Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return 2014

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: [An] eyeball-gougingly ugly, charm-free animated musical sequel, which is inexplicably opening in thousands of theaters instead of going direct to video. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: "Oh, Toto, this doesn't look like the Oz I remember," Dorothy murmurs at one point. Truer words were never spoken. Read more

Kevin McFarland, AV Club: Problems abound from the rushed beginning all the way through the impossibly resolved ending. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return" lacks any sense of magic. These won't be songs you'll find yourself singing over and over after you've left the theater or a movie you'll be watching again and again. Once is enough. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: The enterprise, while gently reverent, looks and feels as shaky as it sounds, tonally as flat as Kansas farmland. Read more

Adam Markovitz, Entertainment Weekly: The bricks are still yellow, but the road doesn't lead anywhere special. Read more

Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter: Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return is visually energetic but tonally all over the Yellow Brick Road map. Read more

Martin Tsai, Los Angeles Times: Feels like a formulaic knockoff of the original, replacing most everything whimsical about its predecessor with inane surrogates. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: "Legends of Oz" feels like the opposite of the original film. Underneath its aggressive distractions and dim ideas, it has no heart. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, New York Daily News: [A] crass, cheap, hack-job cash-grab. Read more

Nicolas Rapold, New York Times: All in all, the beloved kingdom of Oz is not well served, though there's just enough detectable affection to keep it from feeling like a pure cashing-in. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: Mostly, the film reaffirms how hard it is to make a movie as unforgettable and enduring as "The Wizard of Oz." Good chance you'll forget this one on the way home from the theater. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: There are songs, by a motley crew of tunesmiths who include Bryan Adams, but except for a showstopper tailor-made for Short, they don't make much of an impact. Ditto for the script ... Read more

Bruce Ingram, Chicago Sun-Times: It's a little shocking how leaden the jokes are in this movie. Read more

John Semley, Globe and Mail: It's short on jokes and hampered by unmemorable musical numbers (including one about building a boat), and the film's niceness can't overcome the dopey tedium. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Devoid of the visual magic and heartfelt emotion of the original film, this version of Oz and Dorothy 2.0 feel like the cheaply made knockoffs you find in a dollar store: garishly shiny, flimsy and not built to last. Read more

Sherilyn Connelly, Village Voice: Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return fails to make us care about the characters or their journeys, and the animation is shoddy and occasionally creepy ... Read more

Jen Chaney, Washington Post: Animated in form but completely listless in content. Read more