RETURN TO OZ [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Well, I enjoyed the movie, but am not so sure about the book. The characters are not as funny, nor as real, nor as well-developed as in the other authors' books, but this is a workmanlike treatment of what was just an okay screenplay. If you've seen the movie and can relate each character to the on-screen persona, then it's acceptable, even fun. If you haven't seen the movie, probably not.

No, I haven't seen the movie and I will, but I'm doing some WOZ research. Novelizations are another breed of genre, and this was both feline in its surprise/mystery factor as well as as tail-wagging reader-friendly (and respectful) as Toto the doggy. Now Baum's classic has appeared in some many different incarnations and has been socio-psycho-analyzed every which way from Kansas. This novelization managed to target another dimension of the Oz story that's not so familiar to most people. Namely, it explores the "dark side" of all the characters involved as well as a time-traveler's glimpse into that early soon-to-speed-up-like crazy "Industrial Age" vs. an Age that will never go out of style; namely, the Human archetype that has heralded what many scientists (especially geologists) have dubbed the "Anthropocene Age"--i.e. every single day of economic globalization that goes by, we are daily leaving FOSSIL RECORDS of our time from un-biodegradable products that we consume to chemical fertilizers that we use in agriculture to, yes, fossil fuels. All this is in direct apposition to the "Age of the Creative Imagination" which has been with us since day one of our psycho-existence as thinking and dreaming homo sapiens. The geologic remains of nitrogen and other stuff we leave behind (metal and zinc from urban cities and their highrises, for example), and what we're doing so foolishly by deliberately ignoring the effects of climate change . . . the traces of all that rubbish will be discovered by geologists a million years from now (presuming that we still exist on Planet Earth; or only occasional visit Terra from our new colonies in outer space (Mars, for example, will be the "new Manhattan" of our neck of the cosmos). But will works of the imagination, art, music, what we call "literature" or even today's "transmedia-in the-making," will any of THAT be left behind? How does all the above relate to Vinge's novelization of the mythical archetypal "Wizard of Oz" tale & journey? Because it's strikingly uncanny how Vonge hones in precisely, yet sensitively, into the undercurrents of our times and of our Jungian/Campbellian view of the world.

Another thing: If you enter this book like I did, it's really a first-class work of prescient HORROR . . . and of hope. Without homo sapiens and their strivings and the way they relate to the world and existence, there WOULD be no horror. Nor would there be HOPE. Finely balanced, well-tuned chilling read!

The first I ordered this novel it got lost in the mail, so I was unable to read it for the 20th Anniversary back in 2005. But I did get it a while ago, and now I can review it for the 25th Anniversary.

This movie novel was a great read!

Not only does it retell the whole movie, but it says so in detail, saying thoughts that goes through Dorothy, it describes moments that have an emotional pull to them. Here we can read about Aunt Em and how she feels about Dorothy and Oz and her own life, Dorothy's memory of her first adventure in Oz (she retells it to Billina under the lunch-pail tree) and what had happened in Oz when Dorothy was in Kansas with the Nome King and Mombi's taking-over.

Included here in the novel is a different scene of the friends landing on the Nome King's mountain, the deleted scenes of Aunt Em "painting" Dorothy's face, Aunt Em and Dorothy meeting Head Nurse Wilson and Dr Worley at the clinic, Dorothy being asked to stay and be Queen of Oz, the Kansas folk surrounding Dorothy when she is found again and ask about "the other one" and many other extra moments NOT in the film. Said to be the case with many movie novelizations, this is based on an earlier version of the script, but still is pretty much the same as the one we see.

The 8 pages of photos include the Tin woodman in stone, Dorothy and Billina with Tik-Tok in the Mirrored Palace, the Witch Mombi in her palace, Dorothy and Billina watching Tik-Tok control the Head Wheeler, the friends meeting the Nome King on his mountain, Nicol Williamson as the nearly-human Nome King, Dorothy and Jack Pumpkinhead escaping the tower, Dorothy running through the Hall of heads, the Coronation Parade, and Dorothy crowning Scarecrow (a Deleted Scene). The pictures are good, and some of them can only be seen here and no where else or any other books, they have good detail and are well-toned, but may appear too dark when compared to similar pictures in different books.

The only thing wrong with this book is the beginning of Chapter 20 where page 182 (somehow) accidentally continues a sentence from the next page too soon, causing a zig-zag when reading.

Other than that (and the constantly reused poster art for cover), this novel is a MUST-READ for a Great Disney / Oz movie and out of all the Return to Oz books is the only one to tell you the full story.