This week we’re joined by Kimberly Meyer, author of Murder at Constellation House (a cozy cosmic horror mystery set in Newport, Rhode Island). She brings us one of her childhood traumas: Return to Oz!
Opinions vary wildly about this one, so get ready for a hot debate!
Image Description: Princess Mombi holds a disembodied head before putting it on.
The Princess Mombi scene in particular was the scariest for young Kim. It’s available to watch on YouTube if you don’t want to watch the entire movie (though, honestly, Julia thinks you should just watch the whole thing on Disney Plus).
Geoffrey brings writer and director, Walter Murch, who has a primary background in sound design and video editing (for which he’s won Oscars!) to the table as his most notable person, and Julia waxes ecstatic about foley again—it’s like a repeat of The Land Before Time episode. This movie has a ton of satisfying sounds! We also mention Will Vinton, who did the claymation in this movie (previously seen in The Adventures of Mark Twain and California Raisins episodes), and Fairuza Balk, who turned in an AMAZING performance, and did all her own stunts!
We also talk about the political allegory interpretation of the first Oz book, which turns out to date from 1990.
Kim also brings up an early episode of the Lore podcast about mental institutions in the past. You know, in case you want to listen to something lighter.*
Julia also mentioned that Tik-Tok sort of sounded like Box from Logan’s Run. This video is just a loop of Box talking about proteins from the sea.
Thanks so much to Kim for joining us! Check out Murder at Constellation House, available in paperback and e-book from Amazon.
*By “lighter” we mean, definitely not lighter. Not even a little bit. The history of mental institutions is heavy stuff.
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Return to Oz with Kimberly Meyer