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Note: initial content copied from Wikipedia:Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return. & The History of Legends of Oz: Animation’s Biggest Scam


Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return, originally titled Dorothy of Oz, is a computer-animated film based on the book Dorothy of Oz by Roger Stanton Baum. It is produced by Summertime Entertainment, a now defunct division of Alpine Pictures in partnership with Prana Studios and was released on May 9, 2014.


Plot[]

The story begins in the nearly deserted Emerald City. Dark clouds hang overhead, damage is apparent throughout the area, and it is clear that something is wrong. The only brave enough to stay are the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. All of them are on edge due to recent events, but they have all come together with a common goal, to bring Dorothy Gale back to the Land of Oz and help her save Emerald City. They prepare to use Scarecrow's invention called the Rainbow Mover to summon Dorothy. Unfortunately, things are indeed worse than they believed, as the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West was recently stolen from its case and Flying Monkeys are on the loose. As the Tin Man and Cowardly Lion hold the door closed from the Flying Monkeys, the Scarecrow begins to send a message to Dorothy.

Back in Kansas, Dorothy awakes in her home to see the damage done to her farmland following the tornado as she gets dressed and heads outside to where Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are examining the surroundings. The damage is beyond repair so they have to move, but Dorothy refuses to give up their home-it can be fixed. Just then, a pink car comes driving down the path toward their home as a government appraiser with his lackey come to survey their home. He inspects, even pushes a support beam to make it look like it'll fall and thus condemns the house as he gives the Gales until sundown to move out. As he leaves, Dorothy refuses to give up her home and tries her best to fix things up. After a few failed attempts, Dorothy explores her town watching as people leave before heading up the hill. As she views her town thunder roars in the distance as she turns around seeing a rainbow, yet it was beginning to turn and was heading toward her. Dorothy runs back to her house and tries to take shelter, but is scooped up with Toto into the rainbow and within it holographic images of her friends appear as the Scarecrow tries to tell Dorothy of what's going on, but the message is cut short when the Flying Monkeys in Oz break through the door, and the Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow have to move from their room so they won't be seen. Dorothy is then dropped in Oz by the rainbow, and is determined to get to Emerald City to help her friends.

Dorothy of Oz Poster

Original Poster

Meanwhile, at the late Wicked Witch's castle, Glinda the Good Witch is captured and confronted by the Jester who wields his sister's broomstick with a stolen orb that helps to control its power. The Jester has captured important people of Oz and has them encased in glass cases in marionette forms. Glinda warns Jester that Dorothy would stop him, yet he isn't threatened for he has magic to defeat her. The Jester then uses a spell to turn Glinda into a marionette and encases her in a glass case. The Jester uses his sister's crystal ball to locate Dorothy and uses a spell to change the signs of Candy County that she was approaching.

Meanwhile Dorothy and Toto meet Wiser, a huge owl who can no longer fly, and he helps them on their quest by pointing the way to find the Yellow Brick Road that will lead to Emerald City. They come across Candy County and see the signs say "Eat all you want" and they go candy crazy, enjoying the sweets. They are soon arrested by a marshmallow man named Marshal Mallow and his troops and are taken to the courthouse. Judge Jawbreaker assumes them guilty even though they didn't know of the magical spell that made the signs change, and he sentences them to death since eating candy is a high crime (as seen on a candy corn poster of crimes). As their names are given, the court gasps at Dorothy Gale (who is identified as the Witch Slayer) causing Judge Jawbreaker to dismiss the charges. Marshal Mallow apologies for earlier and worries of General Candy Apple's whereabouts. Dorothy invites him to come along with them to Emerald City under General Candy Apple's orders.

