Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return is a 2013 American animated musical fantasy film that is loosely based on the 1989 book Dorothy of Oz by L. Frank Baum's great-grandson Roger Stanton Baum. Directed by Daniel St. Pierre and Will Finn, the film features the voices of Lea Michele, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, Kelsey Grammer, Oliver Platt, Megan Hilty, Hugh Dancy, Patrick Stewart, and Martin Short.
The film premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France on June 14, 2013 and was released in the United States and Canada on May 9, 2014. The film was largely panned by both critics and audiences and was considered by analysts to be a colossal box-office bomb, grossing $21.7 million worldwide against a budget of $70 million.
It is the only film produced by Summertime Entertainment as the company was shut down in response to the film's commercial underperformance.
Contents
Plot
Inside the Emerald City, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion, now the city's co-leaders, discover that the Wicked Witch of the West's broomstick has been stolen. With the Land of Oz's future imperiled, the Scarecrow decides to activate his invention, the Rainbow Mover, to contact Dorothy Gale. Meanwhile, back in Kansas, she awakens to discover that a different tornado has wrecked her family's farm, leaving it in disrepair. A man posing as a government appraiser condemns the farmhouse and evicts her family. After a few failed attempts to repair her farm, Dorothy discovers her fellow townspeople have been similarly notified. Noticing a rainbow approaching her, she attempts to escape from it, but it ultimately absorbs her and Toto. Holographically, the trio reappear before Dorothy, and the Scarecrow attempts to explain what is happening. Before he can finish, Winged monkeys break into the Wizard of Oz's chamber, causing the trio to flee. The rainbow deposits Dorothy and Toto in Oz, albeit far from the Emerald City.
Dorothy first befriends Wiser, an overweight and intelligent but flightless owl. The pair enters Candy Country, where everything is made out of candy, including the inhabitants. Due to the manipulated signs, Marshal Mallow promptly arrests the duo for breaking the "no eating anything made of candy" rule and brings them to court. Upon recognizing Dorothy, Judge Jawbreaker exonerates and releases her and Wiser. Mallow joins the group, thus turning it into a trio, to fulfill a promise he made to find the missing General Candy Apple. Meanwhile, Glinda confronts the Jester, who has constructed a magic scepter from his sister's broomstick and crystal ball to turn the leaders of the territories of Oz, including General Candy Apple, into subservient marionettes. Glinda is similarly victimized, giving him complete control of Oz.
Entering the Dainty China Country, the trio is informed that they are restricted from passing through her kingdom. Inside her castle, the China Princess rejects potential suitors, but Mallow poses as a suitor and enchants her with his singing. After the Jester damages the land by causing an earthquake, the Princess angrily blames Dorothy for the Jester's torment, but agrees to accompany Dorothy and her traveling group, thus granting them passage through the land. Finding a bridge to the Emerald City destroyed, the group decides to construct a boat, but all the talking trees in the nearby forest decline except for an 978-year-old tree named Tugg, who agrees to be carved into a galleon. Dorothy's group sails into the abandoned Emerald City, but upon an ambush by the Flying Monkeys, the unit escapes into a cave system but tumbles down a waterfall and is separated.
Voice cast
Flying Monkey's vocal effects provided by Scott Menville, Alan Shearman, Randi Soyland, and Flip Waterman.
Production
When the Carroll brothers began raising money for the film in 2006, they were running a company called Alpine Pictures, which had previously made several low budget films. The Carrolls had a history of fundraising activities dating back to at least 1993, when they were sent a cease-and-desist letter by the state of Oregon accusing of them of selling unregistered securities. The next decade they received cease-and-desist orders and fines in states such as California, Wisconsin, Utah, Michigan, and Illinois. On the December 2, 2013 edition of the SpaceCast podcast, executive producer Greg Centineo confirmed that the film would be a musical and would feature music composed by Bryan Adams who also had a small voice role as a beaver foreman.
According to an investigation by TheWrap, a total of six states in the United States individually sent cease-and-desist letters to the Carroll brothers as they were fundraising for the film, accusing them of violating financial laws. It was reported by TheWrap that potential investors for the film had been told that the film would gross anywhere from $720 million to $2.04 billion U.S. dollars.
Soundtrack
The Legends of Oz: Dorothy Returns (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) was released on May 6, 2014 by Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 17% of 60 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Faced with the choice between staying in or seeing Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return, most filmgoers will be forced to conclude that there's no place like home." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 25 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. CinemaScore gave the film an "A" on an A+ to F scale, based on polls conducted during the opening weekend.
Box office
The film made $1 million on its opening day in the United States, and $3.7 million in its first weekend, against an estimated $70 million budget. By the end of its run, the film grossed $8.5 million in North America and $13.2 million internationally for a worldwide total of $21.7 million.
Accolades
At the 35th Golden Raspberry Awards, Kelsey Grammer won the award for Worst Supporting Actor for voicing the Tin Man in the film as well as for his live-action roles in The Expendables 3, Think Like a Man Too and Transformers: Age of Extinction. This is the second animated film to win a Razzie; previously, Thumbelina won the since-retired award for Worst Original Song in 1995 for "Marry the Mole".
The film also received a nomination with Daniel St. Pierre for Best Feature Cristal Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.
Home media
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return was released on DVD and Blu-ray by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on August 26, 2014.
Cancelled franchise
Despite the film's underperformance at the box office, two sequels and a television series were said to be in the works, though the plan was that the sequels would likely go directly to DVD if the film did not perform well at the box office. As of 2026, no further developments regarding the sequels or the television series have been announced, and the websites for both Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return and Summertime Entertainment have since been taken down; the only active web media to date is the LinkedIn page of Summertime Entertainment, as the company's Facebook page, which had not shared any new posts since promotion for the film's home media release on August 26, 2014, was reportedly closed down around 2025. This is widely believed to have been a scam.
Lawsuit
On August 16, 2019, a civil case was heard in the U.S. District Court of California claiming that the Carrolls, and Greg Centineo, scammed at least 1,800 different investors in order to finance the movie. Per documents, they raised well over $122 million despite only using $70 million. Allegedly, some of the funds were used to promote the acting career of Centineo's son Noah.
