Review: Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return

92. Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
I am more than capable of recognizing films intended for a young audience as genuinely incredible achievements if they deserve the distinction. Even when it causes others to roll their eyes and discount my opinions (often when they haven't seen the film in question), I will stick to my guns. I truly believe that "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" should have won the Oscar for Best Picture and no one can convince me otherwise. I make note of this to make it clear that when I say "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return" doesn't measure up, it's not from my inability to appreciate a film aimed at younger audiences.

The film is inoffensive, yet uninspiring. It feels, at best, like a pilot for an animated television show, just with better animation. From the very beginning it lacks the sense of fun or energy needed to pull me into a film. Usually musical numbers would be an opportunity to inject that energy, but not here. I'm writing this barely twelve hours after seeing the film and I honestly can't remember a single lyric or set of notes from any of the film's songs. It doesn't help that their placement feels arbitrary. There is rarely any buildup to a new musical number--they just start out of the blue. In the aforementioned "High School Musical 3", every single song had me tapping my toes, and many got me to almost start singing along. During most of the songs in this film, I was consciously aware that my toes were not tapping. If anything they were more rooted to the floor than before.

The story itself is nothing to get worked up over, either. Dorothy returns to Oz (hence the title) to help defeat a new villain. I could be more specific, but there's really no point. That's exactly what the film is (with more detail, of course), and it never becomes anything more or takes off in any surprising directions.

The cast's voice work is fine. I especially enjoyed Hugh Dancy's work, but I am largely biased in his favor due to the sublime performance he turns in every week on "Hannibal". There were a couple clever lines, but they weren't frequent enough to get a good flow going.

Overall, the film slides perfectly into the category of mediocrity. It's not bad, but it's by no means good. It just sits there, not doing anything to drive anyone away, but not doing anything to draw them in, either. It's one of those cases where if it actually were bad, the entertainment value might have been higher.