Their journey takes them to Dainty China Country where they must get through to get to Emerald City, yet the China Guard doesn't allow them, and states that only the China Princess can give permission and at the moment she is looking for suitors. Dorothy volunteers Marshal Mallow to be a suitor and they are allowed in. The China Princess is disgusted at each suitor and dismisses each based on size, boredom, and cracks. When Marshal Mallow is next, he sings sweetly to her, which makes her fall for him. Suddenly the palace begins to shake as the ceiling begins to crack as the China Princess almost falls, but Marshal Mallow catches her as everyone heads outside. The city is in ruins, people are cracked. China Princess tells Dorothy and her friends that the Jester is responsible for the quakes on her kingdom, yet when she figures who he could be mad at for the cause of her land she blames Dorothy even though she knows nothing of the Jester. As Dorothy pleads with China Princess to let them through, she surveys her surroundings seeing her people in trouble and thus has a change of heart and allows them to pass, but she is coming with them.

Back at the Jester's castle (his late sister's castle) , the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow are captured and are in the clutches of the Jester who takes them to where he has the marionettes of the Land of Oz's leaders. He tells them of his painful story of his curse and how he desired his abusive sister's power before he chains them up in torture chambers.

Dorothy and her friends come across a broken bridge with no way to get across to the other side. The only option they have is building a boat out of wood, but the talking trees aren't very friendly to that idea and pelt them with apples because one identified Dorothy as the one who picked apples off one of her Uncles. When all hope seemed lost, an old tree named Tugg offers himself to become a boat to them. The gang begin building a boat with help from mice and beavers and in no time at all a mighty vessel was built and they set sail for Emerald City.

They arrive in Emerald City and go inside the castle where they find the machine. Dorothy plays the message left by Scarecrow about how the Land of Oz is being taken over by Jester and she must stop him. Suddenly, a burst of green smoke appears as the Jester taunts Dorothy before unleashing his Flying Monkeys on them. They retreat back to Tugg and sail off while avoiding the Flying Monkeys and fighting back against them before going into a cave to lose them. Inside, they are surrounded by fireflies that guide them on their way, but when it came to a fork in the path they go right only To find it was a trap by the Jester! They were heading straight toward a waterfall. Tugg falls down the waterfall and reopens to the gang on the shore. All but the China Princess are all right. She is broken into pieces. Dorothy, not wanting her friends to get hurt, decides to go off alone to face the Jester.

Marshal Mallow stays with China Princess as Wiser goes for help where he sums up the courage to take flight and he is able to fly. Marshal Mallow begins to repair China as Dorothy goes off to face the Jester. The two loves share a duet when China Princess is restored. Dorothy soon arrives at the Jester's castle where a welcome mat is rolled out for her and it slips her and Toto inside. They are soon greeted by a marionette of Glinda and the marionette of the leaders who dance as they praise the Jester. The Jester confronts Dorothy as he expresses his gratitude for her for killing his sister. As the Jester boasts, Toto bites the rope as the curtain falls on the Jester and the Flying Monkey as Dorothy runs to her friends Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion who awake as they were happy to see her.

The Head Flying Monkey runs off with the scepter as Jester gives chase with Dorothy and crew following behind them. The Head Flying Monkey uses the scepter to get back his wings and the Jester and Dorothy struggle to get him to give either of them the Scepter. The Scarecrow uses Tin Man's arm to knock the Scepter out of the Flying Monkey's hands yet the stumble causes Dorothy to fall. Luckily for Dorothy, Wiser arrives and manages to catch her. As the Jester struggles to get the fallen orb back on the scepter, a battle between good and evil began against Dorothy's Friends vs. the Flying Monkeys. They defeat the Flying Monkeys just as the Jester regains his orb and conquers a tornado to suck Dorothy in. Dorothy heads up to the tower as she confronts the Jester by grabbing the scepter and a green glow spreads across the land breaking the spell. Glinda and the leaders return to normal. Back on the roof, the Jester is almost sucked into the tornado if it wasn't for Dorothy grabbing his arm. He seems grateful for her rescue. When the Jester offers her to rule, she breaks the orb and throws the broom into the cyclone with him jumping in after it. Peace was restored and friends rejoice... even Glinda, who thanks Dorothy for saving the Land of Oz again. Glinda uses a spell to send Dorothy home.

