgier than we expect, and removes the sheen from Emerald City. With a more detailed animation approach to the characters themselves, the film would have had a shot at being a classic. But it looks so inferior to Hollywood, Japanese and even European animation that it'll only work its magic on the very young.

themes, violence

11.Mar.14