Return to Oz, 1985 - ★★★★

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I'm not sure if this movie is a kids film.
It starts of with Dorothy (Fairuza Balk) being sleepless and sad and wanting to go back to Oz. Her aunt brings her to a special asylum where they wanna help her via electro shock therapy. She escapes and ends up in Oz, but instead of with her dog Toto she has a chicken called Billina (Denise Bryer). She soon finds out that all her friends were turned to stone except for the Scarecrow, who was the ruler of Oz, who got kidnapped by the Nome King. Then her adventure starts again.
She meets different characters that are pretty similar to the well known Scarecrow and Tin man. She meets Jack Pumpkinhead, who, what a wonder, has a pumpkin for a head and kind of is a scarecrow. She also meets Tik Tok, probably the worst invention ever. He is out of metal and not human (which he is very happy about). But he works through three screws on his back and needs to be winded up. One screw is for his ability to think, one for his ability to talk and one for his ability to move. So everytime she needs him, they stop working.
So much about the characters, I don't wanna spoil too much.
The movie has some very scary scenes, even I thought they were scary.
But all in all I have to admit this movie was fun, I really enjoyed it. The characters were interesting and crazy, but not too crazy. The acting is quite good, it was Fairuza Balk's first movie role and she did a good job for a little girl. Everyone did a good job.
But what stole the show are the special effects. We have a talking Pumpkinhead, a talking moose, talking stones, a witch that can take off her heads and many more. And this is all awesomely done, of course they didn't have CGI in 1985 so this were all practical effects, mostly stop motion and claymation. It looked gorgeous and I really enjoyed every second.
There is one group of characters that I didn't mention yet: Wheelers.
In the original Wizard of Oz we have these flying monkeys that follow the wicked Witch of the west.
In this movie we have Wheelers, who are people with wheels for hands and feet. They look awesome. I don't know how helpful it really is to have 4 wheels instead of hands and feet, but it looks so great.
To be honest, everything looks great. Visually, this movie is superb.
I really liked it, but maybe it is a little too scary for small kids that maybe enjoyed the Wizard of Oz.
Soo all in all, I enjoyed it and give it 4 out of 5 stars.
PS: We get the origin story of the Tin Man and it is gruesome oh my god.