Returning home, Dorothy reunites with her family. Realizing that fighting for her family and for Oz are practically the same thing, she convinces the town to fight back. Dorothy grabs the Appraiser's wallet and shows it to the office - showing different IDS that the Appraiser is nothing more than a con man. The Appraiser and his lackey are then arrested by the sheriff and everyone rips off the eviction notices.

During the credits, everyone in town is repairing things and fixing it up just like new with Dorothy's help.

Cast[]

Production[]

Financing[]

In the mid 2000s, two brothers named Ryan and Roland Carroll got the rights to make an animated film based on the 1989 book "Dorothy of Oz" written by L. Frank Baum's great-grandson Roger S. Baum. Beforehand, they produced a bunch of low-budget features under the company Alpine Pictures, who produced films like: Lord Protector, Lancelot: Guardian of Time, The Convent, and Toolbox Murders. But the brothers had always gotten into legal trouble when it came to getting the money for those movies, collecting an impressive amount of fines and cease and desist letters from several states that date back to 1993 under many different names, and when it came to this Oz movie, it was no different. When financing began in 2006 under the company name Dorothy of Oz LLC, their quest for raising money was still met with plenty of legal troubles, and some states still gave them either a cease and desist letter or banning them unless they fully agree to follow state law. The brothers claimed that they had nothing to do with any of the fundraising for the feature, but many documents and state letters say otherwise and prove that they are connected to the money. But they did hire a few people to be in charge of financing and organizing the fundraisers. One of them was their managing partner Neil Kaufman, and another was a very fascinating person in this story named Greg Centineo. This was Greg's first time being involved with a feature film since before working on the feature, he was a Florida businessman who was also a church pastor, and a coffee shop owner. But what the crew did that got them the funding was in two notable ways, the first was by calling a bunch of random rich people over the phone and seeing who would be crazy enough to give them a lot of money in exchange for shares of their new company, which in 2010, they founded Emerald City of Oz LLC. And the second one was one that Centineo was involved in as he was in charge of hosting fundraising parties, to gather up as many people as he can in one room to celebrate, have a few drinks, but most importantly, to convince people in investing on the feature, and what he used to convince them was a PowerPoint presentation.

PowerPoint Presentation[]

The plan for this was to invest in not just an animated movie, but rather an entire animated franchise. The presentation began by explaining what is the company and their goal with the project, along with a quick summary of the success of digital content, licensing animated IPs, and the Wizard of Oz franchise. It would then explain the marketing strategy in order to spread the word about the film, followed by the profitability of licensing and developing virtual worlds, using The Simpsons and World of Warcraft as prominent examples. Then it explained what it wants to do with the money and where it would go in order to make the movie, distribute it, and keep the digital content alive and running. Then there was the plans to have it be a franchise: It would of course start with the animated movie, next it would be all about the digital content, virtual worlds, video games and all sorts of apps, then they would dish out the licensing and merchandising to capitalize on the franchise beyond the movie, which would follow with profiting off of the music with the soundtrack and releasing the songs digitally, but all that is just for starters, that's all just to introduce this new Oz franchise to the public, the next plan would be to turn this animated musical into a trilogy with two sequels called "The Oz Odyssey" and "The Green Star of Oz", and on top of all that, they also wanted to make a TV show. And on a sidenote outside of the PowerPoint, there were also talks that they wanted to make a stage show in the hopes that it would hit Broadway and possibly a theme park ride. And finally they presented the projections of how much this new franchise could make by using the Pixar revenue model. Basically this was all meant to sell the idea to potential backers that they will guarantee be investing in an animated franchise that will surely be the next Shrek or Despicable Me. Now one might look at this and think this is a highly risky investment which it actually is but that doesn't mean they had to tell you that. According to reports, the investors had little to no idea that this would come with some serious risks, and many of them are said to be unaccredited. However, Greg Centineo denied these claims by saying that they were indeed accredited and that he did mention about the risk that they might lose their money during the presentation. He did mention that in the presentation that it was a risky investment, but it's in the bottom of the last page in small writing. Also if you wanted to invest in this franchise to get a get a share of the company, the minimum payment is said to be $100,000 per person, also during these parties, the potential backers were encouraged to pay them by any means necessary by a paycheck, wire transfers, and even fishing out of their own 401Ks and retirement plan if they had to. The bottom line is if you had the money, then you had to invest in this animated Oz franchise. On a sidenote, the original plan for the movie was to raise just $20 million in order to make a direct-to-DVD animated Oz sequel, however, the Carroll brothers decided that it would have a better chance of profitability if it got released in theaters and as you can tell, the idea grew much bigger from there. In total, from all the fundraisings done by Neil Kaufman, Greg Centineo, and Dorothy of Oz LLC & Emerald City of Oz LLC, they managed to gather over 1,800 people to invest $134 million in order to make this animated franchise. However, not all of it would go to the land of Oz, first they got to sort out some management fees and take 22% of the money to pay some people and the company, and both companies could also take an extra 20% as well. And now that they got the money, they could finally make the movie.

