Once again over the rainbow as director Walter Murch and executive producer Gary Kurtz guide Dorothy, talking hen and friends on "a realistic fantasy adventure" to that land of marvelous imagination.
The Wizard fled Oz long ago, leaving a wise Scarecrow to rule over the magical kingdom. But the evil Nome King rose from his underground empire to lay waste to the Emerald City, turn the Lion and Tin Man to stone, and take the Scarecrow captive.
Meanwhile, back in Kansas, Dorothy Gale talked incessantly of her incredible adventures in a magic land. But her adoptive parents' only response was to send her to be "cured" of such talk — by newly developed electric shock treatment. Escaping the oppressive clinic, she finds herself caught in a raging storm, and is washed away in an overwhelming flood.
Suddenly, Dorothy is back in Oz...
"Oz" turns out to be 14 miles northwest of central London. Ease on down the railroad to the Elstree and Borehamwood Station. Turn right out of the station exit and follow the grey paving-stone sidewalk. Arriving at Thom-EMI Elstree Studios, pass through reception and onto the sets, and you're there.
A buzz of excitement pervades Stage 8. Technicians clamber up a ladder leading to a platform built 15 feet off the ground, on which stands the set of a mountain-face. Fairuza Balk (known as Ruza), who portrays Dorothy, is at ground level, playing on a piece of scaffolding.
"OK, let's have some quiet please. We're going to shoot now." Director Walter Murch's voice booms around the stage from his position on the mountain-face platform, and the hubbub dies down. On the stage floor, clay-animation supervisor Will Vinton and visual-effects consultant Zoran Perisic kneel down to view the upcoming scene as it happens, on a floor-level video monitor.
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