DRAWING indiscriminately from L. Frank Baum’s 18 Oz-based novels for children (of whatever age), Sam Raimi’s film for Disney looks handsome, with special effects meeting expectations, but offers little novelty.

Defining the target audience for its many dark passages poses difficulties. Travelling conjurer Oz (James Franco) finds himself whirled away in an aerostat from a Kansas sideshow and deposited in the fantasy land to which Dorothy and Toto would later come in search of the wonderful wizard of Oz.

The king of Oz is dead. A trio of witches is stirring up political trouble about the succession. Theodora (Mila Kunis) is Theodora who later becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. Rachael Weisz is Evanora, mentoring Theodora and exploiting her wickedness. Glynda (Michelle Williams) is their sister, a white witch allied with the populace.

Oz says he is a wizard to gain access to the royal treasure chamber. Most of the film is spent waiting for the truth about his venality, greed and moral shabbiness to surface in preparation for the inevitable military showdown to sort the goodies from the baddies. It’s all kid-stuff. In “Alice In Wonderland”, Tim Burton did a better battle.

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