Crew[]

Of course not all the money that they raised went on to that one film, while they did originally plan to give it a $20 million budget, the Carroll brothers decided to be a lot more generous and gave it a more impressive budget of $70 million. However this would be the first time the brothers would make an animated feature so they would need an animation crew to be creatively in charge. With a script by Adam Balsam and Randi Barnes, they hired Bonne Radford to produce it who previously produced films like Balto, The Road to El Dorado, and Curious George, along with animation veterans Daniel St. Pierre & Will Finn to direct it.

Casting[]

As for the cast, they didn't necessarily get A-list celebrities, but they did manage to get a few recognizable names including Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, Kelsey Grammer, Bernadette Peters, Hugh Dancy, Megan Hilty, Oliver Platt, Patrick Stewart, Martin Short, & Lea Michele as Dorothy.

Music[]

As it is a musical, the film got several songwriters to fill the soundtrack like Jim Vallance, Tift Merritt, Jim Dooley, & the one that they prominently advertised the most: Bryan Adams.

Animation[]

For the animation, they hired the Indian company Prana Studios, who were best known for doing the animation for Disney's direct-to-DVD Tinker Bell movies. The reason they went with that company was because getting an offshore studio would be 5 to 10 times cheaper than getting one in North America, but with a budget of $134 million, they could have easily gone with a more prominent American studio to do the animation, but they just chose not to.

Release[]

The filmmakers were all hard at work to bring this movie to life, and in 2013, the film was ready to be released. What was originally titled as 'Dorothy of Oz', it gave itself a new title to make it both gender neutral and more appropriate as a franchise name with 'Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return'. The film made it's world premiere on June 14, 2013 at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, but it wasn't until a year later that it would make it's theatrical debut on May 9, 2014. For the occasion of the movie's release, the Carroll brothers decided to change their company's name from Alpine Pictures to Summertime Entertainment.

Distribution[]

As for the distribution, that was left in the hands of a newly founded company called Clarius Entertainment. But you might be wondering 'Out of all the companies out there, why did they go with that one?' To the credit of the team, they said that they talked to many of the big distributors to see if they could work on releasing the movie. What ended up happening was that there was no company out there that even wanted to touch this movie for three significant reasons: 1. The Carroll brothers have an infamously shady reputation, 2. The finance were always kept a secret, 3. The movie sucks. Yes that last one is an actual reason as to why they couldn't find a distributor. It wasn't until a man named William Sadleir came into the scene to help solve this movie's distribution problems with his new company 'Clarius Entertainment'. When signing on to Legends of Oz, Clarius made a promise to the filmmakers saying that they would put the film in around 4,000 or even 4,400 theaters. But the movie only played in 2,658 theaters.

Reception[]

Nearly nobody was interested in checking this movie out, and most people that were interested absolutely HATED it, including the critics who gave it some pretty bad and nearly merciless reviews. The film currently holds a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 25 score on Metacritic.

