Fantastic Journey to Oz

Fantastic Journey to OZ (Russian: Урфин Джюс и его деревянные солдаты, romanized: Urfin Jus i ego derevyannye soldaty, transl. Urfin Jus and His Wooden Soldiers) is a 2017 Russian animated film based on the novel Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers by Alexander Volkov.^[3]

Fantastic Journey to OZ
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vladimir Toropchin Fyodor Dmitriev Darina Schmidt
Screenplay by	Aleksandr Boyarsky
Based on	Urfin Jus and His Wooden Soldiers by Alexander Volkov
Produced by	Sergei Selyanov Anton Zlatopolskiy Aleksandr Boyarsky
Starring	Konstantin Khabensky Dmitri Dyuzhev Sergey Shnurov
Edited by	Sergei Glezin
Music by	Mikhail Chertischev
Production companies	Melnitsa Animation Studio CTB
Distributed by	Russia-1
Release date	20 April 2017 (2017-04-20)
Running time	75 minutes
Country	Russia
Language	Russian
Budget	₽345 million[1]
Box office	$5.9 million[2]

The film was directed by Vladimir Toropchin, Fyodor Dmitriev and Darina Schmidt. It is the first animated film from Melnitsa Animation Studio made using computer animation.^[4]

The premiere took place on 20 April 2017.^[5][6]

A sequel, Fantastic Return to Oz, was released on 24 October 2019.

Plot

Long ago, a young girl named Milena meets a young boy named Urfin Jus, who offers him a trinket to give it to him, but Urfin then turns down the offer and walks away.

Years later, Urfin finds weeds on his garden, and tries to cut them down, before finally burning them down. Upon waking up, he kicks away a bucket full of the magic dust from the weeds to a wooden puppet, in which it comes alive. After the puppet chases Urfin around the room, the bear comes to life as well. Urfin realizes that he has magic powers all thanks to the magic powder. Urfin then builds wooden soldiers as the puppet suggests. Urfin and the soldiers then arrive at the land of the Munchkins, where he announces his takeover of leadership of the land. Urfin and the soldiers then make their way to the Emerald City.

Meanwhile, a young girl named Ellie^[a] with her dog Toto finds the silver slippers in her room, and uses them to be transported to the land of the Munchkins. There, she finds the wooden soldiers, while they give chase on Ellie and Toto, and it ends with them luring them into a hole. The Munchkins come out of their houses safely after the chase. Ellie and Toto walk into the Golden Brick Road as they embark on a journey to the Emerald City, when they meet an older Milena, who gives the trinket to Ellie to give it to Urfin, and a crow. While on their way, they get captured by an ogre, who takes them to his hut.

Urfin, the bear, and his soldiers arrive at the Emerald City, in which his soldiers try to infiltrate the castle, but its door is locked. The citizens then give battle on the soldiers, but the soldiers later storm the castle by standing on the other soldiers. Later, the scarecrow uses fire to burn the soldiers. The bear tries to take out the fire by throwing them into water, but it took the bear took long to do it. Meanwhile, at the ogre's hut, the ogre is about to cook Ellie and Toto, but is later attacked by Ellie and Toto. Suddenly, the Cowardly Lion breaks into the hut, but the ogre activates a trap door, caging the three. Two sabretooth tigers break into the hut, but the ogre runs away. The three find themselves in a dark cave after escaping from their cage.

Meanwhile, while the scarecrow thinks the damage is done, he gets captured by Ruf Bilan, in which he decides to become the master of Urfin, in who he opens a gate where the soldiers, Urfin, the bear, and the puppet come out. He tours his throne room, while Ruf suggests Urfin the new name of the town "Urfinville". After the leader wooden soldier announces Urfin the arrival of the Tin Woodman, the crow breaks into the room, in which they attack them. They then suggest to make a clone of the scarecrow.

