Post by Vinnie Rattolle on Jul 5, 2007 7:58:52 GMT -5
Okay, her part in it isn't huge, but I just watched it yesterday, so it's fresh in my mind... In 1985, Piper Laurie took over the iconic role of Aunt Em in Disney's non-musical "Return to Oz."
Based on L. Frank Baum's novels "Return to Oz" and "Ozma," the film didn't completely ignore the 1939 MGM classic (references were made to the ruby slippers, which were silver slippers in the novels), but it was a drastic departure. Featuring a cast of puppeteered and claymated characters along with the memorable multi-headed Princess Mombi and the creepy Wheelers, the film documented Dorothy Gale's return to the land that everyone tried to convince her was all in her head.
The film was hyped to be the next big thing (along with "The Black Cauldron"), but the Disney corp was in transition at the time (Michael Eisner joined the company during the filming) and when it wasn't an enormous hit, it was unceremoniously dumped on video and forgotten. 14 years later, Anchor Bay resurrected the movie and released it on DVD, but a feud with Disney over another release sadly resulted in the disc being released with virtually no extras.