Box Office[]

On its opening weekend, the film only made $3.7 million, and it only made $8.5 million domestically, and a worldwide total of $18.6 million, which this movie holds the record of the worst opening ever for an animated feature that opened in more than 2,500 theaters, and it ultimately became a box office bomb.

At that point the investors and Greg Centineo tried to figure out why the movie wasn't the big franchise starter that they hoped it would be. And they concluded that it was all Hollywood's fault and the way they tried to explain is hilarious. Seriously, it's like if Shakespeare wrote an angry comment on a YouTube video that's giving a negative review to a movie he liked.

"The big Hollywood studios do not want this effort to succeed because they don't want any serious new competition. Maybe we got their attention because they amassed their army of top paid critics who wielded their poison pens in a smear campaign against this wonderful family picture. These seemingly aren't just reviews of an average film not liked by critics, they are propaganda written expressly to dissuade everyone from seeing the film"

David Yancey - Investor of Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return

In other words they believed that the big studios were worried that 1,800 investors would somehow takeover the industry so they hired a bunch of critics to write bad reviews about the film.

Marketing[]

While Greg Centineo promised that there would be marketing for the movie, he actually kept it. The movie was later released on Blu-Ray, DVD & Digital, the songs were also available on a soundtrack and digitally, merchandise did exist of the film but they were mostly toys and dolls, and digital content actually did exist, there were a few apps that connected with the movie and most shockingly some that were unlicensed rip-offs, a video game for the Nintendo 3DS, and an online virtual world browser game called "Legends of Oz World". But all these things like the soundtrack, the merchandise, and the digital content are related to the Dorothy's Return movie.

Aftermath[]

On several occasions, Greg Centineo promised that the sequels & the TV series from earlier would happen regardless of the first film's outcome, yet we have heard absolutely positively NOTHING from them since 2014, or at the latest, early 2015. Their social media accounts have been inactive for years where the last post they made were to promote the movie's home media release, all the apps are gone, all the websites related to the film & Summertime Entertainment are dead, & we have never heard from either Ryan Carroll or Roland Carroll ever since the movie. But all this raises an interesting question: Who owns the rights to Legends of Oz? When the movie flopped, Centineo, the Carrolls, and the investors lost their ownership of the film, and Clarius quickly shut down after distributing a couple more movies, while William Sadleir moved on to open a new company called Aviron Pictures, which that company closed too. 'So where are the copyrights now' you ask? Well later in 2014, a company in Panama bought the rights. As of 2024, no one knows who's running the company or even what the company is, all we know is that it's a company somewhere in Panama. And whoever they are, they got a pretty sweet deal, because when they bought the rights to the film, they didn't have to pay any of the fees or debts that came with it. They could just sit back and profit off of whoever is buying the movie nowadays. Like you know when you go in the movie section on YouTube and you find that you can buy Legends of Oz for $5 or so? Well those 5 dollars (or at least part of them) end up in the pockets of the Panama company.

Songs[]

  1. When the World - Dorothy Gale
  2. Candy, Candy - Jester
  3. China Country Anthem and Procession - China Princess
  4. Jester's Song - Jester
  5. Work With Me - Dorothy and Company
  6. Even Then - Marshal Mallow, Dorothy Gale, China Princess
  7. One Day - Dorothy Gale
  8. When the World Finale - Dorothy Gale

Gallery[]

Images[]

Differences between the book and the film[]

In the book, the Silver Shoes from the first story are worn by Dorothy again in the book. Glinda finds the Silver Shoes in the desert where they fell off of Dorothy's feet on her way back to Kansas after her first trip. She gives them to Dorothy to bring her back to Oz. They help Dorothy return to Oz and go back home in the end of the novel. Also, Ozma does not appear.

Unproduced Sequels[]

In a 2014 interview, the film's executive producer Greg Centineo hypothetically stated:

"...But let’s say it doesn’t do great at the box office. That it has a $15 million domestic box office [total] – which I hope it doesn’t – but if it does, it won’t end the franchise. The plan behind this franchise was multiple films. If the first one performed well domestically, you’d have a second release come out three years from now. If it didn’t perform well, you’d do a DVD release for the second and third films. A television series is also in play. [The plan] doesn’t rise and fall on the domestic box office. It will definitely shift the direction of the franchise, but it won’t end the franchise."