While Ellie, Toto, and the Cowardly Lion explore the cave, Toto activates multiple magical shards, in which they reveal a spider-like monster. After being chased by the monster, the lion tells the team a story of how her grandmother and the team got chased by fangthers, who try an magic spell before they jump the cliff. They then resume their journey. Meanwhile, the Tin Woodman arrives at the Emerald City, in who he meets an imposter scarecrow. The puppet leads tricks the Woodman into thinking he's the king, and as they arrive at a door, he leaves his ax, and enters the door, in who he finds a jail cell. One of the soldiers push the Woodman into his cell, activate the fire sprinkler, causing the Tin Woodman to rust, forgetting his oil can. Meanwhile, while the real scarecrow is locked into his jail cell, Urfin enters his room, and asks for Gingema's book, but he turns it down. He then meets his imposter for a little talk, before leaving. He then takes the key of the book to Urfin, and leaves.

Ellie distracts the wooden soldiers in order to storm in the castle, to meet the Scarecrow. After a little bit of talk, she leaves the cell. Meanwhile, Urfin has Gingema's book in his hands, ready to open it, while the crow delivers the Tin Woodman's oil can to his jail cell. As he uses the oil can to bring the Tin Woodman back to life, an wooden soldier comes, and while he hides the oil can, he shows the soldier a pencil, and uses it to turn the soldier friendly. Meanwhile, Urfin opens Gingema's book, and tells the book that he wants to be loved by everyone, only for the book to suggest to wear the silver slippers in order for his wish to be granted. The scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the friendly wooden soldier escape, while they turn the other wooden soldiers friendly. He finds them gone in their cells, and realizes that he does not have enough magic powder left to turn the army back into evil.

While the crow tells Urfin that he is not a wizard, the imposter scarecrow delivers the slippers to Urfin. Urfin imprisons Ellie, while he goes back to his room, and wears the slippers, and picks out an giant robot as a punishment for the town. The battle begins for the robot and the team. The lion tries to lower down Ellie's cage, but the lever broke, but quickly catches the rope of the cage. As Ruf captures the cage, Ellie's slippers glow, but refuses to go home before of the danger happening here. She shows off the trinket to Urfin, which Milena, offered him long ago. The robot then hits her cage, causing the magic powder to make the cage anthropomorphic. They fight the robot using the anthropomorphic cage's magic to hit the robot. After multiple hits, thinking the robot is defeated, the robot wakes up, indicating it is not defeated yet. As Ellie's slipper falls off, she throws her slippers to the robot, and the robot is teleported to a random world. The citizens celebrate Ellie on saving the Emerald City. Ellie tries to use the magic spell to get back home, but fails. Later, the entire crowd sings the magic spell, and Dorothy is then teleported to her home.

Cast

Russian Dub

• Konstantin Khabensky – Urfin Jus
• Ekaterina Gorokhovskaya – Ellie
• Sergey Shnurov – General Lan Pirot
• Dmitri Dyuzhev – Topotun the Bear
• Andrey Lyovin – Totoshka
• Yuliya Rudina – Eot Ling the Clown
• Sergey Dyachkov – Scarecrow
• Valery Solovyov – Tin Woodman
• Valery Kukhareshin – The Cowardly Lion
• Aleksandr Boyarsky – Ogre
• Dmitry Bykovsky-Romashov – Sabretooth Tiger
• Mikhail Chernyak – crow Kaggi-Karr
• Oleg Kulikovich – Ruf Bilan

English Dub

• Marc Thompson – Urfin Jus
• Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld - Ellie (as Dorothy)
• Tyler Bunch – General Lan Pirot, Ogre (credited as H.D. Quinn)
• Erica Schroeder - Totoshka, Grandma
• Haven Paschall - Eot Ling the Clown
• Billy Bob Thompson – Scarecrow
• Tom Wayland – Tin Woodman
• Mike Pollock – The Cowardly Lion, Ruf Bilan
• Kate Bristol - Crown

Accolade

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref(s)
Marbella International Film Festival	9 July 2018	Animation	Vladimir Toropchin	Nominated	[7]

Sequels

Fantastic Return to Oz: a 2019 Russian computer animated film.

Notes

1. Named Dorothy in the English dub.