This Forgotten Wizard Of Oz Sequel Starred Judy Garland’s Daughter As Dorothy

The Wizard of Oz is one of the most famous movies of all time, and it turned its young star, Judy Garland, into a Hollywood icon, but it spawned an unofficial sequel starring her daughter, Liza Minnelli, that has been completely forgotten. The classic 1939 adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz follows farm girl Dorothy Gale (Garland) as she’s transported by a tornado to the fantastical Land of Oz. With the help of the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion, Dorothy sets off to find the titular wizard, hoping he can help her get back home to Kansas.

Despite there being a dozen films based on Baum’s Oz stories released beforehand and numerous adaptations that have come after, 1939’s The Wizard of Oz remains the best-remembered. According to the Library of Congress, it’s the most-watched movie of all time. While it was never followed by an official sequel, some later adaptations have been considered informal or spiritual continuations of the 1939 classic, such as Disney’s 1985 live-action feature Return to Oz, based on Baum’s second and third Oz books, The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz. Another unofficial sequel, adapted from the second book, arrived earlier with some significant connections to 1939’s The Wizard of Oz.

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Liza Minnelli Voiced Dorothy In 1972’s Journey Back To Oz

Minnelli recorded her role 10 years before the animated film’s release.

More than three decades after The Wizard of Oz premiered in 1939, Filmation released an animated musical follow-up titled Journey Back to Oz. The 1972 feature is loosely based on L. Frank Baum’s book The Marvelous Land of Oz, though he was not credited. In Journey Back to Oz, Dorothy returns to the Land of Oz and discovers that the Wicked Witch of the West’s cousin, Mombi, is trying to take over. Though not an official sequel, Journey Back to Oz was somewhat intended as such and remains a spiritual successor to The Wizard of Oz, mainly because Judy Garland’s daughter, Liza Minnelli, plays Dorothy.

In Journey Back to Oz, Minnelli followed in her mother’s ruby-slippered footsteps by providing the voice for the character of Dorothy. When she recorded her part in 1962, Minnelli was only 16 years old, the same age as her mother when she filmed The Wizard of Oz (via Turner Classic Movies). At the time, Minnelli hadn’t starred in any movies yet, and Journey Back to Oz was expected to be her official debut film role.

However, Filmation shelved the animated sequel for years due to a lack of funding and only returned to it once they had the budget to develop the animated sequences. A decade after production began, Journey Back to Oz was finally released in 1972, after Minnelli had established herself as a movie star and the same year she delivered her Oscar-winning performance in Cabaret. Sadly, Garland, who died in 1969, never got to see the finished product with her daughter taking on her iconic role, and her frequent former co-star Mickey Rooney as the Scarecrow, in the unofficial Wizard of Oz sequel.

Very few others have seen the movie in recent years, as Journey Back to Oz was a box office failure in its theatrical release, and despite becoming a hit on television a few years later with added live-action scenes, the animated feature has become lost to time. Now unavailable in any of its versions in any official format, the movie has become a forgotten relic. Worse, allegedly, one of Journey Back to Oz‘s former rights owners destroyed all the original film copies of the sequel.

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Margaret Hamilton Returned For The Oz Sequel In A Different Role

The Wicked Witch of the West actress voiced Aunt Em.

While Judy Garland’s daughter and lifelong friend were both a part of Journey Back to Oz, only one of the original cast members of The Wizard of Oz returned for the animated sequel. In The Wizard of Oz, Margaret Hamilton played both the Wicked Witch of the West in Oz and her Kansas counterpart, Almira Gulch. However, Hamilton couldn’t reprise either of her roles since neither of these characters were featured in Journey Back to Oz. Instead, Hamilton provided the voice for Dorothy’s sweet Aunt Em, a major departure from the unpleasant and downright wicked characters she played in The Wizard of Oz.

Sources: Library of Congress, Turner Classic Movies