Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return

Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (commonly shortened to Legends of Oz: originally titled Dorothy of Oz) is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated musical film that is loosely based on Dorothy of Oz by L. Frank Baum's great-grandson Roger Stanton Baum. It was produced by Summertime Entertainment (the family entertainment division of Alpine Pictures), and directed by Daniel St. Pierre and Will Finn. The film stars Lea Michele, Dan Aykroyd, Kelsey Grammer, Jim Belushi, Megan Hilty, Hugh Dancy, Oliver Platt, Patrick Stewart, Bernadette Peters, and Martin Short. The film premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France on June 14, 2013 and was released in a minimum of 3,000 theaters in the United States and Canada on May 9, 2014.
Movie Begins like this : Dorothy Gale returns to Kansas to find it devastated from the tornado as a government Appraiser is working to have Dorothy's town evacuated to deal with the damages. Dorothy then finds a new way to get back to the Land of Oz only to discover that her old friends the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and the entire Land of Oz are all in grave danger.

On Dorothy's new journey through Oz, she meets new friends like a china doll princess, a marshmallow man named Marshal Mallow, a large owl named Wiser, and an ancient tree-turned-tugboat named Tugg. With the help of her new friends, they band together against a wicked Jester who wants to control Oz by turning important people into marionettes.

In a poor, animated attempt to create something like "The Wizard of Oz" 2.0 sans munchkins, "Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return", geared towards kids, is a colorful ride through weak and predictable plotlines, shallow characters, cheap almost-laughs and a decent soundtrack.The film is also a bit uneven in tone.

Dorothy Gale (Lea Michele) is snatched up via an aggressive rainbow and dumped off in the troubled Land of Oz by her friends the Lion (James Belushi), Scarecrow (Dan Aykroyd) and Tin Man (Kelsey Grammer). It turns out the Jester (Martin Short)—the Wicked Witch of the West’s alleged brother—has besmirched the grand Emerald City. Again following the yellow brick road, collecting characters Wiser the Owl (Oliver Platt), Marshal Mallow (Hugh Dancy) and the China Princess (Megan Hilty) as her companions, Dorothy sets out to rid Oz of the Jester’s lame, yet intolerable reign of prankster horror.

Except for the plot, the film might have been great. Hardly an original story, Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return seems like a shoddy attempt to recreate The Wizard of Oz, simply switching out Dorothy’s original companions and the villain for new, meaningless ones. There is no bigger goal, no overarching meaning or theme and no true reason to root for Dorothy because we’ve seen it all before, except better. This version feels half-baked. Though by the end there’s a little investment in these cartoonish characters, it's certainly not worth remembering. Except for maybe Dorothy's little dog Toto.