Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2013): Dir: Will Finn, Dan St. Pierre / Voices: Lea Michele, Martin Short, Hugh Dancy, Oliver Platt, Megan Hilty: Unnecessary animated sequel of sorts to the classic masterpiece The Wizard of Oz. The villain here is Jester, the brother of the wicked witch of the original film. He takes over Emerald City with the fleet of flying monkeys overthrowing the Scarecrow, Tin Man and the now brave Lion. The Scarecrow sends a message to Kansas to young Dorothy Gale who has her own issues when her homefront is threatened to be sold. She and her dog, Toto are swept up within a rainbow and spiralled off to Oz. Like the original film she is accompanied by an assortment of characters including an overweight owl named Wiser, a marshmallow soldier named Marshal Mallow whom she met in Candyland, and finally an ornament China princess named Queen Mouse. These characters are appealing but the screenplay is stale. None of the songs are memorable but the animation is colourful and detailed. Directed by Will Finn and Dan St. Pierre with Lea Michele as the appropriate voice of Dorothy whose status is legendary. Martin Short provides amusement as the voice of villain Jester. Oliver Platt as Wiser struggles to fly, and Hugh Dancy voicing Marshal Mallow demonstrates loyalty protecting the China princess. Megan Hilty voices the uptight China Princess who learns a thing or two about self sacrifice. Children may enjoy the animation but parents may wish to introduce them to the film where Judy Garland sang about the true nature over the rainbow. Score: 5 / 10

At the start of this film, we see Kansas in a ruin after the tornado, and an enterprising man offers to buy the town and restore it his own way. Meanwhile, there's trouble in Oz, and Dorothy arrives there via rainbow. This time, the tin man, scarecrow and lion are given their own storyline, and don't interact with Dorothy until much later. This leads to unfunny banter between the three. Meanwhile Dorothy runs into less interesting characters, a porcelain doll, a marshmallow man, and an owl. The film's ending also seemed very rushed. Dorothy simply gives an inspiring speech to the townspeople about how they can revive their own houses and town, they agree, end of story.

This is supposed to be based on a book written by L. Frank Baum's grandson. Congrats to him for cashing in on granddad's legacy, I guess. The new characters are entirely forgettable so I won't bother discussing them. Why is Dorothy wearing cowgirl boots? Is that a thing? The opening credits go on way too long. The animation isn't the greatest. The backgrounds are flat and cheap. At times the movie looks like a video game made ten years ago. The voice work is passable but the actors can't make this work. Martin Short is having a field day but his enthusiasm is not contagious. The songs are very bland. Think 'Christian pop music' bland. The song about candy had me questioning why I was watching a movie clearly meant for toddlers. Man, it's pretty insufferable. I kept checking the time and thinking about my life choices. Look, if you're a parent of little ones, maybe they'll like it. If you're an adult who isn't very bright, maybe you'll like it. The rest of you, I would suggest you avoid this. It's not something most adults or teens will like. It's childish, corny, and boring.

So my mom,my brother,and myself all went to see this film today in the cinemas as the other film we were suppose to see wasn't on until 15:35 and it was too late for us to see it. So we decided to watch Legend of OZ: Dorothy's Return. Now before I start this review I have to say that as a 23 year old woman I absolutely love Animated movies in fact its my favourite movie genre as I love all the effects and effort that is put into making animated movies like Frozen,Tangled,Shrek,The Lion King,whether its Hand-drawn or not I love watching animated movies.So this one I had very low expectations on,I thought it looked stupid and generic and like a film you see going straight to DVD as it was like a Barbie film,but I was wrong,now its not the best film of all time,but its entertaining for the kids as well as the adults who are big kids at heart.SO what is this about well let's dive in. Dorothy Graine( voiced by and sung by Lea Michele from Glee in her first animated debut) is whisked away to OZ once again thanks to a magical rainbow that transports her and her dog to OZ as an evil Jester wants to take over by making puppets out of real people. SO Scarecrow insists on Dorothy's help and she agrees. Here she meets a obese owl who helps her and later a marshmallow guard(voiced by Hugh Dancy who also sings in this movie as he sung in the 2004 film Ella Enchanted)who arrests Dorothy and the Owl as they ate candy(btw did anyone think that the candy scene was like Sugar Rush in Wreck It Ralph)and when the marshmallow guard finds out that Dorothy is known as the greatest person ever to defeat the wicked witch he agrees to let her and the owl go. So they go off to defeat the jester(voiced by Martin Short who was in Barbie's Princess & The Pauper and he as in the 2003 Disney film Treasure Planet)who is the wicked witches brother. So can Dorothy get Glinda(Bernadete Peters from Anastasia as she voiced Sophie in that film) the white fairy back? and undo the spell that turned her into a puppet?Overall I found this film sweet and nice. The animation is nice to look at,the backgrounds look great and the voice acting was good too(Dan Akyrod from Ghost busters as the Scarecrow,Kelsey Grammar who also worked with Bernadette Peters in Anastasia and he was Sideshow Bob in The Simpsons,and James Belushi from Curly Sue as the Scarecrow are also in this film). The music is great(Bryan Adams who is a singer who did the likes of Spirit of the Stallion and Racing Stripes) provides the music for this film. If you got kids than this is for you,or if you consider yourself an animated fan like me than check it out. For those who hate musicals and sugary sweet cartoons avoid.6.5/10