Best of all is The Nome King: Fat and cheerful, a sort of sinister Santa Claus. As Baum readers know, he — not the Wicked Witch of the West — is the central villain of the "Oz" series.

With its lore-appropriate evil Nome King, the dementedly vicious Wheelers ... the movie by none other than Brian Henson), Return to Oz wasn’t necessarily an unhappy movie — just a pensive ...