Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return is a 3D-animated musical based on the adventure books by Roger Stanton Baum, the great-grandson of L. Frank Baum. A continuation of one of the world’s most popular and beloved fairy tales, Legends of Oz finds Dorothy (Lea Michele) waking to post-tornado Kansas, only to be whisked back to Oz to try to save her old friends the Scarecrow (Dan Aykroyd), the Lion (Jim Belushi), the Tin Man (Kelsey Grammer) and Glinda (Bernadette Peters) from a devious new villain, the Jester (Martin Short). Wiser the owl (Oliver Platt), Marshal Mallow (Hugh Dancy), China Princess (Megan Hilty) and Tugg the tugboat (Patrick Stewart) join Dorothy on her latest magical journey through the colorful landscape of Oz to restore order and happiness to Emerald City. Set to the tunes of Academy Award-nominated singer/songwriter Bryan Adams, Legends of Oz marks a charming, family-friendly return to the Oz franchise.

At first glance this pic looks much more like a direct-to-DVD kid’s movie than anything approaching feature film. Mom and Dad, it’s deserves a second look. This is a fun animated film voiced by recognizable stars. Its rambunctious good vs. evil tale is populated with kid-friendly marshmallow soldiers and sentient saplings. Even its darker moments, they are brightened up by Martin Short’s bad-guy-with-a-touch-of-silly delivery.

Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return offers sunny songs to hum to, sad moments to sigh over and and a happy ending that exchanges yesterday’s wispy wishes somewhere over a rainbow for a smile-worthy dose of loyal friendship, solid choices and working together for the common good.

Run Time: 1 hour 27 minutes
Content Warning: Rated PG