The Witches of Oz

AzCentral

Sometimes it's better to just leave well enough alone.

'DOROTHY AND THE WITCHES OF OZ'

Bad: 

Director: Leigh Scott.

Cast:Paulie Rojas, Eliza Swenson, Billy Boyd.

Rating: PG for sequences of fantasy action and peril, scary images and brief language.

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L. Frank Baum's classic book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was made into one of the best-loved films of all time. If you don't choke up a little when Dorothy sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," you need to join the Tin Man and search for a heart.

Baum wrote other Oz books, including "Ozma of Oz" and "The Road to Oz." Those, along with the best-known, are used for source material for "The Witches of Oz." They just aren't used very well. The idea is intriguing -- that Dorothy, now grown up and living in New York, is a successful children's author, and her books are based not on her imagination but on repressed memories of Oz, some of which surface from time to time.

Good idea, poor execution. That's what plagues Leigh Scott's film. That and some bad acting, plus a disjointed feel that makes it difficult to follow what's happening and why. No doubt that is due at least in part to the film being a cut-down version of a miniseries.

Dorothy (Paulie Rojas) is working with her aggressive agent Billie (Eliza Swenson) on selling her next project. But the truth about her memories and then the identity of some of her friends and business relations -- and enemies -- is gradually revealed. It seems that when she was a child in Oz, the Wizard (Christopher Lloyd, overacting like a champ) made a deal with the Wicked Witch of the West, whose identity it's best not to reveal; now the witch is in New York, looking for a key Dorothy has that will give her power over our world.

Rojas tries mightily to bring something to Dorothy but isn't quite the actress to do it. Swenson rivals Lloyd in over-the-top acting. Billy Boyd, as a friend of Dorothy's, is OK, but only Mia Sara -- yes, from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" -- as a minion of the witch, and Barry J. Ratcliffe, as an associate of Dorothy's and, later, a familiar character from "Oz," seem to be having any fun.

That's too bad, but the whole thing was a risk. If you're going to tinker with a classic, you don't have much room for error. "Dorothy and the Witches of Oz" is proof.

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