After the Wizard

Elizabeth lives in a Kansas orphanage, run by a lady who has been there thirty years. Even though twelve year old Liz doesn't want to upset folks, she does. That is because she lives in a fantasy world, where the young gal believes she is Dorothy of the Oz books. Everyone is instructed to call her Doro, which they refuse to do, resulting in punishments galore. Meanwhile, the Tin Man and Scarecrow have landed a balloon in New Jersey and are making their way by train to Kansas. The journey many problems as this duo doesn't understand money, state boundaries and more. Fortunately, they do have a pocketful of emeralds from the E city, which do come in handy. Will they be able to locate Dorothy at the time she really needs them? There may be a tornado approaching, too! This sweet film moves so slowly that some children will give up a view, despite the delightful Tin Man and Scarecrow. It is a well conceived tale, that an orphan girl, rejected by many, invents a dream world to cope. Therefore, Oz characters are part of an imaginary world, which may not be clear to kids, either. Nevertheless, if boys and girls are the patient type, this little film may thrill those who adore the original Wizard of Oz movie.

It kept my kids attention but it was very disconnected and left some unanswered questions.

The acting was not horrible, but could have been better.

The costumes left much to be desired, I think the tin mans snow gloves would have been better as just painted skin.

Who in their right mind portrays Oz by shooting the Oz scene in a quarry? It was like they drove around and said...OK, that looks good, and free lets shoot there!

The Oz lore was way off, whoever wrote the script didn't keep true to the oz books.

Peter Mark Richman portrayed a genuine character with some good morals to the story he told, he was very believable.

For a family flick, this is a really poorly executed film. The idea is excellent and for the first few minutes, the prospect of a great film gets you. However, this excitement quickly turns into disbelief when you are faced with 10-15 minutes scenes with one dimensional dialogues between two characters. Even my 10 year old daughter, fan of Shakespeare plays (heavy stuff) was bored after a while. We watched all hoping to see a turn of events that made our 80 minutes worth waiting... Nothing was found. The only positive thing was the acting. A great load of the film falls on them and they (in general) deliver. It is not their fault that the director choose substance over entertainment.

While this was a very amateur production with a few good performances, as a life-long fan of the Oz literature I could have overlooked that if the story had been any good. My biggest issue is that it's presented as an Oz adventure when it's not, and whatever story it's trying to tell is muddled by two incongruous plots. Elizabeth is an orphan who pretends to be Dorothy in order to cope with vague and undefined problems, while the Scarecrow and a guy in grey makeup travel across the United States to seek her help with vague and undefined problems back in the rock quarry that's supposed to pass for Oz. I've wondered if I might have liked this movie more if I'd seen it as a child.

This is touted as a sequel, yet nothing about it matches the canon or indicates that anyone had actually read the books despite the frequent praise for them from the writer and the characters. There are already at least two other "sequels" anyway that DO incorporate elements of "Land of Oz" and "Ozma of Oz," the books which follow "Wizard:" Filmation's "Journey Back to Oz" from 1972, and Disney's "Return to Oz" from 1985. This was more like an "add a word" forum game that someone cobbled together into a script, and given that a few dozen people received special thinks for the writing, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what happened. It would certainly explain why the overall premise was so disjointed.

Ultimately if you like stories that have a simple plot with minimal conflict that's easily resolved and a pat happy ending all around, you'll find that here, but if you want something more complex, keep looking.

I had the misfortune to stumble on this god awful waste of film, electricity and time on cable television.

It's literally unbelievably slow and stupid. There was this scene on a train where a blind man talks to the scarecrow and tin man and tells them simple and obvious stuff about "The Wizard of Oz" that we already know. It might be the single most boring scene ever committed to film.

I sat there with my jaw dropped, wondering how any filmmaker can think anyone would want to watch something like that. And it went on and on and on and on .....................................

It's getting distressing to think that the creators of today are so uncreative that all they can do is rehash old properties that have already been rehashed to death already.