This week on Total Movie Recall, we acknowledge that The Wizard of Oz is, yes, a classic. However, it’s missing a certain je ne sais quoi, and we try to put our fingers on exactly what it needed. We conclude that classic, whimsical children’s film needed more childhood lobotomy, forced imprisonment, Queens pulling their own heads off, and Veruca Salt. Or Fairuza Balk? Potato potato.

Return to Oz (1985)

d. Walter Murch
Based on books by L. Frank Baum

Starring:
Fairuza Balk as Dorothy
Nicol Williamson as the Nome King
Jean Marsh as Mombi
Piper Laurie as Aunt Em
Brian Henson as Jack Pumpkinhead 

Dorothy discovers she is back in the land of Oz, and finds the yellow brick road is now a pile of rubble, and the Emerald City is in ruins. Discovering that the magical land is now under the control of an evil empire, she sets off to rescue the scarecrow, the tin man and the cowardly lion with the help of her new friends.

Things discussed in the show:

Electroshock Therapy / Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

The Willies - Labyrinth - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Tik-Tok of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Ozma of Oz

PEN15 (Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle, Sam Zvibleman)

Booksmart (Olivia Wilde, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Jessica Williams, Jason Sudeikis, Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte)

Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts)

Is the expression "call a spade a spade" racist?

Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde

Superbad (Greg Mottola, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader)

Raised by Wolves (Aaron Guzikowski, Ridley Scott, Travis Fimmel, Amanda Collin, Abubakar Salim)

Dune - 1984 (David Lynch, Frank Herbert, Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Francesca Annis, Sting, Dean Stockwell)

Alien: Covenant (Ridley Scott, Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride)

American Murder: The Family Next Door (Jenny Popplewell)

Lifetime made for TV movies

8 Inch Betsy - The Mean Days

Army Wives (Katherine Fugate, Brian McNamara, Wendy Davis, Catherine Bell, Sterling K. Brown, Terry Serpico, Sally Pressman, Kim Delaney, Drew Fuller)

Unsolved Mysteries

Rescue 911 (William Shatner, David Teschendorf, Gene Babb)

Last Podcast on the Left (Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski)

My Favorite Murder (podcast, Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark)

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

How The Satanic Panic and the novel Michelle Remembers ruined lives.

Siskel and Ebert hated this movie

The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton)

Flying Monkeys

Sucker Punch (Zack Snyder, Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish)

Veruca Salt

Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, Roald Dahl, Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum)

The Waterboy (Frank Coraci, Tim Herlihy, Adam Sandler, Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates, Henry Winkler, Fairuza Balk, Clint Howard, Rob Schneider)

The Craft (Andrew Fleming, Peter Filardi, Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, Ken Kesey, Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Scatman Crothers, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Will Sampson)

Frankenstein (James Whale, Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff)

PTSD, Soldier's Heart, Shell Shock

Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley

Invasion of the Triffids / Day of the Triffids (Steve Sekely, Howard Keel, Nicole Maurey, Janette Scott, killer plants)

White Fang (Randal Kleiser, Jack London, Ethan Hawke, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Bill Moseley)

George Lucas

The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton)

The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton)

The Godfather Part III (Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Andy Garcia, Diane Keaton, Joe Mantegna, Talia Shire, Bridget Fonda, Sofia Coppola)

Apocalypse Now (John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Harrison Ford, Dennis Hopper)

Star Wars Clone Wars S4/E8 - "The General" (James Arnold Taylor, Dee Bradley Baker, Dave Fennoy)

Alice in Wonderland

Commando (Mark L. Lester, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong, Dan Hedaya, Alyssa Milano, Bill Duke)

DMT (drug)

Punk archetypes (Rocksteady and Beebop, punks in the Toxic Avenger, Oingo Boingo, Sex Pistols)

Uncanny Valley

Se7en (David Fincher, Andrew Kevin Walker, Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow)

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Rainbow

Slayer - Reign in Blood

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Steven Spielberg, David Koepp, George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf)

Pantera - Cowboys from Hell

Joel Silver

Pumkinhead (Stan Winston, Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, John D'Aquino)

Excalibur (John Boorman, Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren, Nicholas Clay, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart)

James Earl Jones

Garden Gnome

Amelie

Alchemical Elemental beings (Gnomes, Sylphs, Salamanders, Udines)

Eastbound and Down (Ben Best, Jody Hill, Danny McBride, Steve Little, Katy Mixon)

Joseph Campbell

The Ramones - "Psycho Therapy" & "Teenage Lobotomy"

Dexter (James Manos Jr., Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, David Zayas)

American Horror Story (Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy, Lady Gaga, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Denis O’Hare)

Babe Pig in the City

Oz the Great and Powerful (Sam Raimi, James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis, Zach Braff, Bill Cobbs, Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi)

Next week: The Sixth Sense