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What should be a very curious concern, if we perceive that Wizard of OZ and Return to OZ are canonical with each other is what the first film in fact means concerning the ending. At the end of the film she recognizes all of the farmhands and Professor Marvel as characters from OZ, implying that OZ was merely a figment of her imagination. But if Return to OZ is accepted as a true sequel to the 1939 film, then the perception is muddled since that film all but assures that OZ is an indeed real place.
What is the relationship between these two universes? In the book, it was very clear that OZ was simply just somewhere else on planet earth that was enormously difficult to locate. Both films do nothing whatsoever to suggest that they do not take place in completely different realities.
Does every creature in OZ have an Earth counterpart? As we can see, Ray Bolger's character 'Hunk' had a twin counterpart in the Scarecrow in OZ. Same for the rest of the farmhands, their advantages and strengths are personified in their OZ counterparts, in the reverse actually. Who is Dorothy's counterpart? Probably Ozma if anyone, the end of Return to OZ certainly suggests so. That is if you believe the Ozma looking individual at the beginning of the picture was a hallucination, or maybe Ozma herself making an appearance on Earth.
The ties between the two universes are readily apparent in both films, the carved pumpkin, the cage, Nome King, Tick Tock, wicked witch, so on so forth. So they are both seemingly two sides of the same coin.
Another curious factor is how Dorothy manages to travel between these two worlds. In the first film she is carried in a twister and in the second in a bed cascading down a violent river in a storm. How do these events correlate, she managed to return in both films due to the ability of the ruby slippers or some other Ozian magic, but to arrive there in the first place is a strange mystery. Are there random portals to OZ scattered around the globe? Are they only accessible in periods of great distress? Does Dorothy herself will them open without her own knowledge? It's anybody's guess.
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