He also stated that the film company has the film rights to 10 of Roger Baum's Oz books. [1] The buisness pitch suggested adaptions based on The Oz Odyssey and The Green Star of Oz.

In 2015, Summertime Entertainment closed with this film being the only one they made. Also that year, the distributer Clarius Entertainment closed as well.

The film grossed $8,462,027 domestically with $18.7 million worldwide which is a big loss from a $70 million budget. As of 2024, no sequels have been announced and it is likely they have been canceled.

Graphic Novel[]

A graphic book novelization was written by Denton J. Tipton and Blair Shedd. It was originally released as Dorothy of Oz Prequel on Nov 27, 2012 because the film was first stated for a 2013 release date as it did at a French Film Festival. It was re-named Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return when it was reissued on April 4th, 2014.

Lawsuit[]

In 2019, a civil case was heard in the U.S. District Court of California claiming that the film's producers Greg Centineo, Roland Carroll, and Ryan Carroll 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 Greg's son Noah Centineo .

Trivia[]

  • The film took about eight years to develop and release.
  • Prana Studios has previously worked on various fairy tale films including the Tinker Bell spin-off series for Walt Disney Pictures.
  • During the Final battle and the climax, two Wilhelm Screams (one in high pitch, and the other in regular pitch) can be heard.
    • Also, although most Oz media don't have Wilhelm screams in them, the movie is one of the only type of Oz media to have a Wilhelm Scream in it.
  • Kelsey Grammer won a Razzie in 2015 for Worst Supporting Actor for this film with a combination of Transformers: Age of Extinction, The Expendables 3, and Think Like a Man Too.
  • The film was nominated four times in the Behind the Voice Actors Awards in 2015 based on the performances of Lea Michelle, Martin Short, Oliver Pratt, and Megan Hilty.
  • The braids Dorothy wears in the movie resembles Mary Ann Summers' in the Gilligan's Island episode Music Hath Charms. Funnily enough, Mary Ann was intended as a parody of Dorothy.
  • This movie marks Martin Short and Patrick Steward's second time working together along with Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius in 2001.
  • The current owners of Legends of Oz is an unknown company in Panama.
  • The movie's producer Greg Centineo is the father of actor and Calvin Kleins model Noah Centineo .

References[]


Site-logo Films Site-logo
Live-Action adaptations Silent films Fairylogue and Radio-Plays (1908) • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910) • His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914) • The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914) • The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914) • The Wizard of Oz (1925)
Modern films The Wizard of Oz (1939) • The Wonderful Land of Oz (1969) • 20th Century Oz (1976) • The Wiz (1978) • Return to Oz (1985) • The Dreamer of Oz (1990) • The Wizard of the City of Emeralds (1994) • The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) • After the Wizard (2011) • Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) • The Wiz Live! (2015)
Inspired films Flying Monkeys (2013) • OzLand (2015)
Guest Appearances Inkheart (2008) • Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)
Animated adaptations Feature films Journey Back to Oz (1974) • The Wizard of Oz (1982) • The Wizard of Oz (1983) • The Wizard of Oz (1991) • Lion of Oz (2000) • Tom and Jerry & the Wizard of Oz (2011) • Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2014) • Guardians of Oz (2015) • Tom and Jerry: Back to Oz (2016) • Urfin Jus and His Wooden Soldiers (2017) • The Steam Engines of Oz (2018)
Guest Appearances The LEGO Movie (2014) • The Lego Batman Movie (2017)
Upcoming adaptations Wicked: Part One/Wicked: Part Two (2024-5) • Dorothy & Alice (TBA) • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (film) (TBA) • Toto (film) (TBA)
Short films After Oz (2007) • The Land of Oz (short film) (2015) • Dorothy in the Land of Stars (2017) • Unknown, Lost, or non-English Adaptations
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